Here you go Mike...

[Boogeyman]

I found a new helmet for you.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-575 ... -predator/

Unfortunately, they are not DOT certified and very expensive but they do look pretty cool.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Wow! Those are very cool looking. Too bad they aren't DOT approved.

Mike

[jadewik]

I'm a stickler for the SNELL approved helmets... but that one is rather delicious.

There was a motorcycle tragedy a couple weeks ago-- a bloke on his motorbike shot out from behind a car at an intersection and the motorbike plowed into a car turning left. It annoyed the pants off me that the comments to the news article were all about watching for motorbikes... when it was really the idiot ON the bike who did something stupid (not to mention, changing lanes at/in an intersection is illegal) and got himself killed. I feel for the driver of the car that he hit.

[NeverMore]

I see people riding like idiots all the time. It irks me that it's always on drivers' shoulders when something goes wrong. Same with bicyclists.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Jadewick and Nevermore, I am in total agreement with you about idiot drivers, be they on a motorcycle or in a car. I've been driving cars since 1976, and motorcycles since 1991, and have seen more then my share of them. There are plenty of bone heads driving every kind of motor vehicle. However, while riding my motorcycle, I have seen plenty of stupid and illegal stunts done by car drivers that could easily have gotten me maimed or killed. Lane sharing, for instance, is totaly illegal and very dangerous, yet a lot of cars do it. Just last Sunday when I took the Harley out for a spin, some moron in a Lincoln Navigator pulled up right next to me in the same lane. There was about 4 inches between my right handle bar and the Navigator's door handle. That same moron rolled down his window and started yelling "Get off my road you F$@*& scooter trash!" Another time, while cruising down Interstate 80 on my way home from a photo shoot, a guy was driving an old station waggon and drinking beer. He casualy tossed the empty beer bottle right out the rear window. The bottle hit my helmet (luckily I was wering it) and shattered all over me. I had shards of bottle glass in my lap, and one even got inside my helmet and missed my eye by a fraction of an inch. Another incident occure when some one in a Cadelack pulled up next to me at a stop light (again, about a foot or less away from me and in the same lane) and spit a huge hocker right at me. It actualy stained my leather jacket that I was wearing. Then he peeled out, right through the red light, almost causing a major accident, and sped away down a city street.

So, while I don't condone reckless behaviour on a motorcycle, it is a fact, that SOME car drivers do act like bullies, and some get too complacent. As for the "watch for motorcycle signs," those are necessary as motorcycles are harder to see in some instances.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I had no idea that motorcycle riders get harassed like that, Mike.

[Pumpkin_Man]

It really doesn't happen veryoften, Murph. In fact, the 3 incidents listed in my previous post happened over a 23 year period. For the most part, people are nice, but there's allways one idiot who thinks that their car makes them the owners of the high way. The best place to ride a motorcycle is on the open road. Large and medium cities are where you are most likely to run into that sort of thing.

Mike

[jadewik]

My husband hates it when drivers pitch their cigarette butts out the window... getting hit in the shins with those things, even in pants, can hurt. I can only imagine the glass beer bottle! UGH! Unfortunately, we still can't afford to replace his Vulcan 900 Custom after that woman ran his bike over at a stop sign. Grrrrrr.

I had to have my husband stop telling me stories of his "almosts"... most of them involved drivers of cars who weren't checking their mirrors before changing lanes. We've even heard stories of motorbikers who get so upset with these drivers that they punch their side-mirrors off the car because the driver "isn't using it anyway."

... as for the bicycles... it irks me to no end that bicycles get a free pass too. We had a bike fatality that was the cyclists fault-- they tried crossing a busy road without looking or crossing at a traffic signal. They got pancaked, but it was still "Why didn't the driver get a ticket?"

[Pumpkin_Man]

I seriously considered a Vulcan 900 when I was shopping for my first bike. Yes, there are a lot of near misses out there, and it's not allways the card driver's fault. Bicyclists very often scare the beejeebers out of me, because where I live, there aren't too many places for them to ride except for the highways. The town of Dwight itself has side walks, but when you pedal 2 or 3 miles, you're out on the opened road, and it can be very dangerous, as the motor traffic moves at quite a pace.

When I ride my Schwin, I usualy put it in the back of my car, and go to one of the parks that has a bicycle path, instead of trying to ride it down Old Route 66.

Mike

[NeverMore]

You out there buddy? A little unusual for you to go this long without posting. Hope everything is good.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I am still around, NeverMore. I've been on vacation for the past 2 and a half weeks, and while I didn't do any extensive traveling, I decided to blow off the computer for a while, so here I am.

I had a great time, and I hope you all had a good time in my absence.

Mike

[NeverMore]

You've returned to a real nightmare. Adrain's back! WA HAA HA HAAA!!!

[Pumpkin_Man]

I'm not Adrian, but thanks anyway.

Mike

[NeverMore]

Nah. I was letting you know that he's back haunting this site. Spooky, huh?

[adrian]

You've returned to a real nightmare. Adrain's back! WA HAA HA HAAA!!!

LOL no kidding! the guy is a true terror behind a key board!