Raging Bikeaholic

The recent accident really served to confirm, to me,  that concern for safety trumps concern for comfort anytime.  I’ve always gotten incredulous looks and weathered lots of snickers when I’m riding, since I outfit myself as if the phrase “dress for the slide, not for the ride” were printed on the inside of my visor.

While others wonder what kind of goof would wear top to toe heavy safety stuff in hot weather, I’m constantly amazed by how little others wear.

I guess it all started way back in my early 20’s while in the Canadian Air Force as a medic. (Medical people all seem to have reservations about motorcycles since they see the aftermath, not the joy of riding). Within the space of one summer, I had one friend lose an acre of skin when his front wheel went screwy on the highway, and another end up in a coma for many months when he drove his head into a concrete wall while learning at low speed in a mall parking lot. The first was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The second was just learning so no helmet was “necessary” Read more

I’ve calmed down a little bit, but yesterday evening I was ready and oh-so willing to find the frickin’ idiot road commissioner that signed off on chip sealing roads around Hemlock … and drag that asshat face down over the entire length of all the chip sealed roads.
Chip Sealing is a method they use around here to make roads worthless for a time. They put down a layer of tar or heavy oil, and then they cover the road with crushed rock. Loose crushed rock. To a healthy depth. Well, not healthy for motorcyclists, of course.
Once the road is turned to shit by pouring all that loose rock on it, traffic is supposed to slow down, and to gradually force the rocks into the tar, with the surplus being blown to the side of the road to lay in the ditch … or to just generally be dangerous by forming deep gravel strips on the side of the road. They call that “paved” around here.
Really, really frickin’ annoying and dangerous.

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