Night Rod

This spring, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger collided with a car that turned left in front of him, breaking his face and causing a concussion, it triggered a media uproar about the need for helmet laws. Few remarked on the irony or hypocrisy of the situation, the fact that the soapboxes came out when a sports star merely sustained recoverable injuries, but not when dozens of other riders in the same state died because they weren't wearing helmets. The life and death of Joe Rider apparently doesn't much interest editors and readers of general-interest publications, but the chance that a star quarterback might not be fit for football season is a big deal, one that should be prevented with helmet laws or even banning all players from riding motorcycles, as some teams do.

Experts say that fatigue contributes to between a fifth and a sixth of all car accidents. That may not be true in motorcycle accidents across the board, but fatigue is definitely an issue for riders on trips of three days or more. It's something that you need to consider and prepare for, and if you are riding with other people, it is an issue that you should discuss and accommodate as you plan your trip. Different riders will have different requirements for rest, and if the trip is to be a safe one, all members of the group should be willing to accommodate each other.

It could be that my favorite thing about riding motorcycles is the way they turn, leaning over to balance all the forces involved in making a single-track vehicle change directions and go right where you want it. Even after riding through corners hundreds of thousands — probably millions — of times, the process of riding a motorcycle around a turn in the road or racetrack is still exciting and challenging. I'm also sure that there haven't been more than a handful of times in more than 40 years and a million miles of riding that I arrived at the entry to a corner and entered it just perfectly, with exactly the right amount of handlebar pressure, body English, throttle opening and lean angle to deliver me to the ideal point at the apex of the turn without minute adjustments. You virtually always have to make some sort of adjustment as you commit to a line around the turn. To keep all those forces balanced, you can't make any violent changes or you'll quickly find yourself flat-side-down. To avoid doing that, you need to to be sure of what lies ahead .