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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

“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

Some days are diamonds..

July 23, 2008 By

and some days are stones, as John Denver used to say. You can go for months without having a drama and then they seem to come along all together.

Today on the way home from school, I had 3 separate incidents of drivers merging into my lane while I was using it. That hasn’t happened for ages. Fortunately, on each occasion, I was riding at the appropriate speed and had scoped out a potential escape route so no harm done.

In a separate incident I was pulling out of a driveway to turn right into the street when I saw an Australia Post van approaching. He slowed down and flashed his lights at me with the obvious meaning that he was intending on pulling into the driveway I was leaving and that it would be OK for me to pull out onto the road. Again, because I’m a suspicious cuss, I hesitated and was rewarded for my caution by seeing a car flying past the slowing van on the wrong side of the road. Had I pulled out when he signalled me, I would have been cleaned up by the car that was lurking in behind him, unsighted.

Now, allow me to climb onto the soap box for a minute. I am wearying of the continual raging against the “cagers” that is now part and parcel of motorcycle forums, magazines and conversations. The fact is, that, in the majority of cases where a motorcycle and a car are involved in an accident, it is the motorcyclist who is at fault. And, even in many of the situations where the motorist was at fault, the motorcyclist, through inattention, speed and lack of skill, contributes to the severity of the accident.

Consider this. The classic “U” Turn accident (and the similar “pulling out into my lane” accident) How many times have you heard of these accidents reported in these terms..”I was riding along and this cager did a U turn in front of me and I had nowhere to go so I hit him and went over the car onto the road.”

A familiar scenario, yes? Of course. But the subtext here that the rider does not wish you to know is that, at the time of the accident, the posted speed limit was 60km/h and the rider was doing 110km/h. Now it isn’t rocket science to grasp that, had the rider been doing the speed limit, he would have 1. Seen the car doing the U turn much earlier. 2. Had time to slow down and not hit the car. 3. Had time and space to put an escape plan into effect. I believe that the law calls this “contributory negligence”.

Yes, of course there ARE accidents where the motorcyclist is the entirely innocent party, but there is also a lot of “cage rage” out there that is entirely unjustified and is a smokescreen to try and obscure the motorcyclist’s tangible contribution to the accident and its severity.

*gets down off soap box*

Filed Under: July 2008, Safety