Author: Wade Thiel

Summer is the best time to ride and also, depending on where you live and when you’re riding, genuinely uncomfortable.

The heat that feels great in the morning can turn into something you’re managing hard by early afternoon. Getting this right is mostly about preparation and timing, not suffering through it. Here’s how to handle summer motorcycle riding well.

There’s a moment most riders know. You’re moving through a stretch of open road, conditions are right, the bike is doing exactly what it should. And the song playing in your helmet lines up perfectly with what’s happening around you. It’s one of those small things that’s impossible to forget.

Motorcycles and music have been tied together for a long time. Not in a forced, marketing-campaign way, but in a real, culturally embedded way that shows up in the songs themselves, in the events built around both, and in the way riders talk about what the road actually feels like.

Few people buy a motorcycle and think carefully about what it’s actually going to cost them per year. They think about the purchase price, maybe the insurance, and that’s usually it.

The rest, things like maintenance, tires, registration, gear replacement, depreciation, show up later, one expense at a time, in a way that never quite adds up to a number you anticipated.

The cost of owning a motorcycle in 2026 is real, manageable, and significantly lower than owning a car, but it’s also higher than most new riders budget for when they’re standing in a dealership parking lot trying to justify the purchase.