[eon]

I read that article and I did not get the impression Snell was admitting anything, other than conceding smaller heads weigh less than larger ones. In fact I remember they were very condescending towards ECE, making out it was a lower standard than DOT. It was this condescending infantile tone that turned me off Snell more than any facts or figures.

But if helmet manufacturers are turning away from them then I for one am glad.

[eon]

Wow, you agreed with me before I even posted. I knew you were good but that’s impressive (I think you meant you agreed with A).

I spent a lot of time reading about the differences between SNELL and ECE awhile back and my leanings were towards ECE. However trying to find a non SNELL certified helmet in the States severely limits your choices and I am with A (and Allen) on this. Fit and comfort matter more to me than which certification it has. I was planning on buying an ECE helmet until one day I happened to try on an Arai Profile. Wow, I instantly knew this was the one for me (much to my disgust as I had not been planning on spending $500). Now I hate wearing my old Scorpion lid, which I had been perfectly happy with before.

[eon]

My scooter came with the optional windshield from day one so all my riding has been behind it. I took it off for one day last summer due to the heat but immediately put it back on when I got home. A 60mph wind in the chest has quite a force so unless you are crouched over on a sports bike you have to counteract that force somehow. When I used my arms it messed up my steering inputs. When I used my back muscles I got tired pretty quickly.

Having said that those who started out without a shield seem to love it. I guess you adapt to what you have.

[eon]

Glad you found something you like as it seems like it has been a long search.

Did the company remove VAT for you (aka sales tax)? In the UK that runs at 17.5% so that would be a hefty savings. When I order from Amazon.co.uk they remove VAT automatically and on books and dvd’s that usually works out to be about the cost of the shipping.

[eon]

Being first at the lights is no bad thing, and some would say safer (you have an escape route to get away from someone coming up from behind). When I’m first at the lights I take my time to get underway to give any red light jumpers a chance to get through before I’m in harms way, and I certainly look both left and right.

But I rarely have to cross intersections like the one you describe. After crossing 3 lanes would I still look to my right before entering that road? I don’t know but I would hope so (and am even more likely to now after reading your story). I get nervous when crossing over fast moving roads as the consequences are more severe and cars can appear from nowhere.

Could you have avoided the hit? I would say yes. If you were really doing 40mph (or anything like it) after crossing over 3 lanes then you were in a hurry. If you were going slower and looked to the right before entering the lane then it could have been avoided. I’m not trying to be a dick or to claim I would have done any better but I think it’s important to know it could have been avoided.

As to getting back on the bike after a spill, I think it just takes time. As I mentioned I read crash reports in an effort to learn and it’s common for people to be understandably nervous after what you have gone through. I believe time is the best healer and just take it easy and not try and force anything. From personal experience I had a low drama low side on damp roads 6 months ago. I was not hurt at all but 5000 miles later I am still nervous on damp roads. I swing between it is all in my head to my front tires are shot and have no grip (truth is probably somewhere in the middle).

Take things easy and I hope to be reading your ride reports on that Versys sometime down the road.

[eon]

As promised some neat videos of the versys. I just wish I spoke Italian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQx5psCKt7w&feature=youtube_gdata

this one lists the improvements in the 2010 version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3N6SzBF-7I&feature=youtube_gdata

and of course the official promo is very slick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaRU79do4ak&feature=youtube_gdata

[eon]

+1 on the glad your okay sentiment. Sounds like it was a bad one but I guess anyone you walk away from (even if months later) is something to be thankful for.

I’m not really understanding the sequence of events that led up to the crash. So you were stopped at traffic lights, made a left turn once the light turned green and got up to 40mph before the guy hit you? Is that right? On hindsight was there anything you could have done to prevent it from happening (I know the other guy was at fault but I’m sure that was poor consolation after spending 2 months in hospital). Sorry for all the questions but I try to learn what I can from situations like this. See if I can see dangerous situations developing and avoid them before bad things happen.

As regards the 2010 Versys, it’s at the top of my shopping list and I have done plenty of online research on it. No-one really has a bad thing to say about it and the 2010 version has small incremental improvements over last years version. I sat on one at the bike show and found it very comfortable despite only having a 32″ inseam. It sits very upright (found the ergonomics very similar to my scooter) and felt very light (at least to me, as I’ve mentioned before my scooter is very heavy). Not ridden one though. I’ve got some cool videos bookmarked in YouTube that I’ll post later (at work just now and YouTube is blocked).

[eon]

Hah, I did the asphalt to gravel thing on my bicycle when I was 16. Still have the scar to remember it by. Lesson learned was caution outweighs looking cool any day.

As to how to do it on a motorcycle, I’m guessing TrialsRider or Allen would be the best people to give you advice. My guess would be to not lean anymore on the asphalt than you want to on the gravel. I would also expect the bike to slide a little during the transition which I’m sure would be scary but so long as your lean and speed are reasonable, would pass once you get traction back. Please try this out and let me know if it works

[eon]

I’ll slow race ya for pink slips. You’re probably the only person I know who might stand a chance of beating me

[eon]

I just took a basic motorcycle maintenance class at the weekend and the book they gave us is called “Motorcycle Owners’s Manual” by Hugo Wilson (ISBN 978-0-7894-1615-5). It covers all kinds of bikes, has a TON of pictures and only costs $10. Good value for that price.

If like me you are at the very beginning in trying to learn this stuff then it’s a good place to start though taking a class would certainly help as well.

[eon]

But a local paper interviewed the driver of the car (loved the hands free comment!)

One moment, Rona Williams was driving along the motorway thinking about her forthcoming day at work as a vet. The next, she was being shunted sideways at 60mph, trapped beneath the front bumper of a tanker whose driver did not even notice she was there. Her terrifying ordeal was captured on film by a passenger in another car on the A1(M) near Leeds and has been viewed millions of times since it was posted on YouTube last week. The terrifying ordeal was captured on film by a passenger in another car on the A1(M), near Leeds

The Mail has tracked down 31-year-old Mrs Williams to her home in York, and she revealed her ordeal was just as terrifying as it looked. As her Renault Clio was pushed along, she screamed: ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die.’

Mrs Williams had just joined the motorway ten minutes away from her surgery in Garforth when her car was apparently clipped by the lorry and ended up under its bumper. ‘I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways – twisted 90 degrees clockwise,’ she said. ‘I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways’. She yanked on her handbrake, sounded her horn and flashed her hazard lights, but to no avail. ‘I kept thinking, “Nobody knows I’m here. Nobody has seen me”,’ she said. ‘I tried everything. I was watching other cars, thinking, “Help me, just help me” – but they didn’t seem to be doing very much.’ Terrified the lorry was going to ram her into the crash barrier, Mrs Williams grabbed her mobile phone from her handbag.

‘I wasn’t on hands-free, but I figured I wasn’t really driving the car,’ she said. ‘I just screamed at the operator, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die! Can you do something?”

‘She tried to calm me down but there wasn’t really anything she could do at the end of the phone.’

Mercifully, almost a minute after her ordeal had begun, the lorry driver apparently spotted her.

‘Suddenly he was all over the road,’ she said. ‘Finally he managed to manoeuvre us safely on to the hard shoulder.’

After she came to a stop she immediately phoned her husband Rob, 32 – also a vet – to tell him: ‘You’re not going to believe what’s just happened.’

The lorry driver opened her door and asked if she was all right. ‘He didn’t seem overly concerned,’ she said.

‘He even asked if I thought he needed to hang around!’ Mrs Williams said she politely suggested he did, and within minutes police had arrived and they swapped insurance details.

Mrs Williams says she is now nervous about taking the motorway but is impressed that her Clio survived with only a dented side and damaged tyres

The YouTube clip has prompted police to reopen an investigation into the accident and the driver, from Cheshire-based Arclid Transport, has been suspended.

Mrs Williams says she is now nervous about taking the motorway but is impressed that her Clio survived with only a dented side and damaged tyres. ‘It must be a tough little car.’

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I can think of no situation where she could get her car spun around like that unless one of them was dramatically changing lanes. If the truck had just caught the back of her car you would think it would have pushed it away from the truck. Don’t want to read too much into words used in a newspaper report but it makes it sounds as if she was daydreaming about her day ahead and never even saw the truck. 50/50 as to which one was to blame I would think.

[eon]

Lonely in Alaska? I thought the place was overflowing with all the Charlie McEwan types? (that’s the adventure riding BMW GS dudes for those not up to speed in the lingo).

Have to admit I am leaning in that direction again. Took a maintenance class last weekend and the teacher was a serious hard core adventure type. A lot of the examples were on his tricked out F800 GS. Seriously nice machine and listening to his tales of riding South America didn’t help keep my envy under control. Might have to give in to temptation and just go for it (once finances allow which should be late summer).

[eon]

If you are a fan of the classic look then one of the Triumph Bonneville line might suit your tastes. Not sure how much they go for as it’s not really my thing (they look nice but I never see me buying one). Ducatti also make retro looking bikes but I suspect they are expensive. Not sure if you like the Monster but that might be a little bit cheaper.

[eon]

Sorry to hear about your spill but glad to hear it wasn’t serious and that you almost escaped without incident. I think what happened to you is one of the harder things on taking a corner correctly. When something unexpected happens mid corner it is HARD to ignore and steer away from it. Takes plenty of practice I think but as most corners are incident free, that probably leads you to going faster than you really should.

I recently watched an instructional video from a UK Police Instructor that seemed to focus a lot on cornering. It’s a cheesey one man band effort but it was cheap and it had some good advice in it. I’ve since altered how I ride because of it (which was actually quite hard to do) and I think I am now a safer rider. I’ve also got a full days training course on cornering coming up in June (Advanced Street Skills from Puget Sound Training). Can’t wait to take that course as it’s on Eternal’s favorite race track.

Link to cheesey video
http://www.mikewaite.co.uk/video/free-video-extracts/bends-high/

[eon]

Hi Paula,
There are a few of us here based in or around Seattle but I think that’s it for the WA contingent. One of these days we will have to arrange a BBM Seattle (or WA) group ride. That could be interesting as there would be a wide range of skill and experience on show. We would probably have to wait for eternal05 to catch up with us as he has stated he is a timid street rider

[Author]

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