Learning to ride

Comfort on a Sportsbike

2008-06-04T06:19:00.002+08:00

Now that i have no bike....

2008-05-25T12:41:00.002+08:00

....I keep bloody looking at them.

Attributes my next bike has to have:

Comfortable riding position - i'm thinking a streetfighter, naked bike of some sort
Comfortable for pillion on commuting distances. Gotta start pillioning one day!
Cost under 10K

The Street Triple of my dreams would fit points 1 and 2, but not 3 at this point (not enough second hand ones around).

I saw this GSR600 on Bikepoint. Fits all my criteria!

More about the GSR600 here

The whole problem is, i'm not in a position to buy a bike at this point in time. But it looks like these kind of bikes always come and go, so i'll have options when i'm ready to buy again.

Gone

2008-05-23T03:08:00.000+08:00

I sold my yellow beast today.

:(

Bata Motor Sandal

2008-05-20T05:58:00.002+08:00

When i was young, you said "Bata" and people thought "school shoes."

It looks like they've evolved into other sorts of footwear, including the Motor Sandal.

The perfect compromise between exposure and protection for summer?

Back on the bike

2008-05-20T05:21:00.004+08:00

Had a nasty chest infection that took a month to go away, which means it's been 4 weeks since i've been back on the bike due to some bad chest pain.

Saturday morning i gave the bike a clean, did tyres and all the other usual fluid etc checks, and took her for a ride. Nothing had changed. I hadn't forgotten how to ride. My wrists haven't forgotten they don't like more than 20 mins of riding either :(

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I put the bike up for sale in the Quokka. I am both hoping and not hoping that someone bites.

If they do, i'll be richer and free to look around for a naked bike. There is/have been a couple for sale on the forum that have made my mouth water.

But at the same time, i wouldn't be getting a bike for a good long while if i did sell this one.

One week. If i get no interest in one week, i'm keeping her.

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I don't own riding boots. Have been riding in hiking boots for the last year and a half, as they are the hardiest footwear i own. Lately i've been taking to wearing my wedding photographer shoes (black, flat soled men's laceups) to work as they're good to walk in.

Yesterday i rode to work in them, and what i've been watching so carefully out for, happened. The laces of these shoes, which are generous, got caught on the gear peg!

I got a shock when i lifted my leg away from the peg and couldn't. Luckily for me, only the loop of the lace had gotten caught around the peg so i could shake it free. It could have been majorly stuck, or worse, gotten caught in the chain.

It was a good warning anyhow. Need to work on shortening those laces and sticking them inside the shoe, or get some riding boots if i end up keeping the little yellow beastie.

Winter coming

2008-04-22T16:47:00.006+08:00

It's been a long while since i last posted. My attention has been taken up elsewhere, with travel and making a little bit of money out of my other obsession.

Had i not run away to India in March, i would probably have another bike by now, as that wasn't a cheap trip by any standard. Still, it did put a few things into perspective bike wise.

There is little point in me getting a big bike at this stage, what with fuel prices sky rocketing. But the primary reason: I don't do anything with my bike other than commute from work to home. Considering i don't live very far away from work at the moment (10 - 15 mins each way), there isn't even the excuse of distance comfort i could give for needing a different bike.

I would gladly swap the GTR for a naked bike right around now though. Wrists are not happy. Why oh why did i not get a VTR/GT250. Oh right, the GTR is/was way too purdy to ignore.

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Winter is suddenly approaching, from a hot summer. It was 6 degrees when i woke up yesterday, which was enough call to bust out my scarf (i really, really should front up to a bike shop and get myself a neck sock) and zip the winter lining back into the jacket.

It always feels funny on the first ride with winter gear in. I feel much like a stuffed toy trying to operate a tractor.

All through summer i've been working on controlled cornering when possible, lower when slower. All of a sudden i'm back to cornering more upright because my armpits are all puffy and i feel bigger than i actually am.

I'm sure it won't last any more than a couple of days, but for the moment i'm just going to feel like a dork.

-

Another thing about the morning dampness in winter. I've been down with the flu for the last week or so, accompanied by a bad cough.

Coughing in helmet means fogging up visor AND glasses. By god but that's annoying!

Awesome ads

2008-04-22T16:43:00.002+08:00

By Kawasaki:

Classic. It made me laugh so much i couldn't breathe. Nothing better than watching great bike ads when one is at home with the flu!

And they should just extend this R1 and make a movie out of it:

Celebrity Motorcycling

2008-01-31T05:47:00.000+08:00

Australian Road Rider posted a story about Executive Motorcycling some time ago:

There are more and more motorcyclists genuinely not short of a quid and who appreciate value for money before cheapness. Unfortunately, like many minorities, they find that few magazine articles or product reviews cater to them. Well, we’re going to change that!

Once a year, from now on, we’re going to bring you a feature about the Big End of Bike Town, the things you would buy or do if only you had the money (or could get your loving partner to untie the purse strings). Not that we’re looking at this stuff just because it’s expensive; you don’t get to be well off in the first place by spending more than necessary to get what you want!

Right! So let’s look at executive motorcycling, the feature designed to inform you when commuting is a choice between taking the bike or the Benz. Read it, all ye other scrooges (yes, me, too) and weep…

The image accompanying their maiden article was of course, the F4 CC MV Agusta. At about AUD$180,000 it's presently the world's most expensive (road going) motorcycle.

Puts into perspective, Tom Cruise is plonking down some pocket change for the Ducati Desmosedici RR this week - and is the first in the world to get it too:

"Top Gun" Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle - a $72,500 motorcycle bristling with titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber technology that can scoot up to 200mph.
Cruise is scheduled to take delivery of the Desmosedici RR at Beverly Hills Ducati this week.
Although Cruise rode a Kawasaki Ninja 900 in his iconic scene in "Top Gun," he'll get the first of only 1,500 of the red-and-white Moto GP racing replica motorcycles being made.
Cruise, whose net worth is upwards of $250 million, is known to have an affinity for fast vehicles, including motorcycles, Porsches and planes. Some estimate the actor spent $1 million in 2006 on fuel alone.

Full Article here

A million buckaroonies on fuel! He could buy me a Street Triple without realising he'd just put a $13K dent in his emergency coffee tin stash...

Accident Scene Management

2008-01-27T08:48:00.000+08:00

Someone posted this on the PerthRiders forum. Forum members can get to the original post here, but i thought it was worthwhile reproducing.

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The first hour of trauma is termed the "Golden Hour'' by the Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The idea is that trauma victims have the best survival chance if they are in surgery within one hour after the accident. Qualified medical personnel are really the people who should be handling everything, but until they arrive there are things that we, untrained motorcyclists, can do to help the medical professionals before they arrive.

An extremely important point is "Psychological Management''. At an accident site, peoples' adrenaline will be going full-blast and the most important thing is for at least one person to keep calm and to think.

REMAIN CALM... THINK!

The first thing you need to do when arriving on an accident scene is to stop, take two deep breaths to help you remain calm.

Anyway, the idea of psychological management is that all the other people who are pumped and want to help will do whatever they are told to do by a calm person who seems to be in control and knows what he or she is doing. If you're excited and out of control as well, everyone will run around wasting precious time in an unorganized fashion (not to be confused with everyone running around wasting precious time in an organized fashion, mind you).

1) Get to victim, reassure, establish communication, first evaluation of victim
2) Safety factors
3) Best-trained individual (medically-wise) attends to victim (U-ABCC)
4) If breathing is taking place normally, LEAVE HELMET ON!
4a) helmet removal procedure if airway blocked or no respiratory action.
5) After initial evaluation of seriousness of injuries, call for ambulance
5a) Things to tell EMS operator
5b) Things that may be necessary for victim
6) Document personal information if possible (victim may pass out)
6a) AMPLE documentation
7) Wallets, purses, rings
8) Have person check pulse every 5 minutes & document it
8a) Have person check breathing every 5 minutes & document it
9) Watch for signs of person going into shock
10) Stop bleeding, using sterile bandages/dressings if available
11) In case of femur injuries (extremely common in moto accidents), check for blood loss
12) When ambulance arrives
13) At the hospital
14) Dealing with law enforcement
15) Thank yous
16) Couple of miscellaneous notes
17) Four most important points to remember

1) Get to victim, reassure, establish communication, first evaluation of victim

After a person has gone down, they will be in a confused and scared state. They probably don't know what happened when they went down. They may be confused, frantic, etc., and often the only thing on their mind will be their bike. It is important to reassure them and to make sure they will not try to move or get to their bike. You can tell them the following:

"You've been in a motorcycle accident. It is important that you do not try to move. My name is Jason (whatever your name is).''

Tell them the ambulance is coming (assuming someone has been sent to get one!) If your name is something like "Chainsaw'' or "Mega-death'', tell them your name is John.

Be careful what you say around the victim, even if they are unconscious. Hearing works in the unconscious state and if you say something like, "Boy, is this dude messed up bad! Maybe we shouldn't call an ambulance after all!'', it's going to register at some level with the person and can
do nothing but harm. How you say things will be important as what you say; keep (or at least sound) calm and it will reduce the panic of everyone else present.

2) Safety factors

An accident scene can be a hectic place with a lot of things going on at once. It is important to keep safety in mind; if you are helping someone lying in the middle of the road and a semi comes barrelling down on both of you, you aren't going to do that person much good.

a) Traffic If people are available, get someone uproad and downroad to wave down traffic. This is especially important in tight twisties where they may not have time to stop after seeing the accident site.

b) Hazardous material spills (gas, oil, brake fluid) People and vehicles will slip on this stuff. If ambulance personnel slip on oil while carrying the victim, it is bad. Either clean it off the road or indicate to everyone where it is.

c) Power lines If power lines are down around or near the victim, ambulance crews may not be able to get near the person until they are shut off. It is important to call the local utility company to get these live wires turned off at the same time an ambulance is called. If the ambulance arrives and they are still live, they will have to call the utility company and wait for them to come out, wasting a lot of precious time in the Golden Hour.

d) Fire People who smoke tend to light up under stress. Ask these people to either extinguish their smokes or move away from the flammable materials and/or bikes. It is easy to forget something obvious like this in a stressful situation like an accident scene.

e) Safety circle Establish a few people around the immediate accident scene to help direct traffic, to point out fluid spills, and to warn people who may want to light up (see (d)).

3) Best-trained individual (medically-wise) attends to victim (U-ABCC)

The person with the most training (first aid, CPR, etc.) attends directly to the victim. Assuming the victim is lying on the ground, this person should sit behind their head and should stabilize his or her head to avoid unnecessary movement (i.e. hold their head still). Assume the person has a back/neck injury and any unnecessary movement could risk paralysis.

This person should be doing "U-ABCC'' at the arrival on the scene and every 5 minutes thereafter:

U Unresponsiveness (?) Ask the victim three questions and document their responses;

Who are you? Where are you? What time of day is it? (Or asking what day of
week it is would be fine also. Many people do not know what time of day it
is without a watch even in a normal state.)

A Airway Is there something to impede their airway? Gravel in the helmet,
something down the throat? This needs to be cleared immediately, without
helmet removal if at all possible.

B Breathing Is the person breathing? Determined by listening, watching
their chest, feeling for breath, etc.

C Circulation Check the pulse on the throat initially and subsequently on
their wrist. This is the carotid artery, right next to the wind pipe/adam's
apple on either side. If pulse is not present, remove helmet if necessary
and begin CPR immediately. When checking pulse on their wrist, do not check
with thumb; use the two fingers next to the thumb.

C Cervical Spine Immobilization Support the victim's head and make sure
they don't move it. CONSIDER EVERY MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT A HEAD INJURY, CONSIDER EVERY MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT A CERVICAL/BACK INJURY! This is important even if they feel they can move their head normally! When you talk to the victim initially, add on a short bit to reassure them;

"You've been in a motorcycle accident. It is important that you don't move. My name is Jason. Answer me without moving your head. We don't know if you have a neck injury or not. An ambulance is on the way.''

Again, make sure that the victim does not move at all, their head or any other part.

4) If breathing is taking place normally, LEAVE HELMET ON!

It is very dangerous to remove someone's helmet if they have some type of cervical/back injury. The only time it should be removed is if the airway is blocked and cannot be cleared with the helmet on or if it is necessary to perform CPR.

4a) helmet removal procedure if airway blocked or no respiratory action.

This is the method recommended by the American College of Orthopedic Surgeons. It requires two people.

Remove glasses and unbuckle the chinstrap. One person should be to the side of the head of the victim and the other person should be directly behind the head of the victim, stabilizing the head to avoid excess movement (as seen in (3)).

The person on the side puts one hand behind the victim's head supporting at the base of the skull (not on helmet). They put their other hand on the jaw bone/chin (again, not on helmet). They will be supporting the head, so it is important to get a good solid grip. Keep some tension in the arms so that if the person pulling the helmet slips the victim's head won't drop.

The person sitting behind the head will then slowly pull the helmet directly back and off of the head. Watch out for catching the nose on the chin-guard on full-face helmets, as well as ears and earrings.

After the helmet is off, put a leather jacket or something under the head of the victim! If the person supporting their head lets go, their head will drop a good 4 inches or so. This would not be good. If possible, it would be best to have a third person ready with something to place under the victim's head once the helmet is off.

After the helmet is off, the person behind the head should again hold the victim's head to promote cervical immobilization.

AGAIN, THIS IS ONLY TO BE USED IN SITUATIONS WHERE THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION! Leave the helmet on until the ambulance personnel arrive if at all possible!

5) After initial evaluation of seriousness of injuries, call for ambulance

After there has been a quick evaluation of the number of injured people and just the most preliminary guess of seriousness, someone has to be sent to get an ambulance. Remember that an ambulance can only support one truly injured person.

It is important to remember that a lot of the injuries that don't look serious to us could very well be life-threatening and injuries that look fatal are relatively minor. Don't get fancy with the initial seriousness evaluation. If you can't tell, assume it's Urgent!

Send one or two bikes to the nearest house.

When you go to the door, REMAIN CALM... THINK! Take a second and a couple of deep breaths. It will not help to have this biker person in a very excited state on the doorstep of some person's home. The people will be far more receptive to someone who looks like they have a grip on themselves.

Do not ask directly for entry into their house; something like "There has been an accident. Please call 911.'' There is no need to specify that it was a motorcycle accident to them (it is important to let the Emergency Medical Services dispatcher know that it was a motorcycle accident, however). It is less threatening to ask to call 911 than it is to ask to come in and use their phone.

5a) Things to tell Emergency Medical Services dispatcher

General tips/things to cover when talking to the EMS dispatcher:

there has been a motorcycle accident
need an ambulance
the # of injured people (and how badly injured they are). A severely traumatized person will require an entire ambulance to themselves, so it is important to give the EMS dispatcher some idea of the scope of the accident. If they only send one ambulance and there are two people who need one immediately, it will be a problem.
location of accident (get help from the people whose phone you're using, they should know how to describe their location best)

You (the caller) hangs up last! The EMS dispatchers are well-trained and will get all the information they need from you before hanging up. Stay on the line until they do.

5b) Things that may be necessary for victim

It is helpful if you know some special equipment is going to be necessary
to tell the dispatcher;

a) Helicopter: Most rural areas cannot handle severe trauma and they may need to get the victim to a trauma center via helicopter. If they know there may be a need, they can get the helicopter ready to leave for the rural hospital when a doctor establishes the extent of the injuries.

b) fire: Should the fire department be called in?

c) Jaws of life

d) Utilities See (2-C) about downed power lines above.

6) Document personal information if possible (victim may pass out)

Before the ambulance arrives, if possible, document information about the victim. They may become unconscious and it will be helpful to have information like

Full name
Next of kin (plus phone number)
Age
Date of birth
Doctor

6b) AMPLE documentation

Remember that "There is AMPLE time to document this before the ambulance arrives.'' Again, this will be very helpful to the paramedics if the victim passes out.

A Are you allergic to anything?
M Are you on any medications? Street drugs?
P What's your past medical history?
L Last meal - when did you eat last? (will help anesthesiologist if one is necessary)
E What were the events leading up to the injury? Document the mechanisms of injury. If the doctors and paramedics have some idea how accident occurred, it will give them better ideas on what kind of injuries to look for. Did the person low-side and slide for a while on one of their sides? Did they go over the bars? Did they head-butt a solid object, such as a car? If they went over the bars, is there any obvious damage to the tank/handlbars which might indicate they hit the lower abdomen/groin area? This kind of stuff could help the doctors/paramedics.

7) Wallets, purses, rings

Do not go rooting through personal effects of the person. There should be no need to go through their wallet or purse for insurance information; the hospital personnel will deal with all of that. If there is some important reason that you need something from their wallet or purse, make sure you have at the very least a witness! Preferably a law enforcement officer if possible. If the person is conscious, ask first and if they say "no'' then don't push it.

If the person has rings on, the fingers may swell up and it is important to get them off. Consent is paramount if the person is conscious. Make sure there is at least one witness when removing them.

8) Have person check pulse every 5 minutes & document it

Every 5 minutes the pulse should be checked at the wrist. If the pulse goes away at the wrist, check at the throat. This is a late sign of shock (see 9).

Write down the number of beats per minute and the time you took the measurement.

8a) Have person check breathing every 5 minutes & document it

Just like the pulse, check number of breaths per minute, the most reliable method being by placing your hand on the person's chest. Obviously if the victim is female it would be best to have another lady do this if at all possible.

Try to check their breathing rate without their knowing it. If they know you are counting their respirations, they may unconsciously alter their breathing rate.

Record this number along with the pulse every 5 minutes. Also note the type of breathing; fast, shallow, yodelling, gurgling, labored, easy, whatever. Even in layman's terms it may be useful to the paramedics.

9) Watch for signs of person going into shock

Signs of shock:

Inability to answer the 3 questions coherently (Who are you, etc.)
Pale, cool, clammy skin
Delayed capillary refill press your fingernail so that it turns white. It should turn back to pink in less than 2 seconds. If it takes longer, that is not a good sign.
Radial pulse (pulse at the wrist) goes away but there is still a pulse on the neck

There isn't much we can do once someone starts going into shock, but a few minor things that may help:

Assure adequate breathing. This really comes with the AB of U-ABCC.
Loosen restrictive clothing.
Reassure victim.
Keep the person warm (not too hot though).
Elevate the feet ~6 in. This is actually a judgement call since you shouldn't really do that with suspected spinal injuries.
Control bleeding. This is probably obvious but if you don't realize the victim is bleeding and they are rapidly going into shock, this should tell you something
Immobilize fractures. This helps relieve pain and control bleeding. Stop bleeding, using sterile bandages/dressings if available

Two important things here are to

Stop any bleeding as soon as possible and
keep the wounds sanitary as much as possible. Peripheral limbs are commonly lost to infection, but given the choice between stopping bleeding and using a nonsanitary cover, using the nonsanitary wrapping is preferred. Blood loss is bad.

If sterile dressings are not immediately available, women in the group may be carrying sanitary tampons, or Kotex napkins. Either can be used as a sterile dressing, although obviously the sanitary napkins would be superior.

EXCEPTION: If there are cuts anywhere on the head, do NOT apply pressure. If there is a bone chip it is possible to push it into the brain. It is also possible that stopping the flow of blood or cerebral spinal fluid can lead to a buildup of pressure on the brain which is not good. You should still bandage the cuts loosely.

11) In case of femur injuries (extremely common in moto accidents), check for blood loss

80% of motorcycle accidents involve someone going over the top of their motorcycle. Femur (the"thigh bone'') injuries are very frequent. There are huge arteries that run along the inner thigh; if these are compromised the person can bleed to death in a very short amount of time. It is important to minimize bleeding in this region! Use a pressure point above the cut to control blood flow out of the femur artery.

12) When ambulance arrives

Before the ambulance arrives, send people to the intersections in all directions to watch for/direct the ambulance.

When the ambulance arrives, it is important to stay out of their way as much as possible. Meet them and identify yourself as being ``in charge'' and to be the person to contact if they need anything (bikes moved, people moved, whatever). Make sure you

Provide accessable parking for ambulance
Let EMT's know who's in charge
Give factual account of accident ("And then the car comes along at 154 feet per second and hits our buddy here!'' is probably not going to help anything). At 40 MPH, there are 60,000 units of kenetic energy. At 50MPH, there are 120,000. It is IMPORTANT for medical personnel to have an HONEST estimate of the speed and circumstances at the time of the accident.
Give them all of the information that has been written down (periodic vital signs and the three questions from U-ABCC at 5 minute intervals, personal information about the victim, etc.)
Give EMT's an honest evaluation of patient's drug/alcohol consumption
Stay back or leave if told g) give EMT's time to work

It is important to give the ambulance people the most accurate information possible! If the person just had 10 beers in the past hour, tell them! They are not the law enforcement officials and their only immediate concern is the safety of the patient. By underestimating, trying to cover up, or not telling the whole truth, you are only keeping important information away from them which may be necessary for the safety of the patient.

If the helmet was removed, send it along in the ambulance. The doctors may use the visible damage to the helmet to assist them in what to look for in terms of injuries.

If there were leaking fluids, let the medical personnel know. The fluids may have gotten on the patient and they need to know if there was oil, gas, brake fluid or something like that on an open wound.

13) At the hospital

Only have one or two people in the Emergency Room at a time. If the doctors have questions and neither of the people in the ER know the answer, send one of them out to the other people to find out the answer. Crowding everyone into the ER will only make it more stressful and difficult for the ER staff to do their jobs.

14) Dealing with law enforcement

As with the the ambulance, when law enforcement arrives identify yourself as being ``in charge''. Let them know that if there is anything they need, such as bikes moved or people moved, you are the person to talk to.

For them, walking on to a scene of bikers who are all in a very excited state is intimidating and this will help calm them and give them some easy way to control the bike people.

It is obviously important to do whatever the law enforcement officials ask.

Before the officers do arrive, try to not move motorcycle parts any more than necessary! They may need to take accident scene notes and by moving things around you may confuse the situation for them. Parts will need to be moved off the road to avoid further accidents, but move them directly to the side so the law enforcement officials can determine roughly where it stopped if necessary. Try not to distrub the bike any more than necessary. (Petcock should be shut off, electrics turned off, bike propped up vertically, etc.)

15) Thank yous

Officers often get little or no recognition for helping out on the scene. It will cheer all of them up to no end to receive some kind of thanks for their help; any of the following are appropriate
1: cards 2: in newspaper 3: in person

It will improve our image as bikers and rewards all those people who take time out of their own lives to help others. It is important!

16) Couple of miscellaneous notes

Leathers will have to be cut off by medical personnel. Be mentally prepared for it. If they do not cut off your clothes, they will not be able to do a proper assessment of the wounds and you are not being treated properly! If you are conscious and insist that they do not cut your leathers, they cannot by law. If you are unconscious, it is implied consent and they will remove them if in doubt.

Over 50% of fatalities are alcohol related. I know it's a cliche' but don't let friends drink and ride unless you're prepared to lose that friend.

Like I said earlier, in 80% of the accidents involve going over the handlebars. If your bladder is full, the extreme pressure can easily cause it to break. Make a pitstop by the bathroom before you leave.

In an emergency situation, psychological management is important. If a central person takes charge and is remaining calm, this will transfer to all of the other people on the scene and will help the victim far more than if everyone is overly excited and pumped with adrenaline. Take two deep breaths when you feel yourself losing it.

Take basic first aid and CPR courses! They are offered through the Red Cross and several other organizations periodically. Go with some riding buddies or get your club to have a class!

17) Four most important points from this:

The four most important things were

Stay calm
U-ABCC
AMPLE
Who are you/Where are you/What time of day is it?

Front Licence Plates

2008-01-27T08:36:00.000+08:00

The Victorian Police (almost uniquely of all the World’s Police Forces) seem to be unable to use well tested cameras to photograph the rear of motorcycles and scooters. In an effort to stigmatise motorcyclists still further for their own operational shortfalls, they are now once again pressing for front number plates for all motorcycles, despite the fact that internationally the only countries that require this are that paragon of road safety – India, and that defender of personal freedoms – Singapore...

...Users to Pay Motorcycle riders will be forced to pay up to $200 for every motorcycle they own as part of the retrofit/installation requirements associated with the introduction of the Frontal Identification. This even includes vintage machines only used on the road under Club permit limitations. Added to the costs are safety and aesthetic considerations for those motorcycles that will need brackets affixed to the front or holes drilled to hold the proposed decals.

Can't seem to get away from the motherland. It must be catching.

Wonder how long it will take for the other states in Australia to adopt this.

Full article here

And while i'm in the mood to post

2008-01-20T11:30:00.000+08:00

... it's worth mentioning that 2 of my closest friends are going regional. One is moving to Yanchep (ok, not technically regional), and the other to Dunsborough. While i doubt that it's a permanent state of affairs, it certainly leads me to think that i could be doing a helluva lot more riding in the next couple of years.

Nothing much has changed with the riding side of things except that i'm a lot more relaxed on the road now, having been riding for a little more than a year. I do ride faster now than i used to, but mainly because i'm convinced my speedometer is clocking me higher than i'm actually doing. I now split regularly when traffic is stationary at the lights, which was a sudden decision at one point a couple of months ago, but i have a feeling i'll never split when vehicles are moving. Enough has/can happen when you're being good and following all the rules, and plenty has been said about what happens when you don't, especially when drivers around you are unaware of your presence, which again is too common. This bothers me, and more than it does most other bikers i'm guessing.

I want a new bike for all the reasons people don't stay on their 250 for long. Extra power, acceleration, a more effortless ride especially over distances, and in my case, a more comfortable riding position.

While the bike was in the workshop getting brake problems sorted, i was wandering around adjacent shops looking around while waiting. They had a couple of VFRs around, gleaming in the sun. It certainly is a beefy, great looking bike, but the sheer bulk of the thing still gets at me.

It would be nice to have a bigger, better-postured bike to ride long distances for. Something like a FZ6N would be nice...

...or a Street Triple.

Brakes

2008-01-20T08:51:00.000+08:00

Unlike a lot of Hyosung owners, i've never had any problems with my yellow beastie. It could be that i haven't put many kays on her, as despite my best efforts, my only riding appears to be done for commuting purposes. And since i live something like 4 ot 5 kms from where i work, it's not a whole lot of commuting that i do.

However I had the first mechanical issue with it last week.

My front brakes started to seize badly out of nowhere. I'd ride the beastie to work in the mornings and she would be fine, no issues. Then 8 or 9 hours after being parked at work, brakes would start seizing, to a point where:

I'd not be able to back her up at all
One day, i rode most of the way home without touching the brakes - the calipers were clamped tight on the discs all the way. This scared the bejesus out of me, as it meant:

She'd buck and nosedive when clutching in to change gear
I'd be dragging ass moving from a standing start (surprised drivers tailing me really closely)
Cornering was just... scary.

I had a look on the Google to make sure it wasn't something i was doing and came across this:

Brakes...master cylinder
The master cylinder is where the brake fluid is kept...usually attached to the handlebar for front brakes and tucked away, close to the rear brake pedal for the rear brake. The main problem that occurs with these is the brake fluid itself. There is a piston in the master that is activated by the lever that you pull. If this piston is leaking then the brakes can be mushy or there may be brake fuid leaking from the area around the master cylinder. There is a very small hole in the master that allows brake fluid to return back up to the master and if this is blocked due to corrosion then the lever will be very hard but no or little braking action will be taking place. If you experience problems with a master cylinder then you may be better off paying someone to look at this for you.
Brake Calipers
In the caliper a piston is activated by you when you pull the front brake lever. It pushes against the actual brake pads to apply pressure on the disc. One or several (depending on make) "rubber" o-rings seal the fluid from escaping between the piston and wall of the caliper. These rings serve another function and that is to return the piston to its original position (brakes off) These rings are the only thing returning this piston and when there is corrosion, the piston can be forced on because the hydraulic pressure is great enough to do so, however there is no (hydraulic) help for the piston to return and thus causes the brakes to be applied even though we are not pulling the lever. The resulting application of the brakes causes a heat build up, brake fluid expands (due to heat) thus forcing the brakes on even more. This is not a good situation to be in as a motorcyclist

I've seen bikes pull into the shop with the rear disc brake so hot that it is glowing cherry red with heat build up. The brake pads were totally worn away and the repair parts this bike would need include caliper assembly, disc brake rotor, wheel bearings and all dust seals. Expensive!!!
Article link

I don't know my bike mechanically, but it certainly sounded as though that could have been the problem, especially since it was playing up most on hot days (which we've had a few of). Took her to the shop and it did turn out to be a piston/valve/switch in the cylinder that wasn't adjusted properly, and thus wasn't letting the air out - at least, that's what i could gather from the mechanic, who sounded like he would probably have been more comfortable speaking German or French than trying to explain a mechanical issue in layman's English... which i made him do, poor guy.

But it's all fixed up now, and under warranty so i didn't have to fork out a cent. Bike is back to itself!

Ownership

2007-12-06T06:10:00.000+08:00

27 November 2006: This was the day i paid the last dollar off my bike loan.

It's taken me a couple of weeks shy of 1 year to pay the bike off, but i've done it! I now fully own my yellow beastie!

FZ1N

2007-11-29T18:07:00.000+08:00

I got to ride one back from the testing center to the bike shop which Brian operates out of. That was seriously fun. I need to do it again soon.

And the web has revealed that they come in yellow!

But still, Street Triple....

R Class

2007-11-21T17:19:00.000+08:00

After 2 lessons my instructor just decided i should sit for a test.

And i did.

Today.

R CLASS BABY!!!! Big bike, here i come!

Test

2007-11-15T06:02:00.000+08:00

I've had all of 2 lessons on the big bike, and my test is apparently next Wednesday.

Eek!

*

Riding a big bike is awesome though. I think it's a YZF 600 that my instructor has us students riding; unlike my current grumbly v-twin, it's a silky smooth inline 4. I've never been on anything bigger than 250 cc prior to this, and the 600 is a total power trip to ride.

The sport tourer configuration is so comfortable - my decision to not continue with sports bikes is making more and more sense. And aside from being reassuringly solid and nice and tight to shift, it just gets away like nothing i've ever been in contact with.

After my first lesson, i got back on the 250 and immediately wanted to go bike shopping. How the hell am i going to wait a whole other year to get my next bike?

R-class learner's permit

2007-11-02T15:06:00.000+08:00

I got my open class learner's permit today as planned.

First lesson on Wednesday. Big bike, here i come!

Next Friday in order:

2007-10-28T11:24:00.000+08:00

To DPI to get R class learner's permit
To Cully's Yamaha to organise lessons with Brian
New pair of Draggin Jeans, since my current pair is riddled with rips and holes-on-the-way. However because of what they cost, i need a special occasion to warrant another pair, and this one came around at the right time

On personality types

2007-10-26T18:35:00.000+08:00

"ISTPs with more sedate careers usually take on high-risk avocations like racing, skydiving, and motorcycling. While aware of the dangers involved, they are so in touch with the physical world that they know they can get away with much smaller safety margins than other types." [+]

Apparently this motorcycle thing is a tendency of my personality type.

In saying that, i wonder what percentage of all voluntary motorcyclists are ISTPs...

*

After so long of not riding, or doing piss poor 5-minutes-a-go riding, I managed to clock up a couple of decent hours on the bike in the last 2 days.

While freezing and rat-soaked on the highway this afternoon, i managed to observe myself not giving in to the usual trepidation of riding among big trucks in a downpour. Instead, i was actually feeling normal about it all.

Aside from the fact that it's been almost a year that i've owned and ridden my bike, there can be only one other reason: i was too pre-occupied with being cold and trying to get home to bother with anything else.

Rain pouring into the neck of my jacket, winter lining out and vents letting air in like they're supposed to make one pretty cold rider. Stopped for red lights 10 minutes from home and found myself shivering visibly. Drivers snug and warm around me must have laughed heartily to see it, while sucking on my exhaust :P

The end of days?

2007-10-20T08:09:00.000+08:00

It's been 5 weeks since i started the yellow beastie up. 5 weeks! She's been sitting there under the cover, all ready to go without going anywhere.

On Friday i decided i couldn't wait another day. Despite having 1 more day of the Bike to Work Challenge to clock up my usual kays on the bicycle, out i went on the motorbike.

Talk about getting a fix!

However, i think my sportsbike days are over. Went for a bit of a ride after work, and my old wrist RSI/OOS problem got so unhappy with the riding position, i had to quit after 30 mins. Bleedin' hell :(

My next bike will definitely not be something with a "real" sportsbike riding position.

The usual suspects are still in consideration, but lately, the new Speed Triple 675 has been working its way into my imagination - my ultimate bike now comes in my ultimate engine size. Not that i could afford such a classy thing, but i suppose one can always dream!

Quote

2007-09-22T00:28:00.000+08:00

"You're always learning to ride, whatever age you are."

- Casey Stoner, in this article

Uncommon

2007-08-31T22:35:00.001+08:00

In the almost 9 months i've had my little beastie, i've lane split once. Because you know, i don't generally dare.

However, something mad seized me the other day. It could have been sun stroke, it could have been that i was riding behind a colleague on the way home and wanted to keep up. But from lane splitting at one set of lights to catch up with him, i repeated it at every single set thereafter (and there are plenty) all the way home, long after he'd taken his turnoff.

And today i couldn't do it any more.

I think i'm progressing. Not the right way perhaps, but i think riding is starting to feel more natural now.

Ninja 650R

2007-08-31T22:25:00.000+08:00

More on fully faired but comfortable - it looks like Suzuki isn't the only manufacturer who builds bikes for the likes of me. For some reason, i never realised Kawasaki made those types too.

Strike 1:

Life must be tough for middleweight Twins. Despite all they have to offer, they still get tagged with the "beginner bike" label. While many of these bikes may be bought by first-time motorcyclists and buying one of these rather than, say, a GSX-R1000 or ZX-10 as your first ride displays uncommon common sense, the label is still somewhat insulting.

The above was what Motorcycle USA.com had to say about the Ninja 650R. That phantom rider picture they're painting? That's gotta be me.

Strike 2:

Kawasaki plainly state the 650R is a bike for "ladies" and new and returning riders, thus imbuing the market's perception with characteristics befitting that demographic: diminutive, demure and accessible. They also claim that this all-new bike - which is virtually identical to the semi-faired ER-6n in Europe - has the power and handling to keep a seasoned rider satisfied. You know what? I think they're right.

From a SpokeSpeak article. I'm not dimunitive by most standards, but the new and returning riders bit is definitely looking good.

Strike 3: It has an updated (2007) version.

My choices are widening. All i need to do now is get moving and get the licence....

Dreaming.,...

2007-08-22T17:33:00.000+08:00

...about my next bike, when i get my open licence. Which will happen... when i can't tell you. I need to get my arse in gear.

But on bikes. I'm kind of over the pure sports bike thing, nothing so much as because the riding position kills me in slower, commuting traffic, which is what i mostly ride in. I suffer from pretty bad RSI in my right wrist, and to have most of my weight on it at slower speeds is starting to take its toll.

However, unless it's a Speed Triple, i like fairings. Fairings offer streamlined beauty.

Having done some academic research on the subject, it would appear sports tourers offer the best of both worlds. And in that category the VFR was at the top of my list:

Article on the 2008 model here

Then quite by accident, i read about Suzuki's 2008 mid-weight 650 sports release:

The GSX650F is a sports bike that looks as though it'd be nice and comfy, but not humongous. Engine size would be my ideal next bike engine size - around the 600 cc mark - a significant step up but a manageable one. As for the specs, you can read all about it here (i'm impressed, though probably for all the wrong reasons, sigh).

I'm swinging towards the Suzuki at this point, it's not so daunting because it's not as hefty as the VFR, although i've not seen one in the flesh as yet. In theory, it's a bike made just for me.

Now to convince the other half, who could have a heart attack. I've got a while to do it anyway, so we can start nice 'n slow.

All images used without permission and © Motorcycling Blog.

Back

2007-08-21T20:34:00.000+08:00

I couldn't take it anymore at the end of today, i was on the point of climbing walls if i didn't go for a ride. Gingerly pulled pants on, inserted self into scarf, jacket, boots, helmet gloves - in that order - and went to go sit on the bike while it was warming up.

It's incredible to be back on it. It's like getting a smack of life right in the veins, but the kind that also relaxes you immensely at the same time. Just sitting on her, listening/feeling her rumble made me grin. Everything about my bike is stock, so she doesn't sound as good as she would with an aftermarket exhaust, but the v-twin rumble is still pretty damn satisfying.

I headed out to the ocean and rode around for an hour before coming home. Couldn't go on for much longer because my RSI (or OOS or whatever they call it now) was playing up.

But it was enough. It was wonderful, i can't articulate just how so.

It's good to be back on the bike.

Hmmm

2007-08-20T20:09:00.000+08:00

I'm on steroids for the skin condition and they're leaving me feeling (and thinking) very strange.

My parents still don't know about the little yellow beast, and often i find myself thinking it's a shame. I'd like to share it with Dad, who was a biker himself back in the day. However, considering his outburst at my watch with the Ducati badge on the face, i'd hate to think what would happen if i confronted him with an actual bike. I'd been warned as a teenager about disownment and other associated horrors that would descend on my head if i so much as went near a bike, and while it wouldn't happen now, i still can't shake the lingering parental authority. Hey, i'm Asian, female and hopelessly guilt-wracked about how little i've given back to my parents (see "Asian").

And i keep thinking my poor mother doesn't need the extra gray hairs. I imagine she had enough of them when Dad rode. He was your typical sharp, young, "invincible" male rider and he's come close to paying for it with his life a number of times. One of them happened to be the day i was born.

(I don't think either of my parents would ever understand that their daughter's about as chickenshit as they come. I mean, geez, my only lane-splitting exercise was the result of inattention more than anything. I don't do much credit to my sports bike, even if it is only a 250)

I've been mooching; reading my own archived entries, to say nothing of other people's, isn't helping this itch (the figurative, not literal one plaguing me at the moment).

I really cannot wait for my skin to return to mostly-human and ably jean-wearing.

128 ways to dump your bike

2007-08-19T20:40:00.000+08:00

67 Pulling into Dairy Queen and slipping on a spilt chocolate malt.

Oh this is really good!

Go here

Out of it

2007-08-19T19:40:00.001+08:00

I haven't ridden in a month. 2 weeks off camping in the north with the other half and his parents somehow prompted a bad skin rash, which means pulling on my Draggins or any jeans, becomes an exercise of extreme discomfort/pain. I tried riding in to work once, and was so tortured the whole 15 mins there and back, i figured i'd wait another few days until it subsided before giving it another go.

I'm still waiting, and it's been a further 2 weeks.

I was at the gas station this morning filling up the 4 wheeler, and there was a throng of older riders gathered, on tourers mostly (side note: there was a blue Hyosung naked bike among them).

Group ride.

I felt an insane burst of longing, trying not to look too pathetic while walking by the bunch to pay for my fuel.

God i miss being on the bike.

And so i spent most of what turned out to be a rainy day obsessively reading other bikers' blogs. At this point, anything will do.

Here's a blog that's the total opposite of this one: Forty Years on Two Wheels

Doug writes a treat, in layman/-woman context, which means i've been going through his archives without stopping. I haven't gotten to the end of them yet, but at the rate i'm mooching around, i might just before the weekend is over!

Japanese biker loses leg and doesn't notice.

2007-08-14T18:37:00.000+08:00

No, really.

Thanks Gary!

Linked

2007-08-12T16:55:00.001+08:00

I'm linked on korider.

Whoa. Thanks skadamo!

On cleaning my damn visor

2007-08-12T16:32:00.001+08:00

I've been cleaning my visor with it still attached to the helmet thus far. Inspired by complete boredom and an urge to have it sparkling for some reason, i decided to take it off for a proper clean.

Taking the thing off was a cinch.

Putting it back now, that was another story. Visors are slippery bastards aren't they? By the time i'd almost dropped both visor and helmet trying to prevent the latter from rolling and former from springing away, it was all covered with fingerprints again.

On my second attempt, i discovered that if i conducted the enterprise on the couch (sitting down, with legs as helmet cradle) instead of the kitchen bench, it made everything heaps easier.

Apparently, with round slippery objects, a cushioned surface is better. It keeps them from travelling too much.

Yes, it's all too obvious i know. For some reason the common sense which functions perfectly fine for me in all other aspects of life just can't kick in when it comes to biking. Everything directly and indirectly associated with this activity has to be learnt the hard way with me.

But at least my visor's back in place, crystal clean and functional!

Speeding essential, say bikers

2007-08-12T09:20:00.000+08:00

RIDING at double the speed limit, "bending" road rules and "pushing the limits" are just part of riding safely, according to many motorcyclists.

An investigation into the behaviour of riders has revealed a belief among many motorcyclists that breaking the law was actually safer than abiding by road rules. Article here.

With the recent blitz of stories about reckless motorcyclists, this strikes me as yet another sensationalisation attempt. The article itself doesn't say a whole lot, save affirming the general public opinion that motorcycles are dangerous because it turns people into irrational speedfreaks.

Servicing

2007-07-23T18:48:00.000+08:00

The second servicing is supposed to take place at 4000km. Mine's gotten done at 2700 or so, but 6 months after the first. While i don't put much by way of mileage, most of my riding is very stop-start, and it definitely needed the lubing, from how different it felt when i got it back!

Been a while....

2007-07-06T06:47:00.000+08:00

... since i've been on a long ride. 2 months? 3?

Hell, nevermind long rides. I'll settle for anything a fair bit above the 15 minute commute to work.

I'm not complaining about my proximity to work at all, as i do love the fact that i can walk there under an hour if i'm so inclined.

I just miss timing out with the yellow beast.

Maiden lane splitting

2007-06-27T17:37:00.000+08:00

It's taken six months, but it happened: my maiden lane-splitting attempt. Finally.

I had the smoothest, fastest ride into work today than i've ever had. Every single set of lights was green; traffic yielded almost magically, and to top it all off, it was a gorgeous morning. Far from the forecast of rain, it started off the perfect winter day - sunny, nippy, with slight breeze blowing.

I did it unconsciously at a set of red lights, which turned green just as i swung in between the stationary cars. I was buzzing with the silkiness of motion this morning, and it just seemed wrong to arrest it when there was a clear path ahead.

What i was doing only occured, when i was actually where i wanted to be in the lines of traffic. And then of course i started and the bike wobbled, but the entire flow of the action felt so natural, i didn't really fight it (and also, it wasn't a long line of cars).

So now i know i'm not a complete loser.

Yeee haaa!

What not to wear

2007-06-21T05:52:00.000+08:00

I learnt yesterday, not to wear thumb rings while riding.

In a word: OUCH.

More on helmets

2007-06-21T05:49:00.000+08:00

7 days after writing this post, i've been confronted by a number of solid white, green and pale blue helmets.

Definitely a case of speaking too soon. No yellow or neon orange helmets yet though.

Afterthought on Helmets

2007-06-13T05:42:00.001+08:00

Cool is the go in Perth, as far as helmets go at least. Something i noticed in SF, is the number of riders who have brightly colored helmets. I've seen solid yellow, white, neon orange, red, and one bright green one.

I've not seen anyone in Perth with a solid, bright hat in Perth, save the police and one lone biker who has a red one.

They come across as dorky, especially if you, like me, come from where it's all about style and cool and all the rest of it - jagged razor helmet designs, sleek black, and nothing that really stands out extra in traffic.

Experts will say that having a solid, brightly colored hat makes you more visible to other traffic. And having seen it for myself, it's true. You could pick out a bright helmet miles away, which you probably couldn't otherwise, even if it was one with a design including a bright color.

I thought about getting a yellow helmet to match my bike when i first got it. In the beginning especially, i would definitely have gone the dorky way because i needed to be seen - i didn't honestly think i'd last the ride from the dealership to work (all of 1 km) upright.

But they didn't have yellow. White was the only screaming bright color they had, and no, i didn't really want that. So of course, i ended up with a solid black helmet. As you do.

Gloves

2007-06-10T04:28:00.000+08:00

I stepped into a motorcycle store while walking around in SF, and finally got myself some winter gloves. They're a medium weight road glove from Tour Master, a brand i've never heard of before, but boy, they are incredibly comfortable, and wonderfully warm. No more frozen fingers!

Store itself was off the corner of Polk and Pine streets in SF - i didn't think to actually look at the store name, although my credit statement says Golden Gate Cycles. After i got my gloves i had a bit of a walk around the store to look at the bikes, and the very pleasant sales guy pulled out a Vulcan for me to sit on. Damn but bikes are a lot cheaper in California than they are here! For about 12 grand, one could get a 2007 Gixxer as opposed to the 19 or 20 grand it would cost here.

Also, they don't have license classes over there. I could hop straight on a big bike if i so wanted, although right now, i'd probably chicken out. There are some days where the 250 seems more bike than i can handle.

First ride back

2007-06-06T06:42:00.001+08:00

Back from San Francisco, the first thing the husband and myself did, before unpacking, before showering, before anything, was attend to our vehicles. In my case, it was to give the bike a wipe down, check tyre pressure, start her up and give her a lookover to make sure everything was intact (not that i was expecting otherwise, but still).

SF was great, and Perth an anti-climax, especially knowing that we could well move to SF but are not. But swinging out of the driveway, onto the freeway and out to the ocean, i was reminded that some things are great about this place. The things i've always loved - the great roads, how you have them to yourself at certain times of the day, the way the sun blinds the bejesus out of you if you're dumb enough to head west at sunset, the smell of the air in an antipodean winter, the Indian ocean. Small things, but then again, are most things not?

Getting on the bike again after 2 weeks was strange. At one stage i caught myself mentally ticking off the controls on my handlebars, mainly - clutch left, brake right.

Riding felt a bit funny as well. I'm more at ease with my riding now than i was at first, but it's still not second nature to me. Yet the same weird phenomenon keeps rearing its head - everytime i get on a bike after a longer period of absence, my riding is smoother, far more relaxed. This time i was swinging low into slower, easy corners than i've ever done in my life, and it continued the next day into work.

Need to get out and do some longer rides again.

There's definitely one good thing about Perth - i reckon it's one of the best places in the world to be on a bike. Especially if you're a learner.

'Frisco!

2007-05-27T06:01:00.000+08:00

I've been in San Francisco for the last week and this city is a breath of fresh air from sleepy ol' Perth in so many ways - not least because it's somewhere new, and bustling, and so very pretty.

As expected there are a heap more bikers here than Perth; i've had to forcibly stop myself from taking useless pictures of neat rows of parked bikes whenever i come across them, which is very often. Plenty more Ducati riders out here, and Harleys as expected. I've seen a couple of Indians and also quite a few older/vintage bikes around.

Walked into a bike shop at the corner of Polk and Pine streets to get a pair of winter gloves, and ended up sitting on a bunch of bikes at the sales guy's insistence, even though i made it quite clear i was only having a look, which he didn't seem to mind at all. But by god, exchange rate and all, the bikes are a fair bit cheaper here than they are back in Oz!

I'd be tempted to rent a bike and go for a blast, since there's some beautiful hilly country out there to ride. However considering i'm still looking the wrong way when crossing the road, i don't think i'd do too well at intersections, even if i manage to stay on the correct side here!

The strange effects of a gap

2007-05-14T19:38:00.000+08:00

It's a little strange, but my first ride, after an extended period of not touching the bike, are always exceptionally good ones. I'm told that beginners should ride regularly to keep their skills and head sharp.

Personally, when i'm rusty at stuff i tend to get stressed out coming back into it- too much going on to grapple with successfully. With the bike though, i've been finding that my first ride after a week of leaving it alone always sees me exceptionally relaxed. I don't stress out over the stuff i usually do. I look ahead without consciously reminding myself to do so, i keep my road position without having to work too hard at it, i'm extra-extra-extra aware of stuff going on around me while muscles remain untensed and head remains clear.

My daily commute is a 15 minute affair either way, most of it in heavy traffic. This tends to wear on me after a while, the constant gear switching and car avoidance - and of course, the constant idea of being rear-ended because i still don't lane split (i do it to myself, i know)... i lose that lovin' feeling after a while. The unique pleasure of being on a motorcycle and having it respond to the swing of my body, tends to get lost in the concerns of commuting itself.

More regular group riding aside, i definitely need to adjust my working hours to miss the worst of the traffic!

*

In more news, there's some ruckus going on about 2 riders who were doing silly things in front of a traffic camera. And then one of them got caught.

Freebie

2007-05-10T22:20:00.000+08:00

After being a cheap-ass and griping about it, 30 days free membership to Motorcycle Mentor.

Thanks David!

Hiatus...

2007-05-10T21:57:00.000+08:00

...from the bike, that is. I've been cycling to work and back for the past week. Given that i come home pretty late, this means no after hours riding.

The other half had agreed to tolerate my motorbiking everywhere on account that i needed to run the bike in. Past the 2000 km mark, i'd say that i don't have any excuse to lazy-arse it anymore.

So to keep up my riding practice, my only recourse is to go on more group rides. Heh.

Rainy day crazy

2007-05-01T20:07:00.000+08:00

Having gotten one day of wet riding under my belt (and what a wet pair of pants that belt was holding up at the end!), i've not been feeling quite so apprehensive about riding to work in the generous spate of rain we've been having, despite still not having any wet weather gear.

But if anything reinforces the reality that my safety is not 100% within my control, it was what happened this morning.

Having left extra early, i had the road pretty much all to myself. As the first vehicle at a set of red lights, i saw a rusty old panel van coming up behind me in my mirrors.

However, rather than stop as it came up the hill towards where i was stopped, it started accelerating.

It came straight for me, swerved into the turning lane but roared in a straight line through the still-red lights. Luckily, given the time of the morning, there wasn't much traffic, so it went through the intersection without incident.

But the bastard missed me by about 2 feet. Which doesn't allow for a huge margin of error, no matter what your local superhero says.

Christ.

When the lights turned green i took off down the road to get the guy's registration, and discovered why he'd run the red light, at the next intersection. That old banger was in such bad shape it stalled the moment it lost motion, and its owner, in about as bad shape as the vehicle, was pushing it up the curb with some colorful abuse.

I hope he had a long walk home in the miserable wet. Serve him bloody right.

New speed cameras twice as effective

2007-04-20T19:13:00.000+08:00

New high-tech speed cameras which could see the number of speeding tickets double are being tested on Perth’s streets as police consider several new models that will also allow speeding motorcyclists to be caught for the first time. [+]

I have a feeling that with all the negative motorcycle publicity of late, they're going down the 4WD route of media demonisation.

Motorbike chase leads to $20,000 drug bust

2007-04-20T18:34:00.000+08:00

Police have arrested a man they allege was carrying more than $20,000 worth of methylamphetamine after a high speed pursuit in Mandurah yesterday morning.

Mandurah police Sgt Geoff Daniel said a motorcycle officer spotted the 24-year-old motorcyclist in Erskine about 10.20am and tried to stop his yellow Honda bike.

Article here

Motorcycle learner dies in Guilderton crash

2007-04-20T18:15:00.000+08:00

A woman who had her motorcycle learner's permit for just one day has died when she crashed her modified motorcycle into a tree yesterday afternoon near Guilderton. [+]

Key operator in this article being the word "modified," though no details of modifications were listed offered.

New rider clocks 181km/h in Perth

2007-04-18T19:06:00.000+08:00

A 19-year-old man has been clocked riding a motorcycle 120km above the speed limit of a Perth street just a week after getting his licence.

Police said they charged the man with reckless driving after allegedly catching him riding his bike at 181km/h in a 60km/h zone, in Baldivis at 9.15am WST Tuesday.
It is understood he got his motorcycle licence about a week ago. [+]

Buh bye licence!

Rocket ride

2007-04-15T20:13:00.000+08:00

I'm in my 4th month of bike ownership. So it's kind of sad to admit that in that span, i've only clocked up 3 months of riding time.

Aside from the 10 days or so that i had to hide the bike for my parents' visit, i must have lost about 2 to 3 weeks of not riding to simple fear. Despite my progress update in the first week of January indicating improvements, i didn't mention that i never took really long rides. My commute to work takes 15 minutes each way. Apprehension - of dropping the bike, traffic, my frustration at not being able to ride smoothly - fueled the reluctance to really get out there, losing me a fair bit more practice than i should have had.

Really early on, there were days i'd get on the bike, and have so much difficulty just taking her for a jaunt around the block that i'd not touch her for 3 - 4 days after, because i was convinced i'd drop her in the middle of the road and die a dreadful death. So despite my planning a further ride for ever, it took me that long to get up to the hills to get a feel of the twistier roads, and even longer to hit Mundaring Weir road - errant fauna being something else to worry about.

I was seriously freaked out and i didn't know anyone involved with motorcycles, so my only help on this was the internet. Being someone who doesn't learn very well from books, i had to teach myself to ride again from 'zine articles.

However, a review of what i've gained at the 4 month mark:

My hands don't ache anymore. It was apparently a strength thing - i can open jars on my own now. Hah.
Gloves are still too short at the thumb though
Cornering. I can corner at decent speeds. Still got my chickenstrips but i get a nice lean angle for the most part, and right hand turns at roundabouts are getting better as i get up the guts to take them faster
Still can't lanesplit, but am not so scared of traffic anymore as have discovered that diligent observation and defensive road placement pays off. Have learnt to relax. Mostly
General riding around is much, much smoother
My first ride in the pouring rain yesterday and it was a long one. Got drenched, but i'm starting to think that as long as one is properly outfitted, riding in the rain isn't actually as bad as i keep thinking it is

I've been wanting to ride with others for a while though, because i don't push myself riding alone. Going to York, while fun, wasn't much of a group riding experience because i was on my own most of the way.

So i bit the bullet and invited myself along to a local riders meetup last midweek. It was called a newbie-friendly ride, so when i rocked up and tried not to fall off while parking (sigh), i was seriously alarmed at being the only 250 there.

Fully expecting to be left behind, i was quite surprised at the end of the hour, that i had not only managed to keep up in general, i was getting the thumbs up from the people behind me. The ones who had to deal with my lagging at standing starts, coming out of corners, chugging right at roundabouts and struggling to keep my road position. The pace was way faster than anything i've ever come across (my poor little beast has never been worked so hard!), but limits were observed, group ride rules were followed and the group looked out for its members.

My first real group ride, was a truly excellent one. Am totally hanging out for the next.

Tyre pressure

2007-04-03T06:32:00.000+08:00

After mucking around with different pressures, the combo that works for me: 32 front, 36 rear.

Also i finally find out what chicken strips are - indicators of chickenshit-ness (me, sigh). Heh.

Saturday afternoon lessons

2007-03-31T13:58:00.000+08:00

I had a great ride out to Mundaring and Kalamunda towns via Mundaring Weir Rd this afternoon. Items of importance:

Corners
Some corners are better taken at higher than lower speeds. I can't believe i just said that; me, the chickenshit.

Don't look at where you are, look ahead to where you want to be
A rehash of this episode, looking to where you want to be is the way to do it. It goes against a lifetime of good advice dished out by parental units, i.e. "look where you're going!"

This action, more than anything else so far, is something i have to will myself into doing with utmost mental force, stomping all the doubts into a corner and trying to ignore them.

Get head in gear before bike
Just after pulling out from a quick rest stop, i entered a particularly tight curve in the road and baulked, forgetting above practice. Strayed a little to the other side of the double white line in mistaken attempt to slow down (argh). Thankfully, there were no other vehicles around at the time, so i managed to recover quickly and get my ass and head back in line.

Lots of bikers out today, as it is a fine day for riding. Gave and got lots of nods, and some punk washing windshields for gold coins at a traffic light said "nice bike mate."

I've been chafing lately at not having gotten outside the state boundary for the last few years, exacerbated by the people i meet who have been all over the globe. But riding the bike is giving me a different perspective of familiar places, and my relation to them, and it's good. The rest of the world will have to wait a little bit longer unless i win the lotto , but until then, i have my respites on the back of my little beast.

(Having said that, i am determined to pay E a visit at the end of this year - i'll settle for getting out of WA at this point - the world in baby steps)

Test shot with my second new lens:

Hyosung's getting a lot of free advertisement from me!

I can't lane split and it's driving me mad

2007-03-28T06:32:00.000+08:00

Daylight savings for Western Australia ended on March 25. This means that at home time, i was stuck in a jam right from the carpark gates of my building, all the way home with everyone who was rushing home to make the most of the remaining sunshine.

It usually takes me about 10 minutes to get home, as i live very close to where i work. This day it must have taken me something like 40 minutes. Stuck obediently behind a long line of cars, i was getting seriously frustrated watching the other bikers trundling past me between the lanes. I've been watching other riders lane split to get to the head of traffic lights, and trying to figure out how they gauge the traffic to know when to move between the flow, but with no background to base my observations on, i'm not getting very far.

What if i clip someone's wing mirror? Paying for their damage is one thing, me losing balance and falling is another. What if i get stuck behind a line of bikers while the lights turn green? How do i get from in between 2 lanes back to inside one? What if i'm trying to do this and the driver doesn't see me and clips me?

There are too many variables with nowhere close to a solid answer.

While lane splitting is illegal in Western Australia, it seems like a rite of passage most riders have to go through. I don't think i'll ever get up the guts or desire to lane split in fast, or any moving traffic, but getting to the head of a line of cars at red lights is something i've decided, along the way, that i have to attempt if only for the principle of it.

Back to the internet, and 2 "lesson plans". Incidentally, they're seperate articles with the same title - Lane Splitting 101:

http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mclaw/split.html

http://www.ketchum.org/ls101.html

I'm starting to think that perhaps the ex-boss was right. There's no preparation, "you just gotta do it hey."

Women Riders Now

2007-03-24T16:01:00.000+08:00

For a woman, motorcycling is an expression of herself. Many say riding is very empowering, that the confidence she gets from riding her own motorcycle spills over into other areas of her life. It's that "you don't know what you're missing until you do it" kind of thinking.

If you've ever thought of donning a leather jacket, some hot black boots, and a pair of stylish shades and cruising down the open road in search of adventure, now is the time to do it. Motorcycle riding is the stuff dreams are made of. So many women are living their dream right now. Isn't it time you did, too? [+]

http://www.womenridersnow.com/

This site has excellent resources for women who ride. Go the ladies!

What a great call to action

2007-03-24T11:57:00.000+08:00

The home page of Motorcycle Getaways.

Maybe some day.

I was going to get my learner's permit for my R (big bike licence) sometime in the last 2 days. I've held my restricted 250cc licence for a year, so i can officially test for my R now. And be that much closer to a VFR, which i've decided, academically, is the best candidate for my next bike.

But you know what? I'm not ready for a big bike. Having only been on a 250cc for 3 months, i've got a long way to go with regard to bike handling and road negotiation (in other words, everything) before being worthy of one. When i get my R, i want to be in a position to bring a big bike home pretty damn quick - not another 9 month lag i had before getting my current little beast, in which almost everything i'd been taught had disappeared.

Every motorcyclist i know has told me that once you sit on a big bike, going home on a a 250 is difficult. And i don't doubt for a moment that they're right.

My ultimate resource

2007-03-24T00:48:00.000+08:00

Or what looks to be it: Motorcycle Mentor.com. It's a resource for new motorcycle riders (me! me!).

Unfortunately it would seem they actually charge for their information, so i guess i'm sticking with Sport Rider.com's Riding Skills Series. It isn't particularly sympathetic to newbies, but it's free, comprehensive, and best of all, in English!

Ride to the hills

2007-03-23T13:32:00.000+08:00

I finally made it out for my ride up to and around Kalamunda and the hills area. It's been a while since i've really ridden anywhere so it was a good exercise for me and the bike.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Nothing too notable aside from the awesome autumn weather which has finally arrived, and that i got a taste of how low i'm capable of cornering when i'm too busy looking where i'm going to freak out. There was a mad Camry driver tailing me all the way to my designated turnoff, and determined not to be cowed by it, i downshifted and gunned into the corner with my foot on the rear brake for control.

I'd sorely misjudged how tight a turn it was, because for a split second i found myself looking at the center divider while turning, and then i was snapping my head around to see where the road actually went. In all this i was still throttling, and before i knew it, the bike had swept in and down into the pinhead corner and out again.

I felt like a hero. You have no idea. Whoa.

Only after i'd ridden away did my brain pull all the pieces together, and produce a big exclamation mark with "holy crap" in front of it.

Heh.

I've been trying to cultivate good visual skills as espoused by this article here, and have also found that looking far ahead to where i want to be is very good for my cornering stability and confidence at speed. The above incident left no doubt that you are where you look!

*

What makes this an even better day is that one of the 2 new (second hand, but new to me) lenses i bought arrived today:

Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8D AF

I brought the camera and new lens along to take some photos, but as it turns out, i was having so much fun i forgot all about it. However, not to be dampened, i stopped near home to take unexciting bike pictures:

2 things to react to:

1. Damn it's SHARP
2. Look at that contrast!!!!!!

Random photo

2007-03-22T06:29:00.000+08:00

I can't take decent photos of my little beast, so i tend to want to enlarge frame the few i have which give me the warm fuzzies.

Posting them is a cheaper alternative.

Longing (otherwise known as "fat hope")

2007-03-20T16:10:00.000+08:00

Had i anything in the world to choose from, this would be my one stop shop:

http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/

The Nod

2007-03-20T05:22:00.000+08:00

I'm still not over how bikers nod at each other on the road here.

It's totally awesome.

3 month mark

2007-03-14T16:27:00.000+08:00

E, recently relocated to Sydney and in possession of a new car, tells funny stories about her driving dramas - to add to the new country adjustment bag, she hasn't driven in a really long while. And in the middle of our pen-driven chat, i realised how far i've come through various stages of this bike thing in the last 3 months. It's hard to believe i've only had my little beast for 12 short weeks.

Going to York seems to have been the point at which the bulk of my jitters went away. After that day, everything sort of started falling into place. I've learnt to stop fighting the wind, and it's stopped fighting me. Cornering - click, click, clutch out, lean and swoop - getting smooth. My lean angles are improving nicely, save when some nut in a P-plated, V8 ute tries to climb up my ass (disturbing image of radiator grille in mirrors always a distraction). And countersteering felt out in conscious practice. While i suspect this is largely instinctual for most motorcyclists once they figure the leaning part out, it gets better when deliberately applied every once in a while - the conscious action is a good feeling at any rate.

That's the thing about riding a bike. A lot of it is about how you feel. And they say men aren't in touch with their emotions.

Confidence, my biggest lack in all of this, is coming along as my good rides take predominance over my bad. I still won't lane-split, but i'm very happily doing everything else like i was born to.

(That last bit was a totally relative statement)

The one weird rut i can't seem to get out of, is kicking the bike into neutral when taking off from this particular set of lights at a cross-junction near home. In general, i never manage to get the bike into neutral unless i'm stopped, and nudge the gear peg up from first very gently. Never - it likes being in gear too much.

However, at said lights, no matter how high i toe it, change clutching strategy etc, the bike goes into neutral rather than second after taking off without fail. I ride these lights everyday so it's getting bloody annoying, not to mention, embarrassing.

I'm blaming it on the slope of the road. I swear it's not me.

Clutchless shifting

2007-02-27T16:41:00.000+08:00

Some time ago Gary mentioned upshifting without clutching (end of this post). At the time, still paranoid about everything and its mother, my couple of maiden attempts at this yielded some scary results. I'd either roll the throttle off too much or too little, resulting in the bike jumping forward or near stalling alarmingly. No matter what i did i couldn't get it right, and a lot of it probably had to do with my worrying about everything else while trying to do one thing. They say women are good at multi-tasking, but really, that's something else altogether.

I gave up. As an old school driver who won't drive an auto, i love the clutch. I was quite happy clutching around, aching hands or not. As i progressed through the last month my gear changes up and down got pretty damn smooth and i was happy.

I forgot all about clutchless shifting stuff until i accidentally did it one day; clicked my gear peg up and then realised i hadn't clutched in at all, but did a very small roll off the throttle.

And oh boy was that smooth! Best mistake i ever made.

My next conscious attempts were choppy though, still the same problem with not knowing how much to close the throttle off. Google produced a little bit more education on the subject in the form of the Riding Skills series in Sport Rider magazine - these articles are fabulous. Detailed but easy to understand.

I've been practicing for the last couple of days, and and it's working. It wasn't that hard, once i got over the idea that i'd break something without clutching. I've never shifted faster, or ridden smoother. Good tip Gary!

Crazy Turbo R1 video

2007-02-26T18:05:00.000+08:00

This video's been making its rounds on the internet. Some crazy person installed a turbo in an R1 and takes it for a mad ride.

Video here

Thanks Jon for the link!

Motorized and not

2007-02-26T17:49:00.000+08:00

I used to wonder if it was possible to learn to ride a motorcycle without first being able to balance on a bicycle.

This morning I got back on my bicycle and cycled to work, and found the answer to that question.

With the amount of wobbling i did in the first couple of minutes, i'd say it's undoubtedly a "yes". How many people would take that route, i don't know. What i do know is, my body was hell surprised to get on the bicycle and discover, among other things, that the only weight it had to balance, was its own - my body didn't quite know what to do initially, perched on the bicycle without actually feeling it very much. Quite a different ball game to the comforting weight of my mighty mango beast resting on its 2 rubber hoops.

Visual yearning

2007-02-23T16:55:00.000+08:00

I really want to mount a camera on my bike.

The possibility of a lone exodus

2007-02-20T19:41:00.000+08:00

After the group ride last weekend, i've been thinking more about the touring aspects of biking. Like most young people, after i get over the rush of how fast i can go, i start wondering about how far i can get.

Reading about seasoned tourers isn't something i find too educational at the moment; at my current level of understanding of things motorcycle, it's more baffling than anything, too huge a leap from the driver's experience of touring. I still have serious issues with this 4WD trip around the continent that Mr C and i are supposed to be heading off on in a few years, doing it on a bike seems even more of a logistical nightmare, even if i personally feel it would be a more engaging way to see the country.

But i came across this woman's ride across the Nullabor earlier, and i'm thinking it may be time to make some plans for a small trip on my own on the bike. What changed my mind about it was not the fact that it was a female attempt - it was 2 other non-gender specific things: she did it solo, and on a 250! Most riders whose cross-country accounts i've come across have big bikes - 750ccs and above. For someone who's had barely any riding experience, a jump from nothing to big bike is rather daunting, akin to feeling like i have to be Robert Pirsig, he of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance fame.

I'm starting from less than scratch here. I haven't even gotten as far as running my bike in. But it's heartening to read about someone who's doing it on a small bike (like mine), makes silly mistakes like dropping bike in unlikely places (the way i totally would) and missing No Motorcycle signs (how i'd definitely do).

It makes it feel very possible, a journey i can imagine undertaking, which is a change from the mystification that i greet anything more than basic riding with. There's a lot more involved in owning a motorcycle than getting to ride it!

While a sports bike like my little beast isn't the most comfortable touring option, the great thing about doing something like that alone is that i can plan it to suit me. It won't happen now - not enough experience with everyday stuff to think about a trip that extended. But it's definitely something to be excited about.

This world of possibilities!

Mass exodus to York and back

2007-02-16T16:56:00.000+08:00

I have been to York and back on my bike, and HELL YEAH, what a great ride! It couldn't have been a more perfect day for a long one - it had clouded up and drizzled a little in the morning, but gave way to sunshine and mild warmth after we got out of the city limits.

There were 5 of us that left early from work. 3 guys on big bikes, me and another guy who rides a GT250R as well. I got well and truly left behind as they all flew off down the twisty road after the main turnoff on Great Eastern Hwy. I was going the limit and above pretty much the whole way there - something which felt surprisingly comfortable, thanks to properly warmed tyres (never happened before).

But the wind! It was mad, slap-you-all-over-the-road wind. I've never encountered wind like that, and certainly not at 120 km/h. It was like driving a one-man rollercoaster. Keeping the bike going where i wanted it to go was literally a consistent all-over physical endeavour. I can't even imagine what it would be like at 140 - 160 km/h that the rest were going. One day i'll find out, but it wasn't going to be today.

But what a feeling though. The others were out of sight for most of the main stretch into York, so there i was on my own on a mercifully uncrowded road, whisking between the shadows cast by the waving trees on a twisting road. Thrum of the engine under me, everything that is me rushing down the road, balanced on 2 rubber hoops and a motor encased in plastic. Miles of open road, endless fields fuzzed in lines like a Van Gogh creation by the speed...

It was incredible. Crazy wonderful incredible. Alive.

On the way back they stopped to let me catch up, so we could ride the highway back into the city as a group (which i can do. 110 and under is no problem, it's when it gets too much above that i start to feel unsure). Coming in to the urban traffic flow with a completely different perspective on my place in this metal, carbon monoxide spewing river flow; it felt like i'd shed some karma and been bumped a little closer to nirvana. My little bike was rumbling happily like a champion, after that cleaning-out her engine had been given.

V-day

2007-02-14T18:26:00.000+08:00

There was a woman on the radio, whose husband had brought her to a Kawasaki store in Midland today to test ride a Kawasaki 900.

She liked the bike, and was prepared to sit out the 2 or 3 week delay before taking delivery.

But her husband said he couldn't wait that long, pulled her into a corner where there was a bike standing under a cover. When she "unwrapped" her present, out popped a balloon with an i-love-you message, and a shiny blue 900 waiting.

Now that's what i call a great Valentine's gift. Smart man!

Pre-ride entertainment

2007-02-13T20:10:00.000+08:00

The sticker on my fuel tank. Makes for good reading while waiting for engine to warm up in the morning.

Police

2007-02-12T19:01:00.000+08:00

Like the majority of drivers, i tend to feel guilty when cops are in close proximity and do all i can to have them go past me. It's different as a biker.

There was a traffic cop on a bike riding behind me most of the way home this evening. I don't think i've ever felt quite so safe on the road with the cop on his big motorbike trundling easily a car length away. It felt like he was on my side - however gross a delusion the idea was - 2 motorbikes in a sea of oblivious cages.

If nothing else, it meant the people in cars were keeping an eye out, and away from me like i was avian flu incarnate.

Night ride and official progression

2007-02-09T21:53:00.000+08:00

It evolved that i had the night to myself, so i grabbed the opportunity to take a long ride up the coast. Aside from the hand cramping, it was a great ride. I've discovered after some observation that the hand-cramping might be caused by my gloves being an ill fit, rather than the gap between the handle bars and brake and clutch levers. Tonight's ride proved it. 2 hours of continuous riding determined that:

My left glove has loosened from continuous flexing/clutching, so my left hand is ok
The thumb of my right glove is too short, causing considerable discomfort especially when throttling at high speed.

I need to get new gloves. Back to Dale Britton i will go before next weekend, when the mass ride occurs. Now that i've decided on it, i'm seriously looking forward to it.

Tonight's ride also determined something else. Once i made this discovery, the physical aspects of riding sort of all fell into place and started making sense on an instinctual level, however strange that might sound. While i still have a long way to go skill and experience wise, i have moved up a stage.

It's taken 2 months, but i am officially over my newbie jitters =)

Draggin Jeans

2007-02-09T15:07:00.000+08:00

When i decided i was going to get my protective riding pants, i did the obligatory research and reading. I was left with 2 conclusions: the old skool riders will swear their lives, wives and everything else by riding leathers. Younger/newer riders go for protective pants that have the look of conventional fashion items, in particular Draggin Jeans, who appear to be very well marketed.

I knew what i wanted as both a younger/new rider - Draggins don't have impact protection but they are abrasian resistant so no road rash, and they look like regular jeans/cargoes, which means i can walk around in them without feeling too foolish. All i needed was a little help with sizing and some general questions.

I stopped by Total Motorcycle Accessories as planned in the previous post, where i was summarily ignored by all the idle sales staff. I guess they saw breasts, assumed they came with no real interest, and decided i was a waste of time. So back i went to Dale Britton's, the dealership that sold me the bike and my existing gear, and they helped me out nicely.

I am now the proud owner of a pair of black Draggin Jeans cargoes, with a nice discount from Dale's as a recognised customer. They're the most expensive item of clothing i've ever owned save the jacket, but i'm definitely happy about it.

Improvement, and more gear

2007-02-08T18:25:00.000+08:00

I've managed to forcibly stop myself from looking at the odometer (and consequently, worrying about what i'm doing with the bike), and instead, to keep my head up and my eyes everywhere all the time. As a result of this exercise, riding has immediately become smoother, and i, more relaxed.

These are basic things that i've been taught, but bad habits are persistent bastards, so here we go with another round of consciously kicking self up arse until it sinks in.

*
I'm one of those people who rides with helmet, jacket and gloves no matter how hot it is, as i am lily-livered. By being on a motorcycle i am already many times at risk of bad injury everytime i head out on the road, and i'm not a big fan of pain. Roadrash doesn't look like a whole load of fun.

I often see girls on bikes, whether riding or pillion, dressed in traffic-stoppingly little. It looks good, but i find myself wondering how they cope with small stuff like gravel or dirt on the road striking their skin. I'd taken a flying fall off my bicycle a couple of months ago and got quite hurt - the cycling gloves i was wearing were shredded but saved my palms considerable damage - and i would hate to experience that equivalent on a motorbike.

I've been thinking about getting riding pants for a while, and now that i'm getting going with longer rides etc, i've decided that i need to get some protection below the waist stat. Will be heading to Total Motorcycle Accessories tomorrow if i don't lose my nerve, as i've been told they have a decent range of stuff.

I'll be broke for a while, but i figure my skin is worth the credit interest.

Affirmation etc

2007-02-04T10:12:00.000+08:00

Before the drinking started last night i asked Mr C again "So were you serious about me getting [mate's] 750?"

I just had to know if it was the alcohol talking when he suggested it last week. I really couldn't understand how his anti-bike attitude had just flipped like that.

He didn't even hesitate. "Well yeah, as long as you're licensed and he hasn't sold it. Why not?"

I am flaggergasted. I still don't know why and i won't ask. I will instead, be thankful for small favours.

*

I dropped my bike again, this time against a curb leaning downhill on a steep incline. Picking it up isn't as easy as it looks. I need to practice. At the rate i'm going, i may need to get it re-faired (don't know if i'm the word properly, so forgive me) on the left side by the time i run my bike in.

I'm starting to understand why people say to learners "get a bike you're willing to drop."

I've been riding rough for the last couple of week days. Work is taking it's toll on me and i'm constantly sleep-deprived. The one good thing about working late though, is getting to ride when the sun is going down. Sunsets are wonderful here, and better in the summer because it happens well after rush hour is over (when people are finishing up dinner and considering bed), and that stilled, hushed feeling prevails. The downside is that i can't ride for very long, because i start tiring after about 20 minutes and have to turn around and head home.

Bloody waste.

Considering the mass exodus

2007-02-01T19:49:00.000+08:00

My concerns about a possible distance group ride was mentioned at the end of the last post. Going through this site, i came across a telling paragraph on group rides and those who should re-rethink them:

Pushing past one's ability to safely control the bike in an emergency, no matter how unexpected the situation may be, is what novice riders are notorious for doing with devastating results. In fact, a really good way of having your first accident is to go out for a group ride with more experienced riders and trying to keep up with them if they are making progress at a faster pace than is within your envelope of abitlity. You are put in an invidious position: not wanting to appear a whimp while trying to keep the shiny side up. Much better to slow down and go at your own pace - meet up with the other riders at the next refreshment rendevous!

85% of all motorcycle accidents involve riders with less than 2 years of riding experience.
The Ultimate Objective - Motorcycle Riding Techniques

It describes the potential scenario rather well. The only exception to the above might be my resignation to wimpishness (being a girl lets you get away with a lot of things). I know when i can attempt heroism; and i doubt i'd try it at this point. I'm well aware of a large number of things i am insufficiently prepared for on a bike, so i can only guess at how much i need to know that i don't have a clue about. But peer pressure makes funny friction against ego. At some stage i'll get sick of being left 50 miles behind and will probably decide i feel more capable than i actually am.

Still considering it. I've got approximately 2 weeks to make my decision. It all depends on how much practice i get between then and now.

Posture

2007-01-30T21:59:00.000+08:00

The shoulders-down method from the end of this post is working so far. I find physically keeping shoulders down a little bit difficult, considering the position of the rider on a sports bike, but consciously relaxing the muscles does wonders. Its effect is felt most significantly in cornering.

I may have mentioned before that this bike, with its lower center of gravity/weight placement, corners a helluva lot more naturally¹ than the dirt bike i learnt on. Leaning into a corner is a truly excellent feeling, but doing it with confidence, nice and evenly, relaxed in the full knowlege that you're going to sweep back up and out of a turn, is just... ineffably wonderful.

I am hardly cornering like a pro, you understand. I probably look pretty ridiculous to most other people on the road (nevermind other motorcyclists), but i feel a lot better doing it now than i did before, as mentioned somewhere in this post. Gaining more confidence, losing the hesitation bit by bit.

My body is really getting acquainted with my bike.

*

Some of the guys at work are organising a ride to one of the outlying towns down the track, and i'm being recruited by one of them who is going with an even newer Gt250R than mine. I'd initially declined outright, as all the other guys have big bikes, and i'm riding my little beast like a bloody girl, but now that there's a few of us running our bikes in, and someone else to eat big-bike-dust with me, i'm very tempted.

We'll see how much practice i get in between. Talk about having to keep up!

1. by this i mean, being able to lean in most basic situations without worrying about falling

Honourable mention

2007-01-30T21:57:00.000+08:00

Learning to ride gets pimped by Jon!

Unlimited licence to ride?

2007-01-28T15:54:00.000+08:00

I don't know if alcohol makes one more agreeable on scorching days, but at some point last night, the husband managed to suggest that i should get my unlimited (R) licence.

The conversation went thus:

"You should get [a mate's] Suzuki 750... oh but wait, you don't have the licence do you?"

"Uh... i qualify to test for it in March?" i manage to say, bug-eyed and drop-jawed, motor functions temporarily arrested in shock. Most of the posts in this blog mention his definitive objection to anything and everything motorcycle. It's taken me long enough to get my little 250cc beast, and i'd pretty much given up on ever getting a bigger bike even if i had the licence, because that might cause more domestic dramas.

From that, to... this? Had i done something that shed 10 years of karma in the last 2 days? Had he secretly taken out a million dollar life insurance policy on me? Was the bottle of wine better than expected? Or had continuous days of 40°C temperature taken their toll?

"But he said he wasn't in a rush to sell it though, so he might still have it in a couple of months. And he takes really good care of it, so you'll be getting a well looked after bike."

"Yeah that's not a bad idea. Well, i guess i'll have to get my R licence pretty soon then won't i?"

Enthusiastic head nodding on his part.

Right.

I need to relax

2007-01-28T10:09:00.000+08:00

I am always enormously relaxed after a stint on the freeway. It's the one place where i can just concentrate on my riding and everything around me, without worrying about what i'm doing with the bike. Getting off the freeway i'm riding better, smoother, and less stressed about everything/nothing.

During lessons, Brian (instructor) used to tell me "stop worrying about what you're doing and look around you. The bike will go where you want it to." Because that was what i'd do. Worry if i was throttling enough, what gear i was in, how far away i am from the car in front, why the bike was swaying the way it was, what my speed was, if i was braking properly going around the corner, if i was taking the roundabout in the right gear, and oh god why is the indicator knob so stubborn.... the list goes on. To the extent that i'd forget to pay attention to anything else. Like traffic.

Now that i ride alone i don't have a choice in paying attention to everything, but i still haven't stopped worrying about what i'm doing with the bike.

Which means that unless i give myself a conscious kick up the arse (which i'm learning to do regularly), i ride like an old lady.... overwhelmed by the multi-tasking involved in propelling a vehicle.

Ergh. This is a sore spot. I've thus far taken to boys' toys like a duck to water, and my ego is not happy that i'm not on my way to being Valentina Rossi. I should be riding like a budding champion without conscious effort, but i'm not. It's occured to me that i've digested more of this motorcycle-is-death rhetoric i've been getting in abundance, than i realise. It won't drive me off the bike, but the cloud of doom hanging over my head is causing me to doubt myself.

Mission for the next however long it takes me to get over this:

To pick a leaf from my book of lessons (the only reference i have to all this): Ensure shoulders are relaxed. If shoulders are relaxed, rest of body will follow suit.

At the end, this bike is still my claim to freedom of movement. Mine to be enthralled with, mine to discover, mine to ride. If i'm feeling particularly f**ked up, i get into my gear and take her out for a spin. The bike restores the sense of self that has lately taken some punishment (to people with actual lives, this probably sounds very sad).

And since the bike's doing me favours in the morale department, the one thing i owe her, is to ride her like i own her. So, shoulders down and off she goes!

Mantra

2007-01-26T08:13:00.000+08:00

The surest thing there is is we are riders,
And though none too successful at it, guiders,
Through everything presented, land and tide
And now the very air, of what we ride.

What is this talked-of mystery of birth
But being mounted bareback on the earth?
We can just see the infant up astride,
His small fist buried in the bushy hide.

There is our wildest mount–a headless horse.
But though it runs unbridled off its course,
And all our blandishments would seem defied,
We have ideas yet that we haven’t tried.

- Robert Frost, Riders from West-Running Brook, 1928

Gratuitous photos i haven't posted

2007-01-25T23:11:00.000+08:00

My favourite:

A first: Riding with another

2007-01-24T18:46:00.000+08:00

I did a fair bit of riding today, but most of it was in rush hour traffic, so my wrists are now sore, as i still haven’t gotten my clutch and front brake levers adjusted.

This evening i went on a ride with my former boss, who owns a gorgeous black 650 version of my bike.

I can’t say how much i enjoyed myself, despite some clutching difficulties. Yet another facet of this motorcycling thing has opened up. I wasn’t/am not the best companion to ride with at the moment, as i:

tended to keep my distance to give him room incase i did something stupid
have a bike that accelerates more or less like a small car
am running bike in so i don’t want to throttle her too hard. Manual says before first 1600, don’t open throttle more than half. That’s difficult to do - see #2 - but i’m still trying to be gentle
am still relatively new to all of it, and so #1
am nowhere confident enough to lane-split, which means i sit dutifully behind traffic like a bloody car, and he had to as well

But it was a hell of an experience (for me anyhow). At this point in time a blast down the freeway and the coast alone still sends my blood singing, but to be doing all of it in sync with someone else is… different. I’m starting to understand why West Coast Drive is so popular with biker packs on weekends. A curvy ocean road, hot half-dressed bodies in the summertime, seabreeze, the rumble of your engine under you and others who feel the same… some version of utopia must begin with this. In every sense of the phrase, it’s pretty damn awesome.

I found this gem on the web today:

A motorbike is a crude metal framework isolated from the ground by two rubber hoops. While many explain the benefits of this arrangement, all it really means is that you fall over when you stop.
Motorbikes are often equipped with disproportionately large engines that propel the machine and its rider at hazardous speeds. Should the rider fall off, he or she will come into contact with the road, slide along its surface and vanish into the scenery. If you hear muffled cries for an ambulance coming from a tree, don’t worry, it’s only a motorcyclist.

As a method of transport, motorbikes are dreadful. If you ride them in the rain, you get wet. If you ride them in the sun, it will start to rain. There is no glove compartment and no cigarette lighter. There is also no steering wheel: you determine your route by leaning in the direction you wish to travel, just as you would if you were drunk.

You also have to wear a bulbous metal hat with a visor. If you open the visor, your mouth fills up with wasps and your head vibrates. If you close it, the wasps can’t get out and you have to swallow them.

Motorcyclists ride everywhere at 170mph. This means that car drivers can’t see them, and have accidents with them. Motorcyclists therefore hate car drivers.

Definition of a motorbike from h2g2

Monochrome

2007-01-23T18:46:00.000+08:00

You really didn’t think i’d given up on it already did you?

Long blurb, or overcompensating for silence

2007-01-16T18:45:00.000+08:00

I’ve been neglecting a lot of things lately. Even the mandatory things that keep Mr C and i functional have been subsumed into either of the following data sets:

1. Bike
2. Things that keep me from bike

When i’m not on or looking at the bike, i’m day dreaming about how i wish i was on it. When i’m on it, i’m discovering life all over again. Because it is still a touchy issue, i’ve been trying not to draw attention to it when Mr C is around, to keep the peace. Trouble is, since we live together, he’s mostly around when i am, so i haven’t had my fill of quality time with my machine.

After 3 solid weeks of ownership, i went on a long, long ride yesterday, up and down the coast at sunset for a couple of hours. It’s been blustery these few days, and after my last encounter with a wall of moving air, i ended up getting lots of practice at following some good advice about leaning into side-swiping wind like it’s a corner. In the process i discovered that hugging one’s tank isn’t all about looking like you’re going very fast - it also keeps you streamlined and reduces a surprising amount of wind resistance, even that which comes at you from the side. I don’t understand the mechanics of that quite, but i assume it’s related to the principle of less drag on lesser (and less offensively positioned) surface area.

I’ve pretty much lost interest in everything but riding at this stage. Even my beloved camera is taking a break. The best friend got me a cyclometer for Christmas (something which would otherwise excite me no end), and it’s still sitting there, waiting to be fitted onto my bicycle, itself a temporarily abandoned child, scruffy and destitute in its corner.

Article: Motorcycle firm targets female riders

2007-01-14T18:45:00.000+08:00

By JENNI MINTZ, Scripps Howard News Service
Published 11:59 am PST Friday, January 12, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/business/24hr_business/story/3471101p-1269738

VENTURA, Calif. (SH) - Hard-core. Gritty. Dangerous. Male.

This is what some might see when they look at a motorcycle.

But to David Scoggins, the fast-paced ride can just as easily be paired with luxury and glamour, often associated with a woman’s world.

Women are the fastest growing segment of the motorcycle market today, said Scoggins, owner of Thunder Customs, a new Ventura, Calif. motorcycle repair business that caters to women.

New motorcycle retail sales racked up an estimated $8.8 billion in 2004, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.

Almost 10 percent of the 6.6 million estimated motorcycle owners in the United States are women, according to a 2003 report by the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine. The most recent available data from the national trade association further showed that there were 635,000 female motorcycle owners in 2003, compared with 467,400 in 1998, a 35.9 percent increase.

Several factors have led to this increase. After riding on motorcycles behind men, many women were encouraged to enroll in motorcycle safety courses and then went on to buy their own, said Mike Mount, spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council.

“In recent years, women have felt more empowered to do a lot of different things that they might not have thought of doing in the past - motorcycling fits into that category,” Mount said.

Since there are more female motorcycle owners than ever, there are more on the road, “so we think that helps, just because women see other women riding,” he added.

As a whole, the industry is adapting to meet the changing market. Motorcycles don’t have to be masculine and bulky. There are more than 450 new motorcycles available this year in the U.S., and sizes, shapes and colors to fit any motorcyclist’s taste, Mount said.

Still, Scoggins recognizes there are challenges that women face in the male-dominated industry.

“They have all kinds of issues, from right height of motorcycles, to clothes that actually fit them and are functional and comfortable,” said Scoggins, an Oxnard, Calif. resident. “And a lot of times, they find themselves having to buy men’s clothing or go through all kinds of extraneous steps to feel like they’re part of this world and fit in.”

Many women reject riding because of safety concerns, or they feel intimidated by the size of a motorcycle in relation to their own size.

Small stature was not a problem for Jayme Rainwater, a 40-year-old Navy senior chief petty officer who stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs almost 200 pounds.

The problem was she was scared to death. When she was about 24, she acquired a bike from a friend. It sat parked for a few years, until a group of guys pressured her to start riding.

“I didn’t have a lot of confidence back then, and that was an instrument to raise my confidence,” she said. Rainwater also likes that riding is an individualized sport.

“Every turn you make is your turn,” she said. “You’re in control.”

She now has two motorcycles. Most of all, Rainwater enjoys the independence that comes with riding.

“You’re not boxed in,” she said. “If you can’t afford a horse, I think a motorcycle is the closest thing to that.”

Scoggins is intent on fulfilling the needs of women, even though 90 percent of his customers - like the market - are male.

“While many men change their own oil, few women do,” Scoggins said.

Thunder Customs offers basic services, such as changing oil and tires, providing regular maintenance, and making modifications.

Right now, the typical-looking shop only hints at Scoggins’ long-term dreams. The 2,100-square-foot building is filled with tools and equipment, amid lingering scents of oil and cigar smoke. But glass cases in the 800-square-foot showroom display women’s makeup, hair products, motor clothes, T-shirts and jewelry.

A wireless connection is available to customers, so they can browse the Internet or check e-mail while waiting. By mid-2007, Scoggins said he hopes to offer Thunder Customs’ own line of private label MotorClothes and leather apparel, specifically designed for women who ride and “who are not a size two.”

Someday, Scoggins envisions being able to fully pamper his clients with a day spa on site. It would allow women to drop off their motorcycles for whatever work needs to be done while they get a facial, massage or their hair done. He also wants to offer a monthly program that provides advanced riding tips or a motorcycle safety inspection for women.

Scoggins shares his vision with fellow owners Tron Elliott and Chrisa Angell. They project the shop will generate $1.9 million in revenue in the first year.

Congested freeways and high gas prices have driven the market’s tremendous growth, Scoggins said.

“With the market the way it is,” he said, “I don’t see how we can miss.”

More biking bits

2007-01-09T18:43:00.000+08:00

My hands are too small for clutch lever. This causes hands to ache/cramp up after a while. Must do something about it.

After reading a thread at Korider.com about rookie mistakes, i no longer feel quite so rotten about dropping my bike within the first week of getting it. Still am an idiot for it, but i guess it was bound to happen at some stage… as one member said “If you get on 2 Wheels, You Gonna come off!”

I rode in the rain today for the first time - it was more a heavy-ish drizzle, with strong wind (it’s semi-gale or flat air with this place. No such thing as a breeze in Perth - all or nothing!). The rain wasn’t too bad, it was the wind that alarmed me. Leaning (my new favourite orientation) into a wide turn, i could barely keep my place in the lane. I mentioned before that the weight, or perhaps the low placement of weight, of this bike still surprises me…. that just happened again.

Have yet to ride in full-on rain though. As a colleague advised today “Riding in the rain’s alright, until your underwear gets soaked. Then it’s bloody uncomfortable!”

Yet another friend of mine has moved to Oz. I need to be doing some travelling, albeit not by bike. Perth to Sydney on a little 250cc, when i’m still dubious about my ability to stay upright in strong wind? Not a chance!

Comments from original posting:

One thing you could try for that clutch lever is to see if your mechanic can bend it a little (either that or drop it again on the left side :)). You may find it only needs to be changed a small amount to make it a whole lot better.
I’ve ridden many different sizes of bikes, from massive 1 litre beasts that don’t even budge when hit with a blat of Perth wind, to bendy old small capacity Jappers that feel like they want to jump up and plop back down in the next lane in a gust. The trick with strong wind is to treat it like a corner - lean into the wind, and move with the changes, and you’ll find it isn’t so bad.
I’ve been hit by small Willy-willies as well, they are scary, but gone in a flash.

Comment by Gary — Thursday, Jan 11 @ 9:52 am

Oh look, another thing, once you are out of first gear you will find you really don’t need to clutch to change gear. Just get the knack of matching the revs and a tight little bike like yours will snick through the gears just lovely like.
Sing with me now; “Snick gooes the gears boys, snick snick snick,
Wide is her line but her bike is quick,
The wringer looks around and he’s beaten by a girl,
Glory to the lady with the clutchless shift!”

Ok, so the last bit didn’t rhyme, but I gotta be pretty happy with that for an impromptu.

Comment by Gary — Thursday, Jan 18 @ 10:13 am

More bike stuff

2007-01-06T18:43:00.000+08:00

I’ve had no words of late, involved in my bike, the parents being here, and the mundanity of trying to integrate changes into what must necessarily remain the same.

I’ve not been sleeping restfully for the last few months, a surprising condition for someone who’s pretty narcoleptic. The result of this is my becoming more cotton-headed in general - all of my faculties are reserved for work. Work is after all, what pays the bills and provides for my bike.

On the biking front (but what did you expect, considering i had to give her up for a full 8 days while my parents were here?):

Week 1:
• Bring bike home
• Totally and completely overwhelmed by bike and how big/fast/heavy it is
• Despite being able to putt around on residential roads, feel like cannot handle main roads, resulting in not being able to transport self effectively around.
• Discover that as long as bike is in motion, everything a-ok. When velocity falls, big problems. Hill starts and turns at slow speeds cause for stress - possibility of stalling and bike falling and getting mowed over by traffic
• Drop bike. Yes. I DROPPED MY BIKE. When stationary (see above point about falling velocity). Could not handle weird slope of driveway when not moving. Small scratches on bottom of body armour but otherwise still pristine. Emotional trauma. Discover that bike is very heavy when trying to right it, with Princess‘ help.
• Am only biker on road religous about speed limit, such that little old ladies get impatient and overtake dismissively
• Start to think was mistake to get sports bike as obviously too much to handle
• Want to cry because of above point, and too in love with bike to part with. Yellow is new favourite color.

Week 2 (Christmas to New Year):
• Complete write off. No contact with bike as had to hide it while parents were here

Week 3 (first week January):
• Retrieve bike from hiding place (Princess’ carport) with much excitement
• Miraculous appearance of confidence - attribute this to missing bike. To date, execute perfect hill starts, slow turns, road positioning (for the most part). Still iffy on staying in same lane position when doing big roundabouts, but supremely confident is just a matter of time before getting right
• Discover unbeatable ancient method of keeping in mind which gear bike is in - counting
• Internalise the difference between riding like every car is a bike killer, and being paranoid about it
• Really enjoying self now. Leaning gracefully into corners is best feeling in world
• Slow-speed handling still a bit of a concern, but big improvements. Am sure that like big roundabouts, all matter of time
• Freeway on Saturday morning is answer to all problems

Merry Christmas everyone ;)

2006-12-25T18:42:00.000+08:00

My smokin' new ride

2006-12-23T18:35:00.000+08:00

You want pictures? You got pictures.

My bumblebee. The best friend calls it my yellow stinger. Princess reckons it’s sexy. Everyone else utilised expletives aplenty. I’m over the moon. And after 2 days of alternating between hysterical excitement and brain-gone-walkabout, i’m finally in a position to say something coherent.

Yes, i ended up with the GT250R, the same bike i was slavering over in this post. I didn’t end up feeling as good on the naked bike as i thought i would. And by good, i don’t mean the ego gratifying “everyone will look at me and think i’m too cool” kind of good, i mean the “i like how this connects with the road and my body” kind of good.

Of course, it helps that she’s a beauty, a nice big-sized bike with a quick little 250 cc Suzuki heart. If you’re wondering why i picked yellow, it’s simple: It makes me as visible as i can be on a small vehicle.

I’m definitely in love.

On the day i got her (Wednesday), everyone assumed i was going to go tearing up and down the streets. Instead, i spent 2 hours old-lady putt-putt-putting down the residential roads, going through my lessons - “O” things, which involve simultaneous U-turns so you end up going in a continous long circle, uphill starts, quick stops, proper gear changes, roundabouts, and then some easy riding around just getting used to the bike. I never got on the main road at all. Had enough of that getting home from work; it was a frigging carnival. It’s a good thing i only left well after rush hour was over.

It's been a long gap between getting my licence and riding any bike, so i needed a refresher on bike handling. She was so brand new there were 2 klicks on the odometer and not a fingermark on her. I wasn’t about to risk doing her (and myself) damage for impatience. The lone practice session returned my confidence, relaxed me, and reminded me to breathe. I was in charge.

Riding to work the next day (Thursday) felt so much better. I was in control of the bike rather than the other way around. More aimless riding around the streets afterwards. Road positioning practice: stay away from the oil slick (center portion of the lane). Ride on the right side of the lane, unless preparing to turn. Stay out of people’s blind spots. Head check, head check, head check. Crap, the helmet is a heavy bloody thing. Getting up and down our driveway, which is a slope, is still proving to be interesting.

On the third day (yesterday) i thought “sod it, i’m getting on the freeway.”

And then i also noticed that other bikers have an action of acknowledgement. Pass one on the road and he/she nods your way.

It’s all very exciting.

The interview: Robert Pirsig

2006-12-23T07:41:00.000+08:00

The Seventies bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was the biggest-selling philosophy book ever. But for the reclusive author life was bitter-sweet. Here, he talks frankly about anxiety, depression, the death of his son and the road trip that inspired a classic.

Tim Adams
Sunday November 19, 2006, The Observer

At 78, Robert Pirsig, probably the most widely read philosopher alive, can look back on many ideas of himself. There is the nine-year-old-boy with the off-the-scale IQ of 170, trying to work out how to connect with his classmates in Minnesota. There is the young GI in Korea picking up a curiosity for Buddhism while helping the locals with their English. There is the radical, manic teacher in Montana making his freshmen sweat over a definition of 'quality'. There is the homicidal husband sectioned into a course of electric-shock treatment designed to remove all traces of his past. There is the broken-down father trying to bond with his son on a road trip. There is the best-selling author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, offering solutions to the anxieties of a generation. And there is, for a good many years, the reclusive yachtsman, trying to steer a course away from cultish fame.

Pirsig doesn't do interviews, as a rule; he claims this one will be his last. He got spooked early on. 'In the first week after I wrote Zen I gave maybe 35,' he says, in his low, quick-fire Midwestern voice, from behind his sailor's beard. 'I found it very unsettling. I was walking by the post office near home and I thought I could hear voices, including my own. I had a history of mental illness, and I thought: it's happening again. Then I realised it was the radio broadcast of an interview I'd done. At that point I took a camper van up into the mountains and started to write Lila, my second book.'

It is that second book, recently republished, that has prompted him to talk to me now. He sits in a hotel room in Boston and tries, not for the first time, to make some sense of his life. He is, he suggests, always in a double bind. 'It is not good to talk about Zen because Zen is nothingness ... If you talk about it you are always lying, and if you don't talk about it no one knows it is there.' Generally, rather than analysing, he says, he would rather 'just enjoy watching the wind blow through the trees'. Reclusion has its discontents, however. 'In this country someone who sits around and does that is at the bottom of the ladder, but in Japan, say, someone who goes up into the mountains is accorded great respect.' He pauses, laughs. 'I guess I fall somewhere in between.'

Ever since I first read Pirsig's motorbike quest for meaning, when I was about 14, I've been curious to imagine its author. Part of the compulsion of that book, which has sold more than five million copies, is the sense of autobiographical mysteries that remain unexplained. While Pirsig's narrator tries to marry the spirit of the Buddha with western consumerism, discovers the godhead in his toolkit, and intuits a sense of purposive quality independent of subjects and objects, he also constructs a fragmentary picture of his own past. His pre-shock-treatment former self, the ghostly Phaedrus, haunts his travels across the Midwest.

'What I am,' he writes at one point, 'is a heretic who's recanted and thereby in everyone's eyes saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows deep down inside that all he has saved is his skin.' My 14-year-old self double-underlined this and put two Biro exclamation marks in the margin. Twenty-six years, and several revisionist readings of the book later, I'm still wondering what Pirsig thinks of when he thinks of himself.

He suggests a lot of that idea still goes back to his childhood as a disaffected prodigy. He says that ever since he could think he had an overwhelming desire to have a theory that explained everything. As a young man - he was at university at 15 studying chemistry - he thought the answer might lie in science, but he quickly lost that faith. 'Science could not teach me how to understand girls sitting in my class, even.'

He went to search elsewhere. After the army he majored in philosophy and persuaded his tutor to help him get a place on a course in Indian mysticism at Benares, where he found more questions than answers. He wound up back home, married, drifting between Mexico and the States, writing technical manuals and ads for the mortuary cosmetics industry. It was when he picked up philosophy again in Montana, and started teaching, that Phaedrus and his desire for truth overtook Pirsig once more.

At that time, he recalls, in his early thirties, he was so full of anxiety that he would often be physically sick before each class he taught. He used his students to help him discover some of the ideas that make up what he calls the 'metaphysics of quality' in his books, the ideas that led him to believe that he had bridged the chasm between Eastern and Western thought. No two classes were the same. He made his students crazy by refusing to grade them, then he had them grade each other. He suggests that by the end of each term they were so euphoric that if he had told them to jump out of the window they would have done. The president of the university gave a speech, and he contradicted him in the middle of it by shouting: 'This school has no quality.' He saw clearly how American society was disconnected from life and he believed he could help it connect. He was reading Kerouac, and trying to live in truth.

Alongside that, I say, as he describes that time with some fervour, I guess there was some depression setting in? 'Well,' he says, 'there was fear. All these ideas were coming in to me too fast. There are crackpots with crazy ideas all over the world, and what evidence was I giving that I was not one of them?'

Such evidence proved harder and harder to present. One day in the car with his six-year-old son Chris, his mind buzzing, Pirsig stopped at a junction and literally did not know which way to turn. He had to ask his son to guide him home. What followed was the point where he either found enlightenment, or went insane, depending on how you look at it (really the root of all the questions in his first book).

'I could not sleep and I could not stay awake,' he recalls. 'I just sat there cross-legged in the room for three days. All sorts of volitions started to go away. My wife started getting upset at me sitting there, got a little insulting. Pain disappeared, cigarettes burned down in my fingers ...'

It was like a monastic experience?

'Yes, but then a kind of chaos set in. Suddenly I realised that the person who had come this far was about to expire. I was terrified, and curious as to what was coming. I felt so sorry for this guy I was leaving behind. It was a separation. This is described in the psychiatric canon as catatonic schizophrenia. It is cited in the Zen Buddhist canon as hard enlightenment. I have never insisted on either - in fact I switch back and forth depending on who I am talking to.'

Midwestern American society of 1960 took the psychiatrist's view. Pirsig was treated at a mental institution, the first of many visits. Looking back, he suggests he was just a man outside his time. 'It was a contest, I believe, between these ideas I had and what I see as the cultural immune system. When somebody goes outside the cultural norms, the culture has to protect itself.'

That immune system left him with no job and no future in philosophy; his wife was mad at him, they had two small kids, he was 34 and in tears all day. Did he think of it at the time as a Zen experience?

'Not really. Though the meditation I have done since takes you to a similar place. If you stare at a wall from four in the morning till nine at night and you do that for a week, you are getting pretty close to nothingness. And you get a lot of opportunities for staring in an asylum.'

When he was released, it only got worse. He was crazier; he pointed a gun at someone, he won't say who. He was committed by a court and underwent comprehensive shock treatment of the kind described by Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I wonder if he remembers the mechanics of it?

'Well they put a little rubber thing in your mouth and then they gave a drug like curare, used by South American Indians in their darts. It stops your lungs before it stops your mind. Before you go under you had a feeling like you were drowning. I woke up one time and I thought: where the hell am I? I had a feeling I was in my Aunt Flossie's house, which I had liked as a child. I thought I must have passed out drunk.' He laughs. 'This was after the 14th treatment I think.'

When his wife came to see him he knew something was wrong but he did not know what it was. A nurse started to cry because she knew that his wife had divorced him while he had been in hospital. 'The funny thing about insane people,' he says, 'is that it is kind of the opposite of being a celebrity. Nobody envies you.'

Pirsig was able to keep a tenuous grip on his former self, despite the treatment. He figured that if he told anyone he was in fact an enlightened Zen disciple, they would lock him up for 50 years. So he worked out a new strategy of getting his ideas across. He embarked on a book based on a motorcycle ride he made with his son, Chris, from Minnesota to the Dakotas in 1968. 'It was a compulsive thing. It started out of a little essay. I wanted to write about motorcycling because I was having such fun doing it, and it grew organically from there.'

When the book came out, in 1974, edited down from 800,000 words, and having been turned down by 121 publishers, it seemed immediately to catch the need of the time. George Steiner in the New Yorker likened it to Moby Dick. Robert Redford tried to buy the film rights (Pirsig refused). It has since taken on a life of its own, and though parts feel dated, its quest for meaning still seems urgent. For Pirsig, however, it has become a tragic book in some ways. At the heart of it was his relationship with his son, Chris, then 12, who himself, unsettled by his father's mania, seemed close to a breakdown. In 1979, aged 22, Chris was stabbed and killed by a mugger as he came out of the Zen Centre in San Francisco. Subsequent copies of the book have carried a moving afterword by Pirsig. 'I think about him, have dreams about him, miss him still,' he says now. 'He wasn't a perfect kid, he did a lot of things wrong, but he was my son ...'

I ask what Chris thought of the book, and Pirsig's face strains a little.

'He didn't like it. He said, "Dad, I had a good time on that trip. It was all false." It threw him terribly. There is stuff I can't talk about still. Katagiri Roshi, who helped me set up the Zen Centre in Minnesota, took him in hand in San Francisco. When Katagiri gave Chris's funeral address tears were just running down his face. He suffered almost more than I did.'

When his son died, Pirsig was in England. He had sailed across the Atlantic with his second wife, Wendy Kimball, 22 years his junior, whom he had met when she had come to interview him on his boat. She has never disembarked. He was working at the time on Lila, the sequel to his first book, which further examines Phaedrus's ideas in the context of a voyage along the Hudson, with Lila, a raddled Siren, as crew.

The book is bleaker, messier than Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, though it carries a lot of the charge of Pirsig's restless mind. 'If I wrote it today,' he says, 'it would be a much more cheerful book. But I was resolving things in Lila; the sadness of the past, and particularly Chris's death, is there. Zen was quite an inspiring book, I think, but I wanted to go in the other direction with Lila and do something that explored a more sordid, depressing life ...'

He hoped Lila would force the 'metaphysics of quality' from the New Age shelves to the philosophy ones, but that has not happened. Though a website dedicated to his ideas boasts 50,000 posts, and there have been outposts of academic interest, he is disappointed that his books have not had more mainstream attention. 'Most academic philosophers ignore it, or badmouth it quietly, and I wondered why that was. I suspect it may have something to do with my insistence that "quality" can not be defined,' he says.

This desire to be incorporated in a philosophy canon seems odd anyhow, since the power of Pirsig's books lie in their dynamic personal quest for value, rather than any fixed statement of it. But maybe eventually every iconoclast wants to be accepted.

He still sails. He lives in rural New England and has just been up to the islands of Maine with his wife on the same boat that he describes in Lila - perfectly maintained, of course. He lives these days in cyberspace, he says, where his ideas circulate. He plans to learn to tango, and visit Buenos Aires. He's just discovered YouTube. He doesn't write any more, though, and he hardly reads. I wonder if that old depression ever returns?

'I've been hit with it lately,' he says. 'It did not seem related to my life in any way. I have money, fame, a happy wife, our daughter Nell. But I did for the first time go to a psychiatrist. He said it's a chemical imbalance and he prescribed some pills and the depression has gone.'

Otherwise, he says, he tries to live as best he can to the dictates of 'his dharma': to stay centred. I ask if he fears death.

'I'm not depressed about it,' he says. 'If you read the 101 Zen Stories you will see that is characteristic. I really don't mind dying because I figure I haven't wasted this life. Up until my first book was published I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: No, I didn't screw up.'

He smiles. 'It was just that I was listening to a different drummer all along.'

Pirsig's pearls

· The Buddha resides as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain.

· Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a 30,000 page menu and no food.

· Traditional scientific method has always been, at the very best, 20-20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.

· Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organise themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive?

· The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

Now and Zen

Born 6 September 1928, Minneapolis.

Family Father was a law lecturer and mother was Swedish-born. Pirsig married Nancy Ann James in 1954. They had two sons: Chris, and Ted, now 48. Now married to journalist Wendy Kimball, with whom he has a 25-year-old daughter, Nell.

Education Judged to have an IQ of 170 at age nine. Went to University of Minneapolis at 15, but joined the army in 1946, serving in Korea before returning to the university to study philosophy. Then studied at Benares in India.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Appears in Guinness Book of Records as the bestselling book rejected by the largest number of publishers (121). Sold 5m copies worldwide.

· Lila is published by Alma Books (£7.99). A slipcased, signed limited edition is available at selected Waterstone's (£45)

Girl Buying Motorbike: Part 2

2006-12-22T18:35:00.000+08:00

I’d spent the weekend having very active dreams about motorcycles and related activity. I’d also chewed most of my nails away in the off chance that the finance company wouldn’t like the way my name was spelt, or something.

My loan came through as fully approved on Monday morning.

As the dealership is conveniently a 5 minute cab ride from where i work, I dashed down to the bike shop during lunch that afternoon to try out my naked bike.

It was kind of like coming home, comfy upright posture, long legs, no issues telling the difference between gear shift/footpeg. It wasn’t quite as zippy as the sports bike but that wasn’t the point of getting the bike anyway. One more ride of the sports bike for balance, and my decision was made.

Went through the paperwork, decided on yellow as the color (after all the jokes i was making to a friend about not wanting to be a motorcycling bumblebee), and the dealer said “Swing by in a couple of days, we’ll have paperwork and you can take your bike home.”

And so i jumped around until Wednesday, took a long lunch courtesy my boss, and brought my baby back.

(Part 1 here)

(Bike details here)

Girl buying motorcycle: Part 1

2006-12-20T18:34:00.000+08:00

1. Have some idea what you want
I wanted the naked bike. It had everything i required without going over the top - practicality, a comfortable and familiar (upright) riding position, affordability (v. important), and i could pretend i was riding a small Ducati Monster.

2. Bring your best girlfriend
When i want something so badly for this long, i tend to end up all shaky kneed and stuttery when i’m about to get it. So Princess, in a snug tube dress, looking more like she was headed for a chic ladies’ luncheon rather than a bike shop, played chauffer and moral supporter when i finally made a date with the dealership last week. She waited patiently while i meandered around, getting up the nerve to walk up to one of the guys and ask them stuff i didn’t have the words for, and was on a long call to the finance brokers who would be organizing the loan.

She also managed to sass a former motorcross champion, before turning her back on him and exclaiming into her mobile “They don’t have any pink bikes here!”

That took care of the nervousness nicely - i was so busy trying to decide whether to gape or laugh, i forgot all about it. Gotta give it to your friends. They know what works.

3. Test, test, test ride!
They didn’t have the naked bike for me to test then, so my first ride after 9 months of not touching a bike, was the GT250R - the sports bike. I’d never ridden a sports bike before so i didn’t even know what i was in for. During my initial hesitation and momentary inability to find the gearshift while foot was on foot peg and vice versa, i could have sworn i caught the poor sales guy silently offering a prayer.

The GT250R is a lot bigger than the little Yamaha scrambler i learnt on, and heavier, as it sits on pretty much the same frame as the 650cc version.

But once i released the clutch and got going, phwoar, the adrenalin rush alone could have carried me all the way around the block.

It felt notably amazing to be back on a bike. This bike has a fair bit more go-go-go than the bike i learnt on, though they are the same engine size (i’m sure there’s a technical explanation for this involving a V-twin block, but i don’t know it). Leaning into turns also felt a bit more natural, no doubt owing to the more crouched riding position and overall lowness of the bike. I’ve read a number of reviews describing this bike as a fun ride, and it certainly was.

But it was a little overwhelming, plus i had my heart set on a naked bike. It helped that husband, who was taking the path of denial with my whole bike crusade, was actually semi-enthusiastic about the naked one, possibly because it doesn’t look as fast as a sports bike (at that point, he was taking what he could get).

“They should sort your loan out in a few days,” the sales guy said to me. “We’ll have one for you to ride then and you can decide which you want.”

So i waited….

(Part 2 here)

How brilliant is

2006-12-18T07:26:00.000+08:00

... this ad on Scifi.com (seen while trawling though all available tidbits for Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, and other random info).

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is an amazing show. I’d go on about how complex and multi-layered and more-than-sci-fi it is, but there are others who do a much better job.

I’m hooked. Having obsessively finished Seasons 1 & 2, i’m on the edge of my seat for Season 3. In the opinion of someone who until 24 and BSG, hadn’t watched TV for many years, television seems to be getting a whole lot better.

The bike is happening

2006-12-17T18:34:00.000+08:00

My little world has been rocking for the last fortnight.

The most notable excitement of all the fireworks, is that i’m in the process of getting a motorbike.

Yes, really!

I’ve been angsting so much about it, online and off, that even i can’t believe it’s happening. The breaking point came during our 1372^nd disagreement about the bike thing, when poor, multiply-tortured Mr C put his head on the table and said “Look, will you just go and GET your bike? Please? I can’t keep doing this.” (Or something to that effect)

It’s been 9 months since i’d gotten my licence.

If things on the administrative side go as planned, i should be picking my baby up next week (just in time for Christmas!). If it doesn’t, well… the only thing i can do is keep banging my head against the wall.

I’m not going into any details for the moment. All of that, and many glamour shots to come when/if i pick her up.

Hyosung GT250R

2006-11-26T18:33:00.000+08:00

The Hyosung GT250R

To my consternation, some dude has started parking a brand spanking new, black one in the carpark at work, alongside an R1. But i’m not in a position to even inhale the exhaust of an R1 at this stage, so let’s go back to the Hyosung.

Do you know what cycling past that beauty everyday, so shiny i can see my pimples in her tank, does to my blood pressure and respiration? Bad things. Very bad things.

I’m as sick of listening to myself wanting random bikes all over the place as you are, but heck, i can’t resist the pretty pictures. And the spec sheets, though i don’t understand half of everything i read, exciting though it all is.

That’s the thing about this motorcycle stuff for me at this point. It’s a birthday-present mystery, just waiting to be unwrapped. Basic car-owner vehicle understanding does very little for the bike owner. Two wheels instead of four, a smaller engine, and a drive system based on a bicycle puts forth a surprising number of assumptions, nevermind anything else, that need to be unlearned. But glancing flippancy towards something new often begets that realisation in the end. It seems that in life, a tiny deviation from your standard at the time often brings with it another world of action and understanding, and ~~hunks of junk~~ vehicles are no exception. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycles was a great first stop, it made the multitude of magazines seem a little bit less Greek.

The GT250R retails for $6990 new.

Sigh. Be still, my broke-ass heart.

Since Mr C is getting all this cool 4WD stuff at the expense of my not getting the bike, it may be time for him to start earning his keep. Hmph.

Ditched

2006-11-10T18:32:00.000+08:00

Because one can keep dreaming, i emailed Mr C this beautiful Aprilia to illustrate the non-difference in price between a used bike and a new one (if you’re not fussy about make and model).

His response was “Try not to give me a heart attack here. :P”

Upon further probing:

“It’s an Aprillia”

and eventually

“It just looks… fast”

So, no bike. It came down to us having a sum of money put aside. Said cash can either buy motorcycle & biking gear, or large 4WD items.

The Patrol won out, even with me kicking and screaming, as a matter of course.

The present tipping of my bike plans down the toilet, has a rather more drastic effect on me than expected. I’ve been mulching around for the last few days morose and scowling, and i appear to have lost the ability to find meaning in anything that i do. I go to work and drag myself through the day, willing spontaneous combustion or invisibility, and then come home and count the hours till bedtime. Lost my appetite almost completely (well, at least extended misery is good for something).

~~It must be true love.~~

It’s been a long time since i’ve been able to travel long distances without reliance on someone else and their vehicle. Bob Marley reckons “if you’re not living good, i beg you, travel wide,” but really, travelling wide isn’t solely about seeing different people and places, it’s also being able to step out yourself. With baggage maybe, but unhampered in motion.

This also could be me placing entirely too much emphasis on motorised wheels, but fuck, you try having a vehicle outside your door which doesn’t belong to you.

One Powerball….

A new place to live

2006-10-14T06:20:00.000+08:00

“Character home” is a nice way of describing an old house built long ago. In the case of the place we moved into the weekend before last, “long ago” would be circa 1950. We’ve gotten so practised at shifting, we did it in 2 days flat this time around, just the two of us and a borrowed trailer.

I had my apprehensions about moving into an old house. I think flowered wallpaper and light fittings, taps and hinges that don’t work. I think dingy and drafty, creaky and overgrown with weeds. I think it’d be someplace where everyday living would be a battle, because i just don’t know how to improve a home and coax it to my desired configuration the way Princess can.

In the last 7 years i’ve lived in at least 7 different places (i’ve lost count by now), and it’s always been a case of me/us surrendering to the place’s idiosyncracies, rather than the other way around.

But as i have discovered over the last 4 days of moving, my doubts couldn’t be further from wrong. The house is old and rather quaint, yes, faux chandellier light fittings, ornate ceilings and all, but everything works beautifully, and while we had a bit of a drama flushing fat black spiders from the seperate laundry area, moving in was otherwise a charm. The interior is spacious and as i discovered, full of workable corners and cabinets and places to put things. The only flowered paper in sight is what the last tenant used to line the cabinets and drawers, which stays nicely out of sight! It’s the first time i’ve ever lived someplace with wooden floorboards, and they are wonderful on the feet and the eardrums - they make piano music especially, sound like the instrument itself is in the room.

Far from being at odds with the character of the place, as we thought, we are finding that it suits us quite well. A large part of this owes to the fact that this house, unlike all the previous, modern ones we’ve lived in, appears to have been built for the practicality of everyday living, rather than to impress on one’s sense of aesthetic. Plenty of leeway for furniture and odds and ends and after all is said and done, there is still a place for us to put our feet up and look out the window at the 180° view of the city skyline (which we will be losing shortly as soon as the people constructing in front put up their 2nd storey).

And importantly, there’s plenty of workspace for car-related actvity, something i never thought we’d find, especially so close to the CBD.

This was going to be our last move in a while, whether or not we found a good place, so i’m glad we are this well situated. Neither Mr C nor i have the energy to up and move every year any longer. Plus, when moving is such a priority, you start to realise that your entire life pretty much revolves around the surprisingly long and involved process of finding somewhere to live. Personal plans and long-term goals are put constantly on hold because moving upsets all sorts of clocks, rhythms and essential stability. It starts to seem kind of pointless after a while.

We’ve done the whole living by the beach thing. It’s everything it’s cracked up to be and more, but it was wasted on us, as we’re distinctly not beach people. The river surrounds are more our speed/atmosphere.

Snatching brief moments to read while the sun sent rainbows dancing in the room through the prismed window panes, it certainly seemed like i could relax and forget about being poised to bolt for a while. There is an ineffable quality to the place that just feels like home.

Due to the difficulties i’m having with telecommunications at the moment, posting will continue to be non-existent for the next 2 weeks at least, until i get the internet back at home. I am experiencing major withdrawals.

(Another reason i’m over the moving thing: every single time we’ve shifted, i’ve always had massive difficulties with either Telstra or my ISP. A month to get your phone and internet up and running properly stops being amusing when it happens all the time)

All i want for Christmas

2006-09-19T06:18:00.000+08:00

Attack of random lust.

Remembering the Serf

2006-08-10T06:06:00.000+08:00

Events of official remembrance for the Serf are over. Life persists. I have found myself thinking about a lot relating to him for the last week, tidying stuff up on this end. We rearranged the house some to occupy more of the space that is suddenly empty - reorganized the shelving, a little bit of the furniture, occupied his old workroom with the husband’s bits and bobs of equipment.

D and his family had cleared most of his belongings, leaving only the furniture and odds and ends for us to use. The Serf lived fairly simply, but even so, the paperwork involved in the 101 facets of life still is considerable.

In the 2 weeks that D was here we watched her organize, administrate, marshall and generally manage everything and everyone involved. Incredible woman, that. Much love to her family, who in addition to providing support, strength and lots of humour, also plied us hungry young-uns with the kind of food we’d probably never learn to produce ourselves.

D very kindly sorted as much of his more personal things as she could, like aforementioned toothbrush/-paste etc, so that we were left with the more general-use items to decide on.

I’ve never been one to hesitate with throwing stuff away. Like the Serf himself, i prefer travelling and living light; it is a requirement of keeping my sanity intact (the big, thirsty beast that is our vehicle being an exception. And the Patrol itself is a spartan creature.). However of everything that i’ve appropriated or gotten rid of, i’m finding myself reluctant to remove the most insignificant item of all - his coffee mug. The Serf had one of those plastic insulated coffee mugs he’d swiped from somewhere, that he was quite attached to. Neither of us are inclined to use it, given the number of coffee mugs that we already have, but as the husband said “But that was his favourite mug! You can’t just throw it way.”

The Serf’s passing is having a funny, undefined effect on me. I’ve never lost anyone close to me before, and truth be told, my brain is still confused. He wasn’t close like family, or my handful of old friends. Until i met him last October, he was another faceless blogger from the motherland. But then he came to live with us. It effectively made us a strange almost-family unit - three people that fed regularly together and found some bond because of it, even if our lives were completely seperate otherwise. And that made the difference.

It’s the smallest things that get to you. Now i know why people say children don’t understand death. This quarter-lifer has yet to figure it out.

And the fat blue mug stays where it is for now, in applied memory.

The passing of the Serf

2006-07-22T06:06:00.000+08:00

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me

I was going to avoid this altogether, but the emails have started, and so i will say my piece.

Yes it’s true. The Singapore Serf has left us.

To be clinical about it, he was found deceased in his room on Monday morning. The autopsy was inconclusive.

It has sunk in somewhat, that our late housemate really is gone. But it’s the little things that bring back the moments of disbelief. His toothbrush and paste still sitting neatly atop the soap dish in the shower. His boots lined up against the wall on by the front door. The wonky smell of the exhaust of his little Ford Fiesta.

The memory of him popping his head around the open bathroom door in one morning, while i was cleaning and cursing at a smidge of algae in the shower stall, grinning and saying “Guess what i have?”

And pulled out a new shower curtain from behind his back (he knew how to get on my soft side, he did). He’d gone to Ikea in between waking up and gotten a new shower curtain, half-seriously apologizing for getting the same design because “i don’t like change.”

How he tried very hard to be all nochalant when it became quite clear the husband and i were quite, quite taken with his fiance.

How healthy eating was generally against his philosophy, but he’d wolf up the piles of veggies i generally feed us all and wave my spatula at the boys to emphasize my expectation that they finish every last morsel of green. I don’t think he took my so-you-don’t-get-scurvy admonishment to heart, but he was always glad to be fed.

It’s the small things. I didn’t know the Serf very well, certainly not as well as his friends. All i did was live with him, and i must say he was a dream housemate, but you get to know people’s funny little sides when you see them day in and day out. He was my devil’s advocate on the whole motorcycle issue. He was looking forward to when i finally got mine, so he could feel that particular wind in his hair.

We’d started to tease him in the last few months, about getting a little pink car (D’s favourite color) when his current little green one gave out on him. I guess we won’t find out if the pink bit eventuates.

He will be missed.

I will ask that you direct any queries to Calamari For Thought, if you absolutely have to enquire privately, or friends/family if you know them personally. It doesn’t matter how much correspondence between you and the Serf you forward to me to prove that you’re not a troll. You’re not going to get any more information than you’ll read here (especially if you’re going to be rude. Fer cryin’ out loud people, it doesn’t hurt to have some ~~bloody~~ manners), out of respect for family and friends, who are going through an intensely difficult time right now.

Requiescat in pace.