Safely is also a matter of opinion. It’s a motorcycle, the rider IS the bumper. If they haven’t harmed themselves getting to their destination, they certainly haven’t harmed another.
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There’s people all around the globe riding quite safely in snow, rain and ice. Perhaps you missed the part about STUDDED SNOW tires on the bike that I mentioned. They have all kinds of enhancements for motorcycles to make them just as capable, if not more so, in the winter as a car. And by and large, most motorcycle riders are already more safety conscientious than cagers on the road.
Traversing down a snow covered hill in a car can be tricky…on a bike - IMPOSSIBLE.
That is one of the most ridiculous assertions I’ve heard. It is obvious you have no real experience in this regard or you wouldn’t make such a sweeping statement.
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Our town mayor (who moved just a few years ago) was as hard core a bike rider as could be found. He never even owned a car; just a BMW 750 and a 14’ trailer for hauling stuff he couldn’t get on the bike.
At one point many years ago he had put a legitimate 1 milllion miles on that BMW; rain, shine, snow, ice, or whatever.
One Friday I saw him loading up the bike and asked him where he was off to. On his way to Boston to have dinner with a friend; nothing more. This was in the dead of winter with snow falling in the NE and he was back on Sunday night.
He thought nothing of taking a 500 miles one way ride just to have a cup of coffee with someone and then zing back; usually cruising at 90-100 all the way. The only time he would slow would be if ice, snow, or sometimes the rain was a bit of a problem.
How many miles he has on that bike now I have no idea but 2 million wouldn’t surprise me. Both he and the bike have survived several major crashes; one involving a deer strike at 70 MPH just outside of town and the other when he fell asleep one night at 100 MPH and went airborne.
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I would fight for your right to do this, but have to disagree that in snow it isn’t a lot less safe than four wheels. The tires carve a path in regular rain, but in the type of snow we have in my area that leaves a slippery icy surface, they’re simply prone to slipping. The other problem in the winter is that you can be riding on dry pavement and suddenly hit an icy area. And I would not want to come upon a 4- car pileup on ice while riding a bike.
Can it be done? Sure. Is it safe? Well, we’ll have to disagree on that one. 
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Wait. Are you saying he pulled a 14-foot trailer with a motorcycle!?
Are you sure about that? I’ve been seeing a lot of T-Rexi* (…or would that be T-Rexes?) on the road lately. I don’t know what kind of fuel economy they get, but they look like fun for people who want a motorized tricycle.
…in California, yes, but in other states too? I’ve never seen a motorcycle that had a catalytic converter on it, and Honda has been able to meet California emissions standards without fuel injection. They only went to FI on all of their motorcycles this year with the redesign of the Honda Rebel, and I believe that only happened because of competition.
There is a trike kit for a Honda Shadow Aero that costs $6,895*. Add the MSRP for a new Shadow Aero ($7,499) to that, and you could have a brand new trike for $14,394 plus labor.
EDIT: I see now that I misunderstood your intent, but I’m going to leave this comment here anyway.
I sure hope that doesn’t include all the adventure motorcyclists who outfit street legal off-road and multipurpose motorcycles for winter riding, because that would be a shame to quell such adventurous spirits.
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My winter riding gloves have a built-in squeegee I can use to clear my face shield, and most motorcycle windshields are mounted so you actually look over them, not through them. You can also buy a little squeegee that will fit over your thumb to be used to clear your helmet’s face shield.
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Yup, everywhere. It goes along with tighter regs on off-road engines like airport tugs, forklifts end even generators passed under the last Bush presidency. Bike engines are pretty small which helps with emissions because many are written as grams/mile. And those regs have been getting tighter. That favors small engines and penalizes big ones but even small ones get captured. Like even the Rebel’s 250cc engine getting fuel injection.
In fairness, no one is buying a $60,000+ T-rex because they’re worried about saving money on gas.
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Exactly. The T-Rex and other 3-wheelers are fun toys, not meant to save money on the daily commute.
My coworker just bought a used one for $5,000, and it looks like it’s in prestine condition.
I bet the mpgs are not much more than 30, right?
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My mistake: about 24 mpg in town… terrible. The TRex is a Toy, with a capital T! Talk about depreciation, $65k to $5k? YIKES!
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What was wrong with it? That’s an incredible price. The cheapest I found for a used T-rex was $8500, and that was an obvious scam ad because the exact same ad with the exact same picture and language shows up in listings across the country and for different prices.
Ordinarily a used T-rex is going to run you at least somewhere close to 20 grand.
Get in an accident on a motorcycle while driving in snow and let me know how long it takes for the insurance company to stop laughing when you try to make a claim.
You think an insurance company is going to forgo its legal obligations just because you use your motorcycle for winter riding? If that ever happened to me, I’d sick the American Motorcyclist Association’s lawyers on them in short order, and when the AMA published the results in their magazine, the insurance company would discover they made a big mistake if they intend to sell more motorcycle policies.
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From what I can tell, there is nothing wrong with it. The only way I can explain it is that this guy is extremely frugal, he’s good at finding great deals because he’s always looking, and he usually sells his motorcycles for more than he paid for them, which often blows my mind.