Mascara - A special riding problem

When I look at other riders, I don't think about what they might look like behind their visor, or without their goggles. I'm glad they can't see me because by the time my nearly-an-hour ride to work is done, my glasses and the tops of my cheek bones are smudged.

My helmet cheek pads press my cheeks so when I blink, the mascara transfers from my lashes to the top of my cheek bones. And, because I don't have the really expensive Arai helmet that has channels for the earpieces of my glasses, my glasses get squeezed against my lashes which leaves this filmy coating on the lenses. There are three obvious fixes for this problem: a) stop wearing mascara when riding to work, e.g., put on the mascara after I get to work b) wear waterproof mascara c) wear less mascara, d) change helmets e) wear contact lenses. Okay, so five obvious choices.

The switch to glasses was age-related - believe me, my vanity is such that if I could go back to contacts, I would do it in a heartbeat. Waterproof mascara makes my lashes break off. Switching to a different helmet is just a matter of time; I have a couple more good years left on this one. Now we are at the heart of the matter, why bother with mascara at all? See previous comment about vanity, and, add to that the time factor. I know how much time it takes to remove the caterpillars from my cheek bones, it adds a few seconds on top of the time needed to replace the shine on my nose with the professional matte surface required for professional corporate female presentation. Putting mascara on bare lashes is inviting the gods of chaos to visit just before a morning meeting - too much risk.

This morning's ride to work was consumed with this thought, "you there, yeah you on your squidly machine, or you on your HD soft-tail, or you on your retro standard, or even you on your CanAm trike (were you really lane splitting on Highway 237?) - how the heck do you deal with your mascara?

Spring Cleaning - Selling a Bike that isn't being ridden

How many bikes have you got in your garage? More than one? How many of them are you riding? If you felt a twinge of guilt just now, then exactly my point. 

We have had four bikes in the garage, only two of which get ridden. After Peter took my 1200 GS to Death Valley and rode Titus Canyon, his Honda VFR has been languishing. The 2002 VFR has that  afterburner VTEC technology, it knocks your head back and you can't stop grinning, assuming you haven't done something stupid like roll on the throttle in front of a cop which Peter managed to do twice in three days when he first got the bike. So you can imagine that the idea of selling the bike privately was not sitting well with me. Just imagine the yahoos who would want to test ride the bike and not be ready for that kind of acceleration. The combination of the liability issues and the time investment tipped the balance in favor of selling the bike to a wholesaler. 

I wanted to avoid  

• the liability of a potential buyer test-riding the bike and doing damage to the bike, him/herself, or something/someone else
• the hassel of vetting potential buyers and scheduling meetings. Whether you do the test ride from the parking lot of your local friendly motorcycle dealer or from your own home, it still takes a lot of email and phone calls.
• seeing Peter's face as he watched his previously favorite bike go to someone else 
• having to drain the old (smelly) gas

The wholesaler I worked with is the wholesaler my local friendly BMW works with to offload trade-ins that aren't going to move well. Having a dealership do the mutual vetting for you as a seller and the wholesaler as a buyer take a lot of worry out the transaction. I took pictures of the freshly washed and waxed bike, emailed the wholesaler the bike's year and mileage and the bike's history (bought new, primarily touring, always garaged, regularly serviced, …) He quoted a price (wholesale), we went into the shock and ran comps on Cycle Trader again. We revisited the whole decision again, weighing our time and the liability issue against our hope for a better price for a bike in very good condition, all red and shiny with Givi touring cases and yes, an older bike with more miles on it than other comparable bikes. We accepted the offered price. 

The transaction was easy; the wholesaler picked up the bike at my house, paid cash, and, thanks to improvements on the DMW website, we recorded the sale and transfer of liability online before the bike left my driveway. I called my insurance company right after closing the garage door and took the bike off our policy. Efficient. Done. 

If you decided to sell your bike yourself, here is a suggestion from Jim Thurber who gave me this advice in 2006.

1. Find the title to the bike.
2. Talk to the owner of the shop you take the bike to for maintenance. That could be a dealership or an independent shop, just so that they are obviously a third party. Although they'd rather sell one of their bikes, at least their service department is being used. As a result of this introduction the potential buyer may become a new customer who will purchase riding gear, parts and service, and tell their friends about the shop.
3. Establish a price for a tech review of your bike. The fee for this service will be paid by the potential buyer if they purchase the bike. It is up to you, the seller, to bring qualified potential buyers otherwise the shop owner may want to charge you for the mechanic's time. 
4. The shop will have paperwork for the buyer to take a test ride (if you are willing), and for the bill of sale. 
5. Advertise anywhere you want - Craigslist.com, Cycletrader.com, local school for-sale board, local motorcycle Sunday ride hang-out, wherever is right for the bike.
6. When you've established that a potential buyer is qualified to buy your bike (you wouldn't sell an R1 to a rider with no experience, would you?), set up the meeting at the shop. Tell the potential buyer that a professional mechanic will be participating in the meeting so that everything about the bike, warts and all, will be disclosed.  
7. If the buyer wants to ride the bike, and you aren't comfortable with that, the mechanic can ride it and talk about it. If you do let the potential buyer ride the bike, have the person sign a statement that they are responsible for any damage that may occur during the test ride.
8. If the deal goes through, the transaction is completed in cash, or a cashiers (bank) check. Be sure to mention that family member of yours who works in the Secret Service's counterfeit currency detection unit.
9. Tell the buyer that you will wait for twenty minutes after the buyer has left the shop on their new motorcycle. If the buyer brings the bike back, not wanting it, with absolutely no damage, you will take back the bike, return the money and tear up the paperwork. If the buyer doesn't return in 20 minutes, you're going home. When twenty minutes has ticked off, leave.

What I like about this procedure is nobody visits anyone's house. Of course buyer and seller will see each other's addresses when you use your smartphone to get on the DMV site (here is California's Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability site) and transfer the liability. Doing it this way will take additional preparation on your part; you'll need to talk to the shop's owner, work with their mechanic's schedule, look at the test-ride liability form in advance and figure out what applies and what doesn't or prepare your own form. You will want to find an example of a bill of sale for your state and have two copies ready. Make it as easy as possible for your buyer to sign, hand you a wad of cash and ride away. Here's to starting the riding season with more space in your garage!

Finally, Spring!

How do I know it is finally Spring where I live? The daffodils have come and gone. So have have the narcissus. It is the moto-tulips that are in full bloom. In the past week, the motorcycle population on my commute route has gone from about 10 bikes commuting in the opposite direction to about 25-30 based on today's count. During the coldest days like the day it was 32 degrees (Fahrenheit) there may be one or two die-hards on the opposite side of the barrier like that tall person in yellow Aerostitch suit. Die-hards, maybe fools.

And now - now the temperatures stay reliably above 50 degrees between 7am and 7pm. There's a person riding a KTM (orange and black) wearing a KTM jacket (orange and white) and a KTM orange helmet with a matching mohawk strip (guess what color) on the helmet. Reminds me of a parrot tulip - all bright and fringy and showy - the vibe coming off the rider was a happy "look at me!" and yesiree I was looking and smiling.

Spring riding is definitely in high gear, riders are waving at each other like kids saying hi on the first day of school.

The rheostat for the heated gear and the winter gloves are back in their storage container but it isn't quite time to switch to summer gear - the canyons on the east side of the bay are still cool in the morning and in the early evening as you head home on the west side you get washed with the chilly Spring gusts coming across the bay. The hills are green from the rain, the sun is up when I leave for work and hasn't set and isn't (yet) in my eyes when I'm headed home. Life is good.

Cool stuff to celebrate Spring riding:

• If your keys or helmet grow legs when you aren't looking, check out Mike Werner's review of this bluetooth enabled find-it gadget.
• If you ride solo in places where there are no cell towers, like my ride on the Extraterrestrial Highway (Nevada Hwy 375), you might be interested in this iPhone case that turns your iPhone into a Satellite Phone.  (thanks to Paul Hollerbach)
• If you're a commuter you might want stylish, safe, superior, kickass turn signals that are visible 360 degrees. As of writing this entry 8pm (April 11th), the KickStarter project needs 40 more $25 contributors to hit the goal that will allow Jonny Ostojic to manufacture the signals at an affordable cost. [Update 2pm, April 12th - project is funded! Thank you for contributing / spreading the word!]

360-degree visible turn signals

I never thought I would get excited about turn signals until I saw what Audi is doing for their cars. And now there's something beautiful and functional for our motorcycles that's in the concept stage.

If you like the concept, you can buy the pre-production turn signals for your bike and contribute to the Kick Starter project that will help make these turn signals become a real product.
MuzaMoto is the brainchild of mechanical engineer and entrepreneur Jonny Ostojic from Walla Walla, Washington. The project is halfway to its goal of $10,000 to put in a parts machining order large enough to bring down the unit cost. The video does a great job showing the design of the turn signals.


or see the video in a larger format on the KickStarter site.

Living 80% bike 20% car

I'm sitting the lobby of chiropractor's office with my road gear and helmet on the chair next to me. A few days before I skidded across the polished wood yoga studio floor in socks and did a darn good imitation of a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. A woman comes out of another practitioner's office and stops in her tracks when she sees my gear.

"Oooooh, I want to get back to riding. What do you ride?"

"BMW 2011 650 GS twin. What did you used to ride?"

"BMW. That's what I want". She tells me about riding a Honda 450 from Chicago to San Francisco about 20-25 years ago. Then she got married and had a kid. Sold the bike. Hasn't ridden since. "I'm going to get my motorcycle license and be bike-only."

"I've been bike-only for about five years now but I don't think I could do it without occasional access to a car for shopping and when the weather is really bad and I need to get to work. And, there are times when I'm really too tired to be riding, but on four wheels, the risk is less for me to be driving. I don't think I could do it, being 100% bike-only."

"Well, my son is going to be in college soon and he's decided to live at home to save money, so I'm going to give him my car. We're going to split insurance, so that will give me 'access'". She smiles broadly." And, there's alway Zip Car if I really need a car - you know they're right next to the train station. I'm really excited about having a bike again, and I'm really glad to meet to you." She extends her hand, "I'm Deborah. You ride safe."

Wow. I'm grinning my head off. One more mostly bike-only woman rider will be out there soon.

Prepare for Spring - get real riding pants

After reading this blog entry, you might conclude that I just needed an excuse to post this Wonder Woman cartoon and you would be right. The cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with motorcycles, but I'm going to riff on pants, riding pants that is, and suggest that now is a good time to start shopping online for good deals on last year's leather or cordura or kevlar, anything but cotton jeans. (Click the image to see a larger view)

If you think that your moto-mounted butt is safe in cotton jeans, or you know someone who thinks his/her butt is safe in cotton jeans, then please read Wes Siler's blog entry, "Why wearing jeans on a motorcycle is really a bad idea". He is a young man;  I understand that hormones cloud his judgment - even after scraping skin off his rump (there are pictures) he still feels the need to look good when getting off his bike to go into a restaurant so even though he owns an Aerostich suit, he says there will be times when he won't be wearing it. 

Spring is coming and everyone is dying to get out there and preen and be seen but for heaven's sake, there are cordura and kevlar re-inforced jeans available that will both keep your skin intact and make your butt look good. Here are a few brand names to search for:

• Sliders 4.0 Kevlar Motorcycle Riding Jeans
• AGV Sport Malibu Kevlar Jeans
• Alpinestars Logic Kevlar Denim Pants
• Speed and Strength Run with the Bulls Jeans

After you've started searching for those examples, you'll see that there are plenty more options than just these few. As Wonder Woman first appeared in 1942, I imagine that she might be wearing Not Your Daughter's brand jeans during off hours. I would love to see Wonder Woman in a nice pair of leather pants. 

California CHP Lane Splitting Guidelines

Lane Splitting on the Bay Bridge
photo by Asphalt and Rubber, 2010

"Lane splitting in a safe and prudent manner is not illegal in the state of California" - California Highway Patrol's California Motorcyclist Safety Program

Here in Silicon Valley we have a columnist with the San Jose Mercury News, Gary Richards, better known by his nom de plume, Mr. Roadshow. The highways in the Tri-Valley and Silicon Valley areas are a circus of drivers, road construction, road maintainance and law enforcement.  Want to find out why a section of highway got paved but the miles before and after that segment are still riddled with uneven seams and pot holes? Want to report that the traffic lights on a main road are out of sync so people are using your residential side street to avoid the choke points? Want to know exactly what the law is on lane splitting? Who do you call/write to, the city? county? state transportation office? We mere mortals send our questions, complaints, information tidbits to Mr. Roadshow. Gary Richards has built relationships with transportation planning agencies, local law enforcement, the California Highway Patrol, and city planners - answers appear Mr. Roadshow's column in the San Jose Mercury News. 

California is the only state in the United States where lane splitting is allowed. Did you notice that the quote didn't say that lane splitting is legal, it said lane splitting isn't illegal. A law enforcement officer is acting on discretion when deciding if your lane-splitting behavior is safe. Here are the California Highway Patrol guidelines (link takes you to a PDF). You'll notice a mantra, "if you don't fit, don't split".

Three interesting items from the guidelines:

• It is not okay to lane split when  
• traffic is moving fast
• dangerous road conditions exist such as water or grit on the road, slippery road markings, uneven pavement, seams in the pavement, metal grates
• riding between wide vehicles such as trucks, buses, RVs
• around or through curves
• Splitting is considered more safe between the fast lane and the lane next to it; that is where vehicles expect motorcyclists to split. The slow lanes are where people are entering and leaving the highway - not a safe place to be. 
• Reasonable speed for lane splitting is not more than 10 mph faster than traffic flow and not exceeding 39 mph while lane splitting.

Sources

Text on the CHP site about when and how motorcyclists can ride between lanes of traffic
PDF of California Highway Patrol guidelines  
Topic on Mr. Roadshow's column