2Wheeltips

Last week, there were several motorcycle fatalities in my area.  One of the accidents was close enough to where I live, and on a road that I travel often, so I was a bit rattled to hear about what happened.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100522/NEWS/100522009/Piscataway-crash-kills-South-Plainfield-motorcyclist-28

Here is another accident that did not have to happen.  Although I wasn't there, I know that road and the hill over the interstate, and if you go over it too fast, accidents like this can happen. 

Motorcycle season is underway and you need to be careful and put into practice the intersection skills that you find here on 2wheeltips.  Approach and ride through all intersections cautiously and the life you save may be your own.

I know…you like the look of that novelty helmet that you saw on someone and you know that you would look GREAT in the same helmet….  Riding down the road on your cruiser, wind in your face,  that's the ride and the look for you!  You'd ride without a helmet if only your state allowed it, so the novelty helmet is the next best thing, right?  After all, something is better than nothing, and you won't be pulled over for riding without a helmet.  All is good on the road, right?  Well, perhaps you should think again.

Complain all you want about the government getting involved in your personal business by requiring you to wear a helmet, but it's not the state official who will be injured if you crash with no head protection.  And, personally, I just want you to understand a little more about novelty helmets before you convince yourself that they do anything to help you in the case of a crash or fall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tested some novelty helmets to see how they performed against the DOT certification.  All the novelty helmets tested failed.  I repeat…..all of the novelty helmets test failed. Not only did they fail but the test results even state that you have a "100-percent probability of brain injuries and skull fracture, indicating that the person wearing the helmet will sustain fatal head injuries."  Other findings from the tests….."All the novelty helmets failed to pass the impact attenuation, penetration, and helmet retention system requirements."

In plain english…..when they hit the ground, they will split open or get punctured by debris on the ground. What remains of the helmet will come off your head because the chin strap will stretch or snap from the stress of the impact. You will crack your skull and die or become a vegetable. Sounds nice, huh?

The bottom line is that your head gets little to no protection.  Good luck if your novelty helmet even remains on your head.  Most of the helmets tested could not even do that!  Some chin straps could be pulled off the helmet with a good yank. Why not just wear a baseball cap? They are cheaper and seem like they give the same amount of protection.

So, it seems to me, at least, that the choice is pretty clear.  Like your head?  Care about your brain?  Wear a helmet that is DOT and/or Snell certified.  Think about it now, before you need it, before you have an accident or fall…because if you wait until AFTER that accident or fall, it is too late.

Ride a motorcycle and soon you will realize that one of the most personalized accessories you can get  speaks volumes about you, but costs you absolutely nothing:  your biker nickname.  In this column, I invite everyone to respond by answering the following questions (and I'll be the first to provide my own answers!):
    1.    Do you have a biker nickname?  If so, what is it?
    2.    Now, for the really interesting part:  How did you acquire that nickname (without being too offensive, and avoiding those dreaded TMI (too much information) bits and pieces…?
    3.    If you don't have a nickname, what do you want it to be, and why?

Okay, everyone, here I go!

1.  My biker nickname is "Cookie".
2.  Friends that I ride with know me for my homemade cookies, so "Cookie"  seemed the appropriate nickname for me.
Do I look like a "Cookie"….who knows (you can decide for yourself when you meet me in person)?  But, "Cookie" it is, and "Cookie" I am!

Now, it's your turn to share!  What's your story?

Well, motorcycle friends, I had the shock of my life when I received my copy of the Americade Times in the mail a couple of days ago.  I was thumbing through the magazine, reminiscing about all the great events they had, the well organized tours, the wonderful people I had met...  I was looking at the photos and I almost felt like I was looking at my own photo album of Americade.  As I found out, it was for a good reason!  At least four of the photos they used in the magazine were mine!  Damn, I thought!  I must have won the photo contest.....Nah...I thought again....I am just imagining things...so many other people were up at Americade....so many cameras clicking away...so many people entered the same contest I did.  Better yet, I had never been notified by Americade that I had won, so I just enjoyed the magazine and put my strange thoughts aside.  But wait, I said to myself!  Check the photo credits in the front of the magazine....(of course, this is me, talking to me....)...if your photo or photos are in here, they will give you credit, right???  RIGHT!  And there was my name with the photo credits!  I was ecstatic.  And, in addition to the use of your photos, there was a monetary prize involved...so, I thought (again, me talking to me...)...now I KNOW they used at least one of my photos, I mean my name was listed in the photo credits, but no notification and no check in the mail.  Well, maybe it got lost?  I mean the US Postal Service isn't perfect....it's pretty damned good but it's not perfect.  So, I just put the magazine aside and figured I would send an e-mail to Americade and tell them thanks for picking my photos but I never got any letter (or check....lol) in the mail telling me I had won.  And then, yesterday, I brought in the mail.  And in the mail was a letter (and, yes!, a check) from Americade!  The letter told me I won!  The check floored me!  It was for far more than I had expected to receive (see, I kind of figured that ONE photo was mine....the others, although they sort of looked like mine...well...I figured other bikers had taken similar shots and mine were like the others so I was just imagining things).  So, back I went, to the magazine and, this time, my computer, and found that FOUR of the photos they used were mine!  I was (and I still am) thrilled!!!  So, for those of you who are curious (or just like to hit hyperlinks), here is the link to the online version of the Americade Times magazine.  http://www.tourexpo.com/data/content/view/1612/272/
My photos are in the 2009 magazine and they are:
Page 8, the photo of the ski jump at Lake Placid
Page 9, the photo of the red covered bridge with bikes going through it
Page 17, the photo of sunrise on Lake George
Page 20, the photo of a man working on a bike (with license plate "DEANS")

For those of you who have ever attended an Americade rally, I think I need say no more.  You know what Americade rallies are like....

For those of you who have never attended (or never even heard of) Americade rallies, take a look and read the magazine.  If you are interested in going to Americade (the first week of June 2010 in Lake George Village, NY), and you have questions, you can always pose your questions here.  If there are questions that we cannot answer, I know people who work for Americade and I will get an answer for you!

Americade is a fantastic, huge, incredibly well organized touring rally, and bikers get a chance to mingle with tens of thousands of other bikers of all walks of life, from all parts of the country (and, even from other countries), all who share at least one common interest:  their love of motorcycling.  And, maybe next year, YOUR photos will be in the Americade Times magazine!

Harry Hurt, the motorcycle expert behind the 1981 Hurt Report, has died at the age of 81.  Many motorcyclists are familiar with Harry Hurt; the research he did analyzing 900 motorcycle accidents from 1976 - 1977 resulted in the Hurt Report, the most extensive report ever written about motorcycle accidents and their causes.  For those of you who would like to know more, we are listing the link to the article about Harry Hurt from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-harry-hurt2-2009dec02%2c0%2c1034954.story

Your friends at 2wheeltips.com

One beautiful Sunday morning, I was riding with 2 other bikers.  I was the most inexperienced of the three and I rode in the middle, between my 2 friends.  We were riding a route to one of our favorite places and, as we had done many times in the past, we were on small roads that ran through quiet towns.  Sunday mornings, along this route, there is little traffic and, having dealt with traffic on major highways, I felt completely comfortable riding…perhaps a bit too comfortable.  As a novice rider, I let down my guard and took for granted that any motorists on the road with me that day would not be a threat.  Wrong!  As we passed a small business on the right, a car pulled up to the left of us (this was a two lane road, one lane in each direction…I should have known right away that something was not right).  In what seemed like a split second, the motorist made a right turn into a driveway and cut off all three of us.  My friend who was in the front of the group, a much more experienced biker than I, was able to stop on a dime.  My friend who was behind me was so far behind me that he had no problem coming to an easy stop.  I, however, hit the brakes a bit too hard and locked them up.  I never hit the car that cut me off but I did go down.  Although the windshield I had just installed on my bike cracked into multiple pieces, thanks to the fact that I was wearing full riding gear and a full face helmet, I remained in one piece and was able to get right up and walk away from the accident.  My full face helmet absorbed the impact as my head hit the ground, my padded jacket absorbed the impact as my shoulder hit the ground, and my padded riding pants absorbed the impact as my knee hit the ground.  My friends helped me get my bike upright and they tested it to make sure it was rideable.  The main damage to the bike, other than the cracked windshield, was a bent front brake lever but it wasn't bent so badly that I couldn't use it to continue riding for the day.  As I got myself up off the ground, and shook the dirt off of my riding pants and jacket, a woman came up to me to ask if I was okay.  A good samaritan, I thought….I told her I was fine and just asked if she would put my broken windshield in her trashcan, which she did.  My friends and I mounted our bikes and took off for our favorite place for breakfast, Lulu's in New Hope, PA.  We sat over breakfast talking about the idiot driver who had cut us off and, although I was sore, I had no serious injuries, just a busted ego…I was ashamed that I had not been skilled enough to stop very quickly without locking my brakes.  It was at that point that my two friends told me that the good samaritan who had asked if I was okay was actually the woman who caused the accident!  I was upset that my friends had not told me at the time that the woman offering her help was actually the one who caused the whole incident and, at the same time, I was grateful to my friends for not telling me.  I don't know what I would have said or done to her had I known, and it was just as well that I got myself straightened out and back on the road. 
Here are some of the lessons I learned that morning:
1.  Learning to stop quickly on a bike, without locking the brakes, is a skill that all bikers must master.  It is a learned skill and needs to be practiced constantly.
2.  There is no substitute for good riding gear.  Good pants and a riding jacket not only can provide padded protection but they also act as a second skin.  A full face helmet is the only type of helmet I will ever wear, even if I am only riding as a passenger on someone else's bike…the full face helmet I wore that morning prevented me from having any type of serious head or brain injury and, yes, my head hit the ground pretty hard.  The helmet took the full impact of the hit and my head felt nothing. 
3.  Once back on my bike, I did wear the helmet that I had gone down with since it was the only one I had.  However, once home, that life-saving helmet went right in the trash can and I went to the store to buy a brand new full-face helmet.
4.  Sometimes, it is better to just move on and not confront the people who caused an accident (if there was no collision between their vehicle and yours).  I was lucky enough to get up and ride away from that accident and nothing I would have said or done to that woman would have made her an instantly better driver.  She was careless once and, most likely, she will be careless again, and I am not the person who can help or change her bad driving habits.
5.  I must always prepare myself for conditions on the road that can become potentially dangerous.  I never thought that the woman who almost hit me was going to make a right turn in front of all of us….she had created an illegal lane and did not have a turn signal on….I should have been prepared for her to do anything since she was already driving carelessly.
6.  Riding with friends can truly be invaluable.  Things can go wrong when you are riding and, having riding partners with you can make the difference between being able to get back on your bike and continue your ride or being left (even temporarily) stranded.