Hampton Beach Area

[iloveboobs]

Anybody ride up at Hampton Beach often? As a kid, I always thought it looked like the coolest place to bring a motorcycle.

Now that I actually ride, I've got my doubts. I can just imagine the sun and my bike's engine roasting my balls in stop and go traffic along the strip.

On the other hand, the ride from Boars Head to Rye along Ocean Boulevard still looks pretty amazing (and generally free of bumper to bumper traffic).

Also, I know the state motto is Live Free or Die, but holy crap, apparently just wearing a helmet qualifies you as something of a gear nazi up there. Soooooo many people riding with literally no gear at all.

Anyways, just wondering what it's like to ride up there.

[Sheppo]

The cops are not forgiving at all. ( and I agree with that, too many ppl and no room for idiots ) So don't wheelie, no loud pipes, burn outs, etc. Traffic sucks you will roast your nut sack or inner thighs... I avoid it as much as I can unless it's 2-3am...

[hondarider102]

cops up there suck, traffic sucks, parking sucks, its hot unless its at night, overall its not that fun.

[idratherberidin]

It sucks this time of year. Late fall early spring are the only times to ride up there, if at all. Way to much traffic, dumb people and girls that make me feel old.

[06gixgirl]

OMG....it's the worse place to ride a bike. I've done it couple of time & I got no balls, but If I had them i'd would of had them roasted there. parking is bad, cops are bad, it's just bad in general.

[Kenn157]

I live up in the Seacoast area. It does suck, but still not bad yet. Unless your coming over after a ride when I cook BBQ and we drink beer it's not all that bad. My buddy's all know that!

[hondarider102]

Wirelessly posted

My buddy called me to go for a ride after work today and he was headed there to meet some friends for dinner so whatever I went. Wouldn't ya know it while leaving we were going with the flow of traffic and of course blue lights, no ticket but just proved the point that cops HATE bikes up there

[Kazinator]

Was in the area yesterday. Squids everywhere, dumb pedestrians, and traffic.

Ps- Kenn I think I saw you there yesterday with another bike...?

[Kenn157]

Me, on the new explorer, e30 on my thruxton, asveesix on his street triple and tlrman on his tlr. We were parked i'm the driveway.

[nhbubba]

Hampton...

I've never had problems with the local LEOs. But then I've never ridden a sport bike or anything with modified exhaust, which I what I gather they zero in on.

Last year I was itching for a local ride on my branzy new bike after a long day of yard work and decided I'd hit Hampton for old times sakes. Two side streets up on the strip I remembered why I never go there in the summer anymore.

If you are into riding, this is not your place.
If you're into sitting around gawking at each other, this is your place.

I swore the chicks were better looking back when too.

Of season is a whole different thing. 1A from 101 to say Ogunquit ME is still one of my favorite local rides.

[Kenn157]

Off season is the time to ride 1A... Its lovely!

[SRTie4k]

Weekdays Hampton is fine. I rode through there earlier this week and there was zero traffic. Of course there is also zero to look at, unless you like looking at houses.

[DaveZX6r]

My friends and I took the bikes to the beach once. Hot my bike at the tome was over heating. My buddies bike was really low on gas so he had to keep shutting it off while we were stopped in traffic. All the bikes got Covered in sand and grit. It sucked. I have however like many said taken the trip up rt1 off season or off hours. That is a beautifully ride.

[sveesix]

I just rode through this morning, and traffic was not bad at all.

[iloveboobs]

Awesome - thanks for all the info.

Definitely seems like squid central, and from what I've heard, Hampton Beach is sort of a training ground for really young NH cops/staties, so the harsh law response sounds about right.

Even so, I'm going to check it out soon (and try to avoid the strip - probably head up Winnacunnet from 1A and head north from there). Pretty much the reason I ride a Ninja is because of the time I spent at Hampton as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s at my grandma's beach house on North Beach watching squids do what they do (including watching a guy in full neon green leathers pull an epic wheelie away from a cop after the cop had pulled him and his friend over - ironically, he was probably not a legit squid).

[nhbubba]

That guy lost 70% of his squid status the moment you said 'leathers'.

[Billy]

Ahhh good ol Hampton Beach. I used to go up there a lot when I was in my college years before I rode. During the day it's more of a family like atmosphere. Night time, it's a whole other story!!!! If I remember correctly back around 2003, every wednesday night they would put on a fireworks show (not sure if they still do). Anyways here are my thoughts on the place:

Traffic (actual strip):
During the week it's fine as long as it's not a holiday. If you go on a weekend, you are F'd. I highly recommend not going there during the day on the weekend because you will sit it hell like traffic and you will roast in the heat. If it's like 10pm or later the traffic should be "lighter" and much easier to deal with.

People:
Not the classiest, but it's a good place for people watching. The freaks definately come out once the sun goes down. I'll never forget the time I saw this woman walking down the stip with one of her boobs hanging out of her bikini. It's crap like that that makes it entertaining. Then you can stand by your bike and get hit on by 16 yearolds trying to pass as 25 yearolds. When you are at Hampton, if you are unsure if she's legal or not, it's best to assume she's underage!!!!

Bike crowd:
Definately squid central. I was one of the only people wearing a helmet/jacket when I was there. You'll see a lot of "pimped" out bikes with tanktop dudes sitting on them.

Parking on the Strip:
Last time I went they have areas specifically for Motorcyle parking on the strip (strips of paint). Now because it was so packed my rear tire was sticking outside of the designated area by maybe a foot. Well I came back to a parking ticket stuffed in my windshielf. They are freaking parking NAZI's up there!!!!!

Overall it's not a place I would ride to but if I was up in NH riding around and wanted to sit somewhere and relax after a long ride I wouldn't mind going there as long as it's later in the evening.

[nhbubba]

People: Not the classiest...

I remember being stuck in traffic one summer afternoon some years ago next to some gixxah doode from mass. I was on my Bandit and with a classmate on his CBR-6. A few min in he turned to me and said "You know, this is NH, you don't have to wear all that crap up here." He was referring to my 10 y/o hand-me-down helmet. He had his $700 Arai strapped to the side of his passenger seat.

[shortbus]

I went with some friends, cops didn't see wheelies and burnouts (and there were plenty) but they did notice my buddy with his helmet half off with no eye protection as we were looking for parking. Just a warning...

It's fun in a group of bikes as you get all kinds of attention from people bored in traffic, girls all over the bikes too, and on the classiness note you could leave with one pretty easily.

Way in wasn't bad for traffic, way out sucked, I ended up killing the bike to prevent it from overheating and walking it for half a mile over a 20 minute period.

[iloveboobs]

Well, I did it. I went on an epic 300+/- mile ride up to Hampton Beach today.

I have very little highway experience, so I left Boston at about 7:30am to avoid traffic. About an hour later I was there. The ride up was very smooth. Not much traffic, few big rigs, nobody driving like maniacs. I saw a couple of cruisers and they actually followed me for most of the way up. I took 95N to the Salisbury exit and then headed north along 1A/Ocean Boulevard.

The weather was gorgeous. I cruised up the strip, past North Beach, and into Rye along the beach until I got to Odiorne Point (the state park where you can no longer ride along the beach). Initially, I planned to just turn around and head back to Boston (again to avoid traffic), but the weather, scenery, and riding was awesome, so when I got back to the bridge at Hampton, I just turned around and did the whole thing all over again (four or five times).

I started seeing more and more bikes and started tailing behind some guy on a white R1 for a while. Next thing I knew, there was a blue CBR 1000rr following me. Eventually, the R1 decided to drop down a gear and made a jump into hyperspace (~80 or 90 mph along a two lane road). I wasn’t about to try to keep up, so I decided it was a good time to pull over and grab some lunch. The CBR pulled over, too. The rider was some guy named John from the Portsmouth area – we shot the shit, had a good time, grabbed lobster rolls at the Beach Plum and parted ways.

I cruised around a little more, filled the tank (for the third time today) and then headed home. Traffic and wind both sucked a little bit on the ride home, but it wasn’t terrible. Got home around 3pm, tired but fucking thrilled. Overall, my old Ninja gave me one hell of a fun day of riding. Couldn’t have been much better.

[d3ad1ysp0rk]

Glad you had a good time! There are so many bikes in the area, I feel like handing out NESR notes to anyone with gear on.. hahah

[martyk]

what part of boston are you in, and F you and your avatar pic....probably took me 6 times as long to read this post as it would have...not that im really complaining haha

[iloveboobs]

Apparently it's early enough in the season that a lot of people were wearing gear (well, helmets and jackets at least). Then again, I saw at least 10-15 riders without helmets, although they were mostly the HD crowd near Wally's.

martyk - I'm in JP. No idea who the lady in my pic is, but if I find her, I will post all of the pics I get before the cops haul me away for deviant behavior.

For now, here's a couple more from my ride:



I wanted to take more pics, but I wanted to keep riding even more.

[martyk]

jp huh? thats where i work, just sent you a pm

[close2reality]

Hampton Beach = squids on bikes they shouldn't be on & 55 year olds in vettes crawling up the coastline. It changed alot, I moved out to southern California for a few years and coming back i could not believe the meatheads that took over Hampton.

My advice, if you head that way at all do yourself a favor and dip in at North Beach and head North from there. The strip is a shitshow.