Back to the Old Grind…

Vacation is over, so it’s back to our regularly scheduled motoblogging.

This vacation was a cruise to Mexico. I mention this because it was interesting to see the differences in the motorcycling communities in other countries.

Mexico is definitely NOT a sportbike or cruiser environment.  I saw exactly one sportbike, a CBR1000RR that was on sale in Mazatlan.  I saw a couple of cruisers, including one Harley-Davidson, in Mazatlan as well. The remainder were scooters or 125-250cc dual sports.  In Puerto Vallarta, it’s almost entirely dual sports.

That city is a special case, though, because it sits at the foot of the jungle, with huge amounts of water runoff from the rain forest. As such, many of the streets consist not of asphalt pavement, but fist-sized stones set in concrete.  City driving there is much like a well-maintained fire road here.  You need a Dual Sport just to drive around downtown, as the even the best-maintained stone roads are suspension-punishing monsters.

Motorcyclists in Mexico also ride with a mix of elan and courage that is…well…frightening. But then, automobile drivers do, too.

They have mandatory helmet laws in Mexico, but they certainly aren’t fanatics about it. That is to say, most motorcyclists obey it…at least with some kind of helmet, anyway. Whether it’s a motorcycle helmet is a different story.

Anyway, it’s good to be back.