is it safe to ride a motorcycle as a commuter bike around new york city?
lora asked:
I’m going to be moving from Florida to New York in August. I have a 250 ninja and i want to know if it’s safe to ride a motorcycle in new york city. My school is in new jersey (newark) and i plan on riding my motorcycle to new jersey and occasionally storing in the garage at school during the winter. Is this going to work? Or is it too dangerous to ride a motorcycle around new york city.
I’m going to be moving from Florida to New York in August. I have a 250 ninja and i want to know if it’s safe to ride a motorcycle in new york city. My school is in new jersey (newark) and i plan on riding my motorcycle to new jersey and occasionally storing in the garage at school during the winter. Is this going to work? Or is it too dangerous to ride a motorcycle around new york city.
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I used to live in Brooklyn and work in Bayonne and Jersey city,my transpo was a 750 virago. No sweat! Choppy C
its pretty dangerous, people cross the street lik they own the place. LOTS of traffic, but u have to go see and look around and see if ur able or not. oh and its very dangerous in newark, it wouldnt suprise me if they stole it, plz be careful. good luck Ang
No problem at all. Contrary to popular myth, the traffic in New York City, especially Manhattan, is actually not so bad at all because it rarely moves any faster than 30 miles an hour, and, of course, once you’re outside the city the traffic is the same as anywhere else in the USA, only the roads in the northeast are a lot rougher and full of potholes because of the freeze/thaw thing, that’s all.
The main problem with motorcycles and scooters in NY is theft. If you park on the street, even if your bike is locked up tight, with 5 solid locks and chains on it, they’ll still strip it and take parts off of it, like the battery and sideview mirrors and, well, anything they can get off of it, like compartment covers, anything at all. Why? Because they can. I once came back to my bike and found the glass over the speedo was smashed in… for no reason at all, just smashed in- because they could! Another time, I came back to my bike and found they had taken off one rear shock absorber! Not both, just one!
So, traffic, not so bad, parking on the street, not so good. I’d only recommend you bring your bike to NYC if you have somewhere truly safe to park it overnight… otherwise, forget it, or be prepared to replace a lot of sideview mirrors and batteries and shock absorbers.
Good luck, and the link below is to a webpage about “Preventing Motorcycle Theft In New York City”… Drewkulele
You can do it but there are issues as stated above. Take mass transit to school but bring the bike with you. There are a lot of great riding roads just outside of Manhattan that you won’t want to miss! molitor