Motorcycle Safety

I was reading an article recently about motorcycle safety and it was mentioned that one of the biggest causes of accidents is when a driver in a car turns left in front of a bike. I imagine this is one of the most frequent causes of accidents even if it's only cars involved as well.

The author of the article who was a motorcycle cop pointed something out that I always felt was one of those no brainers. He was talking about how many riders feel that one of the ways to avoid an accident, whether it's with that left turning cager in front of you or any car for that matter, is to make eye contact with the driver.

This always struck me as strange and actually seemed an impossible thing to accomplish. Considering the fact that virtually every rider on a bike is wearing some type of eye gear, and that almost every time that eye gear is in the form of sunglasses or darkened goggles, there is no real way to make eye contact.

You may look that driver dead in the eye but the point of the theory is for THEM to look YOU in the eye and make that connection. With a pair of shades on one or both of you, it is almost impossible.

And let's say you were able to get that visual contact and recognition. How many times have you seen someone pull right out in front of you or heard of an accident where someone said, "I saw him, I just thought I had enough time to turn."?

The cop who authored the article and had been riding for over 20 years made the statement that I'm sure many of us already know: Watch for movement in the wheels of the vehicle. I know that personally, my focus is on those tires of any car that has the potential to jump out in front of me. It just seems a better bet to trust my own abilities if I get that split second jump on an movement.

Safe riding to everyone!

Why do people trailer their bikes?

Okay, I am hardly the veteran rider or young rider who seems to have no problem cruising on the interstate at 80 mph for 4 hours, without a windshield, and holding on to ape hangers with one hand looking relaxed as can be. How the hell do they do it? For me, it is a lower back issue. Having had surgery about 15 years ago to remove a disk that had ruptured from weight lifting, there's not much that really bothers it but for some reason, long rides without the windshield take a toll.

But what I cannot fathom is going to an event like the Laughlin run and trailering one or more bikes. Listen, if I made the trek to Sturgis, I can see where you might want to. But I'm talking about people that live in southern California, about 250 miles from Laughlin who trailered their bikes.

Going out on Thursday we saw tons but coming back on Sunday, along with the freeway being down to one lane due to construction, the staggering number of people who had one, two and sometimes four bikes in the trailer was mindblowing.

And I'm not talking all custom choppers where at least you could make an argument for it. I'm talking about softails and touring bikes. I hate to use the phrase as I've been accused myself but RUB comes to mind. I mean, come on now....how bad can it be folks??? Just get on your bike and ride it!

The most amazing sight we saw though was this: Nice big pickup truck with a trailer attached to it and in the trailer was a monster HD Classic...WITH A SIDECAR! They've basically got a Cadillac on wheels along with a Barcalounger attached to it but they couldn't ride it out. That was quite the sight.

More on Laughlin Run - Desert Heat

On Saturday we took a ride out to Oatman, AZ which is an old mining town up in the hills and off of old Route 66. Part of what amazes me most every time we ride up there is imagining what it must have been like about 70 years ago during the depression and dust bowl days when folks would make the trek out west in their beat up cars to start a new life. I always get this "Grapes of Wrath" feeling and can imagine how brutal the conditions must have been for those people.

This year, with the beefed up law enforcement, we hit sobriety check points going up to and coming back from Oatman. As I'd had nothing to drink before we headed up I wasn't worried but I knew that I'd want some cold beer once we got up there and had to deal with that issue.

By the time we got up there, Laurie was already getting nailed by the heat and sun. It's about a 30 minute ride from Laughlin and we left at about 11:00 am so it was already in the 90's. Once there we walked around and were able to get in some shade and eventually wound up in a restaurant for lunch and some beers but as I was concerned about drinking too much and hitting that checkpoint on the way back, kept it to just a couple Bud lights.



There really isn't much to do in Oatman except walk around and hit some of the cheesy t-shirt stores or if you're into it, antiques. But it is always fun to hang out with a cigar and a beer and check out the parade of bikes and in some cases the women.


Of course, there's always those crazy burros wandering the streets that are so amazingly tame. They really are fun to hang out with and if you're willing to spend a buck on a bag of carrots, you've got a friend for life.

All in all a great afternoon although I did wind up having to take a field sobriety test at the checkpoint on the way back. It was random, they asked my buddy who was ahead of me if he'd had anything to drink and he said a couple light beers about two hours ago (truthfully) and the let him go but when I answered the same question with the same answer, the cop politely asked me if I'd mind doing a quick check. No problems ensued and we were off in less than a minute. The heat became brutal on the way back, about 112 degrees and we had to stop in a fast food place for a drink and to let Laurie cool down but it was another great day.

Laughlin River Run, 2007

As usual, the Laughlin River run was a great time. This being the 25th anniversary of the run, the crowd seemed a helluva lot bigger than last year. We'd heard they were expecting approximately 70,000 riders into town and based on the numbers we saw I'd have to say they were probably right. The crowds were huge.


The ride out from LA county on Interstate 40 was beautiful compared to last year which was cold and drizzling until we got deep into the desert. We left LA around 9:30 with clear skies, bright sun and temps in the upper 60's or low 70's. Perfect morning.

By the time we got to the California desert town of Ludlow for a butt break, it was starting to heat up and it was t-shirts the rest of the way into Laughlin.

As usual, we had to book our room early and as usual, the typical $50/night room was bloated to $550 for three nights. For this rate, we stayed at the Riverside "Resort" and Casino as we did last year. I use the term "resort" loosely but it's a decent hotel with clean rooms, a decent restaurant and is at the north end of casino row which makes for a quick dash out of the madness if you want to take a ride.

Last year we opted to park Lucille in the unsecured, uncovered parking. The upside of this was that it was free. The downside was that there was no security (not a big issue) buy it was uncovered and hopping on the seat, even if you had a towel over it, at 9 in the morning (let alone noon) was an ass burning experience.


This year, we said f-it and paid for secured, covered parking. On top of that, we opted for the designated spot so it ran us $100 for the 3 day weekend to park. But it was nice being able to walk out the door and have the bike right there.

The weekend was a blast with some great vendor booths, great bands and music and awesome rides in the Arizona desert. The issue for some though was the brutal heat on Saturday. On Saturday, a ride out to Oatman, AZ, the old mining town situated on Old Route 66, the temperature was 112 degrees and caused some distress for Laurie on the back of the bike. But outside of that, it was a great time as usual.

The number of cops also in attendance was unbelievable. I'm all for security and have had many heated discussions with other riders about the presence of law enforcement at these events but even I felt this was a case of overkill. The crowds were well behaved from what we saw outside of a few knuckleheads getting too drunk but come on, the sheer number of cops was staggering. They too were well behaved and pretty tolerant from what I saw but there were a lot of them.

The ride back Sunday was slow going partly because of frequent stops to cool off but also due to freeway construction on Interstate 40 that caused a miles long traffic jam of big rigs and amazingly, hundreds of people who trailered their bikes. We wound up splitting lanes for miles once back over the California border. The usual 4 1/2-5 hour ride wound up taking us almost 6 hours with all the stops.

Lack of posts, Laughlin stuff soon

Amazing how a couple weeks can get right by ya. I was firm in my resolve to keep regular posts going especially with some pics and stories about the Laughlin run but found the past two weeks just flew by and our pics are still in the camera.

That said, I am adamant that I will catch up on it all in the next few days.

In the meanwhile, today is Mothers Day so we're heading out to spend time with family. Unfortunately, despite it being a gorgeous day in Southern California, we are taking the cage.

Happy Mothers day to all!