Beartooth Scenic Byway Rock Creek Vista MT (#0512)

I'm generally okay with motorcyclists, but on this trip they became an irritation. The Beartooth is popular with motorcyclists, but because my trip coincided with 75th anniversary of the annual motorcycle rally at Sturgis, there were even more than usual on the trip. The problems were multiple.

For one, though many were fine, too many traveled in clusters of 5-6 bikes and harassed drivers that weren't moving as fast as they wanted to move. Additionally, the volume from all of those that felt they had to have rumbling exhausts also meant that it was often almost impossible to enjoy the sounds of nature.

Most critical, though, was that many didn't seem to understand the dynamics of traveling a narrow mountain road. Very often bikers were riding with left side of their wheels touching the center line, which means that about a third of their bike (and body) is actually in the lane of the opposing traffic. Even worse, when they were on the center line and then leaned with very sharp curves, it meant the majority of their bike was actually in the opposing traffic lane. A number of times I had to brake hard and swerve towards an edge (with a sharp drop and no shoulder) so as to avoid a head-on with a biker.

Chatting with a friendly biker, he characterized it as too many bikers being 'riders' (unthinking) rather than 'drivers' (actively thinking about what they're doing).