A letter to the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association)

I just encountered the AMA's response to the incident in New York a few weeks ago.  I was bothered enough that I wrote and sent them the following letter.

To whom it may concern,

This morning I was directed to your page (http://www.roadrunner.travel/2013/10/08/an-important-message-from-the-american-motorcyclist-association-about-the-new-york-city-incident-involving-an-suv-driver-and-motorcycle-riders/) regarding the incident which occurred in New York on September 29th, and I wanted to pass on my reactions to your response.

My initial response was "Yeah, that sounds about right for a group that doesn't care about motorcyclists."  Your reaction is one part of why I am not a member, and will probably never be a member.  Leaving aside the fact that you're blaming the driver in any of this (defending yourself from an outright assault is still legal in all states, as far as I know, and attempting to escape from an assault as well), there are some problems here.

These riders did not "[decide] to take the law into their own hands."  These riders broke off from an illegal event the police were trying to shut down, repeatedly violated traffic laws, were riding recklessly on a busy highway, and then terrorized and assaulted someone who was unfortunate enough to be on the road at the same time as them.  The NYPD were out in force trying to stop this ride from happening, and these riders broke off to continue on their own.  Let's state this clearly:  These riders ignored a legal police order, broke traffic laws, and assaulted an innocent bystander.

These riders did not "take the law into their own hands."  They are violent criminals.

No motorcycle organization should respond to this event with anything but condemnation and scorn.  If you want American law to support motorcyclists, you need to change your stance.  You need to condemn these riders, support laws blocking these illegal "stunt rides," and act publicly to convince the public, both riding and non-riding, that you are as opposed to this sort of outrage as they are.

As it stands, you appear to not care about anything but image.  You appear to be concerned only that this might paint other riders in a bad light.  Perhaps that is also why you oppose laws banning overly-loud exhaust systems, and requiring helmets or safety gear:  because you don't care about riders, only your image, and you would rather rail against an unfair public than address the problems we, as riders, have caused.

Sincerely,

  Andy McKenzie

Riding gear

While I'm not exactly an "all the gear, all the time" sort of rider, I do have limits.  I bought a modular helmet (one of the full-face with a flip up chinbar things), and if I'm going over about 25mph I make sure to keep the visor down.  Why?  Well... because there's a crack in it.  One cold morning I was riding along with the visor down, and the truck ahead of me kicked up a pebble.  It hit hard enough to put a divot in the visor.  If that visor hadn't been there, it would have caught me right at the bridge of my nose.  At 35mph, that could easily have done enough damage that I lost control and went off the road.  I wear gloves with armored knuckles for much the same reason;  pebbles and junebugs HURT at 40+ mph.

I have a Tourmaster Draft jacket and pants, too, the nice mesh ones with armor everywhere you really want it.  Until recently, I always wore the jacket, but only wore the pants if the weather was questionable or cold, or if I knew I was going a long distance or at higher speeds than in town.  A few months ago, though, I moved near Boston.  There's heavy traffic all the time, and, well, Boston drivers are notorious for not seeing little things like motorcycles, 18 wheelers, and occasionally buildings.  So I've made the decision to wear all the gear every time I go out.  I'm not sure how long it will last, but I hope to just make it a habit.

Here's the thing:  out in Amherst, where I used to live, it was rare to get caught in traffic.  Sure, there were stoplights, but it was pretty unusual to have wait through multiple light cycles to get through.  And as long as I keep moving, airflow through the gear keeps me almost as cool as if I wasn't wearing it.  But... well, near Boston and Cambridge, I spend a lot more time sitting and waiting.  And my gear is black.

I love my gear, but I may need to replace it with something lighter colored.  Being delirious from heat isn't going to make my riding any safer.

Turn signal excitement

Do I really want to keep a bike this old?  Yesterday I went out for a ride and the flasher unit failed (as far as I could tell).  OK, no problem... I picked up a new one ($3.99 at Advance Auto Parts -- I think they said it's a #552, and all of them should have it in stock) and installed it.  Huh.  Well, that's different.  When I turn on either turn signal, all four lights flash.

After a fair amount of tracing old wiring, I've got things to a point where the front turn signals work more or less correctly, and the rear lights both blink no matter what.

Oi.

Further updates as I figure things out...


Update:  OK, so I didn't figure anything out, but it's working now.

Here's what I can say.

When I disconnected the rear blinkers entirely (unplugged the connection under the seat) the front started working.  That seemed to imply there was a connection problem somewhere.  So I started unplugging things.  I started at the front of the bike, and undid every connection between the turn signal switch and the rear filament.  That means a couple of connections in the headlight bucket, the two under the seat, and a pair hidden behind the license plate.  Then I pulled the bulbs and put new ones in, despite the old ones clearly working.  Anywhere I found corrosion I scuffed the connectors with 220 grit paper (note:  doing this may make connections not fit anymore.  Be prepared to ruin electronics if you make a habit of this).  I found quite a bit of corrosion in the left rear light socket, and cleaned it out as well as I could with a piece of sandpaper wrapped around my finger.  It didn't work very well, but it made me feel better.

Once I'd done all of that, I turned the key on and tried the signals... and now they work.  I put everything back together, testing after each step (I figured if a wire was being pinched, I could find out that way), and with everything back the way it's supposed to be, everything works.  At least, for now...


As a side note, a big thank you to folks on http://hondatwins.net -- their advice and encouragement has been a huge confidence builder on this.  Also, to whoever rewired this bike in the past... please learn to do things right.  You're just making things harder on the rest of us.

Buying an old bike

This post is being written about 8 months late, but I didn't have this site 8 months ago.

Last fall, I found a 1982 Honda CM450C up for sale for $450.  Of course, the guy selling it thought it was a Nighthawk, and didn't seem to know what he was talking about, but I went to take a look anyway.  As it turned out, while he was kind of clueless, he DID have a good mechanic, so it was in reasonably good shape for a 30 year old motorcycle.

After some closer inspection, I bought it.  I knew at the time that the front brake probably needed some work, and a few other things were going to need maintenance, but it seemed OK.  (Spoiler:  It actually is, though it needs more work than was originally obvious.)

I paid for it, put the plate off my Honda Rebel on it, and drove it home.  On the way, I discovered that the brake REALLY needed work, so did the clutch, and the speedometer just didn't work at all.  It's not too inaccurate below 20mph, but above that there's basically no connection to reality.  Right.

After assorted other trials and tribulations (it turned out the title wasn't quite so clear as it looked like it was), the thing was finally registered, insured, and legal to ride... in late November.  In Massachusetts.  *sigh*  Well, seasons change, and now I can get to work on the thing...

Anyway, here's the bike, with the addition of a small windscreen I had available...

Looking pretty good for 30 years old!

Who am I, and why am I writing this?

I'm a motorcyclist, woodworker, photographer, IT guy, and all-around-dabbler.  I have another blog, Cheap Sawdust, for talking about my experiences as a cheapskate woodworker trying to figure out how to save a buck, but this one is for talking about motorcycles.

I'm starting it because I've just started doing some of my own work on an old bike, and I thought it might be interesting, if only to me, to document some of what I do over the next couple of years.  There will also likely be some ranting about the state of current motorcycles, motorcycle riders, and government and lobbyist foolishness, and possibly occasional rambling about things totally unrelated to riding.