Passes & Canyons Blog

CDOT's "Ate Asphalt with armor" poster.

Road rash is something a lot of motorcyclists are familiar with from personal experience. It’s not fun, and it’s not pretty. But how many of us have ever faced this skinned-alive experience in its extreme form? As in not fun, not pretty times 10?

Well, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently put a video up on YouTube where, working with a trauma surgeon in order to make it authentic, they did a make-over on a Fort Collins biker to show what the really bad stuff looks like.

The video is part of CDOT’s aggressive motorcycle safety program that runs all summer and is targeted at younger riders. Among the materials produced for the campaign are posters with a sort of day and night effect. On one, on one side it reads, “Ate asphalt with armor and had room for desert.” On the other side it reads, “Ate asphalt without armor and never got back up.” Another says, “High-sided with a helmet and sat courtside/High-sided without a helmet and rests church-side.” The third says, “Laid it down with gear and picked up his date/Laid it down without gear and never got back up.”

OK, not the most trip-off-your-tongue clever phrasing but they’re trying to put out a message. The point is, they do want us to get home safely.

The flip side of the campaign, of course, is to remind other drivers that we are out there. During May, the annual motorcycle awareness month, CDOT has those signs over the highway telling people to be aware, motorcycles are everywhere. We all know that people driving cars and trucks are the primary causes of the majority of motorcycle crashes. And then, for the bikers again, there is the drive sober part of the campaign.

How much good does all of this do? Good question. My guess would be it’s more successful at reaching the riders than the drivers, but that’s just my gut feeling. Sometimes I think we’ve over-engineered our roads. We were just over in Europe and in many places there are no lane markers, no sidewalks, no separation at all of the various forms of traffic. Cars, pedestrians, motorcycles and scooters, and bicycles all share the same space. People cooperate with each other so that everyone gets where they’re going safely. And you don’t see the distracted drivers over there that we see here because in that kind of situation you had damn well better be doing exactly one thing: driving. With all the lane-splitting and driving on the wrong side of the road and so much else that would make U.S. cops flip out, drivers in Europe pay attention to their driving–and they cooperate–and they do it a lot more safely than we do. Plus, I think their penalties if you do screw up are a lot stiffer than ours, so everyone has that incentive, too.

There’s a lesson here if anyone is interested.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Transportation choices in a narrow world

Biker Quote for Today

“People who ride motorcycles have gotten something right, and I want to put myself in the service of it, this thing that we do, this kingly sport that is like war made beautiful.” — Matthew B. Crawford

It just stands to reason that when you have more people riding motorcycles there will be more motorcycle crashes.

There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of stories all over during the last few weeks following the release of a report from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) that says motorcycle fatalities were up again last year. Most of the so-called reporters who rehashed the press release dutifully echoed the claims that this increase is tied to states eliminating their mandatory helmet laws. It’s just not that simple.

Also as usual, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation followed up with a more balanced response.

The gist of what Jeff Hennie, the MRF’s vice president of government reations and public affairs, had to say is simple: the biggest reason motorcycle fatalities are up is that ridership is up.

Still the GHSA paints a very morbid picture and uses this false platform to push for mandatory helmet laws. After all motorcyclist fatalities are up. What they never mention is, so are registrations for motorcycles.

The study’s author James Hedlund, formerly of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, had this to say in an interview about the study, ‘I found that over the past three decades, the number of registrations tracks closely with the number of deaths’.

The long-term fatality flow chart used in the GHSA report would echo this if the registration numbers were also posted. As expected, those numbers were not included.

What started off as a promising report on valid reasons for the increase in motorcycle usage, ended up as an attack on the freedoms of all motorcycle riders in this country.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe in wearing a helmet and I do wear them. But I also believe in letting the rider make his or her own choice. What is so annoying though is how the bureaucrats always go straight to the conclusion that making helmets mandatory would solve the problem. It wouldn’t. And couldn’t we at least compare apples to apples by pairing fatality numbers to rider numbers, as Hennie says?

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you find your self leaning closer to the open window in a car than you normally did.

I didn't come close to hitting this guy, but he was standing only about 15 feet away as I carefully slipped by him. And this was in Nebraska!

What’s the strangest thing you ever hit–or nearly hit–on your bike? That’s the question that launched a long-running thread on the Adventure Riders forum, and periodically I go there to pass along some of the more interesting things people tell about. Let’s go!

OK, enough fun and games for today. (Yeah, fun. Right.) As we all know, it’s dangerous out there. Be careful.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

Biker Quote for Today

Your attitude makes an adventure out of a difficult situation. So, its all in your head.

A BMW S1000RR I rode once.

My Concours is a sport-touring bike so it kind of qualifies as a sport-bike. For that reason and a variety of others I am a member of the Sportbikes.net forum and I recently got a notice of a thread on that forum that I thought would be worth sharing.

The question posed was, “Becoming a Better Rider – What helped you?”

Here are some of the replies.

• Safer: A bunch of mistakes etched into my memory. I do things and afterwards think “if X had happened, I would have been screwed!” Then I commit it to memory to avoid that possibility in the future. Crossing my fingers and hoping X never happens on the first time a situation arises.
• Definitely hanging out with people who were better than me. Its the same thing I’ve found with being a musician… you’ll tend to plateau after a while, but playing with some new people that force you to sharpen your skills helps a ton. This doesn’t mean squids doing stupid stuff on public roads. It means friends that actually have skill, do track days, etc.
• Crashing.

Wow? Really? I guess if you live to learn the lesson, the lesson does stick.

• MSF course – It picked out fundamental flaws in my riding.
• Track days – #1 thing I learned from trackdays is to look up. This is a valuable life lesson. Look up, it works!!!
• American Supercamp – I learned that people online preach an ideology about riding that may not be the best for me. I learned a lot just talking to real racers about riding motorcycles at Supercamp as well.
  Riding a dirtbike – Reinforced a lot of the things I learned at Supercamp, but helped me loosen up on the bike.
  Then I read a book called “Total Control,” which taught me how to be a faster/controlled rider and encouraged me to practice what I had read. Then trackdays, and hanging out with trackday junkies instead of squids.
• Track. Easiest way to learn your limits and the limits of your bike/tires. Best thing to do is to get behind someone slightly faster than you and try and keep up with them.
• Keith Code California Superbike School for me.
• Two things I think… I’m constantly experimenting with different techniques on the same road to see what works and what doesn’t. But that’s just how I learn, doesn’t work for everyone. I also only work on one thing at a time. Like at the beginning of the season I focused a lot on upper body placement, where my head should be and what my hands and arms should be doing. Then I moved on to lower body, which I struggled with a lot. Now I’m currently working on foot placement and the most effective way to move my feet when transitioning. The other thing that really helped was riding in crappy conditions. Once I learned how to relax while riding in sand my awareness improved overall.
• Wrecking also helped to make me a safer rider. It slowed me down and kept me from taking needless risks (not that I was really all that reckless before).

OK, so I get it. Crashing really can teach you a lot, as long as it doesn’t end your riding days. I don’t think anyone would recommend this approach, though. You just have to take advantage of it when the opportunity presents itself.

Here’s one more I like.

• I learned by not being too proud to seek training.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

Biker Quote for Today

The twisties – not the superslabs -separate the riders from the squids.

Hang up and drive!

I was cruising up I-225 on Sunday, in the middle lane, and came up behind a car that was going significantly slower than the rest of traffic as well as the speed limit. As I got closer I saw he was also wandering in and out of his lane.

Pulling up closer behind him I could see something in his hand up at the top of the steering wheel. When I deemed it safe I pulled around him and as I passed I looked. He had the steering wheel in his left hand and that same hand was holding his cellphone. With his right hand he was either punching in a phone number or texting or who knows what. I motioned for him to hang it up but of course he didn’t see me. He wasn’t seeing any of the other traffic around him, he was looking at his goddamn phone!

Now you might think this was some kid who didn’t know any better, but he wasn’t. This was a guy with gray hair and a salt and pepper beard. And he could not have been any more clueless. I was just glad that I was now ahead of him and on a bike that could leave him in the dust. What is wrong with these assholes?

We had this discussion a couple years ago while out on the OFMC annual trip and I found it very interesting that Bill said he was confident that he could drive safely while talking on his cellphone. Bill, of course, is one of the older guys. It was Brett, one of the younger guys, who quickly replied, “Everyone thinks other people can’t drive safely while using their cellphone but they think they can.”

Well, here’s what I say. No one has any business using their cellphone while they’re driving. No one. Not you. Not your buddy. Not me, although I can honestly say I never have because I don’t own a cellphone.

Just hang up and drive.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #26

Biker Quote for Today

When in doubt, gas it out. It may not solve the problem, but it will definitely end the suspense.

Bikers on Independence Pass.

I heard from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation today and one of the things they sent along was an article titled, “Most Common Mistakes Among Novice Riders.” It got me thinking about my own experiences in these situations.

The first thing they listed was, “Selecting a motorcycle that’s too large or heavy.” There’s no question that happens. We’ve all heard stories about someone who decided they wanted to ride and went and bought a big, heavy cruiser. And then proceeded to dump it leaving the parking lot.

My experience was a little different. I was one of those people who was inclined to buy something pretty small at first. My friend John told me if I did that I’d outgrow the thing and be back buying something bigger in six months. So I got this really sweet 1980 Honda CB750 Custom, which I still have and still ride. That was about 25 years ago. So I guess the key is to find the sweet spot, the Cinderella spot: not too big, not too small, just right.

Number two is “Getting into complex situations too soon.” Heck, for me, riding that “big” 750 was getting into too complex a situation too soon. But I was exceedingly careful and took it very, very easy for the first while. I sure didn’t ride in rush-hour traffic any time soon. So I think I did what the MSF is saying.

Next is “Failing to maintain a 360-degree mental picture of traffic.” I’m sure I was guilty of that a lot at first. But you don’t ride for long without learning that you have to be on your toes at all times. I think my first scare was one day going north on Federal around sundown when a woman headed west, wanting to turn south, pulled right out in front of me. I hadn’t paid her any attention at all. After it happened I realized that she had the setting sun right in her eyes and she was essentially driving blind. I definitely learned from that one.

Fourth is, “Overestimating one’s own visibility.” Well, that same situation applies to this as well. I figured it was daylight and I was in the middle of a major street. How could anyone not see me? I hadn’t learned yet that I was actually invisible.

And the final one is, “Carrying passengers or participating in a group ride too soon.” I can definitely relate to this one. It was awhile after I started riding before I felt confident enough to take anyone for a ride, but even at that point I wasn’t really comfortable. It wasn’t until we took our first summer road trip and I spent a week in the saddle with a load on behind me that I really felt good about it. From that time on I finally felt I was ready to carry passengers.

So anyway, those are supposed to be five of the biggest novice errors. I’ll bet any one of us could come up with another five or more errors we made as newbies. But we got through it, didn’t we.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motorcycle safety studies continue

Biker Quote for Today

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

A clip from a video about the MSF 'naturalistic' motorcycle study.

Time passes and things slip our minds but out of view from the rest of us things do get done. In this case I’m speaking of the two different motorcycle safety studies currently under way around the U.S. One is the new version of the Hurt study that is being conducted by Oklahoma State University. I haven’t heard anything at all about that one since the guy running it, Samir Ahmed, announced that he was leaving the project, and said he had doubts that it could achieve its intent.

The other is the “naturalistic” study being conducted by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, and it is moving along on schedule.

I got an email recently from Mike Ginocchi, a guy I ran into who was interested in the OSU study. Mike is a retired accident investigator and he felt he was a natural choice to be brought on the team but the OSU guys apparently had other ideas. So he petitioned the MSF to be one of the 100 riders they would equip with tracking devices so as to observe their riding behavior, particularly when it comes to getting into or avoiding crashes. The MSF was interested, so every time he rides now he is being recorded.

A local TV station thought this was pretty interesting so they did a piece on him and the study. You can go watch it here and see just what it’s all about. I agree with the TV staion–it’s pretty interesting.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Lojack announces top five motorcycle recoveries for 2012

Biker Quote for Today

Everyone I know predicted my death when I bought my bike. I say it’s done just the opposite. Even if it does kill me, it wouldn’t take too many days like today to make it worth it.

A MOST legislative hearing in 2012.

Given a reprieve last year following years of poor oversight, the Colorado MOST program’s new rules have been agreed upon and should go into force in mid-March.

MOST, or Motorcycle Operator Safety Training, provides funding to reduce the cost of motorcycle safety training for riders. That funding comes from an extra fee motorcyclists pay each year when they renew their plates, and when they renew their drivers’ licenses.

After surviving the legislative inquest regarding the poor oversight, the program was once again threatened when legislators on the relevant committee concluded they wanted to keep the fees but eliminate the trainee benefit, using the fees only to pay for other motorcycle safety efforts. That would have totally negated the purpose of the MOST program and left motorcyclists paying extra for programs that people in cars and trucks pay nothing extra for. Talk about unfair!

That challenge was faced and overcome, and now the final rules have been laid out and, according to ABATE of Colorado State Coordinator Terry Howard, they are acceptable. Howard told members at yesterday’s ABATE District 10 meeting that now it is time for members to let their legislators know they support the rules.

The process now was spelled out in an email from Emiliano Barela, of the Colorado Department of Transportation:

This email is to let you know that the rules were adopted by the Executive Director with no changes on January 14th. We have submitted them for review to the attorney general’s office today. That office has 20 days to review them, so must send us an opinion prior to Feb. 3rd. Once they send us the opinion, we file them with the Secretary of State: http://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/RegisterHome.do and they are published in the Colorado Register. We believe they will be published on Feb. 10th, and they become effective 5 weeks later, so by mid-March. Attached are the same rules you reviewed for the public rule making hearing (red-line and final draft). There are no changes (except maybe numbering corrections) since that draft. The clean version will be the official rules when they are published.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #25

Biker Quote for Today

Practice makes perfect and is just an empty parking lot away.