This year is different, not because i suddenly started caring about strangers who are making decisions they probably shouldn't be making, not because I suddenly feel this overwhelming sense of compassion for grieving families that are suffering due to someones choices, not for what I feel in my heart every dang time I call my mom to let her know it wasn't me when there is a nasty moto fatality on the news, nope not for any of that. There is a rider out there hitting these mean streets for the first time in a very long time. This rider was never really a "rider" just a kid that cruised around some fields in Vancouver back in the day. As a driver he has more awareness and defensive technique than is required for triple digit lane splitting in LA and that's just when he is commuting in his little Subaru wagon. He can tell you what cars are four cars back at anytime, he drives mentioning what decisions the cars around him are going to make well before they ever have a clue what they are going to do. He taught me how to drive a stick for the first time when I was ten, he spent many many miles in the passenger seat of his pickup thinking he was teaching me how to drive when I had my permit but in fact he was teaching me unknowingly how to survive on a bike. When I look back on everything I've learned that has kept me safe in some of the worst traffic in Portland with a total of at least 100k worth of year round commuting miles from late '98 through the oddly specific 9-22-05 I was only using his tips and techniques. Know what's around you, go with the flow, this is life or death, anticipate, who's the one to look out for and the list goes on and on. When I'm doing my crazy long rides like the bay area, LA and such and the sleep deprivation and massive fatigue start to set in I keep myself alive by going over everything in my head. It turns out everything that I say to myself is everything he said to me from the passenger side back when I was fifteen. My little nonreligious guardian angel. I find myself worried sick at the thought of losing him in a motorcycle related accident.
This wasn't his decision. This wasn't his dream. He didn't make the sacrifices to make it happen. He doesn't have the sweat equity into it. This isn't something you just do, this is real life and not just a game. Motorcycles should be approached with a certain respect that one should have a good bit of self reflection on. If you do it right you'll have experiences and freedom blah blah blah but most likely you'll have some kind of a limp. You need to get into that line to sign up for that and not have it placed on your lap. I did it all wrong with him. He once had asked if a CB750 I had would be a good commuter bike and I shrugged it off with a no. In all my riding this has been the first bit of any shown interest in riding and was dismissed. A few years later he came by the house and I had 8 or 9 bikes in the garage and asked which of these would be a good commuter, discussed the pros and cons and thought about the perfect bike for him. A VT500 Ascot that he received on the next fathers day. In sourcing that rare perfect bike I wound up with three extras which have been destroyed in a manner fitting to a great bike, by riding the dickens out of them. He has his bike. He has his gear that would make any rider envious(thanks JK and BL) and he took his Team Oregon class. He then had some reservations, ones that I couldn't rationalize. They were solid reservations. A year or so later they appeared to have been worked out. I had just gotten to Wichita last week when I got a call from him. He was calling to ask if i would help someone with their car(which of course was a yes because he was asking). I then mentioned my flight issues coming in to Wichita which had him laughing pretty good(so i get motion sick, it is what it is). He then mentions that if I don't hear from him soon it'll be because he's going to start riding tomorrow with a weight to his words. Record scratch sound.
And this is why these words are on the page. This started as an article on target fixation accompanied by video of a rider riding a bit over his head that target fixates on a group of cycles. I think the motorcyclist should be charged with major crimes as a result. Riding in that manner that has him that close to the limit that he target fixates is a decision he made and not just an accident. So when you are on skyline riding at 11/10ths of your ability and you see a cyclist(that take over the entire road asking for it) that instills panic in you that you fixate try to focus on a big tree, it's a more "deserving" target. Side note, I do plan on more cycling miles than motorcycle miles so it hits a bit closer to home. Apparently I had a bit more on my mind than target fixating. I also had an article from Florida last weekend with a car turning left on a two lane highway that impacted the bike with such force the front wheel of the car came off and hit another car. All this stuff has been popping up so I thought I'd do a little article both for the riders to give it a second thought and make slight adjustments and the drivers that read this also giving it a bit of a second thought and maybe a tear could be saved somewhere. In theory I should chop out the center and turn it back into the article originally intended but I hurt my blood pumper typing this out so I'm leaving it.
My Dad's Ascot.
I hesitantly post. Only hoping to save one cyclist on skyline.
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