Passes & Canyons Blog

The coolest thing I saw in Hawaii (yeah, we were just there), and I was really sorry I didn’t have a chance to get a picture, was two young guys on scooters, headed for the beach. They had their boogie boards with them, laid length-wise on their seats, and they were sitting on the noses of the boards with the tails sticking out behind. What a great idea.

OK, so backing up, we just spent 10 days in Hawaii, on the Big Island and Oahu. Of course I paid attention to motorcycles. And the islands have lots of narrow, winding roads that motorcyclists tend to flock to, but you don’t see motorcycles there. Any you do see are probably tourists; the locals seem to stick to the cities. I mean, when there are 150 miles of highway on the whole island, how many times can you ride those roads? And it’s not like taking your bike to another island is much of an option. I wouldn’t want to live in Hawaii.

So anyway, in the Kona area, the main tourist area on the Big Island, on the western, leeward side, there are a lot of scooters. That makes total sense because parking is in short supply and gas is expensive.

Other than scooters what you tend to see is big Harleys. Those guys almost universally ride without helmets and frequently without jackets, despite the fact that rain falls almost every day. A lot more of the scooter riders wear helmets but certainly not all of them. A very sparse middle range consists of smaller sport bikes. Those guys almost universally wear helmets and jackets. And boots and gloves.

On the rest of the island, even over in Hilo–a larger city–it was pretty much all Harleys. One night at dinner there was a couple at another table that caught my eye. She had a puffy jacket but had taken it off. He–in a place where everyone else was in T-shirts and many in shorts–was wearing a leather motorcycle vest over a hooded sweatshirt, and a wool hat on his head. I never got a chance to see if he had anything on under the sweatshirt. The only thing he took off, when their food arrived, was his wool stocking cap. Dude, are you not roasting?

I didn’t know for sure if they were on a bike till they left. Then from outside there was this explosion of aftermarket pipes as he fired it up. Yep, definitely on a bike.

In Hawaii it rains a lot, though not very hard most of the time. One time we were driving through heavy rain but came out of it. It was just then that we passed a guy on a Harley going the other way. No helmet, just a T-shirt. Oh man, you are in for it.

He’d probably just call me a wimp.

OK, and I’ll leave you with a thinker: Why do they have interstate highways in Hawaii?

Biker Quote for Today

“Universal” accessories are so named because that is where you must search to find the bike they will fit.