Gas prices are driving more towards motorcycles - or at least providing a great excuse

With yet another summer of record gas prices looming just over the horizon, more and more Americans are turning in their wheels... or at least a couple of them. Sales of motorcycles and scooters are up 8 percent over 2005, and according to the American Motorcycle Association, 35 percent of its members intend to ride more this summer because of gas prices.

Of course, it's probably possible to poke a mathematical hole into this rationale with but a few pecks at the ol' calculator, unless one chooses only the most frugal of two-wheeled conveyances (and a look at the best-selling list, full of Harleys, indicates that this is definitely not the case). According to one dealer, "People are looking for reasons to justify that want, and gas prices do that." Not like there's anything wrong with that, of course; we'd just be a lot happier if new riders would get some training before hitting the streets so that the annual death rate reverses its decade-long ugly trend.

[Source: USA Today]