Ebbie, there are riders and there are riders. I find noise a pain myself. I used to ride all the time, all year round and I love the feeling that a bike brings. Sourdough refers to "riding a beam of light" and that's certainly one of the sensations. Truthfully, I don't "get" a lot of enthusiasts. I think we're a varied lot to say the least. There are folks like Sourdough that I understand and folks like the ones who trailer to Sturgis that I don't. I've never had the outlaw mentality any more that I've had the leather biker bar type mentality. And frankly, I'm not big on the "dresser" tourers either......especially the ones with trailers. Geeziz, some of those thing take you 5 minutes to walk around! I passed a group of extremely well dressed riders on cafe racer sport bikes last summer and wondered how much they actually ride and have they ever really pushed the machine to their capabilities, let alone its capabilities.

I'm happy riding down to the store for a pop, or riding several hundred miles for a visit or thousands on trips. I like making the occasional "profficiency run" on some favorite stretches of road just to air out my mind a bit. Its sad that bikes have the reputation they still seem to have, because there is something for almost every type of person out there, including the dilettantes and outlaws.

Spaw