Best State to live and ride in Year Round?

Yes it's humid in San Diego, but at 72F in July, I don't know it just doesn't feel as bad as 122F but thats just me!

That's kinda like saying Kansas is a great place to ride except the tornadoes. For me, tornadoes are a dealbreaker, I have zero desire to be near them.

In Socal it's either forest fires or earthquakes, but again, for me, I actually like that Socal has buildings built with earthquakes in mind, and a fire never affected me at all. (people in 'aggrestic' may disagree obvi)

All I'm saying is that my own personal experience with phx was so bad I'd be fine never going back. I wouldn't even consider living there. I might be wrong, hell I might be misremembering it, but just bleh. Three of us in this thread have had similar experiences vs you saying we don't know what we're talking about.

Best case, it's just hot as hell. Notice I'm not advocating moving to Riverside or Bakersfield Either. they're hot smoggy pits. But you know, if I had to pick a spot to live and ride, Malibu, Ojai, Ventura, Newport Beach, Redondo, Laguna Beach, San Diego, Napa, Santa Rosa, Sierra foothills would be tough to beat... for me.

But then, I Really like lane splitting and driving fast so...

I have been to most states including Hawaii and I even rented a bike there twice (kind of hard to take your own) Hawaii probably best weather yes, but too crowded and island (Oahu) too small. I would get bored with it real quick. WV, VA, NC, TN, MO, AR great twisties but not the best weather, too much rain, humidity, and overcast for me.

Texas has some good twisties in the hill country and good weather in fall, winter, spring, but summer sucks here. CO is the best summer riding around here, ahh the Rockies, but can't ride there in winter but no big deal, South TX is right down the road for me.

OK I've bored you long enough, now to answer the OP's question best State to live and ride in, money no object of course!

CALIFORNIA

Why? Because of the near perfect weather, and the variety of riding that state offers. From the great canyon roads near the coast, deserts, sierra nevada's, central coast mountain ranges. You can find great weather almost any day of the year, whether you have to go towards the coast to escape the heat in summer, or inland and/or up into the coastal mountains to escape the fog along the coast. Winter time head out into the deserts or inland valleys, or coast.

The bad tooooooo many people, and it cost too much $$$$$$ to live there. I would have to downgrade my standard of living, I know I have lived there before.

If your just thinking about riding year round I would pick the CA Central Coast. Mild temps., no crowds or traffic, go east, go south or go north and theres plenty of adventure and lot's of scenery. Two hours north or south and you can split lanes with the best of them in the big city. But there is a price to pay in taxes: property, sales, gas and state taxes will eat up your gas money real quick. Getting to be too much to take when you hear what it goes towards in this state.

Is an underated place IMHO.

Look me up if you come to town-plenty of places to rent bikes-I will take you around.

1.5 hours you can hit the Dragon, 2 hours to the Blue Ridge Parkway-and right at the base of the Smokies.

Is it CA? Of course not. Thankfully so.

Another thing I really hate is when people speak on behalf of others. I see you and one other guy with the same notion vs. me. Two vs. one. I believe anyone with one eye and half sense wouldn't use that as a statistic. There are a ton of California Fanboys, I use to be one of them till I traveled around the world and found that there were other places that were actually pretty neat. I've also noticed that most California Fanboys (not saying you) generally don't travel much or they'll go some where for a short time and make big judgements based on short term experiences. New Yorkers use to be notorious for this.

Personally? Again, I try to never disrespect any location because I know there is more too it than I have experienced or given a proper chance. Personally I hate Vegas and think it's a overhyped @#$% hole full of everything that makes this world disgusting, but I also know I haven't seen every side of it. I know there must be some great people there and cool things I haven't seen. I know plenty of people call it home so I don't pass judgement.

I grew up in Southern AZ, and spent 11 years in Vegas. Fuck that shit! The heat, the dirt, the constant dry dusty air. You can have it. Same with Southern CA. You get more than 30 miles from the cities, where there are "some" normal people, and you are again in the fugging desert!

No thanks, I'll have none of that.

Jim

How dare you express a view that is different than mine!!!!

I grew up in Reno, I largely agree with you about vegas. But, I like riding dirtbikes in the dirt. And shooting in the Dirt. So I can see why people like places like that. But I'm with you on the heat.

Reno would be nice, cept for the fuggin snow

Still, have I mentioned Lane Splitting yet? There's only one place where riders are allowed to actually ride, and that's Cali

You can hate Phoenix all you want, I don't really care one bit. I hope plenty of people keep hating it so that real estate prices don't skyrocket, because the place is already so huge and growing, eventually we'll run out of room and prices will go up and I will soon be in the market for a home so... Yeah. Also, a lot of people can't deal with the heat, don't like the desert, etc. Personally, there's no "region" in the world that I dislike (year round at least) and usually no city I really hate. All I wanted you to have is the facts on a few things, by all means you can have your bad experience here and hate it to death. I just don't like people to spout stuff off that isn't true about a place geographically and statistically.

Love this discussion.

Writing this from Minnesota while visiting family for the first time in years. Lived in California since the late '90's, Socal since early 2000's.

Minnesota is super cheap. People are nice. No traffic. Easy to buy a house here and have space and a garage. Weather is wretched. I went to Duluth to visit the Aerostich store a few days ago. It was in the low forties, and blowing rain. Sideways. Makes sense they manufacture suits you wear over your normal clothes. Plus deer jump at you randomly in MN.

Talked to a small motorcycle shop owner in Mankato where I'm from. Asked him about the riding here, thinking it would be awesome. There's not 40 million people here like CA right? Do whatever you want.

His two main points were that the winter is horrible, unrideable, and you can't really ride dirt in the country anymore. No matter where you go, there are houses. All private land. You have to pay to play here. All the land is usable, so people have built on it already.

Thing about where I live in San Diego, it's within a 12 degree average range of 70 degrees all year round. T shirt during the day, light sweater at night. No bugs. Plus you can surf and go to the beach. Ride all year round.

Twisty canyons. Hundreds of thousands of BLM land acreage of unusable land (to build a house in) to the east. I ride in the desert and/or mountains semi frequently. That's about an hour from where I live at the coast-at most. Totally empty of people. Lot of motorcycle industry out here. It's not a mistake. Mex next door.

Yes, it's expensive. Trust me, I know. Houses where I'm from are $80,000-$200,000. Super cheap. In SD, it's double or triple that. That is because there are a lot of people out in CA.

The flip side is that a lot of people = a lot of opportunity. You can do well here, just plan on owning a business or already being well established in whatever it is you do. There are more people here that can do business with you and hand you more money than in less populated states, provided you give them enough value in whatever it is you do.

ALSO. Lane splitting. Yep, it makes a difference. I don't care what you guys say. Saves me many hours per week on my commute. I see guys sweltering in the heat in other states, stuck in traffic just sitting, and it doesn't make sense to me. Motorcycles are skinny. They fit between cars. Why wouldn't you go in between? Saves time, gas, and makes traffic flow better. No reason not to.

I love riding year round, and riding cost/mountains/desert/urban city all in the same day.

Socal is where it's at.

I'm not in the US but interested to know what it's like around Marion NC

i can only say the one place i have rode. greater los angeles. if it sucked i would dream of somewhere better to live and ride. but i can't, really. or at least don't feel the need to

if you know the area we have lots of good roads and routes to ride. getting through traffic for our legal lane splitting is truly surreal at times. at least after driving over half my life. traffic really isn't there. i never think about it

it only rains 35 days a year on average, just enough to get around otherwise those days. even if renting a car for weather on those days you come out way ahead as you get to RIDE all the others. or just use your SO's car or family van or keep a $2000 beater around and drive it 35 days a year. could be worse. i rented vehicles some days last year. half the rainy ones, i would say. hated it, but kept me dry and out of slippery stuff until the rains end. watch that slippery stuff after the rain, though!

if you ride in Southern California it means you can ride to a real desert, a real beach, real snow, real mountains, great cities, and freakin' Disneyland if you like, all in one day. or a weekend, at least. its a big area but all is still close by. i say "real" up top because it really is a place with distinct geography and weather. you can be dying of heat stroke in palm springs one hour and the next hour be in Santa Monica chugging cold beer and thinking "where the hell is palm springs?"

i like our deserts, btw :)

there are lot's of great places to live and ride year 'round, i believe. imo its where ever its a mostly dry climate, but not freezing. i don't know of cold, but don't like it. another good reason for SoCal to get my vote. the only vote i can cast, really. and i feel lucky to be able to say that

Yeah I mean there are lots of reasons NOT to want to live in SoCal, people taxes etc. But if the goal is riding motorcycles!? It's nirvana. I'm a fanboy I guess

SE Utah
Looking down on Valley of the Gods from the top of Moki Dugway (100 miles south of Moab)



Driving through the Valley

Very well said! I never really knew what traffic was til I moved out of LA up to WA. It takes every fiber in my being and every ounce of self control to slow down and stop on a two lane road or especially on the freeway. It's just so 'wrong'

I guess I'm biased for picking SoCal, considering I live here. Lanesplitting, year-round riding, no rust, and great roads to the mountains, beach, desert, whatever you want
Yeah the taxes and politics here are terrible, but that wasn't the original question . The good rides definitely come at a premium cost

Gotta agree here, I did the coast from San Diego to Seattle 4 years ago, and there really seemed to be a lot of great roads, when you went inland from the Pacific Coast Highway (which, in itself, was great but that was sort of expected, the abundance of smaller curvy roads in that area was more of a surprise for me).

I start having the same thoughts this time every year

I daydream about Arizona, but I'm not sure I could handle the heat and congestion of Phoenix. It doesn't seem like there's much in the way of jobs in any of the more hospitable AZ cities like Prescott or Flagstaff.

I lived in the Los Angeles area for a while, and while the weather is great, I hated the traffic and congestion.

I think for me the key is taking a motorcycle-related vacation to somewhere sunny and warm in February. I'm working on being able to make that happen every year

i've lived on the east coast (DE), in the mid west (IL), northern nv, and now san diego. i love the riding and the weather in socal, i just wish the politics and population density were more like NV.

IMO the roads in appalachia are fantastic riding however they'e somewhat fenced in by trees. the roads here in socal are more about the experience - good roads paired with stunning scenery.