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Get about – Get a bike

August 8, 2008 By

This was the very catchy slogan of one of the motorcycle pressure groups some years ago when they were trying to convince people that using a motorcycle to get around on made good sense.

Now, being on the “inside” we know that this is so, but the wider community still doesn’t seem to be entirely convinced. That is why the front page article in last Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald was so interesting.

In order to evaluate the merits of various forms of commuting (and, I suspect, to embarrass our Transport Minister), they gave 6 people the assignment of travelling from Ryde (in the heart of the Transport Minister’s electorate) to the city centre by 6 different methods. The progress of each competitor was monitored and their total elapsed time was recorded.

Final results read as follows.

First: Scooter, 25 minutes

Second: Push bike, 32 minutes

Third: Car, 37 minutes

Fourth: Train, 1 hour 12 minutes

Fifth: Bus, 1 hour 14 minutes

Sixth: Running, 1 hour 20 minutes

Now there are a myriad of conclusions which can be drawn from this experiment, but please allow me to draw just a couple.

1. Obviously the scooter/bike will win, as it can filter the traffic and not be stuck in traffic jams for as long.

2. The two methods of public transport did a woefully inadequate job of serving the commuters’ needs even compared to a car, the train taking almost 3 times longer to deliver its commuter to the same spot (and, remember, this is a journey of only 15.5 kiometres!!)

3. All the bleating about how we must get people off the roads and onto public transport becomes a total farce when the system can’t cope with the number of people who are using it NOW, let alone how many WOULD be using it if cars were banned, (for example) from the city centre as the eco-Nazis are suggesting.

The lesson is clear. If you want to get about, get a bike.

Filed Under: August 2008, Insights, Techniques

Slip, sliding away.

August 7, 2008 By

As I was preparing to leave school in Sydney this afternoon, I noticed a big, black storm cloud hovering to the south. “Hope I can get home before it rains.” I thought, but  took the precaution and put on my textile pants over my jeans just in case.

As it turned out, the decision was a wise one. There were a few spits of rain along the way, but it was looking like I might just fluke it until I passed the Picton road turnoff and started heading up the hill to the Mt Keria turnoff. Suddenly I noticed this white stuff all over the road. It’s amazing that it takes a few seconds for stuff like that to compute, but I quickly realised that it wasn’t snow, as I had originally thought, but huge drifts of hail, with the wheeltracks of the cars in front of them making black lines though the white.

Already there were accidents and people pulling over to the side of the road. Cars were sliding around and everyone that was keeping going, was keeping going really slowly, and I mean REALLY slowly. I figured it was safer to keep going rather than pull over and risk someone aquaplaning into me as I stood there helpless watching.

All was going well. I was in 2nd gear, doing about 20km/h when the Bimmer in front of me slowed suddenly. I was nowhere near him, but I slowed as well to keep a safe distance and also moved a little to one side to improve my visibility. As I did the front wheel crossed a drift of ice and the bike started to slide and I knew that I was going to be a passenger.

Down she went. I performed the advisory “keep your head up off the road as you slide” manouever and watched as the VFR performed a graceful ballet of circles on its right hand side, skidding down the road away from me. I remember thinking, “Please don’t hit the Bimmer.” as it seemed to gather speed away from me, but the car was moving more quickly and the bike was already slowing down (although it skidded an enormous distance; very little friction to slow its progress, I guess).

I jumped up and ran to retrieve it. It was lying in the middle of the lane like a beached whale (You’re beached is, broo). Two drivers of courier vans who had stopped, rushed over to help me pick it up and, once I had gotten it into neutral, wheel it to the side of the road. Thanks, guys; they really were very helpful and considerate of my plight.

On the sidestand on the side of the road, I knew the bike was damaged, but it started 2nd go on the button and all I was interested in doing then was getting out of there, so I tip-toed off (literally) and navigated through the piles of ice (15-20cm deep, all across the road) and the rivers of water that were coursing across the road to the drains on the edge. I maintained my balance by basically keeping my both feet just skimming the road and fighting the skids every time they occurred. Traffic was almost at a standstill and the northbound lanes were completely stopped. Police cars were trying to get their way up the hill, but they were snarled up in the traffic at the bottom of the mountain and couldn’t make any progress at all.

It was FREEZING cold, leading me to believe that it could have been snow, but I’m now sure it was a hailstorm, and one of Biblical proportions.

The bike is a mess. Fairing damage to the top, middle and fairing lower on the right hand side will ensure that it is going to be an insurance job.

And me? I’m sitting here writing this in warm, dry clothes and totally uninjured. I was wearing my RJays armoured jacket, my back protector (on which  skidded for some considerable distance – I think I know what a turtle feels like now), my armoured textile pants and my MotoDry Black Ice winter gloves.

The lesson? All the Gear – All the time.

Filed Under: August 2008, Safety

A sobering reminder.

August 1, 2008 By

Sadly, a young local motorcyclist was involved in a accident this morning, a collision with a truck. I don’t know all the details and I probably wouldn’t divulge them here even if I knew them. But he suffered massive internal injuries from which he didn’t recover.

That really isn’t the point, though. The fact is, that our passion is also a dangerous one and this morning’s incident has reminded me again of the fine line that we walk (ride?) every time we go out onto the road.

Ride carefully, folk. RIP and condolences to the family and friends of our fellow rider.

Filed Under: August 2008, Safety

Ever wanted to just “take off” ?

July 29, 2008 By

Is an extended motorcycle tour one of the things on your list of “must do before I die” requirements?

I’ve always had the plan to ride right around Australia. No timetable, necessarily, just explore this marvellous land in which we live. I’d like to fish the barramundi rivers of the Northern Territory, watch the sun set over the ocean in Western Australia, and thoroughly explore every twisty road that Tasmania has to offer.

But, if you’re going to do that, why limit yourself to Australia? I recently bought a DVD from England that is a documentary of a bike ride from Alaska, right down the west coast of America, Central America, South America and finishing up at the very southernmost point of that continent. This ride is a “package tour” type of ride where you provide the money and the organisers provide the bikes, the accommodation and itinerary bookings and all that kind of stuff all you have to do is enjoy the riding.

I’m not so sure about that; I think I’d like to be a bit freer than that. There are several British companies that do a similar tour from the tip of Scotland right down through Europe and Africa, finishing up at Cape Town. A sort of “Long Way Down” for real riders, not poncy movie stars and their bimbo wives.

What about going it alone? If you did, where would you go, and how would you organise it? British motorcycle journalist Nick Sanders recently set out on his TENTH around-the-world trip, again relying on Yamaha’s R1 sportsbike to get him there and home again. He plans to cover 55000kms in 120 days and cross 45 countries and every time zone on the planet. His ride will include a crossing of the Nubian Desert, a vast area of sand that extends across Egypt and the Sudan.  If you want to follow his trip you can, at www.nicksanders.com

Not sure that is quite for you? I don’t know that I’d get that carried away, but, then again, who knows?

One thing I am sure of, however, I am going to do one BIG tour before they drag me off to the home for the mentally bewildered.

Answers, as Bazza always used to say, on a postcard, thanks.

Filed Under: July 2008, Touring

“Rainy days and Mondays always make me cry.”

July 24, 2008 By

Why is it that, for even the shortest ride, if it’s raining, you still have to fully “gear up”? The questions is rhetorical, as I already know the answer, but it’s worth asking anyway.

Still without a car, I awoke this morning to the sound of rain on the roof and the prospect of a day’s work at a school quite close by to where I live. All through breakfast I kept looking at the sky, hoping the rain might clear before I had to set out. Fat chance. Instead, it got worse. So, struggle into the wet’s the overboots and so forth, just to ride about 7 kilometres. Hardly seems fair does it? And then, by the time I got half-way there, the rain started to clear and it was semi-blue sky when I pulled into the car park. Grrrr.

And why is it, he asks again, rhetorically, that car drivers drive faster when it’s raining than they do when it’s dry? And, why is it that the least EXPERIENCED drivers, who should be being the most cautious, are the ones who blaze past at 15-20 above the limit in the pouring rain in their little Korean buzz-boxes?

I’m sounding old, aren’t I?

Filed Under: July 2008, Safety
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