The Island of Oahu

While this post is about the biking scene in Hawaii (from an outsiders view), I missed out on getting any pictures of motorcycles or riders to show here, which is a shame because Hawaii definitely has a style of bike that is distinctly local and deserves to be seen.

Although you’ll hear the sounds of Harleys all day in Waikiki, most of them are tourists on bagger rentals, at least during the week anyway. The locals really make themselves visible on weekends and especially on Sunday, which is club day.

If you hang out on ‘da strip’ for any length of time on a Sunday you’ll see packs of clubs riding by throughout the day. A fair amount of them are family clubs where women can fly the patch as well, which kind of makes sense since Hawaiians are all about family. Also, you’ll see sport bikes riding along side of Harleys. It’s weird to see such a melding of styles of bikes and individuals riding together but then again, it is an island and the local bikers/motorcyclists are a very close-knit community.

There’s kind of an irony riding in Hawaii though. While the weather is prefect for riding (albeit there are rain showers that blow through everyday on some part of the island), you are in fact on a rather small landmass, which to a degree, limits the distance and the destination of your ride. That’s not to say that you can’t spend a day or more in the saddle without retracing your tracks, but I would imagine that it’s more about getting together with your brothers and friends and riding to a favorite hangout to eat, drink, and talk about or work on bikes. Like most everything in the islands, it’s a very laid back scene where it’s about quality, not quantity.

Gail and I are planning on going back to Oahu within the next year or so to spend at least couple of weeks there. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hook up with one of the local clubs and get a truer sense of what it’s like to ride in the islands. In the meantime, enjoy the beauty that is Hawaii.

Mahalo