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eonParticipant
I think you are supposed to remove the back protector from the jacket if you wear a vest. Not sure if it would be a good or a bad thing if you wore both?
I looked into getting a back protector a few months back (in the end decided not to do it yet) and IIRC the Joe Rocket one was voted the best. It is made in Europe and under a different name (marketed under 2 different names in Europe) but over here it is sold under the Joe Rocket name. It is CE Level 2, which not many are.eonParticipantSo what is it like to work at Google?
I’m curious as once upon a time I worked at Microsoft in Redmond and it was, erm, interesting. I learned a lot while I was there but not nearly as much as I expected I would. I had thought there would be lots of training classes but there was never time for that as there was always deadlines to meet. MS gets flak for always missing deadlines but I can tell you they are taken very seriously within the company. Over the space of 6 months as we got closer to our beta release date, my hours crept up past 100 a week. The pressure was incredible and I nearly had a breakdown at one point. And this was while working on a piss ant little project that never saw the light of day.
The amount of smugness was a bit sickening at times. Those who had been with the company 10 years acted as if they had tenure and could do whatever they wanted. The strange thing was, the really smart people were the most down to earth and easy to get along with. The amount of internal politics that went on was incredible. The was a definite hierarchy within the company with the Windows group at the top and MSN at the bottom. My biggest complaint though was there seemed to be no importance attached to the creative people. The GUI designer in my team was probably the least important member of the team. Strange to think that in an application that gathers data and presents it to a user, the actual presentation was never considered that important.Ok, rant over. I am all better now. I left there 3 years ago and am in a much better place now.
September 25, 2008 at 4:10 pm in reply to: MSF School: Waste of time, waste of money, both, or none of the above……Flamers flame on. #12739eonParticipantJeeesus, can we stop hurling insults around now, please? Arguing with people on the internet has to be one of the most pointless pastimes around.
Smoke, we get the idea you are disappointed in your class. This could have been a great thread on the merits of the MSF class. For what it’s worth, I was also disappointed with my class. I did not like the cozy discussion groups with other noobs, I wanted to learn from the instructor. I know they were trying to get us thinking but since I had already read the MSF handbook and Proficient Motorcycling, I pretty much knew the answers they were looking for. I did learn a lot from the range part as I had never sat on a motorcycle before so I certainly got my money’s worth there. However, it is not that hard to learn the basics enough to pass the test. I would have liked more time to practice certain things. My main complaint was, is that it? I wanted to learn more. It seemed a bit scary that I was now ‘qualified’ to hit the open road.
From reading forums like this it is not hard to get the impression this class will turn you into a safe, experienced rider in 2 easy days. Fact is it is a BASIC class. I think it does a great job of getting people to think about safety. If you are experienced it can probably help you identify bad habits you have picked up. You are probably in the worst position, new but with several weeks practice on doing things correctly and has read the material.
September 24, 2008 at 3:33 pm in reply to: MSF School: Waste of time, waste of money, both, or none of the above……Flamers flame on. #12649eonParticipanteonParticipantYou missed the point. When the helmet gets a hard knock the polysomethinginate inside it gets compressed to absorb the blow. It does not uncompress, it is a one shot deal. If the helmet took a hard knock in transit it could be useless before you ever put it on your head and you would not know. I’ve never ordered a helmet online and if that is the way they get shipped, I probably never will.
eonParticipantI’m not so sure about putting your leg out. It’s probably what I would instinctively do but I don’t think it is a good idea. I’ve read on other forums about people getting bad injuries that way. Last Friday night while playing soccer I saw a girl break her ankle in 3 places WHILE STANDING STILL. She turned but her foot did not. I saw her foot hanging at 90’s to her leg, damn near passed out myself. If you can do that standing still imagine what you can do at 10mph with 400lbs of motorcycle to support. If the bike is going down then get out of the way, but trying to support it while it is going at an odd angle sounds like trouble.
eonParticipantAbout 6 weeks and 1000 miles for me now. I don’t have a commute so all those miles have been fun miles
eonParticipantI wish you all the best in learning how to ride and certainly do not want you or the bike to come to harm. However I do wonder if you are doing as much as you can to learn safely. It is hard to get all of your reasoning into a post like this but based on what has been said I have the following comments.
If you would have bought a “beginner bike” but for the wife, then you have compromised your safety with the very first person who tried to influence you. Ironically, the person who has most interest in keeping you safe.
I agree that riding a 150cc scooter is valuable experience but do you? It sounds like you have ridden 1400 miles on it without any training or coaching. There is no difference between a 150cc scooter and a 1000cc ducati when it comes to lane positioning, cornering technique, braking etc etc. But it appears you treated it as less than a motorcycle and simply got on it and started riding.
Why did you have to learn about correct wrist positioning in this thread? If you have been on motorcycle threads for any length of time you will have heard about Proficient Motorcycling, it talks about that in there. You can download and read the MSF Basic Class booklet and read it before your class. It talks about that in there. Why did your experienced friend not tell you about this? Is he teaching you bad habits? Would you know? He may be the safest rider out there but after 30 years riding can he relate to beginner issues? You may learn a great deal from him but it should not stop you from learning from the professionals.
Safety does not begin or end with the MSF classes. We can all learn more. And when learning we will make mistakes. On a more powerful machine your margin of error is smaller than mine so you need to take that much more care.
September 16, 2008 at 11:56 pm in reply to: Should u learn to drive in a car and then get a motorcycle? #12265eonParticipantWell, I haven’t got one yet as I would also need to get a RAM mount and wire up a power connection for it. This is for when i have a bit more experience and am off exploring NF roads. I want to know do I turn off at this unmarked road or the next one. Kind of important when the nearest gas station is 100 miles away. Oh, that reminds me. Need external fuel tank, sleeping bag, tent….
eonParticipantI have to say I totally disagree with the marital reason for buying the bigger bike. That is a lame excuse in my book (and yes, I am a married man). If you want to get the bigger bike then by all means get it, but if the reason you are learning on a more powerful bike is to avoid an argument with the wife then that is pretty weak. You know that learning on a bigger bike carries more risk than learning on a smaller one. Are you really saying your wife is happier with that risk than you taking a $200 hit after reselling your learner bike? Or are you saying you are content to let your wife think a bike is a bike is a bike, avoid an argument and get the bike you really want?
September 16, 2008 at 4:37 pm in reply to: Should u learn to drive in a car and then get a motorcycle? #12247eonParticipantAs well as learning the rules of the road, you need to learn about yourself. Most young drivers are susceptible to peer pressure and drive outside their abilities. I include myself in this and I was 22 before I started driving! I would crawl along safely but whenever someone came up behind me I would feel pressure to drive faster and not slow them up. Looking back, I was an unsafe driver and and I know I would have killed myself if I had bought a bike at that time.
Also, it is a bit of a myth that bikes are more economical than cars. By the time you buy your boots, pants, jacket, helmet, gloves (and all this in summer and winter versions), rain gear, safety classes, top cases, side bags, puncture repair kits, GPS units…..the list never seems to end. It is not quite a cheap as you first thought.
eonParticipantDon’t worry about the figure 8. I messed that up completely (and I mean completely!) but aced everything else. I am sure you will find the swerve to be easy, it’s a lot simpler than the emergency stop or cornering.
eonParticipantIn theory, yes. But as they pointed out, when weaving towards the person you are actually exacerbating the problem (you are narrowing the angle of attack), so you weave sharply towards them and then gradually away. But then you have the problem if someone is on the other side of the road (i.e. someone is leaving a side street and someone is entering it). Not surprisingly, this quickly becomes unmanageable.
Bottom line is, always expect the person to pull out in front of you and have your escape plan ready.
eonParticipantCar drivers not looking for bikes is a factor and was taken into account in the research. The problem is the sheer number of “Sorry mate I didn’t see you” incidents implies there is something more going on than just careless drivers.
Research outside the field of motorcycle accidents has shown that an object heading straight towards you is difficult for our eyes/brain to pick out. Our brains are wired to identify moving objects. If something is heading directly towards you then there is limited movement to identify and you simply blend into the background. It is not until the car driver pulls out that you move across his horizontal vision, the brain suddenly registers this closing object, they freeze and hit the brakes.
I am all for hi-viz clothing and own a luminous yellow, dorky looking jacket. But swirly patterns, even brightly colored ones, can act as camouflage. The main factor to effective camouflage is not color matching to the background but breaking up your outline. If you can paint a swirly pattern on a battleship and have it blend into the blue ocean, what chance do we have riding down main street with neon signs behind us.
The point of all this is that you can wear all the hi-viz clothing you want, there will be times when the driver will not see you. You need to ride expecting the car to pull out if you want to avoid becoming a statistic.
USS Leviathan WW1
eonParticipantIn my class there was one Nighthawk and the rest were cruiser types. The guy on the Nighthawk was pretty bad, he looked low in confidence and we were always queuing up behind him to complete the exercises. But come the figure eight, he breezed it and the rest of us struggled!!!
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