There are many, many California natives used for landscaping along freeways here. Coast Redwoods are ubiquitous, Pinus radiata, contorta and Cupressus macrocarpa are also used here in the Bay Area. Large native shrubs incude various Arctostaphylos, Ceanothus, Fremontodendron, Heteromeles arbutifolia are also fairly common. More California natives aren't used because many such as species Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus are not particularly long lived or smog resistant, or highly adaptable across multiple microclimates. There are plenty more large shrub/small tree species that could be used, such as Cercis, Calycanthus, Myrica, etc.

In my opinion, your 250cc Ninja is a little too small for expressway riding. it is being pushed to its limit to maintain a 65 mph speed and it may not be behaving well at that speed. There should be no shake in the handle bars, just the ususal jolts from road roughness and at speed, the front suspension should be absorbing most of the road shocks. At first, try riding on highways were the speed limit tops out at 55 mph. Develop a feel for your bike and get to know your comfort zone, before tackling the high speed stuff. Do one other thing. Check the alginment of the front wheel with the rear. The contact spots should align as near perfect as possible. The rear wheel can be adjusted a bit to alter this alignment. For a quick test, run through a puddle while maintaning a straight line, then stop and look at the tire tracks. The rear tire should be tracking exactly on center with the front. You can create a temporary puddle in a oarking lot with a bucket of water. Interesting ride feel can develop when the wheels do not track each other. The bike will behave differently in a right hand turn compared to a left hander. There may be a strange steering input (feeling) when a bump is encountered. Check the rear shock absorbers. (I'm assuming your bike has the conventional two-shock setup.) These shocks should be as near alike as possible. If one shock is sacked out and the other is not, there will be rear wheel steering input when going over undulations especilly in curves. If one shock bottoms out bfore the other and you weigh more that 200 lb, there can be dangerous rear wheel steering in corners. (When one shock bottoms before the other, or damps more heavily than the other, it may distort the swing arm throwing the rear tire our of alignment with the front.)

I was just searching for tips on highway riding and came across this thread. I just took MSF course a month ago, bought my first bike (Harley Sportster 883) 2.5 weeks ago and have put on a little over 100 miles on it. The bike was intimidating at first, after only having experience on 250cc in the course for a few hours on the parking lot. So I took it to the parking lot to practice what I learned in the course. A week later my buddy and I agreed to go for a ride. Even though I was very nervous about riding on the roads, I decided to just go. My thought was "I would not be more ready later than I am now." It was very challenging and I made a few scary mistakes at first at very low speed, but I was getting better as the ride went on. We ended up riding about 30 miles with speeds up to 45 mph that day. I rode once more with him and then made a 30 mile trip on my own. It was even more challenging than it should have been cause it was drizzling and the roads were wet. It feels great to be on the bike, although challenging for me. So now I am contemplating to challenge myself a bit more and go on the highway on saturday morning, even if its just for a few miles. Of course I'm nervous about it. I also have advice to people who are very nervous to ride: First, read the tips that are found on this site: http://ridingsafely.com/ridingsafely3.html Second, if you think motorcycling is for you, then let go of the fear and just relax and ride. If its not fun for you and you're glad when the ride is over, such as one poster posted on this thread, then I highly advise to stop riding. I just bought my bike 2.5 weeks ago and can't wait for a good/warm weather so I can ride it. I even take a ride around the block if I don't have time for anything else. I LOVE it. Yes, I'm scared, yes, I'm nervous, but I do my best to leave it behind me while I'm riding. I'm not telling people to go on the highway if you're not comfortable with it, but you must enjoy it and ride without fear. As this site on safety says, riding with fear will get you into trouble. Ride safe and enjoy! p.s. As I've mentioned, I'm a beginner rider with almost no experience. So this is my opinion from my short experience and from what I've heard from experienced riders.

I guess it depends on the actual specifics of the highway. My husband and I are about to close on our first home, and it's just like your situation, except it's on an actual two lane highway. This bothered me a LOT when we first went to look at it, but the highway is a country rural highway, the setback of the home is really considerable (so much that you can't hear the occasional traffic from the sides and the back of the home, and nothing inside. The front you can hear larger vehicles like trucks, but that's it). There's also a very large amount of trees and other vegetation between the highway proper and the home which helps, a lot of it is evergreen. The driveway has room for a turnaround to be put in (it's all dirt right now tho). The home is just far away enough from the cities yet close enough to all the shopping and town we need within ten minutes of a drive. The school district in this area is excellent. The home is on a two acre lot (and I'm a serious gardener, so this is ideal). In rural Minnesota, it helps to live by a road that's plowed and salted quickly too in the wintertime. I guess it depends on the kind of highway you're actually talking about (where it is, actual amount and kind of traffic etc) and your living situation. And the home of course. If everything else was perfect, I'd still consider the home on the highway.