So you want to be an IBR rider...

[RoadGlide]

Timely topic. Thanks for reminding us all of the mental and physical capabilities required to perform at that level. I'm doing a 50CC and BBG1500 next week from San Diego to Jacksonville, your words are taken seriously. My prayers to Dave's family and all the IBR riders making their way home.

Look for me... Taking off tomorrow for Jacksonville, Tuesday night at 9pm et for San Diego

BBG on way out. Hope to arrive by 2pm pt. 300 miles between gas stops? are you running aux?

And you are right with pressure and safety on the BBG. I will try to run in your mirror for awhile

on the return.

Be safe on the way out. If you miss the BBG on the way out you can try it again on the return. Yes, aux tank safely gets me 300 between stops. I'm in San Antonio now and departing for Grand Canyon early tomorrow. Some road construction on I-12 in LA so be careful.

 

[Lonerockz]

I posted this to the LDriders mail list but I thought it germian to the discussion here so I'm reposting it:

So much of what we do as riders is risk assessment. This also carries through to other parts of our lives. What I find so fascinating is how many people think they are good at risk assessment and even in the face of cold hard reality will refuse to admit they might be incapable of accessing risk. I strongly recommend that anyone who thinks they are good at accessing risk read Nassim Taleb's "The Black Swan." It is a fascinating book. While geared at markets and investing I find it more useful in everyday life. I'll try and give a brief break down, but this does not do it justice.

Taleb's central argument is that our ability to access risk is based on a the type of world we evolved from. Basically is there a lion on the savanna, and if I try to cross it will it eat me? When we look at a situation that has a lot of variables we tend to quickly break down and make some assumptions and reach a conclusion. This is useful for survival as the lion maybe stalking us right now and we need to move quickly.

Taleb argues that in a modern world we are dealing with a different kind of risk. He says there are two worlds Mediocristan and Extremistan. In Mediocristan we are dealing with distributions that the mind can grasp. In Extremistan we are dealing with things the mind can not grasp. For example take a football stadium of 75,000 people. Now guess the heights of the smallest and largest adults. You might assume that there is at least one small person in the stadium at 3' and one NBA star at 7' 11". Even if you got it wrong you would not be off by much, maybe a foot at the most. There are no 80' tall people. Now take the same stadium and estimate the net worth of the richest person. Here is where your estimation skills will fail you. Is it a Seahawks game? Is Paul Allen in the stands? If so did his buddy Bill Gates come with him? You might guess $100M and be off by a factor of 1000. Paul Allen is the proverbial 800' tall person, Bill Gates is your 8000' tall person. Our minds are not wired to work in extremistan. We tend to only apply risk models from Mediocristan.

When I get on my motorcycle I always remind myself that I'm engaging in an activity with greater than average risk, and that I may be operating in extremistan. I may not be capable of accurately accessing risk, so I need to be extra careful.

 

[exskibum]

Interesting -- will have to read that book. BTW, you want the word "assessing", not "accessing".

 

[Wee Willy]

Agree completely on the longer rides where true discipline and a solid understanding of your limits are the keys to success over failure. A partner on these rides would have to take the game as seriously as you do--neither significantly more nor less--and have similar rhythms (gas stops, bio breaks, rest periods, etc.). Unless you are really really sure (and even then...) about these characteristics, go solo. For the more pedestrian rides like the 1000/24, there's more wiggle room to accommodate differences in style and attitude. I prefer to have experienced company on the shorter rides...adds a dimension of camaraderie.

Cheers,

W2