We are all familiar with the “Frog in a saucepan” scenario. The story goes (and I believe it is true) that, if you put a frog into a saucepan full of boiling water, the frog will hop out at the speed of light (so to speak). However, if you put the same frog in the same saucepan filled with COLD water and gradually heat it, the frog will stay there until it literally boils to death. The reason is that, because the frog is cold-blooded and adapts its body temperature to suit its surroundings, it will continue to do so until the heat has made it impossible for it to get out of the saucepan.
A gruesome thought, I think you’ll agree but the principle has relevance in both of the subjects that I wish to discuss today. One of them is motorcycle-related and the other is more far-reaching so I hope that you’ll stick around and find out the connection.
On Wednesday, noting that the front tyre on the VFR was getting pretty marginal, I replaced it with a new one. I had already begun to notice that the bike was less responsive than it usually is so I didn’t take much convincing. Now, being on a pension means that I can’t just go off and shell out large amounts on tyres, especially as motorcycles traditionally use them up much quicker than cars do. Over the last few years I have been buying my tyres from Craig White at White’s Racing Products just up the road in Ingleburn. Now I know that that goes against my oft-repeated “buy locally” mantra but it has been forced on me by my financial position. Craig is the NSW Bridgestone distributor and always has a stock on hand of nearly new tyres; tyres that come off new bikes when the owners have replaced them with better ones for whatever reason. I take my loose wheels up to him and he fits a couple of near-newies at a fraction of the cost of buying brand new ones. It’s a win-win situation for the both of us.
With my club’s annual Snowy Run happening at the end of November, a new front will give me the grip I need and enable me to do the 3000kms loop without having to worry about tyre durability. Craig fixed me up with a new S/T tyre for a very reasonable price and I hastened home and fitted it. But with the howling gales that have been assaulting the South Coast for the last few days, plus the presence of huge amounts of debris on the road, it has taken till this morning for me to actually be able to get out on the bike and scrub the “new” off them.
This morning I set out to do “The Lap” and I was astounded, as I always am, at the difference that a new tyre makes. The bike feels “alive” and super responsive. Even when riding carefully as I always do when scrubbing in a new tyre, the bike was transformed from a broadsword that had been heavy to use,fighting me at every turn to a rapier that felt light and agile.
And it reminded me of the frog. Tyres wear gradually, I know that seems silly to say, but they do. You don’t just go out one morning and suddenly find that your tyres have passed their use-by date. And, because they wear gradually, we are unaware that they are doing so and adapt our riding to compensate for the slowly decreasing level of performance. It is only when we get new ones that we really realise how bad the old ones were, even if they appear to still have plenty of useful life in them.
On the subject of tyres, I remember that. a number of years ago, “Bike” magazine in the UK did a huge tyre test at a number of British racing circuits as well as on known favourite riding roads. The test was incredibly complex and in-depth with riders being unable to see which tyres had been fitted to the bikes before each test, with secrecy being maintained by removing all identifying markers from the tyres. A range of tyres from super sticky gumballs to “commuter” types were tested and, at the end of each test the riders were asked for their feedback and the results were recorded. The tests took place in all kinds of weather and in as many varying conditions as the testing restrictions allowed.
After the extensive period of the test the data collected was analysed and tabulated and the data was fascinating. The riders feedback showed that the “track day” tyres felt the best; hardly surprising. However, the test showed overwhelmingly that the riders could barely tell the difference between the “gum balls” and the better Sports/Touring tyres that were also tested. When shown the results the riders were astonished that they had achieved what they had achieved on tyres that were supposedly inferior to the top of the line tyres that you’d use at a track day. The conclusion of the test was that, unless you are pushing the limits at a track day, you are better off saving your money and fitting Sports/Touring tyres. That conclusion drew a hostile and predictable response from some readers but it was clear that their reasoning for fitting the expensive tyres had a great deal more to do with image than it did to real world performance.
Now, it may seem like a huge leap from tyres to this, but I assure you that there is a connection.
There is a heated debate taking place on Facebook at the moment on the subject of these; self-serve checkouts. Like many who have commented, I refuse to use them; not on the basis that they seem to be unreliable (they often are) but on the basis that the installation of them in the supermarket has resulted in less checkout operators, longer queues at the ones that ARE still available and a net loss of jobs. In short, the supermarket operators are convinced that they increase their profits by reducing their wages bill. The proponents point to increased accuracy, the freeing up of staff to do more productive tasks and the somewhat laughable tenet that people who don’t get on board with the new technology are Luddites who are to be both scorned and pitied. ‘
However, none of the discussion that I have seen so far has touched on a far more sinister aspect of the SSCO that concerns me more than any of the other issues that have been raised. Some buffoon asked, “Well, if you don’t want to use them how about mobile phones, ATMs and other automated devices, are you going to stop using them because they take away peoples’ jobs?” Of course he has a point but the frog has already been boiled and it’s too late to try and save him. The 20th century and now this one, has seen the increasingly de-personalising of society. Almost all activities in our society can be accomplished without having to interface or interact with another person. Think about it for a moment and consider how many of your daily activities involve you interacting with a DEVICE rather than a person. Indeed, your reading of this blog entry is a perfect example. Hundreds of people may read it but I interact on a personal basis with only a handful of them. The fact is that we are increasingly living our lives without having to interact with others. The internet, SMS, Pay at the Pump petrol bowsers, telephones, automated answering machines where the voices are computer generated, SSCOs, telephone and internet banking, online shopping, self-serve kiosks, parking stations, the list goes on and on.
We are being programmed to do without personal contact and the SSCO is just an example. For me, I use the technology all the time, but the discussion has prompted me to think about how I can INCREASE my personal contact rather than have the technology take it away from me. Hopefully we can keep the frog alive for a little longer at least.
I rather to queue up for the few remaining check-outs than have the supermarket sell my soul to technology. Ed of rant.