40 HOGS Lane Splitting On The 5 From San Diego

Today Susan and I went with our local HOG chapter to Lake Henshaw to eat at Round Up BBQ. The point of going on a ride isn't to get anywhere fast. According to Google Maps, it should have taken us 5 hours round trip, including the lunch. The route we took though was much more interesting and gave us 8 hours on the bikes alone, then throw in another hour for lunch.

Coming back we went through northern San Diego county and the only way to get from there to here is up the 5, unless we wanted to add another 3 hours to our trip, and we didn't. There are no side roads to bypass the 5. You have the Pacific Ocean to the west and Camp Pendleton to the east.

As usual, about 20 miles sough of San Clemente, all four lanes started to slow down some, then they slowed down a lot. Then they just stopped.

In a car, this is annoying, but you typically have your air conditioner keeping you cool and you are just sitting there, or creeping along at 5mph.

On a bike, this is murder. You are sitting on an 700lb+ machine. Mine is 810lbs, plus my Tour Pak, me, my wife (we rode two up instead of her taking her bike today) and some extra stuff we carry like water, hoodies, etc. We were easily pushing 1,200lbs. That is what I have to keep balanced in all of that stop and go traffic. Add to that I am sitting there with a 260-320 degree F air cooled motor between my legs and you have the recipe for being miserable.

After about 10 minutes of that, the lead road captain stuck up his left index finger and waved it back and forth. "What the..?" I thought. That is the signal to get single file when staggered formation is no longer safe for twisty canyon roads.

Then I got it. He had had enough as well and was ready to get some air moving across the motor and skin. So single file we went, right between lanes 1 and 2 at about 10-15 miles per hour, just enough to make it easy to keep the bikes upright and get some air moving. As traffic started flowing again, we'd blend back in until it slowed, and right back to single file we'd go.

In California, lane splitting is legal, and in circumstances like this, it is a good law. We were moving slowly, keeping our bikes and bodies cool and with the roar of 40 Harleys displacing a total of nearly 3,800 cubic inches, we sounded like a freight train going down the interstate, so people heard (and felt) us coming. No one was changing lanes anyway. This is a 15-20 mile stretch with no exits.

I am still not a big fan of lane splitting in urban and suburban areas. Most Harley riders and riders of other big cruisers don't do it. 95% of the time it is someone on a crotch rocket zipping in and out of traffic to make it to the next light as fast as possible so he can slam on his brakes and then rapidly accelerate again.

In this case though, I was glad the law exists. Besides, it looked and sounded so cool.