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Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:22 pm
by Mal S7
I am just back from 3 weeks in the US and Canada. A fabulous trip.
Drove (with family) from Boston to Halifax and back down to New York via New Hampshire, Vermont, upstate New York, and northern Pennsylvania.
It was motorcycling heaven. The weather was (mostly) great, the scenery and the roads superb, the forests changing colours, but what the ....
I saw perhaps a dozen motorcycles on the whole 2000 mile trip! And, yes, I did get off the Interstates when I could.
I know its a big place with lots of roads but really, where is everyone? Hiding from the Moose?
Mal
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:29 pm
by Major Softie
Couldn't tell ya. Here on the West coast, I'm at 6500 feet, and we're still getting huge numbers of bikes on the weekends. I'm sure there's a lot more down where it's lower/warmer, but we've still got highs hovering around 70F.
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:22 pm
by Steve in Golden
Mal S7 wrote:I am just back from 3 weeks in the US and Canada. A fabulous trip.
Drove (with family) from Boston to Halifax and back down to New York via New Hampshire, Vermont, upstate New York, and northern Pennsylvania.
It was motorcycling heaven. The weather was (mostly) great, the scenery and the roads superb, the forests changing colours, but what the ....
I saw perhaps a dozen motorcycles on the whole 2000 mile trip! And, yes, I did get off the Interstates when I could.
I know its a big place with lots of roads but really, where is everyone? Hiding from the Moose?
They are probably punching their time clocks like good little worker drones, slaving their whole lives away in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
You lucky blokes in Oz get government-mandated paid time off, unlike us wage slaves in the US where
"The Man" gets to work the 99%ers to death. Squandering the precious gift of life to slave away in the salt mines 80 hours / week with no vacation time or sick leave or health insurance.
OK it's not quite that bad, but you get the general idea. We're overworked here in the US with a lousy two weeks per year of vacation if we're lucky.
Members of the European Union and other European countries analyzed here all establish a legal right to at least 20 days of paid leave per year, with legal requirement of 25 and even 30 or more days in some countries. Australia and New Zealand both require employers to grant at least 20 paid-leave days per year. Canada and Japan mandate at least 10 paid days off. The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid leave. The gap between paid time off in the United States and the rest of the world is even larger if we include legally mandated paid public holidays, where the United States offers none, but most of the rest of the world's rich countries offer between five and 13 paid public holidays per year.
No-vacation nation USA – a comparison of leave and holiday in OECD countries
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 6:44 am
by SteveD
Sounds like a great trip Mal.
Here in Victoria, Oz it was the first really gorgeous day available for a ride. A mate ('94 900ss) and me took a ride down to Grants for a bbq lunch and catch up.
The roads were clean, the temp 26C and bikes were plentiful (MotoGP finished Sunday, with many heading home).
We only did about 170 miles all up but it was unhurried and fun.
Btw, I get 6 weeks annual leave 
and get paid double to work a public holiday, and get paid normal rates even if I don't work it! It's not my fault I was rostered off the high penalty shift! 
You don't want to know how sick leave and long service leave accumulates over time 
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 7:08 pm
by Mal S7
Hi Steve, So did Grant sell his bike?
Glorious day for a ride here today ....
but us self -employed have even worse conditions than the yanks!
Itching for my next holiday already. Thinking, if our dollar stays strong enough, for long enough, of making a trip Stateside and bringing home some vintage boxers (eg R75/5).
Keep one, ebay the rest. If you shopped right, I reckon it could pay for the trip. Wanna come?
Mal
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:49 pm
by SteveD
Mal S7 wrote:Hi Steve, So did Grant sell his bike?
Glorious day for a ride here today ....
but us self -employed have even worse conditions than the yanks!
Itching for my next holiday already. Thinking, if our dollar stays strong enough, for long enough, of making a trip Stateside and bringing home some vintage boxers (eg R75/5).
Keep one, ebay the rest. If you shopped right, I reckon it could pay for the trip. Wanna come?
Mal
Yeah, that sounds awright. I knew a bloke in the '80's that imported container loads of harleys from the west coast, and made an absolute killing. Unfortunately, I suspect the /5's are escalating in value just now, but as you say "if you shopped right". Why stop at two? Guzzi LeMans' might be more lucrative!
Grant has had a few nibbles...his Chevy looks like a lot o' fun.
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:09 pm
by Airbear
SteveD wrote:
Btw, I get 6 weeks annual leave and get paid double to work a public holiday, and get paid normal rates even if I don't work it! It's not my fault I was rostered off the high penalty shift!
You don't want to know how sick leave and long service leave accumulates over time
Prolly best to avoid mentioning the 17.5% leave loading added to holiday pay, too.
And the paid parental leave just introduced.
But like Mal, I am self-employed. Once I earn enough money the boss gives me the rest of the day, week, month or year off.
Re: Where are all the motorcycles?
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:52 am
by Motu
I worked for 10 years self employed,no holidays and all public holidays a day of no income...and coming into work sick as a dog.. Now as an employee I get 4 weeks a year,all public holidays and sick leave. I just have to put up with someone telling me what to do instead of telling other people what to do....I'm happy with that,my brain can use the down time.