EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Biking It on Route 6.6 : Car-Wary Commuters Rev Up Motorcycle Sales
Anticipating months--if not years--of nightmare commuting from the Antelope Valley to construction jobs around the Southland, 30-year-old Jeff Thompson spent Friday morning at Palmdale Honda, inspecting rows of gleaming new motorcycles.
“I’m a single parent, and I don’t want to be away from my child that long,” said Thompson, currently working on a job in Beverly Hills, 75 miles from home. “And if the road’s blocked, you can get out on the land or get on the shoulder.”
Or sweep down the white line, between exasperated drivers sweating long backups in their cars.
Many share Thompson’s thinking. Motorcycle shops in the San Fernando, Simi, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys are reporting a sharp jump in business, both for new and used bikes and for batteries and other parts to tune up the motorcycles parked in so many Southern California garages.
Larry Lilley, owner of Palmdale Honda, said that while he normally sells perhaps 20 bikes a month during the winter, he has been selling 20 a day since the quake.
“At this time of year, we’re usually going out for coffee, because there’s nothing to do,” Lilley said, pointing to his quickly thinning ranks of $5,000 bikes.
Most of the new easy riders are commuters in Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster now separated from Los Angeles by fractured freeways and a bottleneck commute.
“This time of the year, we’d sell eight or nine a week, and we’ve sold probably close to 40 bikes since Tuesday,” said Dick Allen, owner of Dick Allen Yamaha Honda Kawasaki in Newhall. “I haven’t talked to anybody who wasn’t buying them to make the commute to the San Fernando Valley.”
Dealers on the other end of the commute are also seeing a big jump in sales.
“We’re swamped right now,” said Mike Unger, a salesman at Honda, BMW, Sea-Doo of North Hollywood. “We have a lot of people from the Santa Clarita Valley buying motorcycles. . . . We haven’t even counted right now, but it’s more than double what we do this time of year.”
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The surging interest extends to motorcycle repair operations and accessory sales.
“People are saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to start taking my bike in,’ ” Pete Berteit said, working the parts counter at Lancaster Harley-Davidson. “We’ve had an increase in sales of warm clothing, the chaps and gloves. We’re starting to get a run on that now.”
Adventurous commuters with an eye on their wallets are also looking for used bikes.
Pat and David Nagel of Canyon Country picked up a 1984 Honda Magna street bike--with only 2,000 miles of wear--for $2,000 at Palmdale Honda.
Pat, 42, and David, 43, both teach at San Fernando Middle School in San Fernando, and they plan to weave the lanes to work together. Though David hasn’t been on a motorcycle for a while, Pat expressed confidence during the test ride.
“He looked good coming out of the lot, so I guess I’ll trust him,” she said. “And we got good helmets.”
Indeed, several dealers found themselves discouraging potential customers who lacked motorcycling experience. According to the latest figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the motorcycle fatality rate is 20 times that of passenger cars.
And the California Highway Patrol has a few thoughts of its own.
Lane splitting--riding between the lanes of traffic--is allowed under state law as long as it’s done safely.
“But if the traffic is going 20 miles an hour and you’re going through at 50 miles an hour,” any nearby officer is likely to pull you over, said Steve Kohler, a spokesman at CHP headquarters in Sacramento.
Cutting off other drivers, rapid lane changes and other high-risk maneuvers will also draw the CHP’s wrath.
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None of this daunts Kevin Leewitt, 22, a seaman who commutes 150 miles three times a week from his Antelope Valley home to the Seafarers Union office in San Pedro. Leewitt has ridden dirt bikes for years and downplays the dangers. “You’ve just got to watch what you’re doing,” he said, admiring a $3,500 used Yamaha at Palmdale Honda.
Owner Lilley says many buyers have wanted a motorcycle for some time and are using the quake to justify their decision to buy.
“There’s no logic to what they’re buying,” said Lilley, explaining that most customers want sporty dual-use bikes that can be used off-highway as well as on--but aren’t well suited to long highway commutes. “They’re fulfilling a fantasy.”
