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Operating a motorcycle is a far cry from driving a car. For beginners, lessons are important. Tim Buche, president of the Motorcycle Industry Council, suggests starting with a two-day course offered by the nearly 6,000 instructors certified by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). (Call 800-446-9227 to find a course location near you.) That qualifies you for a waiver on a motorcycle-license test in most states, as well as discounted insurance premiums with some insurers. The course has a minimum of seven hours of classroom instruction and at least eight hours of practical riding experience. Motorcycles and helmets are provided. The average cost is $150.
Many beginners buy smaller, used bikes, which can be as cheap as $500. The average price for a new small bike is $4,000, Rasor says, while a midsize version costs about $10,000. Models known as tourers are designed for long-distance travel, are more comfortable to ride and have built-in compartments that can store as much as a week's worth of clothing and toiletries. Full-dress versions can cost anywhere from $17,000 to $20,000.
After working with Harley-Davidson Motor Co. (based in Milwaukee, Wis.) as a client and seeing how much fun doctors, judges and others in his age group were having riding motorcycles, Tim Carr, 59, senior vice president and branch manager at a Morgan Stanley brokerage firm in Mequon, Wis., took an MSF course once a week for a month when he was 50. "I figured that if others in my age group could ride so effortlessly, then so could I," says Carr, who now clocks about 3,000 miles a year on his two bikes. Two years ago, Carr began taking an annual June road trip with a group of 13 friends, covering 400 miles through Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. And he says, "I'm already planning my first trip for after I retire: riding on Route 66."
An additional allure of biking vacations, particularly for the 50-and-older crowd, is the philanthropy associated with them. About 3,000 local, regional and national runs with some charitable component take place each year, according to the AMA. For these runs, motorcyclists usually take donations of money or merchandise and ride together in a parade formation to show support for their charity. AMA-chartered organizations raised nearly $6 million for charities in 2001.
Stuart Fierman, 62, a Briarwood, N.Y., dentist who began riding at 40, has taken part in more than 250 charity runs locally and nationally in the past decade, many of them as a member of such biker groups as the Motorcycling Doctors Association and the Chai Riders Motorcycle Club, for Jewish bikers. Among the causes he has supported are breast-cancer research, Israel and children with terminal illnesses. "When 200,000 bikers show up in Washington and ride past the White House on Memorial Day to make sure that politicians don't forget about pows, that makes a very strong statement," says Fierman, who has taken part in six such rallies.