Cager Danger During Motorcycle Awareness Month

This post may come across a bit brash, being the harshest post I have ever written. I try to keep what I write somewhat "user friendly" with clean reading, information, tips, and stories. This is the first time I've stepped out of that box to focus on some strong feelings I have about something. I have lightly expressed myself on this subject in a portion of a post last year called "The Other Side of the Ride", but not nearly as hard as I am about to do. The following post will more than likely anger someone, probably a few someones, but drivers need to change.

One reason I decided to write this was because May was Motorcycle Awareness Month. In DFW the electronic message signs were showing: Motorcycle Awareness Month Look Twice for Motorcycles. I saw the signs, but how many motorists paid any attention to them? All of my coworkers at work know I ride. I ride nearly every day, hang my vest on my chair and put my helmet on my credenza. They will even ask how was the ride coming to work today? I asked some of them last week if they knew it was Motorcycle Awareness Month. Every one of them responded, "Really?" I asked them if they had seen the big electronic signs on the freeways that had various messages about motorcycle awareness. Their response, "Really? I hadn't seen that" I asked them how could they possibly miss them? Their response? Blank stares.

These responses came from people I see every day of my life that know I ride and are more prone to understand there are bikes on the road than the average driver. However, since their not affected by driver distraction as riders are, they don't care. They were so completely inattentive while driving they didn't even notice the huge electronic signs all over the metroplex freeways. I had another worker tell me this week that if a bike happened to get in her way then too bad for the biker if she just happened to hit them. She said bikes didn't concern her because the biker would lose if it came to an accident situation. I truly believe most drivers feel the same way. So where does Motorcycle Awareness Month fit into the world these people live in? It doesn't, They don't care, never did care, and never will care.

Here is a really good local news cast with Arlington, TX police and The Patriot Guard Riders trying to raise motorcycle awareness into jelly brained drivers.

Arlington Police and The Patriot Guard Riders Raising Awareness

An ironic situation happened to me last week, I had just passed one of those awareness signs and an idiot woman in her SUV came into my lane after passing the sign without checking her blind spot. I had to swerve onto the shoulder of the freeway to avoid being hit. She did finally see me after my honking when she finally looked out her window. I saw the panic in her face as she quickly veered back into the other lane. It wasn't intentional, she was simply not practicing safe driving skills, even after just passing an awareness sign, which she obviously wasn't aware of. Not to say all drivers are irresponsible in their ability to propel their metallic weapon of destruction along the road. There are a handful of responsible drivers out there. Unfortunately for riders, there are not enough of them. During Motorcycle Awareness Month I began watching people in their cars more intently than normal and created this list of actions I saw idiot drivers performing. Yes, Idiots. When someone partakes in an avoidable distraction while driving they are idiots no matter how elevated their resume of education extends or what employment position they hold. There might be other actions that you have seen to add to this list that I didn't observe during the month of my survey.

***EVERY ACTION MENTIONED IS COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE!***

Texting, reading, writing, using laptop, eating, drinking, listening to music to loud, dancing, taking eyes off the road to talk to passengers, putting on makeup, brushing hair, leaning their seat too far back to drive safely, road rage, violent driving, playing with their dog, turning around screaming at their kids, slapping their kids, cleaning spills, cleaning kids, changing diapers, getting dressed, flirting with other drivers, kissing, hugging, playing around, hanging too much dangling crap from their rear view mirror to see properly through the windshield, wearing sunglasses at night to look cool, tinting windows too dark to see properly at night, not checking blind spot, too over weight to turn head to check blind spot, driving without their hands on the wheel, watching TV, and surfing the web with smartphone or IPAD. 

Any of this sound familiar? Some of these actions such as drinking, or eating are not necessarily irresponsible. The driver is irresponsible when they allow these things to become a distraction or they are simultaneously combining them with another action.

Driving an automobile is a relatively simple function. Auto manufacturers have recognized the average moron behind the wheel and made vast improvements in the ability to propel a car down the road with minimal skills. Any idiot now only needs 1 finger to wrap around the steering wheel and one foot to push the gas pedal and brake. That really is all you need to drive nowadays. With the engineering of autos today a lot of people even steer with their knee which leaves the imbecile behind the wheel the freedom to stick one foot up their ass and both hands free to perform the aforementioned actions.

Another contribution that enhances unsafe driving was inadvertently created by the automobile manufacturers. In their effort to simplify driving for the imbecilic masses, they began heavily sound proofing the driver from outside noise distractions which they assumed would help the driver maintain their focus on driving safely. Unfortunately this also caused a reverse affect which caused people to become less aware of their surroundings while driving. This elimination of outside noise allows the inattentive driver to melt even deeper into their personal bubble of bliss. Fire trucks, police cars,and ambulances have also been victimized by this problem. Drivers don't hear the sirens to move out of the way and in their self absorbed stupor its evident they are not even looking around for signs of emergency. You think their going to hear your nice loud pipes when their not even moving out of the way for the emergency vehicle? Not likely.

Here are some examples of this problem that auto manufactures are proud of creating:

Cadillac
Toyota

GMC Sierra

Chevy Silverado

Chevy Malibu

Loud pipes used to save lives, when vehicles weren't sound proofed as they are today and its only gonna get worse.

There is a bright side to this unfortunate negative fact about the average driver that you might be pleased to know however; and these drivers are not the ones targeted in this post.

--If an automobile operator is also a rider, or if they have ever ridden in the past they understand a bikers position on the road and are usually more aware and respectful of the rider

--If a driver has a family member, relative, or friend that rides, they too are usually more considerate of motorcyclists because of the awareness that the rider imparted to them.

--Big Rig drivers also have a better grasp of the dangers of driving. They are trained professionals that take their chosen trade serious. Not to say I haven't had some close situations with Big Rigs, but the amount of "close calls" with Big Rigs by far underscores those with automobiles

--Motorists that have been in a serious accident, meaning near death, have become more responsible drivers. Because their own actions while driving or someone else's actions nearly cost them their lives, they have elevated their ownership of responsibility and awareness on the road. The prospect of death is strong initiative for a person to re-evaluate their actions behind the wheel.
--Law enforcement officers, emergency vehicle personnel, and family of these people are also more aware due to driving awareness training they go through.

The bottom line here is that riders have to take safety into their own hands. Cagers don't and won't care about your life. Legal actions taken against drivers that involve motorcycles are not sever enough to encourage them to care. Unless a state legislature official is also a rider that has experienced and deals with these issues daily, why should they fight for harsher penalties against drivers? Their not affected and they sure as hell are not going to start a political agenda that might affect their re-election.

One certain way that would make cagers begin caring is to start ruining their lives by creating and enforcing mandatory prison sentences of varying lengths of time depending on the severity of the accident they cause. For example, hit a biker, do 10 years. Kill a biker, life in prison, no exceptions. What's the difference between shooting someone to death, or killing a biker with your car? Is it not vehicular manslaughter? I suppose this thinking is too logical for our justice system to figure out. If penalties at this level were issued against drivers that caused bike accidents and the sentences were broadcast on the evening news, drivers would begin to care. That CEO hauling ass in their pretty BMW or Lexus would rethink their condescending self absorbed elitist attitude when they cut off or tail gate a bike with the knowledge that if something happened they would lose everything by being locked up for a few years to life.

In closing, the most popular excuse idiot drivers use when they destroy a riders life is: "I didn't see him, he just came out of nowhere!" This is just a drivers pathetic attempt to excuse themselves from their own lack of personal responsibility.

This rider understands...

Ride Strong, Ride Safe

Behind the Post

As I was organizing blog categories recently I began thinking "Crap this is a lot of work and time spent." When I first started the blog I didn't even know what direction to take with it. I had never done a blog and just sat there with my fingers on the keyboard wondering what the hell should I type? It wasn't easy. For a week I would start something, erase it, start over, erase it, completely confused about what to write about. Then one day Margaret is watching me sit there staring at the blank blog canvas and says, "You know you can add pictures too." GREAT, I wasn't even writing anything let alone considering sticking pictures up. More confusion, thanks. I was lost. Then Margaret mentioned the FWHOG Chapter was having a ride on the weekend and I should take pictures and write about that. Great idea! And that was the first post and how it all got started.

Looking back now at that first post, Going to the Gap Ride, I see how much the blog has changed. It used to be limited to a few pictures and a short dry write up of the ride. Over time I added video, slideshows, and write ups dealing with a variety of riding related subjects. What first used to be focused only on Chapter rides now expands out to anything riding related that I want to write about. Topics now come so easily that I often have enough posts completed to stretch out for a month ahead of time. Some of the posts might have taken place a month before it ever gets posted. An afternoon on the road can easily prompt an idea for several write-ups.

Writing was and still is the most difficult challenge for me in putting together a blog post. It's gotten easier but it's still a struggle. I am not a writer, I don't have an extended vocabulary to express myself as a writer does, and because of that my posts can be pretty boring sometimes. It's still important for me to try in hopes that someone will find something enjoyable in each post. I spend HOURS writing posts, reading, editing, re-reading, deleting, starting over, trying to write something that provides enough interest to keep people coming back. For us the blog is a digital archive of our history of riding since I first began posting. For readers my hope is they can relate, laugh, learn, and get a bit of entertainment once a week from a quick read, photos, and occasional video.

Along with the writing challenges comes the visual media difficulties. Picture presentation is easy, just upload them and create a slideshow that links to the post. Taking pictures is not so easy though. Even before snapping shots I often have to determine camera settings such as the aperture value, ISO, time value, shutter speed, and white balance. I rarely use full auto on my camera preferring instead to manually set up the camera for shooting. I almost never post pictures that have been "cleaned" to look better with picture editing software. What you see is what was taken. I do occasionally add some weird effects to them just playing around but I prefer a clean picture that hopefully captures the moment. So there is some work involved just to add picture media. It takes time and it takes money. The time factor involves taking pictures when others are having fun, downloading them, sorting through them, making them the correct file size to view as a slideshow, and keeping original backups to our server updated in case of a hard drive crash. the money factor comes in when I have to buy digital storage cards for the camera and keep purchasing hard drives for space to store them. The higher the resolution, the more megs/gigs it takes of storage space. I also have to pay once a year to have the digital sensor in the camera cleaned. And of course the cost of the camera itself with the accessories. We actually have 2 cameras we use, an older Canon Rebel EOS XT and a newer Canon Rebel 3Ti that Margaret won on some blog survey thing.

Another difficulty is the video. Until I got the GoPro I had never owned a video camera. I work for hours on every video that gets posted. The maintenance videos are the easiest because I just do the work and talk while pointing the camera at whatever it is I'm doing. Other video is harder though. Trying to figure out what might make a good 4 second clip and tell a story is freaking difficult. While riding trying to figure out what will best portrait the scenery and ride is even more freaking difficult. What the eye sees doesn't always show the same when the clip is downloaded to the computer for editing. The feelings invoked from the ride don't always transmit through that camera eye onto the screen. So I struggle hard with this. I've gotten better from when I used to mount the camera in a stationary position on the engine guard. Now I just hold the thing and point it at whatever I think might be a good clip. I get smoother cleaner video and more variety of subject matter doing it this way. I keep 6-32 gigabyte memory cards just for the GoPro. Those are not cheap but I need to be sure to have enough video storage. In order to do anything with all this media, pictures included, I have a computer which I have to keep running and updated, like I did recently by upgrading the OS, and the software to work on the media. I use Photoshop Pro for the pictures when I re-size or do freaky things to them. I also use Photoshop to make graphics used for the blog header and background, and the headers used at the start of each video. I use Sony Movie Studio 13 Platinum for creating the video. Most of my videos are on Vimeo which I pay a yearly fee for as well. All of this incurs cost and time.

Once the ride is over and we get home I usually download all of the pictures and video clips so I can start working with them throughout the week. I'll browse the pictures deleting any that just don't make the cut. To me, just because a picture was taken doesn't mean it should be used so I try to only present the ones that have good subject matter. The write-up can take days for me. I might work on one for a few hours, stop for a couple days, and pick back up on it again later. The video also takes hours. Compiling the clips, trimming the header and the tail of each clip to get the right start and stop point, merging them together, creating audio envelopes for adjusting sound levels up and down to try and maintain sound consistency throughout the video, and adding music if used. When I use music it adds a whole new dimension to the video creation process. I like to try and use music that in some way pertains to the video. Sometimes the lyrics of the song, the title, the type of music, or instrumental will be used in the video to correspond with what I wrote about. I try hard to mesh what I write about with the pictures, video, and music so the entire post is all encompassing in regards to subject content.

The next time consuming procedure is matching the video clips to the music. If I can do it, I try to make transitions between clips timed with the music beat and rhythm. I like to try and make clip content match words in the song when I can. If you watch some recent videos like the Loco Coyote ride you'll see things like when Kenny Wayne Sheppard says "Kings Highway" the video changes at that moment from a town to a highway. Or when he says "not looking back" I pan or transition the video clip to show Margaret riding behind me or roll the video in front of me instead of behind. The Muenster & Bridgeport video which uses the song "Vapor" by Little Big town shows a gas lamp on a building and the Bridgeport, TX fire and smoke when they say "fire and vapor". The content of the song also goes with all the different things we saw that day, what I wrote about, and that we should live life to its fullest before it's gone. I also try to smooth clip transitions so the change is subtle and blends nice. In this same video there is a drilling rig that I timed the transition from the side of the rig to the front so that its swinging in the same direction during the transition. If I had changed the clip from when the rig was moving in an upward swing to an immediate downward swing it wouldn't flow smoothly. In yet another video, one of our Chapters Skills Day videos, the music changes from a theatrical mood setting music to rapid electronic industrial music at the moment the video transitions from showing others doing maneuvers to a first person view from my bike taking off onto the course. There are other teasers like these throughout the video as well that if you watch and listen closely you can pick them out. Another time in the Strawn, TX video when the large group of oncoming bikes passes by, almost every bike passes in time with the rhythm of the song. And after all of this, the video clips have to fit within the time frame of the music.

I feel nearly completely confident these intricacies go unnoticed by most people. I do it because it adds dimension to the video that someone may or may not see, or provide them with something look for. It gives an element of surprise to viewers if they happen to catch it in the video. I'm far from even being an amateur in video creation but I still try to make them enjoyable with little hidden surprises when I can make it work.

I know this was a long post. I just thought it might be interesting to go through the details of what it takes to make a weekly post. There are many hours of work to create the typical post and even more if a video is involved, and costs associated with each step. And all of this is done between my full time job and riding time. I guess it's become one of those labor of love things for me. It's fun and frustrating all together but the end result is something for everyone to hopefully enjoy.

Before It's Gone

One of the things I like most about riding is the time to think. I like to see the scenery and let my mind wander away from the hectic week of work. For some reason on this ride I began thinking how fortunate we are to have the desire to experience life. I know a lot of people whose extent of living begins and ends on the couch and the discovery channel. An adventure to them is going to the grocery store and finding a new flavor of snack chip. It's not my personality to spend weekends confined to the house only to go back to the weekly work grind just to look forward to spending the next weekend boxed in my house again. Other people I know even refuse to sight-see locally believing the only type of travel that holds any value is an expensive international destination that they finance with their credit cards and spend the next few years trying to pay off at a high interest rate. I would end up talking more about how much I still owed than about the trip itself.

As Margaret became more comfortable with her bike it didn't take long for us to start taking longer rides. Many of our rides are day long trips but we get to experience something new every time.When you start looking for places to go and things to see within a 200 mile area or so from where you live you would be very surprised at how much there is to do and how far you can go in a short amount of time. We always experience things along the road going to our destination as well. You never know what might be going on in the towns you roll through that becomes an unexpected surprise. Our rides will often keep us out the entire day from early morning until the sun goes down. Sometimes we get a room and spend the night wherever we are. Each ride doesn't have to be an elaborate expense, but each ride can be a new adventure.

Our personalities have always been directed towards a more adventurous side. Our riding together soon took that lifestyle and interest which keeps us taking trips and exploring. At this time in our life of riding together we want to see things and ride our bikes to do that. This might change in time but for now, that's where were at. Some people like to ride to an event, sit there all day, listen to music, talk to friends, and ride back home. Some like to ride in circles between cones in a parking lot every weekend. And even others might do a couple of dinner rides through the week. There's nothing wrong with any of this if that's what you enjoy, but I could have done those things a lot cheaper on a scooter instead of a Harley if that was going to be the extent of my riding.

We both have too much energy to confine ourselves to these types of riding. Life goes by too fast and we want to see everything we can before were not able to anymore. I don't want to sit back with my grand kids later in life and say I had (or have) a Harley that I rode around the block every couple of weeks. Far too many people end up with regrets from not going forth with their dreams. I'm often told from people at work how they have always wanted to ride, and listen to the excuses they come up with to justify why they never did. They will go to their grave with that desire and regret. I want stories, memories of places, sights, sounds, and smells to pass on from our riding trips. Life can end in an instant so we want to make the most of every opportunity we can...before it's gone.

Muenster & Bridgeport, TX May 2014 Video

Muenster & Bridgeport, TX May 2014 Slideshow

Loco Coyote- Glen Rose, TX, April 2014

This post contains the first riding video for quite some time. I upgraded my PC OS from Windows XP to Windows 7 and found my video editing and compilation software was incompatible with the new OS. We decided to just do photos for awhile until we purchased new video software. So the GoPro just sat there unused wasting away. I had to get familiar with the new video software as well since Sony made some changes to the interface and it's capabilities.

A few weeks ago we took a short ride and since it was such a nice day Loco Coyote seemed to be a perfect destination. We didn't want to go too far since meteorologists were forecasting thunderstorms moving in during the evening. With it's mainly outdoor seating and laid back atmosphere you can't go wrong. Before heading out we stopped by the dealership to see their Spring Event. We were a bit early but the parking lot was filling fast. They had a dyno drag racing platform that you could race your bike against someone else, a beer garden, food, and a band as well. It looked to be a good event but we wanted to ride and see stuff instead of sitting there all day.

While we were there I purchased an extended warranty for my bike. The factory warranty expires at the end of May so I had to make a decision whether to ride it without the warranty and take the risk of a major breakdown which I would have to pay for out of pocket. I've had a few minor problems since purchasing the bike two years ago. I've had rocker box gasket leak, the voltage regulator went out and had to be replaced, I broke a motor mount so that had to be replaced, and recently the shift lever that connects to the transmission shift rod came loose and couldn't be tightened. It had been over torqued when assembled and there wasn't any gap left to tighten it when it came loose. Harley had to remove the entire primary to replace that one lever. These malfunctions were all covered and would have easily cost me more out of pocket than the extended warranty I purchased. I have now ridden the bike 45K miles in two years so as the miles add up the likelihood of a breakdown will increase. I purchased enough warranty on the bike for an additional 4 years with unlimited mileage and still have the option of adding even more warranty as long as I purchase it before rolling over 75K miles. Even though I do my own maintenance I really don't want to get into having to perform a major repair. I don't have all the specialty tools or the time for a big repair. Besides all that, Fort Worth Harley has provided us with some of the best service we have had in any line of business and when I've taken the bike in for warranty work they have done a great job taking care of it. Last year I wrote a post titled "Maintenance Level Limitations" which goes into more detail about my feelings in this area.

After the visit to Fort Worth Harley we headed for Loco Coyote. It was a bit windy, but manageable, especially after that grueling ride to Sweetwater, TX a few weeks back. Once we got off the main roads and onto the smaller FM roads there were enough trees to block the wind and the ride was quite enjoyable. The road we took runs through the Paluxy river in a few spots so if its been raining it can be impassable. Only one of the spots had some water we had to ride through and it wasn't very deep.

We had a nice lunch, only eating about half of the gigantic portion they serve, and that was both of us sharing a single order. They don't play around when it comes to filling you up.  It was nice to watch the bikes come and go, enjoy the cool day, hang out, and relax awhile.

Loco Coyote- Glen Rose, TX April 2014 Slideshow

Loco Coyote- Glen Rose, TX April 2014 Video

Button Removal and Replacement on Leather

This post is way out of the ordinary from the topics I usually write about but it is riding related. As we were performing the repairs I thought, huh, I wonder if any other riders out there do this or would like to know how if they've not done it before. You might even want to change your buttons to a different style. So, we made a short video of how to remove and replace the button snaps on a leather vest.

I've had my vest for 2 years and put a few patches on it representing some of the things I've done. My Chapter patch, Patriot guard missions, HOG mileage awards, things like that have a place on my vest. The main reason I even wear a vest though is not for a parking space for patches and pins, its to keep my clothes from flapping around while riding. Flapping clothes are distracting and uncomfortable and I don't like it. The vest solves that issue. Recently though I've had a problem with the snaps coming lose. The outer edge and snap ring were both worn and wouldn't stay secured to the other side of the snap. Something had to be done.

Vests are not cheap and especially once you put a few embroidered items on it. The particular vest I have which is a Street & Steel cost about $129. Then add a name rocker, chapter top rocker, chapter logo, a couple more small patches, and if you have to pay someone to sew them on that cost is now well over $200. Margaret fortunately does sewing, pattern design, and embroidery and takes care of attaching our patches or even making some of them. Aside from the cost of the vest and everything on it, I just like my vest. It's well worn in and fits well.

My first concern was the button covers. Mine are a buffalo nickel button and I wanted to keep that historical aspect of the button. We began shopping around and came across Tandy Leather. They had everything and more you could ever want or dream of to do with leather. Another good thing is they are local. We try to support local business when possible, its just the right thing to do as long as local businesses are reasonable. We went to their new store in South Fort Worth off I-20 and Campus drive to see what they could do for us. They had stacks of leather and accessories beyond what we imagined. They also had buffalo nickel buttons that were exactly like the ones I needed to replace. We had to purchase a button punch which would set the button and secure it into place as well. The buttons were $3 each and the button punch was $6. For $18 dollars we got everything necessary to repair my vest.

The video shows the entire process to remove and replace the buttons. Once you do one you'll find it's quite easy. You can also repair or replace the buttons on a jacket or any other leather products. Hopefully you'll find this helpful.

How to Remove and Replace Button Snaps on a Leather Vest