Respect the bike...

A very important lesson was learned today: ALWAYS respect the bike. I was travelling about 25 miles an hour on a highway when a weiner drive up quickly behind me. Nearly tailgating me, I sped up, too late realizing I was heading into a curve. Even though the posted speed limit was 30 mph around the curve, on a bike the dynamics are far different. The weiner was still behind me, too close, but I put on my brakes anyway and pressed the handlebars, as I was taught in the BMRC. My front wheel kissed the curb. The combination of braking, swerving and pressing saved me from hitting the curb. If I had not had that training, I would have certainly hit the curb and flew over the handlebars. I can see how a large majority of bike crashes are caused by high speeds into curves and the rider not being able to handle the G forces.

It angers me that some people treat motorcycles on the road with such disrespect. It's almost as if they feel it's an oversized bicycle, and that they should be able to do whatever they like. The tailgating was plain stupid, and could have resulted in a crash (which it nearly did.) Couple that with the curve, and you have the recipe for disaster. BMRC says if you are being tailgated, slow down and encourage the tailgater to pass. This guy wasn't interested. Perhaps he was showing off the the rest of his college buddies in the car with him; more likely, he was an idiot.

I went out and picked up some more seafoam as well as some antifreeze SILICANT FREE!. I drove around a bit too, but didn't go too far. Looks like rain.

I stopped into a shop called XTREME Motors, a Harley Davidson oriented scoot shop. They had a ton of mods for Harley's. Jackets, hats, boots, gloves, chaps, beanies, skull caps, and more. They also had a lot of lids, little mini helmets that aren't DOT approved, and MAN were they expensive. What's the point? I can understand wanting to feel the wind in one's hair, the freedom sans helmet. It's dangerous to look cool. However, even wearing a full helmet and body armor and travelling at 70mph, it's unlikely that someone would survive a headon collision or even a wipe-out.

Part of the fun is in the risk, I guess. Me? Speed limit or slightly under. Not that driving safely has any affect on other drivers, but it does make me feel better.