Motorcycles Are Dangerous
On the road to Las Cruces, I was doing something I'd been doing all along on this trip, which was to occasionally just let my legs hang (without using the footpegs) to relieve a little bit of pressure on my legs and back. It had worked really well every time previously, but suddenly my left foot hit something and pain shot up through my leg as my foot snapped back. I kept riding along, doing 85 mph or so while I moved every toe and rotated my foot and leg around to insure that nothing was broken. Since everything seemed to still work ok, I kept riding until I found a rest stop, at which point I pulled off and checked my little piggies for damage. Finding all five little piggies still intact, I put my boot back on and kept riding. However, when I stopped for the day I found that my big piggie was all black and blue and kinda hurt (well, how would YOU feel making contact with pavement at 90 mph?). No more nonchalant leg hanging for me and my piggies anymore...
Today, on the road (I-10, since I wanted to make decent time) through New Mexico into Arizona, the road was great but very, very windy. As any biker will tell you, there is NOTHING worse than a heavy crosswind. I'll happily ride in the rain, but heavy wind makes me very, very unhappy. Anyway, the whole ride from Deming, New Mexico to Tucson, AZ (my current address) was superwindy. More than once, the bike almost got smacked down right from underneath me. It is really unnerving riding on a bike that is essentially being treated like a kitty toy by the four winds, getting smacked from side to side (how does the wind DO that?!? I've never figured out how the wind can blow from two different directions almost simultaneously) like a mouse between two big windy paws. Of course, it doesn't help that speed limits are totally meaningless today throughout most of the country, so truckers have carte blanche to drive as recklessly as they want. When the speed limit is 75 mph and you have to do 90+ just not to get blown around by the trucks trying to pass you, something's wrong. I'm a fan of speeding - love it, do it frequently - but there has to be a limit somewhere. I haven't seen a single vehicle stopped by a State Trooper since Virginia, which is very, very different from years passed, when I would typically see at least one or two people a day (including - GASP! - truckers!) pulled over by troopers.
Today, the trucks drive as fast as they can, and they seem to have no worries about getting pulled over. I now see people getting away with driving in ways that would have been totally unacceptable a few years ago. And I'm not even talking about all the jerks who talk on their cellphones, either, although it would be easy to believe that in some states driver's licenses come with cellphones today. I'm not naming names, but one area of the country could easily be renamed the Cell Phone Belt.
So be careful out there. Motorcycles aren't the only vehicles that are dangerous today. And watch out for your little piggies.
Today, on the road (I-10, since I wanted to make decent time) through New Mexico into Arizona, the road was great but very, very windy. As any biker will tell you, there is NOTHING worse than a heavy crosswind. I'll happily ride in the rain, but heavy wind makes me very, very unhappy. Anyway, the whole ride from Deming, New Mexico to Tucson, AZ (my current address) was superwindy. More than once, the bike almost got smacked down right from underneath me. It is really unnerving riding on a bike that is essentially being treated like a kitty toy by the four winds, getting smacked from side to side (how does the wind DO that?!? I've never figured out how the wind can blow from two different directions almost simultaneously) like a mouse between two big windy paws. Of course, it doesn't help that speed limits are totally meaningless today throughout most of the country, so truckers have carte blanche to drive as recklessly as they want. When the speed limit is 75 mph and you have to do 90+ just not to get blown around by the trucks trying to pass you, something's wrong. I'm a fan of speeding - love it, do it frequently - but there has to be a limit somewhere. I haven't seen a single vehicle stopped by a State Trooper since Virginia, which is very, very different from years passed, when I would typically see at least one or two people a day (including - GASP! - truckers!) pulled over by troopers.
Today, the trucks drive as fast as they can, and they seem to have no worries about getting pulled over. I now see people getting away with driving in ways that would have been totally unacceptable a few years ago. And I'm not even talking about all the jerks who talk on their cellphones, either, although it would be easy to believe that in some states driver's licenses come with cellphones today. I'm not naming names, but one area of the country could easily be renamed the Cell Phone Belt.
So be careful out there. Motorcycles aren't the only vehicles that are dangerous today. And watch out for your little piggies.
posted by Mathew Elsner at 1:09 AM
2 Comments:
Uh gee georgie, what happens if I touch the ground with my foot at 90 mph?
Yeah, duh, right? Actually, you'd be surprised - you can lightly scrape your foot at 90 mph with no problem. Racers scrape their knees (hopefully with leathers that accomodate a puck) at speeds faster than that, and dirt track racers have scraped their feet for decades as part of the normal technique.
The problem, of course, is when this is done accidentally, and not in a controlled fashion. D'oh!
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