Are You a Good Rider?

What is a good rider?

Ask 20 people what makes a good motorcycle rider and you’ll probably get 20 different answers, most of them centered on the generally accepted principle that the fastest riders are the best riders. “He has to be a good rider because he can ride faster than me” seems to be the prevailing sentiment. Ask anyone knowledgeable who the best rider in the world is and they will probably say Valentino Rossi – a multi time Moto GP champion.

If you think about motorcycles as Freud would, you quickly realize that there’s a whole lot of machismo at play. Most riders, without giving it much thought at all, equate riding well with going fast. After all, nobody wants to be the slowest rider in the group, unless you are BDB.

A while back I had a conversation with a fellow rider and he fell right into the macho trap of equating riding fast with riding “good”. When I called him out on this he realized what he had done and changed what he said to something more like “He’s a really good, fast rider”

Myself, I won’t ride if I don’t feel right. That means that I have to be 100% aware and 100% ready to react to the threats that are going to be presented to me. Riding is a good activity for me because if I’m on the road and I’m spending the night out with the boys, I won’t drink too much because I know that I won’t ride the next morning with a hangover.

I had my first and only road accident on a motorcycle when I was 17. It was about 2 weeks after I bought my first road bike, a 2 stroke 1974 Kawasaki 750 triple. I was showing off and whacked a fire hydrant. Luckily I didn’t get hurt. It DID scare the crap out of me and I believe it also gave me a very healthy respect for motorcycles.

When I ride on the road, I do it with the attitude that every bike, car, truck, cow, buffalo, dog, chicken, etc. is out to kill me and my job is to prevent them from doing that. I am constantly scanning the road, checking the mirrors, looking for dogs that don’t see me so I can give them a toot on my horn, looking for scooters that are getting ready to dart across the road so they can make a u-turn on the divided highway, looking for sand, gravel or oil in the corners.

When I ride in the dirt, I ride for fun. I have fallen in the dirt too many times to count. In Thailand, dirt riding can be somewhat similar to road riding because the trails you ride on often link remote villages to the real world. You may come around a corner to find a step through in your lane coming right at you. You might be climbing a hill and find a pickup truck sliding down the hill towards you.

I used to think that the best riders were those that didn’t get hurt, didn’t endanger themselves or anyone else (an oxymoron because motorcycle riding is an inherently dangerous thing to do), those that didn’t ride when they’ve been drinking or those that didn’t ride at night.

Now that I’m older, I have finally learned what being a good rider is all about. Being a good rider means that you never stop learning to be a better rider.

Jewish Geography

Jewish Geography, aka “JG”

If you know about JG then you know that it is all about “You are who you know” or “You are where you’ve traveled”

I’ve seen JG used by Jews and non-Jews.

I like to relate this line of thinking to motorcycle riding buddies. “You are who where you’ve ridden” or “you are who you’ve ridden with”

When you voluntarily step up and accept someone else as your riding partner as opposed to letting a “ride organizer” choose who is coming on the ride, you are making a statement. You are making a statement of that person’s worthiness as a riding partner. I would probably ride most anyone at least once. If I’ve ridden with them two times or more then I am making an IMPLIED statement as to their ride-worthy ability and your willingness to be associated with them on a ride. Like most everyone else, I am willing to give anyone a second chance to show what they are made of.

I have ridden with people, on rides that have been organized by someone else, that I will probably never ride with again. I’ve also ridden with people that I would like to ride with again.

What about you?

I’m really not that old…

But if you can remember this, you have to be at least as old as I am. I have to make sure to include one of these in the parts/tool kit I’m preparing for an upcoming motorcycle trip to Cambodia, Laos and then Thailand.

BBQ (and I thought my Leatherman Wave tool was cool...)

Marshmallow Peeps

I have to thank my son-in-law for this one, I never would have thought this up by myself. Every year at Easter time (in the US), there are special candies for sale. There are these sickeningly sweet marshmallow baby chicks that are probably the nutritional equivalent of cotton candy.

Last Easter while waiting for the feast at my Mom's, Tom told us how he used to put them in the microwave to watch them grow. And so we did...

Video here

Sam~A~Lam~A~Ding~Dong

This video is of my Sister's daughter and my favorite niece, Samantha. I mean really, even if I had more than one niece, she would still be my favorite niece. There will only be be one Sam~A~Lam~A~Ding~Dong.

She used to say that the only person who could call her Sam~A~Lam~A~Ding~Dong was Uncle Barry but when I saw her using that name on her myspace.com page I thought it would be OK to post this video.

Uncle Barry...

I love the smell of Nitro in the morning!

I live in Chiang Mai Thailand and haven't been to a NHRA National event in over 5 years. Robert and I took a side trip to Vegas to attend the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals last April.

In addition to the huge supercharger on top of the engine that pumps air into the engine, they run on a fuel mixture of 85% nitromethane and 15% methanol. “The high temperature of vaporization of nitromethane means that it will absorb substantial engine heat as it vaporizes, providing an invaluable cooling mechanism.” And, nitromethane is an oxygen bearing fuel as well.

One of the great things about Top Fuel racing is that you can enjoy it even if you’re deaf – the sound just rumbles through your body.

My Google video is here