Study: Riders really love their motorcycles

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BY LISA MUNGER / Lincoln Journal Star

A recent survey by Allstate Insurance Co. found that motorcycle love is a very, very strong feeling.

Virtually all hard-core riders polled said they would give up their spouse or significant other before their motorcycle.

While local bikers shied away from a direct response to the same question, they admitted they could understand the sentiment.

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(photos.com)

(photos.com)

“I understand what it does to a guy,” said Mike McFarland, a Harley Davidson owner. “You hear it, and you go, ‘God, that’s cool!’”

The questions surveyed 500 male motorcycle owners nationwide to understand their attitudes — maybe devotion is a better word — toward their bikes.

Devotion, indeed, is what the survey found.

The survey asked bike owners to classify themselves as a sports-bike enthusiast, stressed-out enthusiast, hard-core biker or a weekend warrior. A majority of Nebraska respondents classified themselves as hard-core bikers.

Even riders who classified themselves in the less “hard-core” categories said in the survey that they would give up their TV over their bikes at a rate of 2 to 1.

Maybe that’s not as bold as trading in your significant other … still, what is it about riding a motorcycle that inspires such passion?

“It’s the only product that people tattoo on their arms,” said Dave Fischer, owner of Frontier Harley Davidson and a rider himself of about 40 years. “There is a segment who literally live to ride.”

McFarland, director of Lincoln’s Harley Owner’s Group, said riding bikes is the “best thing going.”

“You never see a motorcycle outside a psychiatrist’s office,” he said. “It just stirs the soul.”