The following text is from the motorcycleviews dot com web site. This is good advice.
1.) Assume Drivers Can't See You: Ride assuming that you and your motorcycle are totally invisible to motorists. That means you must never assume that drivers can see you. The odds are, they can't so believe it yourself and always have an "out" for dangerous traffic situations. Motorcycle Safety depends on you.
2.) Maintain Safe Spacing: Leave plenty of space in front and back and to the sides from all other vehicles. Be an island. Stay away from traffic as much as possible. This gives you more visibility and more time to react to situations.
3.) Anticipate Trouble: Anticipate trouble situations and know what to do when you see them. Analyze what vehicles are doing and try to predict the outcome. Then make sure you're ready to avoid a bad traffic situation.
4.) Beware of Oncoming Left Turners: Beware of oncoming motorists turning left in front of you at intersections. This is the leading cause of death of motorcycle riders. I'm deadly serious here. I have personally lost many friends to this accident. If you only remember one tip here, let it be this one. Slow down before you enter an intersection. Have an escape route planned. Stay visible. Don't travel too close to cars in front of you. Position your bike so it can be seen by the left turner. Eye contact is not enough.
5.) Ride Your Own Ride: Don't try to keep up with your friends who may be more experienced. Know your personal limits. Ride your own ride.
6.) Watch Out for Curves: Beware of taking curves that you can't see around. A parked truck or a patch of sand may be awaiting you.
7.) Don't Give In to Road Rage: Do not give in to road rage and try to "get even" with another rider or motorist. If you follow these tips, most likely you won't fall victim to road rage. It's better to calm down, slow down, and collect your thoughts first. Then continue on and enjoy the ride. That's what we're all out there for in the first place.
8.) Don't allow Tailgating: If someone is tailgating you, either speed up to open more space or pull over and let them pass. Life is too short. Remember that a bike can stop faster than a car so you don't want a truck on your tail when you find yourself trying to brake to avoid an accident. Also, don't tailgate the vehicle in front of you. Oncoming drivers can't see you.
9.) Don't Be Blinded by Sunglare: Beware of riding your motorcycle into sun glare. All it takes is turning a corner and finding the sun either directly in your face or passing straight through your windshield. Some helmets have shields to block the sun. Face shields help somewhat. But sometimes you just find yourself blinded by the light. Slow down, pull over, shield your eyes and look for a way to change direction.
10.) Avoid Riding at Night: Avoid riding at night, especially late Saturday night and early Sunday when drunken drivers may be on the road. It goes without saying that you shouldn't drink and ride. Going bar hopping? Leave the bike at home and find a designated driver.
What Am I Trying To Say About Motorcycle Safety?
The best way to be safe is to take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course to learn the basic ways to control your motorcycle and to learn how to recognize traffic situations that you need to be ready to handle.
Always wear protective clothing and a helmet. A tiny beanie helmet held on by a thin strap and affixed with a fake DOT sticker is not enough.
Maintain your bike so it is safe too. Keep records of the intervals when you replace tires, chains, clutch cables, batteries, brakes, etc. You don't want an equipment malfunction to contribute to a motorcycle accident.
Practice riding under all kinds of traffic situations. Ride with a buddy if at all possible. Avoid riding long distances alone.
Become a member of one of the motorcycle forums recommended here and read what other experienced riders have to say about how to ride safely.
I want you to become an aged motorcyclist because you know how to survive on a motorcycle. I don't want to read about you in the newspaper or on a motorcycle forum or mailing list as yet another motorcycle statistic. Learn how to be safe and responsible on a motorcycle. That's why this Web site exists and that's why I'm writing these tips. The rest is up to you.
Ride Safe
Source: http://motorcycleviews.com/safety/tenwaystobesafe_2.htm
“Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!” — Edsger Dijkstra
I have often wondered why it is hard to get BMW motorcycles into 1st gear. Here’s the answer:
“This is a characteristic of all dry-clutch BMW’s. Somewhat over-simplifying:
On wet multi-plate clutch bikes, even which the clutch is disengaged, there is enough “jostling” of the gears on the gearbox shafts from oil drag in the oil-bath clutch to help align the gear-engaging “teeth” (“dogs”) on the side of the sliding elements to enter their corresponding holes in the sides of the gears to allow the sliding element to engage and lock the gear to its shaft.
On a dry single-plate clutch (such as on a BMW), when the clutch is disengaged, there is *no* energy entering the gearbox, and the gears/shafts become dead quiet. If you happen to stop at a point at which the dogs are not aligned with their engagement holes, you could press on the shift lever all day and dogs will just keep on being pressed into the side of first gear without entering their holes.
What’s the solution? Easy: either (i) rock the bike a couple inches forward or backward (so that the rear wheel turns the driveshaft and thus the tranny output shaft to cause the dogs to be rotated into alignment with the holes in first gear), or (ii) *gently* bring the clutch right to the friction point while applying light pressure to the shift lever — you want to only apply just enough clutch engagement to put some energy into the tranny input shaft to “jostle” the dogs to align them with their holes. Either way, once the dogs are moved just a hair, you’ll drop into gear.” — via BMWMOA Forum
“He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.” — Michel de Montaigne
“Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying.” — Anonymous
This afternoon my fellow traveler summarized his view of people.
- There are men / boys that have been punched in mouth or not. Those that have not often have big mouths.
- People who have kids and those who don’t.
- People who have lost a loved on and those who haven’t.
Do you have another set of life experiences that define how you see other people?
Lifehacker is a great blog that promotes technical innovation. The following post list their most popular top 10 lists of 2010. A few of my favorites include:
Top 10 Thing You Didn’t Know Google Maps Could Do
Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know About
Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks
Top 10 Privacy Tweaks You Should Know About
Top 10 Thing You Didn’t Know Google Maps Could Do
Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know About
Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks
Top 10 Privacy Tweaks You Should Know About
Top 10 Thing You Didn’t Know Google Maps Could Do
Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know About
Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks
Top 10 Privacy Tweaks You Should Know About
During my fourteen year career at Abbott Laboratories I learned the value of fact based decision making. In Today’s social media / blogging world I prefer writers that share the facts that support their subjective statements. In my opinion, “Climategate” is this decade’s controversy that challenged us to improve our fact based decision making. Regardless of which side you support I believe this blog post provides strong objective evidence that directly supports their message. http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/understanding_climategates_hid.html
Someone once said to me that “less is more”. The following blog post use this approach to communicate project status to management. Click here to view the entire page.
Here are my favorite Gmail and Google Voice links. I have successfully implement the first one (Use Gmail…). I love it when I have an empty Gmail inbox. It is empty because the emails I do not want are deleted and the emails I want to save have been archived with the appropriate “star” or “label”. Still in the process of developing a more effective “getting things done” approach at work. Any suggestions you can share would be appreciated.
My favorite Google Voice links are listed below. My primary personal cell phone number is a Google Voice number (224-306-9448). I enjoy the free voicemail to text transcription service! Reading the imperfectly transcribed voicemail messages is so much faster than listening to the messages, taking notes, etc. As soon as I started using this service I knew the traditional phone companies (land or cell) and their high priced services were in trouble. I expect Google to turn voice communication into a free commodity funded by their web ad revenue. I can’t wait to try the new Google phone. Google’s phone is predicted to require only a cell data plan or wifi to support the Google Voice (VoIP) calling.
Use Gmail to Automate Getting Things Done (GTD) Inbox
http://lifehacker.com/5321180/turn-gmail-into-your-ultimate-gtd-inbox
Trying to implement this recommendation at Work
http://lifehacker.com/5298573/re+establish-the-weekly-review-habit
GTD – Getting Things Done (Good overview)
http://lifehacker.com/5313660/brush-up-on-getting-things-done-with-an-updated-flow-chart
Google Voice Videos
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html
Google Voice Invite Web Page
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/
Google Voice Info (Another good overview)
http://lifehacker.com/5390308/google-voice-offers-voicemail-without-changing-your-number
Funny info about Gmail users
http://lifehacker.com/5385280/remains-of-the-day-gmail-users-have-better-credit-scores-edition
Ride to Work Day
