July 15, 201213 yr I will be fortunate enough to give 2 riders in my group when I wrecked a safety award in front of the wing on the 24th. Glad it all came out. What safety award? Amn Medal?
September 16, 201213 yr https://www.amc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123316888 Love it how I get this story out to try and possibly inform folks on the importance of PPE and some SMSgt retired wants to vent about my sleeve! Really?!?!
September 17, 201213 yr Good article, despite the SMSgt's moronic statement in the comments. I, too, am glad that the AF has required that I wear a crazy amount of PPE when riding. I've made it part of my riding culture. Just like buckling a seat belt, one shouldn't ride without the proper PPE. Glad to hear you're recovering. You've probably shared this before, but how did a tumbleweed not just pass under the wheels and disintegrate? Edited September 17, 201213 yr by Homestar
September 17, 201213 yr https://www.amc.af.mi...sp?id=123316888 Love it how I get this story out to try and possibly inform folks on the importance of PPE and some SMSgt retired wants to vent about my sleeve! Really?!?! Good story, and good on you for sharing. Also good to see there was a pile-on to the SMSgt with a common "get a grip" theme.
September 17, 201213 yr Good article, despite the SMSgt's moronic statement in the comments. I, too, am glad that the AF has required that I wear a crazy amount of PPE when riding. I've made it part of my riding culture. Just like buckling a seat belt, one shouldn't ride without the proper PPE. Glad to hear you're recovering. You've probably shared this before, but how did a tumbleweed not just pass under the wheels and disintegrate? Clearly you have not met a real tumbleweed...some of those things are indeed small, but others are nearly the size of a small car! I hit one with a car once and it did $1400 damage to the front end!
September 17, 201213 yr Clearly you have not met a real tumbleweed...some of those things are indeed small, but others are nearly the size of a small car! I hit one with a car once and it did $1400 damage to the front end! We get those "small car" tumbleweeds in Clovis. It's usually when the winds are 35G50 and straight across whatever road you're driving on.
September 17, 201213 yr We get those "small car" tumbleweeds in Clovis. It's usually when the winds are 35G50 and straight across whatever road you're driving on. Precisely where I met my tumbleweed...on the road down to Portales. Only about 20MPH that day, but more than enough to make it appear nearly instantaeously without warning. I was driving my spiffy new 1968 Impala convertable with the top down...my head looked like I'd been sandblasted. I had blood splattered all over the nice new white leather seats. Not huge wounds, but scratched to heck!
September 17, 201213 yr Precisely where I met my tumbleweed...on the road down to Portales. Only about 20MPH that day, but more than enough to make it appear nearly instantaeously without warning. I was driving my spiffy new 1968 Impala convertable with the top down...my head looked like I'd been sandblasted. I had blood splattered all over the nice new white leather seats. Not huge wounds, but scratched to heck! Holy crap! I guess I never really thought of tumbleweeds as a threat either, but I've never seen one that big. Obviously we don't have tumbleweeds in Wisconsin... just suicidal deer.
September 17, 201213 yr The tumbleweed was pretty big. At 70 mph I didn't have much time to react and I really don't remember much. I did see a video from the news a few weeks later and it showed my bike with the core of the weed still stuck between my front wheel and the frame. Without turning it into a fishing story I guess the tumbleweed was as wide as my 55 in tv as I look at the tv right now trying to reference the size of it. These things are no joke in Oklahoma, I just never imagined tussling with one on a bike!
September 17, 201213 yr I've hit a couple in my car and been very lucky that they simply disintegrated. I didn't realize these things were an actual threat.
September 23, 201213 yr I have the 2005 IOM TT DVD, honestly it is more amazing that Superbikes and even MotoGP! Riding at those speeds along such narrow, twisty roads takes massive tackle (to coin a Brit phrase). Many professional riders are not allowed to race it because of the risks involved. The fact that Joey Dunlop won it 26 times, to include three hat tricks (1985, 1988 and 2000), is beyond belief. Dunlop was killed in 2000 during a race in Estonia, and 50,000 people attended his funeral. A statue of him astride a Honda was also placed on the course at Bungalow Bend at Snaefell. He was very superstitious, and always wore a red t-shirt under his leathers and a yellow helmet. The man was and continues to be a legend in motorcycling... Cheers! M2
September 24, 201213 yr You guys might get a kick out of this video. I saw the movie about this bike manufacture last year. "Charge". Amazing that an electric bike can average a 100 mph lap at the IOM TT.
September 24, 201213 yr Another pretty cool one you guys might like is V-Four Victory. It's a short (~45) minute documentary about IOM in the late 70's when Honda started racing with V-4 engines. The documentary part isn't all that awesome, but pretty much the whole second half is a full lap of Joey Dunlop riding with a huge camera strapped to the tank! It is extremely badass!!! I can't really find anything about it now, but I got the DVD from Netflix a few years ago.
November 28, 201213 yr Really interesting video/documentary on the IOM TT by of all people, Al Jazeera: Anyone else get a survey a couple weeks ago asking your opinion on three sport bike safety videos?
November 28, 201213 yr Funny, that was my response as well. The military's abstinence-only approach to sport bike riding just doesn't work. I told them to contact me (as they asked) at the end of the survey as I would love to assist in developing a meaningful, practical and safe program to sport bike riding but haven't gotten any response. edit: On an unrelated note, anyone been to Hallett Motor Racing Circuit about 80 miles east of Vance AFB? Edited November 28, 201213 yr by xaarman
November 28, 201213 yr Really interesting video/documentary on the IOM TT by of all people, Al Jazeera: Wow, thanks for posting that.
November 29, 201213 yr If anyone hasn't seen Fastest, the 2011 follow-on to Faster and The Doctor, the Tornado and the Kentucky Kid, it's well worth the money! Shot around the world in 2010 and 2011 and narrated by Ewan McGregor, 'Fastest' captures the intense and thrilling reality of the MotoGP World Championship, documenting a pivotal moment in the sport. With Valentino Rossi chasing his tenth World Championship title the Italian ran into one of the toughest challenges of his career: a crop of exceptionally fast young competitors, a horrific leg break at his home race, and an amazing comeback little over 40 days later. Confronting such a monumental task and with rival Jorge Lorenzo taking the 2010 title, Rossi faced up to one of the most testing year's in his illustrious career and along with his fellow competitors was left asking: Who is the fastest rider now? Cheers! M2
March 15, 201312 yr This weekend marks the start of the 2013 AMA Pro Roadracing season. Catch the Daytona 200 on Speed TV this weekend. If you are a motorcycle rider you will love watching these guys!
March 17, 201312 yr Haha nah, we were braving the freezing rain for the annual "Frozen Snot Ride"! It is every year around this time in MKE, a group ride between a few coffee shops and bars around here. It's a pretty good time, especially if the weather totally sucks like it did this weekend because then you're guaranteed to get only the dedicated crazy people showing up. It was very sketchy in the morning when we set out because it had snowed overnight but it cleared up by about the second stop. We had a blast anyway. Here was our crew. There were probably like ~30 bikes total this year. Edited March 17, 201312 yr by spaceman
March 17, 201312 yr Also, you can hate on my old man bike, but that thing is pretty cool! It's pretty comfy two-up on long road trips so I can get my wife to come with most of the time I also have this Ducati, when I'm not working on it...
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