I was riding back home from work. I was merging from one freeway to another. Going down the on-ramp, cautiously splitting narrowing lanes. I noted a rider on the freeway I was merging on. Something looked familiar, his helmet looked familiar, his jacket, his bike. Wait, it is Motodisiac. By the time I ended up on the freeway he was a good quarter mile ahead if not more. A chase was useless and stupid. Especially given that we talk on the phone pretty much every day and in person at least once a week. So why expose yourself to an unnecessary risk just to catch up and talk to him.

Why am I telling this story? Because of how I noticed him and how I could still see him clearly even though Motodisiac was way ahead of me in dense traffic. And the reason is - his helmet.

I had already mentioned before that to my surprise helmet color matters a lot. I just did not think that a bright helmet will let you be seen from that far away. Motodisiac’s bike is of dark gray color as mine, his riding jacket is black. So even with all that being sort of dim he still stood out from very far. One can never overestimate the importance of bright gear. May be that is why I special ordered the Aprilia Techno jacket in sport red. Or may be because it says Aprilia on it and looks cool.

We will find out pretty soon. It arrives next Monday. I can’t wait …

P.S. This is not me in the picture.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Riding, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.