Passes & Canyons Blog

The most common words spoken by drivers who hit motorcyclists are, “I didn’t see him.” For a lot of riders, those words are unacceptable.

I’m sorry to say, however, they are often true. So like it or not, we who ride have to adjust to that fact in order to ensure our own safety.

My friend John is one of those who argue that any driver who hits a motorcyclist and claims “I didn’t see him” needs to go to jail. I agree that if the failure to see has to do with the driver paying attention to their cell phone or anything else other than driving, serious consequences are in order.

But that’s not always the case. I’ve told here previously of the time, many years ago, when I was in a car waiting to make a left turn off a main street. As I started to turn my passenger yelled at me to stop, and I did just in time not to hit a motorcyclist coming the other way. I didn’t see him. And I wasn’t doing anything other than driving. I just didn’t see him.

Well, it happened again now, just a week ago. It would take too many words to explain the streets so just look at the map. A guy on my block rides a Ducati. I left the house in my car and was at the end of the block intending to take a left turn to get out of the neighborhood. I looked left and right and started to pull out.

As I pulled out I saw–only then–that the guy on the Ducati was coming up the street. Now, he wasn’t going fast because he had just turned onto that street, and he was going to turn right anyway, so no harm was done. But the fact is, that Ducati has such a narrow profile when you look at it head on, that it’s a lot easier not to see than some big bagger with all the gear.

Studies have shown that motorcyclists and family members of motorcyclists are far more attuned to the presence of motorcycles on the streets, and thus are far less likely to get in crashes with them than the general populace. And yet here I am, a rider with many years on the bike, and I still did not see this guy. Needless to say, I found this very disturbing. I just did not see him. How could that be?

The bottom line on how it could be, however, is that it is. And that’s why we have to be responsible for our own safety. We have to ride as if we are invisible, always anticipating the stupid moves that those idiot cagers might pull–even if on some occasions the idiot cagers are also riders themselves.

I’m not making excuses, but every single one of us makes a mistake now and then. And it doesn’t matter to your shattered skull that your crash was due to some other guy’s mistake. We are responsible for our own safety. Accept that fact and act upon it and you’ll greatly enhance your chances of riding safely for many years to come.

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Anticipate!-most “accidents” are predictable, and avoidable.

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) sent out a release the other day that will make you just shake your head. They tell about a recent meeting with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) where the gap between the motorcyclists and the safety bureaucrats could not have been wider.

Rather than paraphrase it all I’ll just quote from the release:

The government safety group continues to deny that the recent drop in motorcycle fatalities could have anything to do with education and awareness, instead maintaining that that the decrease was a result of people riding less. However, the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) reported that during the same time period, 2008-2009, vehicle miles traveled for motorcycles were up 6.8% or 27.6 billion miles in the U.S. The MIC also reported that tire sales, a unique measure of motorcycle use, were also up 9.6% in 2008-2009.

NHTSA also continued to defend their discriminatory practice of funding motorcycle-only roadside checkpoints, including their recent $40,000 award to Georgia’s Department of Public Safety. The idea is based on no science or research, but simply the notion that pulling every motorcycle off the road at the discretion of law enforcement will “save lives.”

Another interesting note in this broadly focused release is information on how the incoming Republican Congressional leadership relates to the motorcycling community. The MRF says that John Boehner (R-OH), who will be the next Speaker of the House, “has been a long-time friend of the MRF and ABATE of Ohio, and we look forward to continuing working with him in his new role.”

The MRF also notes that “The new chair of the powerful U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) will be John Mica (R-FL). Representative Mica has been a constant supporter of the MRF and all of our initiatives, as well as a very staunch advocate for ABATE of Florida.”

That bit about Boehner puts an interesting perspective on things. I know that for far-left Democrats, Boehner is seen as really evil. And yet if you’re a motorcyclist you have to think that maybe there’s more to him than just “evil.” It goes both ways, of course. Far-right Republicans also seem to see certain Democrats as pure evil. Gosh, maybe that’s not really true.

You’ll notice I used the terms “far-left” and “far-right” rather than just “Democrats” or “Republicans.” That’s to make the point that most Americans are much closer to the middle than to the extremes, regardless of which party they’re affiliated with.

Excuse the political interjection into what is normally a motorcycle-focused blog, but just this morning I’ve been watching online the launch of an organization called No Labels, website www.NoLabels.org. The group’s basis is in pushing elected officials of both parties to put aside partisan bickering and do what’s right for the country. Wow, what a concept.

I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll stop demonizing your guy if you’ll stop demonizing mine. And then let’s both push them to get things done to get this country moving again, even if it means compromising with each other.

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Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today. –James Dean

Every now and then I dip into this well. The original question posted on the Adventure Riders forum was “What is the strangest thing you hit/almost hit?” Here are some more of the replies.

After some of the stories here I hardly feel like my skunk kills are worth mentioning, but it is important to note that if you hit them square in the head with your front tire your bike hardly moves and they die before they can spray you.
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Hit a porcupine last weekend, was fun fixing 2 flat tires on the side of the road. Used every bit of my patch kit. 11 punctures in two tires. Spent most the time pulling quills out of the tires. Porcupine walked away.
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I cut a poodle in half. No BS. I was going through the gears on a sidestreet when a poodle ran out to attack me. I was clicking into 5th on my RD400. I thought I would run it over and crash, but it just split right in two. I must have hit it just right! I felt a little bad, but there was nothing I could do.
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A railroad tie… In the middle of I-30 coming out of Texas. Totaled a full dress HD and didn’t do wife and I any good either. Superslab at 75mph is more fun to ride than slide…
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Blastin’ the Mississippi back roads on a GSXR 1000, exiting a blind sweeper at about 110, only to find an old lady on a riding lawn mower leading a goat down the middle of the blacktop. No time to brake, made the pass with at least an inch to spare.
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Riding down a country road in Southern Maryland, a bird flies out of the bushes and right into my front (spoked) wheel while I’m doing about 60. Made a sound like shuffling cards and burst into a cloud of feathers.
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Great Words of Wisdom….Don’t follow closely to a full cattle truck…and pass way wide …came up on a slow one and just I went for the pass, I swear every cow in the upper deck took a piss…and they say that smells like money.
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A 1/2″ sheet of ice as wide and long as the trailer roof on a tractor trailer. Truck is in the on ramp, sumpin told me to move to the far left of three lanes. I see the ice lift up and glide/hoover down. It hit the center lane and broke up into three or four spinning sheets, which broke up into ten or twelve spinning sheets. By the time I rode through it in the far left lane it was about 100 spinning chunks of ice.
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A box of intravenous fluids flew off the back of a truck on the highway. A box of 12, each bag 1L = 12kg at speed. I ducked to let it pass over my right shoulder. How ironic would it be to get hit by an infusion bag!
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1992 kid shot a skateboard out into the street just as I went by. I hit it, and down I went. Man was I pissed.

OK, that’s all for now. I’ll end with this bit of wisdom offered on the thread: Rule of thumb is if it’s small enough to eat in one sitting you can pretty much hit it without worrying….haven’t tested that, heard it from an MSF dude.

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If you break your visor you know its a good crash — Danny Laporte

I got a note this morning from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, announcing that their “resident doctor of best riding practices” is now posting a Tip of the Day on the MSF website as well as on Twitter.

The resident doctor would be Dr. Ray Ochs, director of training systems for MSF.

Here’s what the MSF has to say about Dr. Ray.

Dr. Raymond J. Ochs, director of training systems for MSF, offers MSF’s followers on Twitter (msf__usa) and MSF website visitors (www.msf-usa.org) knowledge taken from 47 years of experience and decades of research in motorcycle safety to help keep them safe 365 days a year.

From big-picture views on mental preparation and basic riding techniques to detailed suggestions on issues such as night visibility and helmet fitting, “Dr. Ray’s Tip of the Day” will cover a range of topics. Ochs believes that the short, simple statements posted each day will benefit all riders, especially those who have never taken a safety course. However, they are no substitute for proper training such as MSF’s RiderCourseSM series.

“When it comes to motorcycling, it’s best to be a lifelong learner,” said Ochs. “Every rider can benefit from expanding their knowledge or being reminded of practical riding techniques and safety precautions, no matter their skill level. As we say here at MSF, the more you know the better it gets.”

With a doctorate in educational psychology and a master’s degree in health and safety, including more than 35 years of experience in education, training, and leadership functions, Ochs became an MSF-certified instructor in 1973 and a chief instructor in 1980. He has conducted motorcycle safety training programs and presented papers and presentations on safe riding throughout the U.S., Germany and Japan.

And what sorts of tips is he offering? Well, here are a couple of the first ones.

All the levers and pedals should be adjusted so they’re easy to reach and operate.

Sportbike riders: Get used to holding yourself up with your core muscles and legs, gripping the tank with your thighs. This takes the pressure off the handlebars.

If you want more of Dr. Ray you now know where to find him.

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Calling on all my noob skills, I froze at the controls.

For months now there has been some question as to whether the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) would or would not fund the motorcycle crash study to be conducted by Oklahoma State University (OSU) researcher Dr. Samir Ahmed. After an initial rejection, the MSF board did reconsider but ultimately decided to stick by its original decision.

Apparently a big part of the reasoning for that is that the MSF was deep into negotiations with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to conduct a very different, “naturalistic,” motorcycle safety study. That study was announced yesterday. Whereas the OSU project will place cameras and sensors in specific locations to record accidents that occur there, the VTTI study will mount those cameras and sensors on specific motorcycles and track what happens. Presumably, for the study to be really effective, someone is going to need to crash with all that gear on their bike.

Or, maybe I’m wrong about that. VTTI will be tracking the riders whether they crash or not, and presumably will be developing some relevant data even if they don’t crash. Not sure; I’ll be talking with MSF President Tim Buche tomorrow so I’ll need to ask him about it.

In the meantime, Dr. Ahmed has $3 million from the feds to proceed with his study and he intends to do so. When I spoke to him yesterday after hearing about the VTTI study he said he and his team are ready to go as soon as they get the last details ironed out. They expect to start collecting data in May.

Ahmed was also very outspoken in his anger at the MSF and Tim Buche. He feels the MSF jerked him around, claiming that they would not fund his study because it wouldn’t investigate enough crashes to develop statistically valid data, when in fact they already were planning to spend their money elsewhere. That’s another thing I intend to ask Buche about tomorrow.

I’ll let you know what I find out.

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Biking skillz or Hospital billz

At the risk of raising a lot of people’s hackles I’m going to come right out and say that I don’t necessarily go along with the slogan, “Loud pipes save lives.” That said, I have to admit I was in a situation yesterday where I really feel that if I had had loud pipes, the guy who had no clue I was in the lane he wanted to be in might indeed have had a clue. I’ll describe the situation.

I was on I-225 coming past an interchange and there were a number of cars getting on the highway. I was in the left lane and they filed on in the right lane. It was a no-brainer that at least a couple of them were going to want to move over into the left lane. So as I passed each one I was extremely attentive to their movements.

Sure enough, just as I knew I was moving into this one guy’s blind spot I saw him take a look at his mirror. “Here he comes,” I said to myself. I immediately moved further left and goosed the throttle so I was quickly in a position where he couldn’t help but see me, and he swerved back into his own lane.

I really do believe that if I had been on some loud, rumbling machine he very probably would have heard me and done a head check when he didn’t see me in his mirror.

My point, however, is that quiet pipes did not cost a life in this situation, defensive driving saved a life. Loud pipes were not necessary.

I have a friend, Jungle Fuhrman, who insists that if you have an accident you screwed up. Period. It doesn’t matter if the other guy was very much at fault, it’s your skin and you have a responsibility to anticipate any and all stupidities of the idiots out there. If you have an accident, you didn’t do your job. No, they didn’t do theirs either, but you’re the one dead or broken.

So maybe, just maybe, loud pipes are in reality a lazy man’s approach to defensive driving. But if so, that’s false security. There’s no substitute for the real thing.

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AGTATT doesn’t mean much if you get run over by 60,000 pounds of truck and cargo.

I’ve discussed previously the statistical analysis Dr. Samir Ahmed conducted to determine how many crashes would need to be studied to produce a solid motorcycle crash study. I had also passed along the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s (MSF) response to my question about whether the analysis sways their thinking at all on providing the funds they have raised to conduct the study. That response was a bit brief and not totally clear, in my opinion, so I sent some follow-up questions. Here are the question I asked.

When I spoke with Tim Buche he told me that the MSF was open to new information and that once Dr. Ahmed had completed his statistical analysis that information would be presented to the board for consideration. Any decision to revise the previous decision would “depend on the quality of the work and the rationale.”

First, has the MSF board taken a look at Dr. Samir’s analysis? And considering your statement to me, does this mean the board questions the quality of the work and/or the rationale? If that is the case, can you tell me what it is about the quality of the work or the rationale that you find lacking?

Or is this still under consideration at this time, with the MSF simply not ready yet to make any statement in regard to the statistical analysis?

Well, I got a response and it was not very helpful, but it does seem to say that the MSF is unmoved and will not be opening its wallet for this study. Here’s the response.

Unfortunately, at this time the Motorcycle Safety Foundation has nothing additional to add beyond the statement we sent to you Monday, the information obtained during your interview with Tim Buche, and our original position paper.

That sounds pretty final. I guess we’ll get the best study $3 million will pay for, rather than a better study for $6 million to $7 million. I personally question the MSF’s decision but I’m sure they have their reasons. I’d just like a better idea what those reasons are, but they’re a private organization and don’t have to tell us.

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Drop, Fall, and Down are 4-letter words

A statistical analysis appears to show that a new motorcycle crash study can produce statistically valid results even if the number of crashes studied is fewer than 900. That figure is important because about half the money earmarked for the study has been withheld by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) because that organization’s board stated previously that it does not believe a study of fewer than 900 crashes can be adequate.

So now that Dr. Samir Ahmed, of Oklahoma State University, the head researcher on the project, has completed this analysis the obvious question is whether the MSF will change its mind. The initial response appears to be no.

The MSF sent me this response today in answer to my question about whether the board would be reconsidering its prior decision:

The MSF has not learned anything new that changes its position on this study because it still will not provide sufficient statistical significance of the OECD identified study variables. The study also will not produce results, in our estimation, that can be reliably correlated with studies in other countries, which is important to our multi-national member companies.

Because the response was so brief I emailed the MSF asking some follow-up questions, such as whether this statement comes after looking at Dr. Samir’s data and rejecting his conclusion, or whether the MSF board is still considering the data and is not yet ready to comment. I’ll let you know what I find.

Without the money pledged by MSF members and members of the Motorcycle Industry Council, the study can only afford to study 300 crashes. Dr. Ahmed intends to proceed with the study to whatever extent funding allows.

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It takes 12 HP to ride around the world–the rest is wheelspin.