What cagers don't know about motorcycling

August 19, 4:19 PMMotorcycle ExaminerKen Bingenheimer

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Up at the top of Mount Evans

First off, if you're not a biker you're almost certainly a cager and don't even know it. So what the heck is a cager? Well, you know, those people who drive around in their metal cages on four wheels, all enclosed and oblivious to the wind and the smells and the wet. You know, cagers.

So what else don't cagers know about motorcycles and motorcycling? Gosh, where to begin?

OK, I mentioned smells. You never realize until you get on a motorcycle just how many odors there are out there as you drive along. You also have no idea about the micro-climates you drive through all the time. Cruise down into a bit of a gully, across a creek, and up the other side and the temperature difference at the bottom can be 10 degrees. Very noticeable if you're not buffered by the heater or A/C.

Did you know that motorcyclists spend a heck of a lot more on tires than you do, unless you're driving a Hummer or something like that? You might pay $200 for a set of four tires and they'll last you for 50,000 miles. Most motorcycles get about 20,000 miles on their front tire and only 10,000 miles on the rear. If you ride hard those number drop. Yet one motorcycle tire can easily cost $150. So in 50,000 miles you can be talking more than $1,000 for tires.

Have you ever been behind a motorcycle on the highway and noticed that bikers wave to each other? We do, although not all the time and not everybody. It started as a recongition that the two riders were members of the same brotherhood, and very much in the minority. Some bikers don't wave to others on bikes different from theirs. Fairly or unfairly, Harley riders get the rap the most, with people saying many of them only wave to other Harley riders. But you hear the same about some sport bike riders. And we generally don't wave in town. Forget about it at rallies, of course. There's way too many riders and you do need to steer.

Did you know that one reason motorcycles sometimes get specific motorcycle parking is that on a hot day your sidestand can sink into the asphalt and your bike can fall over? It depends on the design of the sidestand, but if larger rocks are mixed with the asphalt the penetration can be arrested. Some places actually have metal plates set in the asphalt for you to rest your stand on.

You probably don't know that many of us have electric vests, gloves, and even pants that plug into the bike so we can ride warm in winter. Heated hand-grips are also common. I think some of the new luxo-tourer bikes even have heated seats.

Moving on to a different sort of subject, did you know that many bikers are just as annoyed at loud bikes as many non-bikers are? One side argues that "loud pipes save lives" while the other side is not so sure about that but they do believe strongly that "loud pipes risk rights." City councils and state legislatures far too often respond to complaints about loud bikes by passing bills that restrict all bikes, rather than more targeted legislation that addresses the actual issue of overly loud vehicles of any type. Denver did that last year. That misguided law is still on the books.

I'm sure there is plenty more that cagers don't know about motorcycles. I'll keep a list and return to this topic later.