Weekend fatality

A couple of years ago, a BMW rider was killed by a stray dog plummeting
off a train trestle over a freeway.

Like I said, shit happens.

barbz

 

indeed.

however, its a real bitch. you now have to leap through some real hoops
to do that on a student visa, and your legal status of your international
license expires long before you can get through those hoops. The law
DOES allow foreign licenses from approved countries (pretty much anywhere
civilized) for visitors, but if you become a resident (student, employed,
etc) you need to get a CA license within the same 30 days as a out of
state driver... But, to get a CA license, you have to get a SS #. To
get a SS # as a foreigner on a student Visa, you have to get some papers
from State or INS or something (I forget the details), and this can take
3-6 months. We went through this with an au pair.

anyways, an "international license" is merely a piece of paper that
translates whatever foreign license the holder has... of and by itself it
has no significance whatsoever, its the foreign license that counts.

 

That would be more or less harmless as long as you stayed under 7
lbs of Pu in any one pocket. The alpha radiation from Pu is stopped by any
of the following... a sheet of paper, 1/2" of air. .. the dead skin on your
hand.

Uranium and many other radio actives emit more penetrating radiation.
Pu is the hot number because of the way it can be set up to go into a
critical reaction with the relatively controllable alpha particle decay
reaction ( alpha can be slowed and reflected inside the reaction chamber
creating the potentials for an exponentially accelerating reaction... gamma
is too fast, and penetrates the containment and not reflective so it is much
more difficult to get it to go critical especially in the smaller amounts.

Phil Scott

 

great advice Larry... if you dont drill it so that its an
instinct...when the time comes to swerve the skills will not be there
sufficiently.

Your advice to not brake and swerve at the same time of course would
have some exceptions. There is a time and a place to brake while turning
hard..but of course not while *transitioning in the swerve,.... but going
into the swerve I have braked hard to the point of liftng the rear wheel
....that was back in the good old days... (those skills currently coming
slowly back up to speed).

I recommend braking hard as you approach the object, initating the swerve
while still braking, staying braked to the the transition point, then
getting off the brake to correct back onto the original line.

I never practiced that, but I will in the future.

Phil Scott

 

You disagree because you are looking at life from that virtually 100%
accepted, drilled in, and common viewpoint... a single viewpoint, emanting
from the area behind your eyes.

There is a realm vastly beyond what some call ordinary reality. And
there have been demonstrations of that numerous times...for instance when an
old woman lifts a 2,000 lb car off of her grandchild pinned beneath it when
it falls off the jack.... or when Gene Romero crashed with a few laps to go
at the sacramento mile while leading,,, at 120 mph into the hay bails and
got up to win from 7 th place.... unheard of lap times before or since,
impossible lap times...but he did it before 10,000 stunned spectators.
There is that realm of existence.

You see mention of these potentials ridiculed by those vastly below that
level...stuck in the mundane issues of life...but not all ridiculed by
anyone anywhere in the world, in any sport or combat at the highest
levels...it is *their common reality and they understand and live these
potentials.



Thats an issue one must experience. You can do it if you get good at
almost anything to world class levels.

So then the complaint is.... "these guys die all the time".... "bruce lee
died"... they all die... shit happens...etc.... and you see that is both
correct and a pedantically erronious argument. they died while living and
performing even beyond the limits of extra ordinary reality... doing things
and living life that puts the ordinary persons existence almost to shame.

So that is not the point. Those who make it the point as they are free to
do, lock themselve entirely out of these transcendent ranges of life by such
behavior....by thier own choice. LX is trying to indicate that there is
potential vastly beyond that level and he is correct.



Now just to clarify here, I realize fully that I have simply invited
ridicule and abuse from those without the eyes to see these issues. And
thats fine.


I enjoyed Kill Bill 2 from that perspective.


Phil Scott

 

Bogus arguments Dem....and they do not speak well for you... each of
those is statistically rare to the one in a million or better levels.
the more rational comprehension is that one can become unbelievably
competent and aware and capable and avoid the vast majority of which kills
most riders.


Phil Scott

 

I think LX got it from the USAF fighter pilot training. If he had
gotten if from scientology he would not have the remaiing competence to
machine such fine billet parts, nor would he have such a free and open mind
when it comes to the young ladies in his life.... LX,s view is prevelant
at high levels in the motor racing sports as well... one learns about the
'zone'... etc. first hand.

Phil Scott

 

Its a warriors choice.

 

Yes, my favorite saying is: "In a crisis, you won't rise to the
occasion, you'll default to your level of training."

 

My plan when riding that freeway lower level was always to dive to the
ouside to the nearest support column if the ground started shaking... many
of those in that position did survive. Some would be sharp enough to have
jumped off the bike in that location to the edge and as a collapse began, in
the second to two it took, jumped clear. People living in ordinary reality
though, with thier molases slow thinking and reaction times wont do that
though...and see life that way...and declare that is how it is....and no
such advance is possible...and then ridicule that.

Its a marker of ordinary reality.

Then there are events beyond that range...One time I lived in Santa Cruz
calif with a consulting job in San Jose, I traveled the fast and smooth,
banked, race track curvy, and mountainous highway 17 in my ford ranchero at
70 to 100 mph... playing the spring rebound and shocks against traction and
horsepoer to drift around the turns.

One day as I as I was exiting a curve and headed for the next... a very
clear image of an indian, in a loin cloth and feather in his head band
appeared in the middle of the lane I was in, walking with his back towards
me...with redskin....and I slowed dramatically, he dissapeared. a few
yards later ...around the blind turn...walking on the edge of the lane, no
shoulder, just 12" of rocky ditch and a high rock cliff... were a man and
woman with a small child. between them ..about half out into my lane. Id
of been hugging the inside where they were if I had not slowed.

We live in a world that straddles the edge of ordinary reality, and thats
all most experience.


.....extra ordinary reality... transcending that threshold is not done by
dogma but by sheer luck it seems and other factors..but once across it, life
is never the same... It is interesting that you don't see world class
performers, artists, muscians sportsmen or hard core warriors disputing the
reality of this apsect of life..... Only those operating below these
thresholds are blind to the threshold.

these ridicule what they dont understand.

That is of course correct in the average human context...but also a very
limited perspective if you can span the concept. Something will take you
out eventually so you are correct in that context...its just that in most
cases that context is created by the person in error... above that level is
a zone where these things dont happen or they happen while pushing a higher
limit, or as one ages, gets lax and errs.

All that is true... missing the point of transcendent operations however
remains the halmark mistake of most human existence.

Phil Scott

 

Correct...and that range is a few light years wider than most people
can imagine accurately...(instead they assume thier bike can stop or turn on
a bed of wet leaves)...so with that level of error floating in thier headm
thousands of others spring up.... including a range of fatal predilections,
and mind sets that preclude survival.

Thus the plethora of spare parts on Ebay.

Phil Scott

 

Pablo.... no one will disagree with you. However the 'mindset' is
fatal if you can span that dichotomy. if you understand that you would
not have argument with LX's position. or even read his example of the Hino
truck... perfect example...the bike could have been destroyed and if
so...well indeed shit happens...but LX was climbed up the side of the Hino
truck at the time....

and yes the truck could have rolled or whatever and he still could of
died...but the mindset you see is the issue... LX is not denying that we
die. He is challenging the mindset that was so common on the NG and AMS,
that 'well in that case just grab the brakes and pray'.... a truly fatal
mindset..... there always countless other options before during and after an
event.

Ive seen people riding close to the yellow line in the fog, while tail
gating the vehicle ahead.... those types will claim bad luck when they get
hurt. LX and others will not be riding the line in the first place, nor
tail gating, and we will be alert for problems so we can hit the shoulder
or whatever....or decide though our unlimited prescience, that if traffic
too bad that day for the conditions we will get off the road... no accident.

I went off the Angeles Crest highway one day at about 80 mph in an excrusion
that would have killed most riders..they would have tried to stay upright
and brake on the pea gravel and went head first into the nearest of the huge
pine trees... I had advanced plans... I put the bike on its side...and it
slid into the berm surrounding the area, with my high side foot still on the
peg, both hands on the bars (jamming the low side bar into the dirt to keep
the wheels and motor sliding in the right position... (fortunately a good
sized pull out),,, the wheels hit the burm the bike stood up, I had the
clutch in, I jammed it into first and rode the berm back the glorious
highway (1000 kawaskaki, Freddie Spencers tuner had set up for Ontario).
The plan was to survive no matter what. Its unfortunate that so many on
the NG thing putting a bike down is a plan not to survive.

Planning.

See Kill Bill 2 on that range of issues. Good luck happens after
dilligent planning and advancing ones skills...but yes, fatality still
happens...and no one is saying it doesnt...its just that it is avoidable in
the vast majority of cases.... as soon as you take a fatalistic outlook
though, the game is truly over...and that I believe is what LX is
discussing.


Phil Scott

 

You look for a gap...the odds are the SUV is not taking 100% of all
available space... there is 6" somewhere, and you shoot for that.. and yes
you could get hurt as you jam the bike into that space knowing the bars are
about to ripped off from both sides and your leg broken... but thats not a
very likely scenario for someone like LX or myself in the good old
days.....additionally in such circumstances the SUV is not moving that fast
either, (with NO clearance..it would be crawling) so you may stop and jump
for the hood of the vehicle... but you dont panic not even in the
slightest... or a combination there of... My expereince on mountain roads is
extensive... i dont think Id even get my blood pressure up in that case, Ive
had maybe 50 similar ones, rounding a high speed turn on a fire road at 80
mph or more to find a tallen tree entirely across the road etc.

....first off Id of been listening for the sound of other motors, looking for
signs of dust, bird activity in the area...indirect signs of other traffic.
there are many such signs... I wouldnt have been in the situation in most
cases if it were were the SUV could have been at high speed.... getting hit
at 5 mph is not an issue of course.

The more you ride with the survival mind set the more options you will see
and have when the time comes. and before such an event also, in your gear,
and line though blind turns...and various crash options...such as putting it
in the ditch if you have to.

Phil Scott

 

all very unlikely...the SUV will 99% of the time not be hauling ass with so
little clearance... it will be doing way under 10 mph...probably under 5 mph
if there is NO clearance....with 3" of clearance it might be doing 20 mph...
then you have of course that 3' escape route.. you can also sustain that
sort of impact in most cases.

But yes, regardless you surely could define an impossible to escape
example.... and even there... I might say, you or I or anyone else would be
at alices drinking coffee and delibetately not in that position.... the
point is that if you are, prepared .. you can do better by planning and
practicing avoidance than by freezing up and gritting yer teeth.

Its all relative.... some people would panic at an 'unsafe' condition, when
a skilled and practiced person wouldnt even consider it a hazard in the
slightest. Ive notice in my long life that those who are afraid generate
thier own tragic accidents, and those who are not have very few
accidents...but yes, Ive seen both killed.

We all get to die some time.... I personally hope its when Im hung out on
the edge at age 90 in a two wheel drift, not sucking on some ventilator in
the hosptital. Live that way, with respect for your skill level, and you
will have very few accidents...but yes, a deer could jump from the brush in
the middle of the night as you were on a drunken run over the sierra
nevada's at 1 am on the way to the whore houses along Highway 80.... that
could be a problem.

We loved John...but he was never the same after that. He could ride a
wheelie all the way down Harding in Stockton, across rail road tracks and
all...but that deer antler got him. LX though wouldnt have been on that
road that late at such high speed in the first place.

Planning.

See Kill Bill 2............ its all about planning.


Phil Scott

 

Mr Honda had planned ahead for just that case, thats why he made his bikes
so narrow.

Phil Scott