Game Changer is a great way to describe what happened on the Cherohalla last weekend. It sadens me to think of the way that the people involved have all had their game changed.
I wanted to reintroduce myself and share a little more detail about my motorcycle lifestyle. I started riding motorcycles in my early twenties after a fairly intense diet of BMX and mountain bike riding. First bike, Kawi KZ650sr, first Honda was a VF500 and what a great bike. Traded up to a 84 VFR750 and put 82K miles on that bike. Traded up to a 94 VFR and put another 40k on it. I have omitted many dirt bikes, 3 wheelers, harley's and non sport bikes that I have also owned. Suffice it to say I have between 100 and 200k miles under my belt. Even with all that riding I have never crashed because of a rider error on my part.
Now that is not to say I have not crashed. I hit a large deposit of diesel mid corner and did a great impresion of Willie Coyote ridding with no bike under him.
I was also involved in an accident very similar to the Cherohalla accident. A ridder came from behind and wanted to pass so I accomidated by moving to the outside of the lane. He then proceeded to pass on a downhill section between two right hand tight turns. He grabbed the front brake at the worst posible point and low sidded hard. His bike went into oncoming traffic and hit two bikes, totaling a gold wing but not injuring anyone. He hit the side of his head on the pavement and ragdolled from that point as I rode up his side and over his arm, resulting in my crash.
What I learned from that day was that you need to discourage wrecklase riding when you can and you need to constantly re-evaluate your ridding. We were both going to fast and I should not have encouraged a pass in such a dangerous location. The rider recovered and has given up riding.
In addition to the riding detailed above, I have also volnteered with the Motorcycle patrol as a turn medic at Sears Point and Laguna Seca. We were the first responders for AFM, AMA and the UGGP events at that time. This was a great experience and I have worked on every type of MC related injury that you can imagine. I have splinted and collered, pulled traction and properly removed helmets from injured riders. I even had a course worked experience a hart attack in my corner. I cannot express in words how profoundly this changed the way I ride.
I now ride in a style described as "the pace" and activly discourage racing on the street. Ridding the pace delivers all the thrills with very few of the spills.
I grew up in Silicon Valley and ride HW9, Skyline and Mt hamilton often. I now live in the hills and have an address right on HW9. The park that lies accross from my house is where the medivac helicopter lands to transfer injured MC riders out of an ambulance on their way to the trauma center in San Jose. On any given weekend in the summer they do this two or three times. The result is lots of police and bad press.
Please read "The PACE"
Please ride the pace so we can all get home after a fun day in the hills. Please discourage behaviour on the street that will damage the image of motorcycles.
Kevin W.
I wanted to reintroduce myself and share a little more detail about my motorcycle lifestyle. I started riding motorcycles in my early twenties after a fairly intense diet of BMX and mountain bike riding. First bike, Kawi KZ650sr, first Honda was a VF500 and what a great bike. Traded up to a 84 VFR750 and put 82K miles on that bike. Traded up to a 94 VFR and put another 40k on it. I have omitted many dirt bikes, 3 wheelers, harley's and non sport bikes that I have also owned. Suffice it to say I have between 100 and 200k miles under my belt. Even with all that riding I have never crashed because of a rider error on my part.
Now that is not to say I have not crashed. I hit a large deposit of diesel mid corner and did a great impresion of Willie Coyote ridding with no bike under him.
I was also involved in an accident very similar to the Cherohalla accident. A ridder came from behind and wanted to pass so I accomidated by moving to the outside of the lane. He then proceeded to pass on a downhill section between two right hand tight turns. He grabbed the front brake at the worst posible point and low sidded hard. His bike went into oncoming traffic and hit two bikes, totaling a gold wing but not injuring anyone. He hit the side of his head on the pavement and ragdolled from that point as I rode up his side and over his arm, resulting in my crash.
What I learned from that day was that you need to discourage wrecklase riding when you can and you need to constantly re-evaluate your ridding. We were both going to fast and I should not have encouraged a pass in such a dangerous location. The rider recovered and has given up riding.
In addition to the riding detailed above, I have also volnteered with the Motorcycle patrol as a turn medic at Sears Point and Laguna Seca. We were the first responders for AFM, AMA and the UGGP events at that time. This was a great experience and I have worked on every type of MC related injury that you can imagine. I have splinted and collered, pulled traction and properly removed helmets from injured riders. I even had a course worked experience a hart attack in my corner. I cannot express in words how profoundly this changed the way I ride.
I now ride in a style described as "the pace" and activly discourage racing on the street. Ridding the pace delivers all the thrills with very few of the spills.
I grew up in Silicon Valley and ride HW9, Skyline and Mt hamilton often. I now live in the hills and have an address right on HW9. The park that lies accross from my house is where the medivac helicopter lands to transfer injured MC riders out of an ambulance on their way to the trauma center in San Jose. On any given weekend in the summer they do this two or three times. The result is lots of police and bad press.
Please read "The PACE"
Please ride the pace so we can all get home after a fun day in the hills. Please discourage behaviour on the street that will damage the image of motorcycles.
Kevin W.