A little over a year ago I picked up pre-owned Honda Element. What sold me on that car was it’s ultimate versatility. So far there is not one negative thing I could say about the car, it’s been great, even better than I ever expected. Today I thought I would try to see if my race bike fits in it. And to my shock, it did. Now I have to figure out the way to secure it.
Found this great article describing group riding etiquette, signals and rules.
I’ve ridden in small groups before and it is very important that everyone in a group knows these guidelines. We have been on a ride a couple of weeks ago where Motodisiac was a “lead bike” as he had a GPS system, a couple of riders from our group decided to pick up a faster pace and we ended up loosing them pretty soon. The end result - we took the scenic route back home. The speeding couple - uneventful freeway ride home.
Take your time go over these guidelines. Even if you don’t ride you might find them useful as they’ll give a regular automobile driver an idea of how a group of riders will maneuver on the road.
And here is my personal favorite:
TICKED OFF:
Extend your left arm straight out with your elbow bent 90 degrees. Carefully extend your middle finger to clearly demonstrate your dissatisfaction with the other guy. NOTE: It is not recommended you do this when you are alone.
Happy Monday everyone.
I am sure this post will stir up some controversy like the Prius one. So before I go into more details I would like to say that I am talking purely from my own riding experience. Not a vast one. However I believe that logging approximately 1000 miles (1600 km) per month might entitle me to build some sort of a stereotype about various driver types. Also I am not trying to “target” a certain group out of hate or malice. Again this is just the result of my statistical analysis of all cases of “attacks” or rather clueless and poorly executed maneuvers by drivers on the road that resulted in me hard braking, weaving and/or swerving.
Now that I’ve made this disclaimer I shall proceed with my story.
In my half a year of riding there have been at least 10 instances of close calls if not more. Most of the time these are cases of someone merging pretty much into me. And for the ones who don’t know I am not one of the riders who splits lanes at space rocket like speeds. I try to be cautious and ride defensively. Also my new bike has got a louder exhaust note. And the first day (or night rathe) while riding it back to Los Angeles I was almost swept off the road on the 10 freeway in the LA downtown area by a big black SUV. Motodisiac who was driving his car in front of me saw that also in his rear view mirror. The driver - middle age woman on her cell.
Today I made a quick lunch getaway from the office. My route lied through somewhat congested streets of West Hollywood. As I headed back to the office 2 close calls happened in the time frame of less than 5 minutes. First, as I was splitting lanes while going not more than 35 mph in a 25-30mph traffic a young woman in a red Mini Cooper suddenly changed lanes not more than one inch in front of me. I had to brake hard to avoid being side swiped. And a second later when I was passing her on the left I took a look and, what a surprise, she was talking on her cell and looking straight ahead. 5 minutes later a woman in a big black SUV did pretty much the same, except this time she was a little further away from me. May be 10 inches or so. Again, as I was passing her by to make some eye contact and shake my head I saw her looking straight ahead while talking on her cell phone. I felt much safer riding a beat up 250cc off road bike in Thailand with no protective gear. This was my thought at that moment.
I am not sure if it is women in particular or the fact that they are on the cell phone, or just the fact that a driver talking on his/her cell have to pay or at least try to pay more attention to what they are doing on the road. But this seems like a trend as far as I am concerned.
To conclude this rant I clearly remember one of my first days riding. I took the streets to go visit one of my friends and show off my new toy. A couple of blocks away from his house I was almost hit by a young woman merging left while looking right and holding her cell phone with her left hand. Back then I did not think it was a trend …
With gas prices hitting record $106 a barrel there are a lot of discussions regarding gasoline prices. Usually I hear two complaints. One comes from American public, crying that the gas is about to hit $4 per gallon. Opposing opinion comes from members of the European community, letting clueless Americans know that they’ve been paying double that for years.
While both parties have a point, they fail to notice the following. While it costs double to fill up the car on the European continent, average car is much more fuel efficient compared to their American rivals. They drive 1.0 liter econoboxes and 2.0 liter SUV’s. Only in Europe you will see BMW 520 and Mercedes E200. Americans, known to desire everything oversized, will drive 5.8 liter SUV to pick up a cup of Starbucks, in process burning more gas than some Europeans burn in a day of driving. I wouldn’t be surprised if the overall gas spending per mile driven is higher is USA despite lower gas prices. I don’t even take into account the fact that Americans drive more. This is great news for the Land Of The Free since there is room for savings and not such good news for Europeans, who already use fuel efficient vehicles.
So, dear Yankees, please upgrade (or downgrade?) your gas guzzlers with something more down to earth and soaring gas prices will not have you cringe.
Southern California is considered paradise by many. Sunny and warm most of the year, beautiful ocean, mountain range nearby, movie stars you meet, malls, Starbucks on every corner, countless possibilities for recreation, retreat for organic lovers. For motorcyclist in presents many opportunities to enjoy windy canyons, cruise on the PCH and ride trails offroad. Pick your poison, So Cal has it all. What’s there not to love?
However sometimes I really wish I lived somewhere in Montana. Did I mention I hate traffic? Let me explain. As a motorcyclist, traffic is not something I’m afraid of knowing that I can dodge it and be at my destination on time. It’s a pleasure to split lanes knowing that poor people in cages are stuck in this four wheel mess. Still, when the road is clear it gives me entirely different feelings to twist that throttle wide open, this is what the motorcycling is all about. In daily life motorbike becomes a smart choice for commuting, saving time and money.
Unfortunately it’s hard to depend on motorcycle only. I still need to go shopping, drive to school to pick up a kid, dine out and run the daily chores. Every time I dive a car I become that poor soul stuck in my cage. Have you ever tried to go to the ocean with your family on a lovely Sunday morning only to get stuck in a gridlock halfway there? It just plain blows.
Today I really lost my nerve. Normally my motorcycle commute to work takes me a little over one hour each way. Today I drove my car and sure enough it took me more than 2 hours to get to my destination. No, there wasn’t anything extraordinary happening. A couple of small accidents on the way, just your daily freeway routine. As I sat there moving 3mph, I was really angry at myself for not riding a bike. I’m not looking forward to driving home tonight.
How can this traffic problem be solved? A lot of “bright” minds are working on it and Caltrans is spending millions of dollars on construction trying to make a dent in this issue. If anything all the construction creates even more traffic and by the time they are done more cars will be on the road so their efforts will be in vain.
There are few simple ways to prevent traffic, they are free and WILL improve the situation. Maybe the goverment should spend tax dollars promoting these ways.
These are simple rules but few people follow them. As of today, my hate of traffic overcomes all the love I have for So California. Happy Valentine’s Day.
I was riding home today, freeway is packed as usual, cautiously splitting lanes, don’t want to be too aggressive, I usually tend to learn my lessons fairly quickly. It seems to be a known fact to drivers that motorcycle riders “come out of nowhere” because they move faster than traffic. Well, tonight was not the case. I did not come out of nowhere.
I was probably half a mile away from my final exit off the freeway, the traffic was going approximately 5 to 10 mph as there was an accident ahead. A Lexus SUV with a woman driver (surprise-surprise) on my right and a Mitsubishi Lancer on my left. I was pacing at the very same speed as them in between two right most lanes as I was looking for a chance to sneak through. We’d been rolling on like this for at least 5 seconds when the woman driver on my right saw an opening in the left lane and decided to jump erratically on the opportunity. She initiated the merge, then as if it still mattered turned her blinkers. My peripheral vision helped me as I spotted a large gray body of steel approaching me rapidly. I reacted quickly, and swerved left while accelerated a bit. I saw her abort the maneuver and get back into her lane quickly turning off her blinkers. I think she must have heard my engine as I was accelerating, I was in the first gear. I don’t believe she bothered looking left. But again we were going side by side for some time …
Having a somewhat analytical mindset I wanted to review this situation closer. And then I decided not to bother. Did that happen because women can’t drive, or regardless of the driver’s sex sitting in traffic numbs your sense and you are no longer inclined to look around before executing a maneuver, or drivers don’t recognize riders as full time occupants of the road? Why bother. It’s happened before and I am sure it’ll happen again.
In any event I am home safe and sound. I am sure the woman got scared more than I did. And that will hopefully leave an imprint in her mind. Or may be not. She drives an SUV after all.
There you have it. America approaches the gas prices that Europe has been having for quite some time now. For a long while Americans were enjoying the 6 liter engine muscle cars, gas guzzling SUVs and trucks without being too concerned about how much they spend on gas. You go to Europe and you rarely see a full size sedan, let alone a large pickup truck or an SUV. It is mostly a small size cars that are widely ridiculed here in the US. Well, ridiculed no more. With the gas prices going up to $4 per gallon I am sure the public opinion will change. May be we’ll start seeing some BMWs with 1.8 and 1.6 engines, Audi A3s and A4s with 1.4L engine, more TDI engines etc? Who knows …
I was in Rome last year. And I was surprised to see the number of motorcycles and scooters on the streets of the eternal city. They were everywhere. You can see for yourself. What you see below is a typical picture there.
So may be the time finally came for people to make a change in their lives. May be motorcycles and scooters are the way to go? I sure hope so. I see them more and more on the streets of Los Angeles, 3 of my coworkers have already signed up for the riders course, a couple of more already bought scooters and motorbikes. All that makes me feel I made the right choice.
P.S. And here is the Reuters news article as a point of reference to my gas price rant.