A Little Pahrump

All week I've be answering the same question. Where's Pahrump? My answer was that it was Northwest of Las Vegas. It is the eastern gateway to Death Valley and the home of all those wonderful brothels, you know legal pay for adult stuff places!! Anyway, a bunch of folks from SWR were heading up to Pahrump for a trackday at the killer Spring Mountain facility there in Pahrump and I decided to tag along to hang out, watch and party at night. I originally was going to ride up, but you'll see about that in my next post. The facility is awesome and the track is even better. All the riders were giving the place rave reviews and I am willing to bet there will be more trips there soon. Here is the happy group at the end of the day.

Ready to Ride Again

Well, spring is in the air and I'm working on getting my bike back on the road.

Look for more updates now that I've finally gained access to my Blog again.

Does Wearing a Helmet Make You a Better Rider?

I could even ask, Does wearing a helmet really make you a safer rider? (or less safe?)

I just finished a series of trainings for safety professionals, called a professional development workshop (PDW) and during the course of that training I noticed a certain attitude about how some feel about those who do not wear helmets. Just to be clear I wear a helmet about 98% of the time I ride a bike, I could be more diligent, but to be truthful sometimes when I'm moving a bike around I don't. I'm well aware of the risk and I am diligent to be aware of that risk. (I'll get into this a bit more in a minute.)

The topic came about because of a discussion about what should be used (gear-wise) when riding demos. It is an industry standard that regular jeans, a long sleeved T-shirt, gloves, over the ankle shoes and a 3/4 helmet is sufficient. (But if we want all the gear all the time, does hat really support that?)

Over my few years of street riding (9) I've had uncomfortable situations with both riders that do and don't wear helmets and I can say with 100% certainty that those situations with people not wearing helmets have always occurred under the speed limit and with people wearing helmets have happened both under and over the speed limit (mostly over.)

I've had 2 riders that I've personally ridden with die on bikes and both were wearing helmets at the time of their death and did so for every ride I've know them to ride.

It is undeniable that you are safer in a crash if you are wearing a helmet, that's not even a question here. The question is, what happens when a helmet gets put on your head? Do you lose some of your safety, because you feel more comfortable.

Back to my non-helmet riding times. Someone blasted me the other day for a Bike Week photo in which I rode by a photographer without a helmet, to get a photo. I've seen the same person make triple digit passes on double yellows and thought it funny he was chastising me, but whatever.




The comment came back at me "Well, you did ride differently without your helmet, right?" I kinda took a pause and said, um....Yes and No. No, because I ride exactly the same without a helmet, I just will not ride in certain places or the distance I'll ride with a helmet. True, I could die falling off of my bike at 5 MPH without a helmet, but I could die just as quickly falling from a run out of my garage and into my kitchen. Life is a risk.

During the PDW I noticed 2 distinctive camps that stood out when it came to helmet wearing. (They are not the only 2 viewpoints, just the most noticeable.) The first regarded helmet wearing as some statement of intelligence, they basically regard people that do not wear a helmet as stupid and uninformed. The second group basically wanted others to wear helmets and didn't outwardly judge helmet wearers, but then made the statement that they would not ride with those that do not wear helmets because they didn't feel safe around them.....

I reflected back to my experience and when asked I had to truthfully state that the only times I've ever felt my safety in danger was around an entire group of helmet wearing people. That's not because I've not been in a group of non-helmet rider either, I've got thousands of miles of experience with both types and I've never had a personal safety scare with a group of non-helmet wearing riders.

If I'd have to say why, my answer would be Attitude.

The attitude of non-helmet wearing rider seems to be that motorcycling in dangerous, but worth the risk for fun.
The attitude of helmet wearing riders seems to be that motorcycling is dangerous, but less dangerous because they wear a helmet. (I've even heard riders explain that wearing gear makes them "safer.")

When I looked at the reality of the matter I realized that wearing a helmet (or any gear) does not make you safer at all. It just makes crashes more survivable. It does not make a crash less likely to happen at all.

However, if your attitude is one that wearing a helmet does make you "safer" it could indeed make you more likely to have a crash.
Simply for the fact that you'll be more likely to take more risk.

For me, I put a helmet on and then ride as if I don't have one at all.

With that as the background to the subject, here is my issue and concern.

I believe that gear gives (or can give) riders a false level of confidence that is inherently dangerous. Safe riding occurs in a riders head, not how it is covered. Therefore to be truly safe a rider should have the skills and mental decisions that keep them safe riding a bike in flip-flops, shorts and that's it. (No, I'm not advocating that type of riding.)

I believe we should concentrate on the safe habits of riding first and then gear second.

After all the goal is to eliminate crashes, not make them more survivable.

So I'll ask the question again. "Does Wearing a Helmet Make You a Better Rider?"


Added Later

A couple forums made a valid point that a helmet does increase a riders safety in the calm of protection from bugs, rocks, wind and thus reduced fatigue as well. This is a valid safety point and actually why I wear my helmets all the time.

Laced Up and Ready to Go!

Last year when I was wrapping up the day at the Arizona Ironman I decided to check out the vendor booths to see what cool things I might be interested in and I happened upon the XTENEX booth. They were showing off some pretty cool laces for tennis shoes and I decided that since I am a fan of slipping shoes on and off (read, LAZY) I'd give them a try. It didn't hurt that they were giving volunteers a break on the price either.

I got the laces home and after a little trial and error I found that they worked rather well on my favorite pair of New Balance shoes. They worked well for slipping on and off and to my surprise worked well with no adjustment for running. After quite a few weeks of using them I decided to refurbish a pair of motorcycle boots that I had owned for quite a bit of time and I wondered if the XTENEX would work on them as well...

If you are a wearer of laced boots you know that while the fit is awesome, the process of putting them on and taking them off can be quite a chore, do it more than twice in a day and you opt for a different pair of shoes. I even use laced boots with zippers on the side, because they offer the fit I want, with the ease of use I desire. The only bad thing is that zippers have issues when it comes to overall comfort and then occasionally they catch on things on a motorcycle as well. Not to mention the zipper seems to allow a whole lot more cold air flow in the winter and they do not stop water from getting in the boot at all.

So, after wondering for a while, I dropped an email to the folks at XTENEX and asked if they had a lace that would work on my boots (I had remembered a comment about military boots at the booth.) They responded quickly and before I knew it I had a pair of black laces for my boots, ready to try for a spin.

The process of lacing the XTENEX laces on shoes or boots is the same, just different than using normal laces. The XTENEX laces have little bulges that keep the lace from slipping through an eyelet that are reduced to flat when the lace is pulled from either side. To set a shoe/boot up with them you simply place the bulges where they need to be when the footwear is normally worn and that's it, Getting the perfect bulge placement takes a little trial and error, but once done that's it. The XTENEX laces expand enough to let your foot in and out, but do not do so much when you normally wear your footwear. Basically the shoe or boot stays put.

Getting the spacing on my boots took a bit of trial and error, but after 5 rides I identified where things were either too loose or too tight, fixed it and now I can easily slip the boots on and off with relative ease. Yeah, a zippered boot is easier, but these boots with the XTENEX laces feel better fitted and feel better on a long ride.

The only issue I have to deal with is making sure the tongue on the boot does not get folded on itself when I put my boots on, but other than that I really like how the XTENEX have made this pair of boots a lot more easy to use.

While slipping the boots on and off was my original goal for wanting to try the XTENEX laces I found that the best thing that they did was make my boots feel good all the time. If you've used laced boots when riding you know that sometimes you make them too tight and sometimes too loose and that every once and a while you get the perfect fit. Well, the XTENEX laces, once properly set, give you that perfect fit EVERY TIME.

Well worth the price, I'll be using XTENEX laces on all my laced boots from here on out.

Want to get your own? Find them here - http://www.xtenex.com/

Body Maintenance

We all know that we have to keep our bikes maintained, and regardless of how well we do things sometimes things happen. Well, it happens to us as well. So, what to do?

The obvious of course, you pull over and take a rest. Fix what's wrong and then back on the road.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:N 1st Pl,Show Low,United States

Breakfast is Served

{I posted this the morning of Oct 8th and found it never posted via my iPhone, so here it is.}

Here I sit, ready to eat breakfast and at the beginning of my second winter in Show Low, AZ. The last year has been one of discovery and growth personally, and one of struggles and adaptation financially. I've made some compromises to make money and on one side I've discovered a new area of expression that is rewarded both with some pay and gratitude. On the other has been complete frustration as the individuals involved not only don't have any vision or direction, but they are unable or unwilling to communicate either. I've decided it is time to turn back to what I know works, to maintain my line, look ahead and simply ride my life.

Steve Job's death has happened at a very good time to wake me up. It has made me revisit his words and look at how they apply to my life. That and the timing of training opportunities is also the perfect springboard that gives me comfort in being that square peg in a round hole.

I have a lot to offer the world in insight, understanding and the ability to be calm in chaos. To those who want to share and learn welcome aboard. To those who want to be disrespectful and ignorant, well you know what to do.

It is a new day and breakfast is served.

- Posted Live and on The Road.

No really, I'm not Dead!

And I've not forgotten how to blog. I've just been pretty tied up getting things established in my life.

So far, so good.

In the last 30 days I've gotten in 2 very nice rides, I've established a new location to teach Total Control and I'm having fun taking photos as well.

This girl liked my bike so much I told her to jump on for a shot, right after I had finished up a different shoot in a classified location.

I'm looking forward to the summer and I'll be now blogging more consistently. See ya soon, on the road, the range and on the web.