Bad Press on Sportbikes

[OrangevaleFJR]

When the wife and I were riding back to Ohio from Florida via Deal's Gap back in Sept, THREE dresser Harleys all came around a blind curve on the Dragon coming at me IN MY LANE!

Uhm, that's why I now ride an '05 rather than an '04. Harley in my lane on a closing radius turn (to him) and I was forced off the road. FYI, FJRs do not "fly" well...actually they do, but they land horribly. Cliff diving--not for the faint of heart!

Let's all remember that the news story is about those who exceed their personal limits and abuse safety margins when there are others who share the same road. They DO give all motorcyclists a bad reputation whether or not we choose to accept it. The young rider who "took out" the bicyclist can be thankful he didn't meet a semi (or motorhome...or minivan full of children...or a sedan full of vacationers) coming the other way....delete one "Darwin-challenged" rider!

I used to volunteer for the Colorado Search and Rescue team for the Central Eastern Rockies. I have helped clean up a fair number of riders that went directly into the grills of trucks; trucks that were on the right side of the road. The few asshat riders out there do tend to develop people's perception of us because we are an oddity so people's curiosities about riders will be answered by two groups or riders:

1) The most common (cruiser riders)

2) The most obnoxious (humans just love the extreme of everything)

I don't think the FJR community is well represented by either group...

 

[Silver Penguin]

Gentleman lets take a deep breath please...all I have been saying is that if you want to play with fire go right ahead but when you get burnt don't have a whinge about it.
Who in the **** was talking about one's rights for ****'s sake!!! Do what you like it's your neck...

Respectfully

Hugs and Kisses and all that

Thug

You say it so eloquently (and with a name like Thug, one expects it to be so). I do agree that bicyclists have the right to ride on any public road. But let's remember that there are a LOT of circumstances where we motorcyclists have the right of way yet cede it to some moron on four wheels. On the whole, we are wise enough to realize that an epitaph reading 'He really did have the right of way but.......' is no fun.

My pet peeve with cyclists is when they ride 2+ abreast around blind curves. Along comes Ms Soccer Mom in the Suburban, who is ordering pizza on the cell phone, drinking her coffee and applying her make up. She swerves to get around the cyclists, oblivious to the motorcyclist who is occupying his own lane, riding towards her. If the cyclists were to stay over to the right and in single file, we'd all be safer.

Jill

 

[Thug]

You say it so eloquently (and with a name like Thug, one expects it to be so).

Why thank you Jill I am indeed eloquent...in a thuggish kind of way :blink:

Cheers

 

[Bluebullet]

Gee Thug, I got yer point right away and then.......I smiled.

 

[jwilly]

I thought I would update this thread. Fox 5 news in Atlanta just did another story about bikes and speeding in the North Georgia Mountains. Sounds like thier going to be cracking down this summer?

Fox 5 News Clicky

-jwilly

 

[Fencer]

I thought I would update this thread. Fox 5 news in Atlanta just did another story about bikes and speeding in the North Georgia Mountains. Sounds like thier going to be cracking down this summer?
Fox 5 News Clicky

-jwilly

Yeah but WE have already BTDT , And they make it sound so horrible 13 deaths in two years. More people die from lightining or shark bites than that.

 

[bramfrank]

Not sure about the lightning and shark bite death rates, but setting up checkpoints serves the usual public servant solution of taxing the offenders and turning the problem into a source of revenue. They even referenced the fact that the location of the stops are easily communicated among the riders.

Note that apparently they only managed to grab unlicensed bikers, because those DUI drivers and seat belt tickets weren't handed out to bikers.

It sure is hard to take a swig from a beer bottle while wearing a helmet and speeding through the twisties at 100 mph.

I said it last year - they could have made the road less appealing with bumps and some aggregate spread around in strategic places - instead they turned the situation into a revenue producer.

 

[Fencer]

Not sure about the lightning and shark bite death rates,

Ok I was off on shark bites. should have said bug bites

According to the ISAF, the number of shark attacks worldwide increased to 62 in 2006 from 61 in 2005, but the number of those proving deadly was unchanged at four. This is far below the 79 attacks, 11 of them fatal, in 2000. The United States had more reported shark attacks than any other nation, with 38 in 2006; down from 40 in 2005 and well below the 53 recorded in 2000. In comparison, several hundred people die annually from lightning strikes[3]and 1.3 to 3 million[4] people die from diseases transmitted via mosquito bites across the globe.