That is one of the questions in my mind each and every time I hear about another motorcycle fatality. Very often the next question that I would like answered is “Was the rider professionally trained or self taught?” “What was the rider’s experience level?” “What actions could have prevented this tragedy?” I believe that there is a quick fix to all single vehicle accidents, motorcycle or automobile. Training and responsibility.

Have you taken the motorcycle safety course? Do a quick search online and find your nearest safety program and get signed up today. Do yourself and those that love you a favor and live to ride another day as my friend Tom Lowdermilk from SideStand Up would say.

I have long thought that the Blast was a less than suitable training motorcycle. This is my opinion only, although if you asked the question to many of my colleagues you would get that same answer. There are two main reasons that I feel this way. The first lies in the single cylinder 492cc powerplant. This is too much power to put in the hands of a beginner who does not have the concept of throttle control and friction zone yet. The first reaction that a novice has when a motorcycle gets away from them is to apply a death grip to the handle bars. As we all know, in our right hand is the throttle which a death grip tends to roll on causing even more power transfer. This spells a bad day. A 125cc or 250cc motorcycle, while definitely still dangerous, is much less forgiving in the same situation.

The second reason I do not agree with the Blast as a trainer lies in the brakes. This motorcycle was produced, as best I can tell, with an entry level sportbike rider in mind. It is small because its secondary target market is made up of females. Again, my opinion. Because it is directed at the sport bike crowd it has extremely aggressive brakes. No other motorcycle class on the market can compare with the brakes on sportbikes. Low motorcycle weight paired with excellent brakes make sportbikes some of the quickest stopping bikes on the market. New riders tend to “attack” the brakes instead of reaching and squeezing the front brake lever. They also tend to stomp on the rear brake pedal instead of applying steady, even pressure. Doing either one of these can cause serious consequences, many times reason one. Panic hits, the deathgrip is applied, and we are in trouble again.

Those are my reasons. Now, back to the original question. With the demise of Buell, what will the future training bike of Rider’s Edge be? I discussed this with a RE provider and the answer I got is this. The government requires that manufacturers who cease production on a product continue to provide repair parts for a period of seven years. The RE program was also granted permission to use used motorcycles that they take in on trade provided they fully inspect them. This was prohibited in the original rules of the program. So, RE will continue to use Buell Blasts in the near future. The most surprising piece of information that I was able to get was that the Motor Company® has told the providers that they will have a new training unit available within five years. Whether this means that HD themselves will build it or that they will contract it out remains to be answered. Whatever route they take, I hope that they address the two problems that I have noted here for the sake of their students.

Ride Safe

Speaking of leafless trees, fall brings us a special hazard. The season tends to be wet and the trees begin to shed their leaves after their beautiful change of color. As leaves fall to the ground and are saturated with the rain or dew, they become a great danger to a motorcyclist. Leaves on the road, once wet, become like a sheet of ice. Some motorcyclists that live in certain areas of the country have never had to experience this but we should all know what to do if we find ourself rounding a curve and see leaves covering the ground.

The way to handle this is the same way to handle almost any potential hazard that could be slick. First off, try to slow before reaching the hazard. Your speed should be slow enough that you can reduce or eliminate any lean angle required to continue on the path of travel. If going in a straight line all you need to do is scrub off some speed of course as you will not require lean angle anyway. Now that you have slowed and you are using very little or no lean angle, you should squeeze in your clutch and coast across the leaves. With the rear wheel not under power you have less of a chance of the wheel sliding out from under you. Once you have safely made it across the leaves ease the clutch out through the friction zone until you are back under full power. You don’t want to be quick on the clutch release as you do not know how much of that goo transferred to your tire. When the clutch is fully out, pick up your speed slowly and enjoy the rest of the ride.

Everybody ride safe out there and don’t forget that this is a good time of the year to experience deer and other animals. Keep your eyes open and Search, Evaluate, and Execute.

Steve

That is right. You, me, your spouse, your neighbor we are all invisible. Some people seem to have a problem picking up on a motorcycle traveling down the road. I find it hard to believe that someone can not see me, all 245 pounds of me, on a 650 pound motorcycle with a bright headlight traveling towards the intersection that they are getting ready to enter right in front of me forcing me to take evasive actions. Yet no less than three times the past two weeks I have found myself in this situation. I guess I am invisible. Are you?

This is just a reminder to you that you should make sure you perform your pre ride checks. wear bright colored and reflective clothing, and pay attention to the cars on the road. Taking all the precautions does not insure your safety though. After all, once you get past the texters, talkers, and make up artists you still have the blind drivers that make you invisible.

Ride Safe

Saturday begins the Miracle Ride with six Poker runs that leave various dealers across the state. The final stop for each poker run is a location somewhere in Indianapolis. If the riders from the farthest Poker Run origin point were to go straight to Indy without hitting the stops to pick up their cards it could take them 2-1/2 to 3 hours. So, some of these people put in some serious hours on the way to the capitol. The Poker Runs are a large part of the fundraiser and this year was no exception. The preliminary figure that were announced Sunday morning during staging for the organized ride was $220,000 just for the Poker Runs. For the eleventh year, Harley Davidson of Bloomington won the award for the most money raised on the run. They set a new record in ‘09 with $75,000 raised. Congratulations Owners Jeff and Carol Stevens and General Manager Jim Markham.

Sunday brings all the Poker Run participants along with those who just want to do the Sunday police escorted ride to the registration point which changed this year to Lucas Oil Stadium. During registration and staging there are some festivities going on such as Bob and Tom from the nationally syndicated radio program, The Bob & Tom Show, usually get up and get people laughing. The Indianapolis Colts offensive line usually gets up on stage too to tell people why they enjoy leading this ride. By the way, they left their bikes at home this year and Victory motorcycles brought out some of their models and let the guys ride those. And we also get a show from the Indianapolis Metro Police Motorcycle Drill Team.

Most people come to this ride for one reason. To help the kids. The ride kicks off and leaves the registration point and always makes its way over to Riley Hospital where some of the children line the sidewalk and watch all the bikes go by. From past experience it is very moving and tough to go through with dry eyes. From there, it continues through the streets of near downtown Indy to the world famous 16th Street, the same street that holds the Yard of Bricks. For those who wore a helmet there is a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track. Some people come for this. It is fun and you don’t realize how much banking there really is on that track. After leaving the track they reach the end of the ride where there is entertainment, food, raffles, silent auctions, and four or five motorcycle giveaways. Yes, four or five.

Early figures for 2009 indicate that the ride raised around $375,000 for the kids. If you ever thought about traveling and hitting a charity ride, come on over to the Hoosier State and join us on the Miracle Ride. Tell them the Motorcycle Nation Podcast sent you. You won’t be sorry.

Ride safe and ride with a purpose.

I hit a deer in September of 2004 on my Softail. I popped around a downhill blind curve and started down a short straight stretch and it was as if someone dropped him at the side of the road. I had little time to react so I applied max braking and scrubbed off some speed before seeing the inevitable. I dropped my left shoulder and went for the ride. I can still hear the sound of my helmet grinding down the asphalt. Whew, what a ride. More on that at a later date maybe. The funny thing that non motorcyclists asked me was, “Why didn’t you swerve?” well Sherlock, tell me which way he was going to go! How many times have you seen a deer decide to wheel around and run the opposite direction? I could not predict anything in that short period of time.

Anyway, back to the other critters. I have encountered a critter in the past weeks that I have never encountered before while on my motorcycle. It started with the Michigan road trip and I saw another yesterday on my way to lunch. I am talking about turtles. On the Michigan ride we saw about five turtles and then the one yesterday made it six for me. I am a little surprised to be honest with you. Anyone been noticing a rash of turtles on your rides? Anyone know someone who has hit one?

What is the feared critter in your neck of the woods? Leave some feedback. All I can say is thank goodness I don’t live in alligator country! I will take the deer any day.

Ride Safe and watch out for those critters!

The weekend was actually quite nice for an early April weekend. Friday night, which is four hours of classroom, was warm and brought in nice weather for Saturday. Saturday started out cold, about 35 degrees, so the ride in was chilly but by the time noon time rolled around we were down to t-shirts while teaching on the range. It was in the low 60’s and sunny and I managed to get my first raccoon face of the season and a pretty tender noggin. I felt that very well on Sunday morning when I pulled the razor across my head.

So, back to the class. Twenty-four people showed up to take the class. Some had experience and others did not. I had one person on my range pop the clutch and and hit the ground. Other than that it was a perfect training day. We even went to our last minute that we are allowed to train so that we could attempt to beat the weather that was predicted for Sunday.

Sunday morning was another awesome training day. We had two people decide that motorcycling was not for them and decided to stay home so they automatically failed. We also had one crash during training. If you have taken the course you all remember swerving around the bus I am sure. Yep, you guessed it. A handful of front brake during a swerve will introduce you to Mr. Asphalt. That was on the other range. Funny how the sound of a motorcycle sliding down range gets your attention.

The final crash of the weekend happened on my range and actually happened during the riding evaluation. Now, I would really like to see comments about this question. The curriculum allows for people to have two chances on the riding eval. I find this to be ludicrous. I totally do not agree with this and want to know what you think. Who will be the first to comment? Anyway, we had a gentleman score 28 on his first attempt on the eval. Again, you grads know that 21 or over is a failing score. So, on his second attempt he approaches the stopping area, which he was told to hold steady at 15 mph, at about 30.

My fellow instructor and I are cringing already knowing what is to come next. Yep, the front tire crosses the timing line and it is a fistful of front brake. Ouch. Automatic failure. So, 21 out of 24 make it through the first Indy Downtown class of the season. Congrats to them. Hope they continue to practice. Good class, the weather was dodged, and this one hits the books. Oh, yeah, a not so happy ending for me. After the paperwork was done and we, the instructors, were getting ready to leave the rain came down so fast and furious that the range flooded. We got to ride home in that. But, we got to ride which is all that matters.

Ride Safe

Websites or contact numbers mentioned during the podcast:
Motorcycle Riders Foundation http://mrf.org
ABATE of Indiana http://abateonline.org 800-23ABATE
Texas Department of Transportation http://txdot.gov
Roadhazard.org http://roadhazard.org
Canada Safety Council http://motorcycling.ca
Cycle Outfitters 317-783-2901

Check back for a blog post soon!

Steve “Bullitt” McQueen
Motorcycle Nation Podcast

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