getting knocked out of your limits

To all of the above: Certainly not! My point is that responding to posted
opinions demonstrates that one cares about them.

 

There is the idea that silence implies consent. If foolish ideas are not
countered...

 

I've ridden in Baja, through Tijuana. If you drive like they do, you
just lay on the horn and go. Aggressive fun, in a way.

But in Toronto, hey! It's Canada. They're clean and polite in Canada,
probably pass you a cup of tea as you ease past their cars.

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville

 

As a good friend of mine put it when I drove up to visit, "They respond well
to aggression."

 

As do us Airplane pilots and us Seaplane pilots and us Helicopter
pilots and us glider pilots... What's yer point?

No, but he *proves* that old and stupid saying as being absolutely
incorrect. It's just another "tool" that folks use when they see someone
else exceeding their own limitations...

 

Even with practical experience, safety is relative.

I have lane shared, filtered through very slow moving traffic, and I
have split lanes.
I have experience with all three modes that involve two motorcycles,
or a motorcycle and a car in the same lane at the same time.

Of the three modes mentioned, the dumbest and most dangerous is lane
splitting, and it gets worse as the difference in speed between the
motorcycle and the cars being passed increases.

One rider boasted to me of splitting lanes at 80 mph on the Ventura
Fwy, between lanes of stopped traffic. He admitted that he and his
friends were stupid for doing that.

He operated a motorcycle speed shop and drag raced professionally and
raced at Daytona and he was recently champion of the over-40 class at
Willow Springs.

But he was still subject to such brain farts as lane splitting at
excessive speed.

Back in the mid-1970's, as economic conditions made cheap motorcycles
available, and the same
economic conditions caused many blue collar workers to commute by
motorcycle, the word among the
motorcycle community was that the CHP had said that passing stopped
vehicles at about 5 mph was
safe, and that it was safer than stopping directly behind a car and
get rear-ended by the next car when it couldn't stop.

So, I would be happy enough, just filtering through stopped traffic at
5 mph or so, and along would come some lunchbox racer who believed
that it was OK to split lanes at the speed limit, and he would almost
rear-end me, if I didn't find a space between the cars on my left to
duck into.

Then the "conventional wisdom" evolved to riders saying that lane-
splitting was "OK" up until when the cars got back up to 45 mph. In
the late 1970's, I would see strings of riders splitting lanes at the
speed limit, just as if the space between cars really was "the
motorcycle lane".

What the reasonable person believes is safe seems to be relative to
the amount of risk he wants to take.

Some people skydive or fly hang gliders or play with venomous
reptiles, and they are arguably reasonable. They have a reason why
they take risks.

In the final analysis, whether a rider lane splits or doesn't lane
split depends on how much risk
he's willing to take.

 

I rode a 100cc 2-stroke Kawasaki street bike to work all winter days but
nine the last year I lived in Elkhart, IN. Snow pack was fairly easy, but
there was fresh snow nearly every morning. Glare ice was nigh impossible.
Even if able to stop at light or sign, I could be facing backwards. Those
days I drove my van.

Riders ride.

 

Good Chianti is oxymoronic.

See Vinegar

 

I've driven all over Mexico excepting the Yucatan Peninsula. Lane
delineations are merely recommendations. Motorists commonly make 2 lane
roads into 3-5 lane expressways. If there's room, there's somebody in it.
Mexicans use turn signals religiously - unlike Americans. There are very
few accidents in Mexico. There is no law requiring insurance. You wreck
it, you buy it. That makes for good drivers - also unlike Americans......

 

No, it's not. It just means Canadian legislators are dumb, and ditto
every US legislator save for those in California.

Oh, and you, as well, of course.

Why do you think it's perfectly safe in Britain (and elsewhere)? Because
everyone knows it happens, everyone's ready for it, and everyone accepts
it.

Some dopey politician made the first moves towards outlawing it, decades
ago, and it didn't even get past first base. The biggest opponents were
the police, believe it or not.

I'm not advocating screaming between lines of motorway traffic at
100mph, but done properly, sensibly, and at the right time and place:-
it works for everyone.

Now go away and find a minefield to play in.

 

The level to which you have stooped is ensuring that you expressed your
opinion in ways sufficiently offensive to ensure others will rise to
your bait while not only lacking the courage and integrity to sign what
even appears to be an actual name but name shifting, too.

Please dn not make the mistake of thinking that I find you in any way
anything better than a stupid prick.

 

Drivers don't report accidents in Mexico unless they can't avoid it.
If their car still runs after the crash, they drive away as fast as
they can.

You gotta be kidding. An American going into Mexico had better buy
insurance at the border, or risk being put in jail until resposibility
for the accident is determined by the police. Injured Americans have
died because the police would allow them to be evacuated to an
American hospital.

How come they forget how to drive after they cross the border? Is
there something lacking in our water?

 

How do you know all this? You've never lanesplit.

You seem to be under the impression that we didn't get your message that
you think that lanesplitting in Ontario is dumb.

Repeating yourself over and over and over again, especially about
something you have no experience with, is dumb, too. (How many times do
you think we'll have to repeat this message before you get it? I only
ask because it seems that you come from an environment where people keep
repeating things to you until you get them right‹otherwise why do you
go on doing that?)

 

We got you the first time.
Did you know that posting the same message over and over and over
(called spamming) is considered rude?

 

Drivers don't report accidents in Mexico unless they can't avoid it.
If their car still runs after the crash, they drive away as fast as
they can.
---
See above.

----

You gotta be kidding.

---

no, I'm not.

----


An American going into Mexico had better buy
---

optional

---


insurance at the border, or risk being put in jail until resposibility
for the accident is determined by the police.
---
Because hundreds if not thousands of gringos have skedaddled back over the
border to avoid responsibility.

---
Injured Americans have
died because the police would allow them to be evacuated to an
American hospital.

---

American health insurance is not honored in Mexico. Health care is cash and
carry. Mexican hospitals have millions of unpaid gringo dollars on their
accounts receivable. They much prefer Americans go home for their insurance
covered health care. However, if an injured person has yet to be tried in
traffic court for an accident, they obviously can't leave the country. If
such persons refuse hospitalization in Mexico it's their right to die.

How come they forget how to drive after they cross the border?
----

I didn't know they did. They do seem more cautious, though. The asshole
gringos won't let them get driver's licenses, but still expects them to get
to work on time. It's wise to drive very carefully when you have no license
or insurance.

 

Are you saying he was an inattentive pilot who took stupid chances?

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville

 

Okay! We get it! Crikey, do you ever shut up, or are you just going to
go on and on flogging this dead equine until everyone simply wanders
away out of boredom and you think you've "won."

You think lane splitting is dumb. You've made that abundantly clear.
We don't agree.

Is there some reason you can't deal with that?

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville

 

I used to think that, having only had that raffia-wrapped bottle of
tourist chianti. However, I went to Buca de Beppo once and, feeling
rather Tony Sopranoish, I ordered a glass. What a surprise! It was
potable! Quite good, actually.

It's like the first time I tried catfish from a cold-water lake.
Surprisingly delicious!

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville

 

Yeah, you already posted that, right down to your mispelling of "theer."
You've expressed your opinion.
You've waved your credentials around like a big weenie.
You obviously think you're the grizzled riding veteran advising callow
newbies. Hate to break it to you, but you're not.

How could you be, when you live in a place where riding is restricted to
the months without snow in them? (I know, you said, riding in snow, blah
de blah, but honestly, you don't do it every day.)

Listen up. That list of things that "could" happen isn't just in your
community. You think none of us have dodged a door, or a discarded butt,
or coffee dregs? You seem hysterically bent on forcing us all to agree
with you that "lanesplitting is bad, m'kay?"

Obviously you're in the minority. Don't do it if you're afraid. But quit
yapping about it. You're not going to change anyone's mind here.
And, I might point out, many of us ride every ding-dong-diddly day!

Every single day! Now then, it doesn't matter how many motorcycles
you've ridden. Seventeen, woo-hoo! When you can only ride four or five
months out of the year, let's cut your annual usage in half to be
generous. Say five years riding experience rather than ten. No wonder
you're scared to split. You're just a beginner! You're beginning to
sound like some motorcyclist's Rush Limbaugh, hammering away at a point
you cannot possibly win, yet asserting that yours is the real truth.

It's not. Hundreds of people in Cali split thousands of miles of lane
every day, from San Diego to the Bay area. Not to mention Los Angeles,
where I-5 narrows down into skinny little lanes before descending into
the city proper.

Lane splitting is an acceptable risk, and a practical solution to bumper
to bumper traffic, which isn't good for an air-cooled engine.

Nobody who has done it, survived, and did it again is going to agree
with you that it's dumb. Quit beating that dead moose, eh?

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville

 

Agreed, it's sort of organized chaos. Like those bird flocks, or fish
schools that swirl around. I hadn't thought of it before, but you're
right. They all are very good about signaling their intentions, unlike
American drivers. It's more of an assertive thing than a heads-up for
others. "I am going to turn HERE!"

Once you get into the groove of it, driving in Mexico is a cheerful
exercise in anarchy. At least it seems anarchic on the surface.

--
barb
Chaplain, ARSCCwdne

buy my book!
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1198812

read my page! (thanks, R. Hill!)
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/graham1.html

visit my store!
http://www.cafepress.com/birdville