So, the time has come……..
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/mcy/1887495877.html
No emails yet, but I hope that it goes very soon….. Its going to make it so much harder if it just drags on and on…. and I really don’t want to have to do the whole Ebay thing.
Mixed feelings, but most of all I just want it sold quick.
I have blogged about this before. I will blog about it again I am sure!!
Talking on the phone while driving is dangerous!
Here is yet another study done that shows some interesting data.
Some of you caught my micro blog about selling the bike…. The main reason is pretty personal and not something that I am likely to blog about any time soon, but the second reason is the topic of this blog.
I am thinking of selling because I am seeing more and more bad driving here in Temecula because of people who talk and drive.
The linked article claims that talking on the phone while driving is about the same as having a blood alcohol level of 0.08.
At 0.05 in Australia you can lose your license. Personally, I think that limit is too high…. I had a few drinks one night over the course of about 4 hours and a good meal, 2 beers, 2 glasses of red wine and a small whiskey….. I knew in myself that I should not drive. I did not feel too bad, but I was feeling the effect of the alcohol, so Freddy drove…. We went though a breath test about 4 houses from home, so I walked back once we parked the car. I explained to the officers what I had to drink and they were only too happy to breath test me…. The result, I blew 0.02. There was no way known I was comfortable getting behind the wheel at that amount. I shudder to think what 0.05 is like, let alone 0.08!!!!!
Answer that phone next time it rings while you are driving, and in an instant you have drunk quite a bit!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, yes, you are right, I chose to ride a bike, yes, I am more exposed, yes, it would be safer if I was wrapped in steel like you, but you chose to weave all over the road. You chose to rear end the vehicle in front, you chose to run the light, to run the stop sign, you chose that talking to your better half / friend / work mate is more important than my life and welfare of my family.
I make my choice and you force me to make another.
Hang up and drive already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I probably should stop now, yes, its something that gets me pretty worked up. It so easy to stop, just don’t answer the phone while you are driving. Let your voice mail pick it up.
I have ranted about the lack of indicator use in Temecula before. I would like to rant some more about that, but for now I will leave it…………
No, I changed my mind…… By NOT using your indicator, you are slowing the flow of traffic. Americans love their cars, they love to drive, they love to get to where they are going, you would think that they would have discovered that inconsistent use of their indicators is hurting themselves!
Here is how it works. You are sitting at an intersection and you want to pull out. There is a car approaching. If he has his indicator on, you can’t pull out, you have to wait to see if he slows down and takes the corner. If he does not have his indicator, you can’t pull out, you have to wait to see what he is going to do. Either way, you are waiting. This happens time and time and time and time again…. and its not just me, I see other people doing the exact same thing at every single intersection. I am driving along, I put my indicator on to turn into a street, and the person there waiting, has to wait some more, because EVERYONE does not indicate, we ALL have to wait!
Its madding for me because I really focus on doing the right thing, and I help no one. I see people wait till I turn into the street before they pull out, just as I have to do for them. The driving environment over here wants me to stop using it (or put it on in the morning and drive around all day with it flashing away)!!!!
Ok, no, I don’t feel better, but it gets it out of the way so I can really blog about what I want to blog about with that off my chest…….
Every morning I read the news while eating my home made muesli (don’t get me started about breakfast cereals over here). I read world news, Temecula news and Australian news (and not always in that order).
Point is, I try and keep up with whats going on around the place.
Enter this article from the Herald Sun.
Its not about the video, but if you have the download bandwidth, feel free to watch it, it is a graphic reminder about what I am on about…….
I am sick and tired over here of people talking and texting on the phone while they drive. Its actually worse than not using your indicator. At least that just slows people down and clogs up the traffic, using the phone is worse because you are moving, often at speed.
If you see a car veering all over the road, run a stop sign, run a light, not pull off when the light changes, cut a corner, cut some one off on the freeway, chances are very, very, very high they are on the phone. It seems most people over here do not have home phones, they have cells phones, and they talk, and talk, and talk. They talk while they drive, they talk while they fuel up their cars, they talk while they are shopping.
Its the driving and talking that bothers me the most. And its not just because I’m on the bike. Yes, that is part of it, I am more exposed to your stupidity than if I was wrapped in a nice steel shell like you. Its the fact that when you are on the phone you close your eyes and shrink your awareness down to the voice on the phone.
Its hard to say what happens when you are on the phone, but something mental switches in our brains and we lose focus, thus;
Get off the phone and drive!!!
To finally get to my point…. Down the bottom of the article, I see that there are some new rules in Australia that they could do with over here.
From November, all hand-held mobile phones and navigation devices must be fitted in a holder or cradle.
YAHHHHH. Woza, they should have done that over here…. They passed a law over here about 8 months ago that requires drivers to use a hands free device when on the phone….. So what do I see now? Instead of having the phone to your ear (and driving one handed), they now put the phone on speaker phone and hold it in one hand in front of their mouths (and drive using one hand).
To my motorcycle brain, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If you are going to pass a law, make it a worthwhile one.
The erratic driving that I used to see before the law has not changed. People are still generally driving with one hand on the wheel. (Still just totally ignoring the mental issues of what happens when you have a conversation with some one over the phone).
The next new rule for Australia? They are going to ban all P-platers from using mobile phones while in the car period!
YAAAAHHHH. In Australia you currently have 18 year old’s that have just started driving and they can talk on the phone, over here, you have 16 YEAR OLD’S that have just started driving while talking on the phone (and texting as well).
Do I really need to mention what difference two years of maturity can do for a person?
Lastly, and not related, so I am not going to dwell on it to much, but from November motorcyclists will be banned from carrying pillion passengers under the age of eight.
So, the big ones are, you cant have a phone in your hand while behind the wheel of a car, and you cant be on the phone at all if you are a young driver.
Australia, you are a little late, but I like where you are headed.
America, wake up and show the world how it should be done.
In the mean time, someone please come up with a way of limiting phone calls to a maximum of one minute while a car is in motion.
I did not count my kids amoung my readers because generaly, they dont read my blog.
Duno, they just dont, guess they are living it, dont need to read it……. How ever, having said that, let me say this…. Terry, every now and hardly ever then will read the odd entry….. He happen to catch the one about ‘the corner‘.
The first thing he said to me after reading it was “What about your shoes Dad?”
Ahh, yes, the high of the corner totally caused me to slip my mind into neutral about the shoes… See the thing with the shoes is that they are the first things to touch the road, then come the foot pegs, then…..well, lets just leave what comes next, any way, the thing with the shoes… well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and its been a while since there was a picture here, so here is four of them for ya……..
So. clearly I have put them back to front so you can see the outside edges a bit clearer. I guess the thing to note is that the shoes prove just how amazing that left hand curve on the way to work really is.
Hows your shoes looking these days Gary??? (Relax, the passangers are no where near touching!)
Its a little late….. Hey, I have said it before and I am going to keep saying it, I have never worked so hard in my entire life…. Its both good and bad, the days fly by, but I miss my days off…the bottom line is that things take longer to do! Anyway, if you have been reading my micro blog, you would have known that I headed up to Palomar Mountain for two reasons;
1. To go for a night ride. I love riding at night and I have not really been out since I put the new globes in the bike……The HID head lights are the go…. they are just fantastic! I need to do the web page on them, I really do, but I am a tad busy, I mentioned that right? Anyway, went up the short twisty way, came home the long back way. Nice. Got home about 1:45am. Hey, that’s about Gary time, we should go for that same night ride when he comes over….hmmmm…. wonder if he would feel any better about being on the back of the bike if its pitch black except for the cone of ‘daylight’ coming out the front of the Goldwing???
I went up to look at the LGS. No, not LSD, LGS…. it stands for Laser Guide Star.
<Warning, light geek content following>
What happens is that when you take a photo of stuff in the night sky, generally you guide the telescope on a star next to said object. Some times however, there is no nearby star. What to do? Make your own is the answer.
Get a pretty powerful laser, at just the right color, shoot it into the sky and look at the ‘dot’ at the ‘end’ with said telescope. Hey presto, one star that you can guide the telescope with.
But wait, there is more.
Some bright spark figured out that the laser star ‘twinkles’ just the real stars because the fake star has to reflect its light back through the same unstable atmosphere as the real stars.
Here is where it gets really cool. What if you took that twinkling laser star and used a really thin mirror and connected it to a computer and bunch of actuators and warped the mirror really quick and effectively de-twinkled the star? It would be like you put the telescope into orbit and could take super clear photos of objects .
So, every now and then, thats what they do at Palomar Observatory.
I wanted to see it, so I rode up and checked it out.
Its pretty cool. (Hey, its a geek thing, so just nod your head, smile and pretend to be interested, it will be over soon).
Besides, it was a nice mild night for a ride and I couldn’t sleep anyway…….
Washed the bike on Sunday. Also put a new MP3 player in. More on that at a latter date……..
Had reason to give the bike a bit of a squirt in first gear for the first time ever………
The tacho shows a max of 8500 RPM, when I got to 7ooo RPM, the rev limiter cut in…. one of the weirdest sounds I have heard for a while. The limiter drops the revs, but you are still got them wound in, so it sits there and makes really odd noise over about 500 RPM, but the main thing is it was still pulling strong when it cuts out, so where is my 1500 RPM that the tacho says I have, but Mr Honda wont let me use????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Now, I told that little moment in time to say this……. I have a mate heading over in about 6 or 7 weeks and I have heard that he is a little nevous about getting on the back of the bike with me up front…. Now why oh why would he be nevous about getting on the back of a missile with me in control?
So, listen up Gary. Just spend the next few weeks psyching you self up and you will be just fine. I have slowed down a lot, you will love it.
Besides, the best way to see SoCal is on the back (and if you dont complaine much, front) of a Goldwing……….
It was all over in under a second…. and I never knew it could do it, but woza, was it ever a kick!
Once again the bike surprises me. I really dont think that the bulk of the 1800 Goldwing riders know what their bikes can do. I count myself totally in that camp by the way. Very, very few of us owners have the location and skills to see what it really can do.
Anyway, to get back to my little experience……..
I have one corner on the way to work… Ok, well, of course I have more than one corner to go around, but I have one that matters.
Its in a 50 MPH zone, so I try and hit it at 80 kph every morning…. you know, just do the limit. Nothing wrong with that……
Its a 90 deg corner, so its a good corner. The camber is not perfect, but its pretty consistent. The other thing of course is that it never changes…. So, twice a day (on the way to work, and on the way back to work from home for lunch), I get to try different things on the bike.
Because its consistent I get to try different things on the bike and I know from the feel and smoothness of the corner the result of the things I am trying….. Things like; weight on the inside foot peg, outside foot peg, no weight on the foot pegs, pressure on the inside knee, out side knee, inside butt cheek on the side of the seat, outside seat, push pressure on the inside handle bar, outside handle bar and so on and so forth in lots of different combination’s.
I am looking for smooth. Nothing better than when you get a beautiful smooth corner, it can make your day……
Ok, so here is what happen that lit up my little world… Yesterday morning I went around said corner in one gear lower than I have for the past year. That one simple change that I have never done before. Its always been a 3rd gear corner. As long as I have owned the bike and been riding to work its been a third gear corner. Roll the throttle on at the apex of the corner and pull cleanly out. Its been more a focus of body attitude in the past.
Dont know why I tried it in 2nd, I really cant tell you.
But this much I know………… When you roll the throttle open on 1.8 liters of Goldwing at 80kph in a 90 deg corner, you can spin the back wheel and set up a really sweet power slide!
Who knew.
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