An interesting analysis. Everything that you brought up has some validity, but the U.S. is a big place, and thus it is hard to make generalizations. I think that the biggest difference between US and European bikers is that in Europe a bike is seen primarily as transportation. Here in the US it is more like a toy to play with (sports bikes) or a fashion accessory) cruisers. They are most often only ridden for recreation. Thus practicality is not a priority with a lot of riders. Drag racing may be popular in some regions of the US, but not here in the Mid Atlantic region. Here motocross, hill climbing, and especially dirt tracks are far more popular. I am not sure that a bike drifting around a quarter mile dirt track is really any more a valid form of racing than a drag strip, but it is certainly more entertaining! In much of the U.S. the roads are every bit as twisty as they are in Europe, or even more so. I live in a semi-rural area with a lot of forests and small mountains, and with very little traffic. I can pretty much pick and choose what type of road I want to travel on without having to ride more than 20 minutes from home. But I am fortunate. There are indeed many places here where you can ride all day and still not get anywhere! Cruiser bikes do make some sense here. Distances tend to be long. When my wife and I go for a trip it usually involves a thousand miles or more on very boring Interstate highways where speed limits are low and strictly enforced. Leg room and seat comfort become important considerations! But a lot of cruiser riders never leave town, and just ride from bar to bar. In such cases I agree. Big heavy loud cruisers make no sense for such short rides. Bike nights are fun, to a point. But after a while they often degenerate into chaos as squids get drunk and try to defy both the rules of society and the laws of physics and people start getting hurt! Iron butt rides make no real sense here, either. My longest day was 800 miles, and that was by necessity, not choice! But riding in a 24 hour endurance race doesn't really make much sense, nor does climbing Mount Everest. Some people just seem to enjoy such challenges. Not me. I try to stop riding for the day as soon as it stops being fun! Riding in the U.S. is certainly different than it is in Europe. After watching some of your videos I'd love to spend some time riding in Spain! But there is something to be said for living in a country big enough that you can ride in every sort of environment imaginable without ever getting your passport stamped. Not better, not worse. Just different!
Thanks for your insight Clyde. This one was a bit tongue in cheek but I'm glad you see where it's coming from. Anyhow I totally agree that the differences are what make each place interesting on their own right, and the US is definitely the place to be when it comes to enjoying amazing nature ✌️
my bike is a harley ultraclassic, I use it for road trips or just a ride around town. you must not have experienced to many American roads. try the Rockies on a secondary road, try a coastal hwy. how about a little road winding through wheat fields and farm land. or wide open desert where you can crank along at 100mph with nothing around.
American roads aren't all that straight once you get out of town...& there's plenty of areas that have a lot of twists & turns in their roads, they are mostly very wide though...that's certainly true...but those drag racers weren't on a road, they were on a closed drag strip...there's also tons of historic sites in the US...all over it...the Iron Butt is simply an endurance riding challenge...you must not have made many road trips in the US...you sure don't sound very familiar with it...
Learning is a never ending experience but I should say I grew up in several countries, one of them being the US, and it was by far the most extensive and at the same time most homogeneous terrain of all based on my road trip memories ✌🏼
I don't know where in the US you've been but you've got some serious misconceptions about us. I started riding at 7 and I'm 63 now. Cruisers here in the States are a matter of lifestyle, not necessity or even practicality. I get along just fine on my midsized Japanese bike even on the open road. Most cruiser riders, with a few exceptions, ride around town and don't get much farther than 20 miles or so from home on their bike at all. They ride with a club, with friends, or just around town like most motorcyclists. They like their cruisers more as a statement of style. But most bikes on the road here are Japanese. Kawasakis, Suzukis, Yamahas... In all shapes and sizes. Big cruisers aren't the dominant breed. I live in south Texas, land of flat. Unless you're on a major highway, there's not a road anywhere near me that's straight. None. They all kind of wind and meander and in the hill country there are some seriously twisty roads. The road in your video could be right here in Texas. In fact, most of the roads around here are built on old Spanish buggy trails from when we were a Spanish colony. Drag racing is completely misunderstood. It has absolutely nothing to do with long flat, straight roads. A drag strip is only a quarter mile, or about .04 kilometers. It started from the urban tradition of racing from red light to red light. It's a test of pure acceleration, not speed. Most pure drag bikes wouldn't make it a full mile without blowing up. We do have sprint racing in the US. We put Superbikes on the map and American Flat Track sprints have been a thing since the 1930s. We just approach it a bit differently. Remember, we Americans dominated European GP racing for nearly a decade and Roberts, Spencer, Lawson, Rainey and Schwantz all cut their teeth right here in US sprint races. I've no clue why anyone would do (and never heard of) an Iron Butt Challenge but there's at least 7 world recognized historic sites within 10 miles of my front door and Nationally recognized sites are everywhere. I've no idea what the point is but it's probably just part of the cruiser bike culture. As for Bike Nights, I've not hear of or been to one. I suspect that's more a club activity and organized by some of the larger clubs. I don't belong to anyy clubs. We're seriously not that spread out. I live in a city or over 1 million and bikes are everywhere, everyday, all year. and really, I don't think we're all that different from European motorcyclists. We e all about two wheels. Cheers!
Loved your other videos as a perspective change, but Im not even from USA but the prejudice against America seems a bit to strong.. North America is A LOT more then just that middle part where less then 5% of the population live. I also think Drag racing outside of NA is glorified as BIG AMERICA, but were have circuits and track days here constantly. Even in Ontario Canada were our racing/track day scene is a FRACTION of USA, you could go to multiple tracks to join a bike trackday/ car track day/ or just go watch a circuit race day every weekend april/may right until october usually. Maybe its just me but this video seemed like to much propaganda'd coolaid. Awesome scenery though~
I'll have to chalk the misplaced tone on this one up to the learning curve. Certainly don't think I have much of a bias against America considering I grew up there ✌🏼
I can only say that you must be a newish rider because most of that is wrong one way or another from the European perspective and Spain is atypical to much of Europe, you have plainly never been to watch drag racing for a start, winterising is something done in much of Europe, agree on the iron butt thing but it is an endurance challenge and nothing more, cruisers do work in Europe and there is a very long history of custom bikes one way or another in many European countries, and as for bike nights, they are all over the world and have been for decades, been going on here in the UK longer than anywhere else lol, also suggest you go to the US as you really don't have any idea as to what it is like geographically and culturally, it is nothing like the TV or movies
An interesting analysis. Everything that you brought up has some validity, but the U.S. is a big place, and thus it is hard to make generalizations.
I think that the biggest difference between US and European bikers is that in Europe a bike is seen primarily as transportation. Here in the US it is more like a toy to play with (sports bikes) or a fashion accessory) cruisers. They are most often only ridden for recreation. Thus practicality is not a priority with a lot of riders.
Drag racing may be popular in some regions of the US, but not here in the Mid Atlantic region. Here motocross, hill climbing, and especially dirt tracks are far more popular. I am not sure that a bike drifting around a quarter mile dirt track is really any more a valid form of racing than a drag strip, but it is certainly more entertaining!
In much of the U.S. the roads are every bit as twisty as they are in Europe, or even more so. I live in a semi-rural area with a lot of forests and small mountains, and with very little traffic. I can pretty much pick and choose what type of road I want to travel on without having to ride more than 20 minutes from home. But I am fortunate. There are indeed many places here where you can ride all day and still not get anywhere!
Cruiser bikes do make some sense here. Distances tend to be long. When my wife and I go for a trip it usually involves a thousand miles or more on very boring Interstate highways where speed limits are low and strictly enforced. Leg room and seat comfort become important considerations! But a lot of cruiser riders never leave town, and just ride from bar to bar. In such cases I agree. Big heavy loud cruisers make no sense for such short rides.
Bike nights are fun, to a point. But after a while they often degenerate into chaos as squids get drunk and try to defy both the rules of society and the laws of physics and people start getting hurt!
Iron butt rides make no real sense here, either. My longest day was 800 miles, and that was by necessity, not choice! But riding in a 24 hour endurance race doesn't really make much sense, nor does climbing Mount Everest. Some people just seem to enjoy such challenges. Not me. I try to stop riding for the day as soon as it stops being fun!
Riding in the U.S. is certainly different than it is in Europe. After watching some of your videos I'd love to spend some time riding in Spain! But there is something to be said for living in a country big enough that you can ride in every sort of environment imaginable without ever getting your passport stamped. Not better, not worse. Just different!
Thanks for your insight Clyde. This one was a bit tongue in cheek but I'm glad you see where it's coming from. Anyhow I totally agree that the differences are what make each place interesting on their own right, and the US is definitely the place to be when it comes to enjoying amazing nature ✌️
@@kondormotorides lol, we are just jealous because you guys get all the cool bikes!
my bike is a harley ultraclassic, I use it for road trips or just a ride around town. you must not have experienced to many American roads. try the Rockies on a secondary road, try a coastal hwy. how about a little road winding through wheat fields and farm land. or wide open desert where you can crank along at 100mph with nothing around.
I admit I never made it to the Rockies or the west coast ✌🏼
American roads aren't all that straight once you get out of town...& there's plenty of areas that have a lot of twists & turns in their roads, they are mostly very wide though...that's certainly true...but those drag racers weren't on a road, they were on a closed drag strip...there's also tons of historic sites in the US...all over it...the Iron Butt is simply an endurance riding challenge...you must not have made many road trips in the US...you sure don't sound very familiar with it...
This is a generalization. There will always be nuances ✌️
I'll be honest, from watching a few of your vids, I don't think you fully understand the geography in America.
Learning is a never ending experience but I should say I grew up in several countries, one of them being the US, and it was by far the most extensive and at the same time most homogeneous terrain of all based on my road trip memories ✌🏼
@@kondormotorides You haven't been to the San Francisco bay area.
@@PanchoLippincott correct. I never made it to the Rockies or the west coast o
I don't know where in the US you've been but you've got some serious misconceptions about us. I started riding at 7 and I'm 63 now.
Cruisers here in the States are a matter of lifestyle, not necessity or even practicality. I get along just fine on my midsized Japanese bike even on the open road. Most cruiser riders, with a few exceptions, ride around town and don't get much farther than 20 miles or so from home on their bike at all. They ride with a club, with friends, or just around town like most motorcyclists. They like their cruisers more as a statement of style. But most bikes on the road here are Japanese. Kawasakis, Suzukis, Yamahas... In all shapes and sizes. Big cruisers aren't the dominant breed.
I live in south Texas, land of flat. Unless you're on a major highway, there's not a road anywhere near me that's straight. None. They all kind of wind and meander and in the hill country there are some seriously twisty roads. The road in your video could be right here in Texas. In fact, most of the roads around here are built on old Spanish buggy trails from when we were a Spanish colony.
Drag racing is completely misunderstood. It has absolutely nothing to do with long flat, straight roads. A drag strip is only a quarter mile, or about .04 kilometers. It started from the urban tradition of racing from red light to red light. It's a test of pure acceleration, not speed. Most pure drag bikes wouldn't make it a full mile without blowing up. We do have sprint racing in the US. We put Superbikes on the map and American Flat Track sprints have been a thing since the 1930s. We just approach it a bit differently. Remember, we Americans dominated European GP racing for nearly a decade and Roberts, Spencer, Lawson, Rainey and Schwantz all cut their teeth right here in US sprint races.
I've no clue why anyone would do (and never heard of) an Iron Butt Challenge but there's at least 7 world recognized historic sites within 10 miles of my front door and Nationally recognized sites are everywhere. I've no idea what the point is but it's probably just part of the cruiser bike culture. As for Bike Nights, I've not hear of or been to one. I suspect that's more a club activity and organized by some of the larger clubs. I don't belong to anyy clubs.
We're seriously not that spread out. I live in a city or over 1 million and bikes are everywhere, everyday, all year. and really, I don't think we're all that different from European motorcyclists. We
e all about two wheels.
Cheers!
Let's call this one a bad choice of tone ✌🏼
Loved your other videos as a perspective change, but Im not even from USA but the prejudice against America seems a bit to strong.. North America is A LOT more then just that middle part where less then 5% of the population live. I also think Drag racing outside of NA is glorified as BIG AMERICA, but were have circuits and track days here constantly. Even in Ontario Canada were our racing/track day scene is a FRACTION of USA, you could go to multiple tracks to join a bike trackday/ car track day/ or just go watch a circuit race day every weekend april/may right until october usually.
Maybe its just me but this video seemed like to much propaganda'd coolaid.
Awesome scenery though~
I'll have to chalk the misplaced tone on this one up to the learning curve. Certainly don't think I have much of a bias against America considering I grew up there ✌🏼
😕 P r o m o s m
Ok
I can only say that you must be a newish rider because most of that is wrong one way or another from the European perspective and Spain is atypical to much of Europe, you have plainly never been to watch drag racing for a start, winterising is something done in much of Europe, agree on the iron butt thing but it is an endurance challenge and nothing more, cruisers do work in Europe and there is a very long history of custom bikes one way or another in many European countries, and as for bike nights, they are all over the world and have been for decades, been going on here in the UK longer than anywhere else lol, also suggest you go to the US as you really don't have any idea as to what it is like geographically and culturally, it is nothing like the TV or movies
I grew up in the US. That's why I speak English. Thanks for the comment ✌️