CurveJunkies

Paranoia goes to an all-time high when you’re out on the highway on a motorcycle.  It’s almost as if you have spidey-senses and can see every soccer mom, cell phone toting teenager, confused out of towner, line-crossing redneck, and every other type of cager hazard.  What you rarely anticipate, although there are certainly plenty on the roads, are drunks.

I followed this guy for miles and miles and assumed he was going to hit someone.  The photographer in me, admittedly, got a little excited thinking about how I’d get to digitize a tragedy (yeah, that’s bad, I know…but that’s business).  Fortunately, my helmet has a built-in bluetooth cell phone thing so I can make emergency calls.  I called the cops a couple of times on this guy, gave them detailed directions, and even gave them a perfect description of the auto — but, to my knowledge, no one showed in the span of 30 min.

At the very least, I got some cool footage.  I wish I had been a little closer since a wide angle lens can make one look really far away.

Of all the inexcusable road mistakes one can make, I place DUI at the very, very top.  It’s irresponsible.  It’s one thing to put your own life in danger, but it’s an entirely different deal when you are choosing that risk for other people.  Losers.

Of course, I don’t *know* he was drunk — maybe he was just a really bad driver and was having a hard day (nudge nudge wink wink).

Some random guy with road rash.

Once again, only a few days ago, the topic of wearing your gear came up.  I was out riding in nearly 100F weather and I was pretty hot because I had my jacket on.  Most often, I’m wearing a leather jacket, but when summer rolls around, I switch to textile…and when it gets *really* hot and I’m just doing slow, casual riding, I’ll move to a mesh jacket.  I was complaining about the heat to a guy wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and no helmet and he says back to me, “Well, of course you’re burning up…you’re wearing that jacket.”

Well duhhhhhhhhhhh….Jackets in summer do tend to keep you a bit warmer than usual.  I’m glad I had Einstein next to me to point out the obvious. 

I figure most of you who are reading this already know the value of wearing your gear.  We’ve seen more than our share of accidents both simple and serious and they’re never pretty.  Even with good gear on, lots of things can go wrong and still mess you up pretty bad….but with no gear on, even the tiniest spill can be pretty terrible.

On at least two occasions I was availed the opportunity to inspect helmets and jackets up close after very serious and non-fatal accidents.  The helmets were totally split in two pieces down the center in both incidents — and the rider had absolute no injury to the head.   If even a fraction of the force had been direct to the skull, these riders would not be here today (they thank god, I thank good gear).  I have seen have their bodies skip down the highway with hardly any injury, although they do almost always lose a shoe for some reason.

The first accident I ever witnessed was when I was just a child and in the car with my parents.  Some dude was cruising down the highway with only a pair of shorts and some flip flops when his bike suddenly locked up.  Since I was so young, only four or five years old, I didn’t understand exactly the cause of the accident, but I do clearly remember watching the man tumble and slide about 50 feet down the highway.  The next thing I saw of this man was only a red, oozing mess with a few missing teeth.  My dad stopped to help him so I was close enough to look out the car window to witness everything.  This incident has plagued me for years — the details completely burned into my mind.

It’s often said to dress for the fall and not for the ride.  I’ve seen enough to know the wisdom in that simple statement.  I know that I’m mostly preaching to the choir and most of you will agree, but there are always a few who just don’t get it.

So what is my point?  I’m not really sure I have one.  People will do what people will do.  I look at the gearless guy and think he’s an idiot.  The gearless guy looks at me and thinks I’m overdressed for the weather and therefore stupid.  We’re both probably right on some level.  All I can say is that I’m likely to continue being stupid and will always be wearing at least the very minimum of protection (helmet and jacket) — even if I’m only going to the store around the corner.

But really, what do I know?  I’m sure you’re more interested in what William Shatner had to say about it.

Finally, after being out of commission for almost an entire month, I got my bike back (thanks Logan!).  In just over a couple of years, I’ve put around 25,000 miles on this bike.  It was time to do some scheduled maintenance.  Unfortunately, I waited until prime riding season and everyone else across the US was also doing maintenance which put some of my parts on backorder.  I’ve not been of the bike for this long since my last one was stolen (yeah, you remember my mental breakdown, don’t you??).    Anway, it was awfully nice to hop back into the seat tonight for a few hours. 

Thanks LMS for the work!