Best State to live and ride in Year Round?

Yeah, but your 'plus' is offset with 3 months of 100+ degree days, and a serious amount of 115-120 degree days. I think MOST people would say "ick" especially if you wear gear, and if you are a squid, sorry but the beach and lane splitting wins out again.

I didn't mean anything as an insult, but Phoenix was the most horrible atmosphere I've ever breathed in my life. #2 was Washington DC when I was a kid and walked out of the smithsonian I felt like I was beat up with body odor. and couldn't breathe. So jeeze when I say it's a nasty pit, I don't mean it to be insulting, (it's just a fact!)

Don't tell me that I'm wrong about my own personal experiences.

I like AZ fine, but I like Yuma and The Colorado River Valley a heck of a lot better than PHX. I like Utah, I like Nevada but they all have some major drawbacks regarding motorcycle riding that Socal just doesn't have.

I don't buy the pendleton thing either. I think Wa is #2 in motorcycle ownership per capita even ahead of FL & TX. It is amazing how many there are in the summer and how very very few I see out on the road with me in the winter WA is also the only place I've had a driver actually aim for me and charge.

With you 110%
It's why I finally got a bike and started riding.
And for the record Lots of full dress harleys and GS's splitting in Socal. Pretty much everything from LAX to Mexico is so wide it's really no issue to split even at high speed.

I will also say though that the traffic in LA is fairly predictable. Downtown Seattle, Portland other places have freeway traffic All day, every day. AND Socal also gets a win because you can actually get places using surface streets and most of the arterials actually have well timed lights and 50mph speed limits.

Orange County CA is the only place I've ever been in my life with a regular street with traffic signals and a 65 MPH speed limit.

Portland and Seattle traffic moves at one third the speed of smell...always..I have overheated my bike more in Portland, than I ever did in Vegas..in the heat..and sand..:huh

My Husky has NEVER overheated before, ridden from LA to Cabo, all over AZ and Baja, Up Mountains, Doing like 90 through bakersfield in 100+ degree heat and up the grapevine...

Twice this summer in Seattle. And it was like middle of the day, 2 pm and you just... STOP.

I'm not buying the Phoenix Smog thing. Look, on my way home today I thought of you. I work downtown and commute to North Phoenix so I go through the center of town on I-17. The winds kicked up today... Now, in the desert, especially Phoenix, when the winds kick up it seems to have an opposite effect as it does in California. It kicks up all the dust, sand and alergens and it gets incredibly hazy and smoggy. Thing is, the wind has to kick WAY up for this to happen which is very rare because "The Valley of the Sun" is just that, a Valley surrounding by mountains to every side and within the city. BUT, when the winds DO kick up it makes it hazy and very smoggy looking. This again is a very rare occurrence.

Generally, the air here is very clear and clean. LA is the smoggiest place I've been by far, including the big east coast cities, DC, Dallas and Houston. If I lived in California again I'd never live in the city, I'd live in a beach town outside of them.

Also the heat is not so bad when it is a dry heat. I was in Louisiana a few months back when it was 94 degrees out, but it was so humid I couldn't breath and felt like I was going to die (although I will say the place is beautiful and I fancy it). Here, it can get up to 115 and it just feels like intense sun but isn't disgustingly hot as long as you don't go for a run at noon. Also the heat is negated by a very good lightweight mesh jacket in the summer, being as it's so dry it helps you. Why do you think the people in the middle east wear those white garbs and turbans out in the desert? It keeps you cooler honestly.

Phoenix is a great place for motorcycling. Year round riding, all kinds of cool little ghost towns and old western towns within a hour from the city out through the desert. Great little twisty roads going out through the cactus and mountains, fantastic trails and you are just hours away from SoCal, Vegas, the Grand Canyon, places like Page (Antelope Canyon), Monument Valley, Moab and all those national parks in Utah and another country if you're daring enough. There are a TON of motorcycles here too and people are quite conscious of them here as well.

I don't know how you gauge people's friendliness to bikes either. I've seen crazy people everywhere. Almost got killed once on the PCH when some old man decided he hated "Hooligans on motorcycles" and kept trying to run me off the side of the road.

I'll give you one thing. Lane splitting is awesome, but it certainly doesn't mean 0 traffic unless you're a complete idiot. Wish they had it everywhere. There's carpool lanes on all the loops here and interstates which bikes can use.

Me and a buddy went thru Baker one time..on the way to Seqouia...in July..the temp gauge on my GSA said 126...

Thank doG that valley is only 25 minutes wide or so..

Yeah, um, nobody's really heard me rag or insult on a place til you get me talking about Bakersfield. Even lane splitting can't save that sh*thole!

SoCal.

Weather, lane splitting, two seasons ( beginning of summer, end of summer), lane splitting.

I like living in a place where I don't have to lane split.

"Almost got killed once on the PCH when some old man decided he hated "Hooligans on motorcycles" and kept trying to run me off the side of the road. "
That was me. Quit calling me crazy or next time I won't fail.

Your honda was ugly. I didn't even know they came in that color. Next time, get it in gold like a normal little old person.

northern New England is rural, not remote wilderness, 20 minute ride to a concert at Meadowbrook, 20 minutes to the beached at the ocean, 20 minutes to mountain skiing

no need to use highways to commute or travel,

if ya like the city that much, 90 minutes to Boston

NH is #1 in quality of life for a reason VT # 3

and if we want remote wilderness, thats close by too in northern Maine

and we got water, plenty of it

and no goddam taxes, less regulation "Live Free or Die" more personal choices and less "gubm't sez ya gotta do it this way"

is the riding better, no, but its good and we are the best place to live

well it is a great place to ride. and a great place to ride means a great place ro live. well, for me, at least

and it is true....traffic does not exist, really. you don't need to split at 60mph to have this perspective. but driving for nearly 3 decades before ever riding a bike helps

when in DTLA going north on Figueroa on a friday at rush hour near the 110 freeway with all those cars about? it's their traffic, not mine. i have no traffic just clear, narrow lanes to split cars with. they can be moving, not moving, or giant orange cones for that matter. but whatever they are they are not in my way, really

thats no traffic!

if on a bike =]

i picked socal because of the balance of good things it has going for it as a place to live, not just the riding. the roads are not the best (imo appalachia has the best roads), but they are good. the offroading is also not the best (for me NV gets that honor) but it's also good. the beaches aren't as nice as FL, but again, they're good. i hate snow, so for me the weather here is great. i have never had so much good mexican food as i have had here in SD. i would prefer to not have to lane split, but the fact that i can makes dealing with traffic so much less frustrating.

i've lived on the east coast, the midwest, northern NV, and now SD. the main reason i love it here is not that it is so great and wonderful, but that it's good in so many aspects of life.

my dream would be for CA to turn red... but i think that is a topic for a different thread and sub-forum.

Just to see where riders live... taken from here:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2011/mv1.cfm#foot4

Code:

State	# of Motorcycles
California (4)	818,650
Florida (2)	574,346
Texas (1)	442,483
Pennsylvania	404,896
Ohio		390,522
Illinois (3)	350,292
New York	345,855
New Jersey (2)	330,489
Wisconsin (1)	317,656
Michigan	308,349
Minnesota (1)	240,289
North Carolina	223,305
Washington (1)	220,886
Indiana		204,407
Georgia (1)	199,620
Virginia	195,829
Arizona		178,928
Iowa (1)	174,263
Colorado 	173,231
Tennessee (1)	168,420
Massachusetts 	159,007
Missouri	140,947
Alabama		127,301
Oklahoma (1)	127,150
Maryland	120,122
South Carolina	108,371
Oregon		108,317
Kentucky (1)	98,495
Connecticut	97,963
Kansas		81,361
New Hampshire	79,267
Arkansas (1)	76,301
South Dakota	69,670
Nevada (1)	68,976
Louisiana	68,460
New Mexico	64,912
Idaho		62,623
Utah		59,430
West Virginia	57,564
Nebraska	51,376
Maine (1)	50,327
Montana 	47,011
Rhode Island 	33,085
North Dakota	32,668
Alaska		31,020
Delaware	30,498
Hawaii		30,498
Wyoming (1)	30,378
Vermont		30,071
Mississippi (1)	28,078
Dist. of Col.	3,539
Total		8,437,502

Been in SoCal two months after living in NY my whole life, everyone really needs to move here. Head up the coast, go to the mountains for a good time in dirt or street ANY TIME OF YEAR. If you don't like biking all the time, go skiing in the morning, come down into the valley and play sports outside in a tshirt, or head over to the beach where for $10 you can camp with your bike on the water.

Per the original question, unless you enjoy riding through northeast snow and salt for 5 months of the year, no state there can really be a candidate. Beautiful yes... But riding all year? Naw...

Nobody forces you to lane split, I rarely do it, but at a red light 20 cars deep...hell yes!

SoCal totally sucks!! other than having a few nice riding roads, and good weather most of the year, the traffic is hideous, and you DO have to use the freeways unless you stay home like a hermit. And the freeways are terrible. Always bumpy, and way overcrowded even in the middle of the day. And $10 parking at the beach?? IF you can find a parking spot. Or you can get creative with parking, and then pay to get your bike back out of impound later.
I grew up in SoCal (a long time ago) and have visited several times recently. For me, it's a nice place to visit, but... no place I want to live.

Not Washington or Oregon either- unless you want to ride in the rain and snow. I've lived in both states, and if you're up for riding in those colder temps, there's no need to be reading this thread.

North Georgia & North Carolina are beautiful and have hundreds of miles of curvy roads up and down mountains, but they have frosty days and snow in the winter. Not my idea of fun, so the bike hibernates.

Florida has perfect riding weather year round (similar to SoCal) but it's really a large sandbar with not much for fun roads. And like SoCal, you have the tourists.

Phoenix and Vegas are DEFINITELY not the tickets. Way too hot in the summer to ride (except at night), and while there are a few good destinations nearby, there isn't much for good riding without leaving the area.

Utah and Colorado I don't know much about, but I'm becoming more interested in those states. I've 'driven' some of southern Utah.

Disclaimer: As always, IMHO, and YMMV.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ycf5_gRyORQ&desktop_uri=/watch?v=ycf5_gRyORQ

Socal's great if you can deal with lots of people, too many for me. I grew up in Alabama, lived in Georgia amd Minnesota (no thanks), wife is from Tennessee and it is very difficult to find that middle of nowhere feeling on a great road in the southern states. There may not be as many people as socal but theres very few places without people, if that makes sense. Bring from the south, I never could get into the desert. Lived in San Diego for awhile and I missed the wet and trees. Great to visit though.


IMO its hard to beat North Bay San Francisco all the way up the coast and the PNW west of the Cascades. The weather is temperate, the southern end of this spectrum doesnt get as much rain as the east coast (eg Eureka, CA 39" annually; Atlanta, GA 60"), and a slew if epic rides (OBCDR, WBCDR, UBCDR, cascades, sierras, etc) are within reach. Plus the fishing is epic, the ocean and coastline is as scenic as anywhere in the world, and serious middle of nowhere is no more than a day away. Its as beatifull in the coastal range as the appalachians without evangelicals on every corner and a much more tolerant cultural attitude towards personal freedoms. Taxes may be high but nowhere is perfect, and I guess I'm in a minority in that I like living in a place (CA) where everyone can let their freak flag fly, who am I to judge.

really now

population of California 38 million or one bike per 46.5 residents
land area of California 163,696 sq miles or 5 bikes per square mile

population of New Hampshire 1.3 million or one bike per 16.5 residents
land area of New Hampshire 9,304 square miles or 8.5 bikes per square mile

who is it that has the most bike's?

that right, in New Hampshire, a resident is almost 3 times as likely to own a bike as Californian

if the roads and riding is so good, why don't more people own bikes ?