| Author |
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Glitch
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 04:53 pm: | 
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I knocked an entire digit off my IQ in 1973 in a bicycle accident.
Oh that explains everything! |
Hammeroid
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 04:57 pm: |
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Do Z. Cavaricci's count as protective wear?? |
Rainman
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 08:50 pm: |
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One of the major arguments of pro-helmet
advocates is that the medical costs incurred by uninsured or underinsured riders who suffer preventable head trauma are borne up by the taxpayer....
Yes, they say that. Don't forget though, a study recently proved that living a long life actually costs society more in the long run that smoking or being obese.
Figures don't lie, but statistics can be made to say almost anything 95 percent of the time and 75 percent of the time are made up on the spot. |
P47b
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 09:58 pm: |
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http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/03/ma ry-peters.html
I think we are not going to have a choice in the matter.
I'll have one on for me and only me. |
P47b
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 10:33 pm: |
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I had to do a lookup on seat belts for motor cycles. Back in the 70's I think there was a law that someone was trying to pass for seat belts on motorcycles. But I do not remember if it was in Kansas or at FED level.
Anyway I found this.
http://brandscycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=2460
Yes, Yes I know what it's used for. But some brain dead person is going to use it on a kids bike and push them off on there own.
(Message edited by p47b on April 07, 2008) |
Strato9r
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 02:49 am: |
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Helmet or not, the poor guy is dead, and I'll bet he simply did not have the skills to ride the bike he was on. Whether or not he was on a Harley probably doesn't make a damn bit of difference to those he left behind.
In my own town, I arrived at the scene of a horrific wreck where a high school kid stuffed a top of the line liter class bike (his graduation present) into a bridge abutment. Dead kid.
The next spring, I helped a seventeen year old girl pick up the supersport class bike she had dropped in a parking lot. An old timer who had offered a hand passed the remark to the young lady that it might be a good idea to at least learn to ride on something a little easier to manage. She said that her boyfriend had chosen the bike for her; it was only a 600. The next day, a guy I know who rides a tube frame Lightning saw her stuff the 600 into the exact bridge abutment. Dead kid.
The local Harley dealership sold a full dress Electra Glide with every bell, whistle and gee-gaw to a guy in his early fifties. He claimed he'd been riding for years, some of the guys at the shop wondered if he had ever ridden at all, and even offered him a 'refresher' course, which was rebuffed. Not five minutes away from the shop, he crashed the 'Glide into a ditch on a dead flat road. Somehow, he survived.
I worked across from the local Honda shop years ago, and had a serious thing for a super clean, low mileage 750f they had on the floor. One of the sales guys called me up and said that a guy was coming in to check it out, and to get over there if I wanted it. I did, and when the guy got there a few minutes later, it was obvious that he had never ridden anything but a Schwinn. The salesman really tried to get this guy on a nice used 450, even told him that they'd give him exactly what he paid for it when he decided to trade up. No way. He had the cash in his wallet, and I didn't. Half hour later, this guy is pulling out onto the street, and he's still got his kickstand down. I ran out of our shop, franticly waving the guy down before he pulls away. He looks at me, shakes his head, and pulls out, turning left and gunning it. Broken collarbone. Dislocated elbow and shoulder. Shattered jaw.
I am a firm believer in helmets, but when it comes to safety, I think that what is IN your skull is a hell of a lot more important than what is ON it. |
Jackbequick
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 10:48 am: |
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Many of us survived the initial learning curve on nothing more than good luck.
I bought a 1958 Triumph Thunderbird from Monroe Motors in San Francisco in 1962. I got a 2-3 minute test ride on the back of it with Jim Monroe at the controls.
I had gone there to buy a used Sears & Roebuck Puch twingle for $175 with the intentions of commuting on it between San Francisco and South San Francisco where I worked. Jim Monroe heard my plan and patiently walked me through the merits of the clean, used with a fresh top end, '58 Thunderbird for commuting. He started the Puch for me, then the Thunderbird. Then we took the demo ride on the latter.
I committed to the T'Bird for the stunning sum of $650.
When I took delivery a week later, Jim The Mechanic gave me two or three starting drills and finding neutral drills. That was done with the bike aimed at a empty corner with two intersecting walls. As Jim said, "just in case."
I also got a lesson on the center stand. And lessons and warnings about its use on not level ground.
The Monroe Motors shop was on Divisidero Street up off Geary Blvd. back then, located in a below street level garage, with a one lane, curving, down and in driveway that was a little steep. At the top of the ramp, you had to deal with pedestrians and cross a sidewalk to get out on the street.
Jim rode the bike up the ramp for me and parked it on the street. It was his idea and I was grateful that he suggested it.
This was the first real motorcycle I ever operated. My last motorized ride had been a Cushman Eagle two years or so before.
I went about 1.5 miles in San Francisco's mid day stop and go traffic without killing the engine, forgetting to put my foot down, or otherwise screwing up. Then I was in Golden Gate park where I spent two hours on the park roads and parking lots and bonding with my new love.
I got thrown off of one horse trail by a kindly horse cop by saying that I got confused and thought it was a service road. The horse snorted with derision when I said that but I got off with a verbal warning.
I finally got the courage to go home (an apartment building at Oak and Octavia, down near the Civic Center). I awakened about 15 times during the night and checked to see if it was still chained to the lamp post in front the the building.
I rode it to work on the Bayshore Freeway the next day. With no helmet or gloves, just a pair of surplus (but new and nice) WW II tanker's goggles.
My boss frowned. He said he was very disappointed in me. Floyd the welder gave me a pair of nice gloves, said I was a lucky guy, and told me to never get married if I liked motorcycles.
My two best friends, Frank and Sue, bought me a brand new Bell 500 helmet a day or two later. Frank had owned several bikes and took the bike for a short test ride, pronounced it to be a nice one. Sue cried when she gave me the helmet and hugged me. She knew I was in mortal danger.
Life went on, I got older and smarter, but I had the disease. I became More Gear All the Time Guy and then an ATGATT guy.
Two weeks after I started riding I saw a guy who was riding about 1/8th of a mile ahead of me on the Great Highway killed by a left turning car that did not see him. That moment in time and that guy have been with me ever since. He was wearing a helmet with a face shield, a heavy jacket, gloves, boots, etc., and did show any major trauma or look badly injured as the police and than an ambulance crew tended to him on the ground. But he was not alive any more.
I went to a nearby coffee shop and spent an hour calming down and looking at the Triumph parked outside.
After a couple of months, Jim and Jim looked a little less surprised at my arrival each time I visited Monroe Motors. I was handling my own arrivals and departures of course. And starting to notice the Bonneviles too...
A year and a half later the T'Bird was sold in the interest of pursuing harmony with and comfortable travel means for a new wife, a burgeoning family, and an escape to the Navy from the Army's draft notice.
But motorcycles came and went over the years as times and places allowed and I've never had anything happen on the street that required medical attention or major repairs.
But I've done a lot of foolish and careless things and simply gotten away with them. I think I eventually got focused on not trying to get away with very much, and it has made it all a lot more enjoyable in the long run.
I hope everyone has the same kind of luck I did.
Jack |
Paint_shaker
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 11:15 am: |
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Jack,
Well put my fellow Buelligan!!! |
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