gayathri

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/03/BAJQ1ATJM0.DTL

Foremost expert on motorcycle accidents dies - RIP, Harry Hurt.

"Among the study's major findings were that speed was not a factor in most crashes; that helmets were effective in preventing brain injuries and deaths; and that two-thirds of motorcycle crashes involved cars and two-thirds of those accidents occurred when a car driver failed to see the motorcycle and violated the motorcyclist's right of way."

crayonbeam  gave me this book ages ago, and I'm slowly working through it - it examines how humans think and react in dangerous or split second decision time and how some of our reactions will kill us because in the split-second, it wasnt the RIGHT ONE.

Last night was an almost example of that for me. :(

There's an intersection, I'm going to have to go check on, because this is about the fourth time someone has turned left right in front of me - I forget because I dont go that way often enough to remind myself that THAT intersection is dangerous, tho something inmy brain already knows because even with a green light, I had slowed down to enter the intersection.

A truck turns left in front of me. No problem, plenty of room, I'm going thru the intersection at about 25 mph. The second truck right behind doesnt stop but also turns left, now right in front of me. He apparently was looking at the vehicle ahead and not the intersection or oncoming traffic, and motorcycles just dont read as 'dangerous'...

Here's where I was stupid. I rolled off the throttle to grab for the brakes, even tho my momentum had put me RIGHT IN the path of the front of the grill of this large Ford F250. Realizing my error _almost_ too late, I roll ON the throttle hard to get the fuck out of the way of the truck. (who finally had seen me and slammed on HIS brakes.)

His reaction - slamming on his brakes - made up for my wrong split second decision (roll off, grab for brakes) and I had enough time to get out. No damage to me, or motorcycle except for my heart hammering in my throat. I pulled over to calm down my breathing and realize I couldnt remember what COLOR the truck had been, but had a clear vision of the grill.

Its been a few too many years since I've been on the track, and a few too many since I've read some relevant books on mental motorcycling. I have a feeling I know what I'm doing when I'm back east, motorcycle-less.

"when in doubt, gas it. It may not solve the problem, but it certainly ends the suspense."

I did tweet while pulled over, "God loves fools and small children. I havent been a child in a long time. Good news: no damage to me or motorcycle."

its been a long week, and as usual, when I come out to see my bike sitting in her spot, I have to smile. All bright and yellow, as I'm unlocking her, the UPS guy asks me, "does that get you in trouble?" and I said, No, I get myself in trouble - the bike just listens to me, like a good girl.

And on the way home, we take turns, and my ass is sliding off the seat, as my knee hooks against the tank, and even tho its still in 2nd gear, and I've engaged the version of the ECU that makes it act like an sv650, there is plenty of power, and I spin the tires...

I'm looking forward to sunday - there is peace here, and a lack of thinking that's better than alcohol, (tho not as good as  great sex... but for too many years, this was the best thing I could do for myself.)


but every day, every day I ride to work, I have 20 minutes of this intense content concentration, in both directions, involving people talking to me at stop lights, or my body doing what it knows how to do better than my brain.

Parking her, and locking her up, I pet her, our little ritual as I cover her up, because she's a good girl and I want to keep her as safe as I can, even using her as hard as I can.

its raining today because I washed and cleaned my bike this weekend. There's oil leaking from 'somewhere' so I spent some quality time with nitrile gloves, degreaser and blue towels to clean off the bottom of the bike. P was nice enough to clean off the top of the bike, including all the bugs I picked up during Porterville. So nice of him! :)

The oil leak is from the crush washer, which is kind of a pain because I'll have to drop all the oil and replace the washer and put new oil in... I was bad, I didnt do that. I instead put more oil in the bike and P and I went for a short ride on sunday. :) Great fun, very little traffic because apparently everyone was at Laguna Seca. my bad was misjudging the time and I blew off my friends who were hosing a GP viewing party -- we got home just in time to watch it ourselves. DOH!

Ok. breakfast is finished -- I went to the gym this morning -- I couldnt find my heart rate monitor this morning, which is a pain in the butt -- its not on my desk so hopefully its upstairs in my messy bedroom.
30 minutes on the pre-cor, 2.2 miles.
Chest: Flyes: 25 lbs, 3 sets, 12 reps
incline press: 30 lbs, 3 sets, 12 reps
shoulder press: 30 lbs, 3 sets, 12 reps

   

hoorah!!! I'm home, drinking plenty of water, doing laundry, petting the cats and warming up some naan and rajma for dinner. Originally, I was going to pack in the morning, for the trip, but I wanted to get an oil change, wash the car, get to Trader Joe's, and get some cash for the pet sitter and have someone else cook a meal for me on my way out. Plus I want to get to the gym in the morning too.

Did I mention that this daily going to the gym has meant that I'm now fitting into jeans two sizes smaller then 5 weeks ago? Definately, eating less, working out more and mixing it up is helping. Now if only this stupid cough would go away. Last weekend, my friends mentioned that its showing in my face too. No complaints here. :)

Trip packing:
Motorcycle helmet, boots, gloves, padded bicycle shorts, long sleeve cool shirt, neck gaiter
Sweat pants, a couple of tshirts, jeans, sneakers, underwear
meds, travelbuddy (teddy bear!), toiletries
promax bars, cooler, smart water, cytomax, some fruit, maybe I'll be bad and have some potatoe chips too.

On the way out, I'm stopping at Cycle Gear to get the moto socks, since I dont think I actually have any long enough.

The farmer's market near me has a lot of great different breads. Last week I had a dried cranberry and nut bread that was great with butter, or cream cheese, or jam, but with just me eating it, half the loaf went bad. :(

This week I got an old favorite, the dark russian bread. Its black and heavy and just wonderful toasted with cream cheese or butter. it went great with the TJ's lentil soup I had for lunch and now I'm FULL.

The farmer's market was an adventure. I love looking at all the neat new foods out there -- I picked up some Chinese Brocolli, which I'll be steaming tonite for dinner.  I walked, which is great until you think about walking back up my hill with two big bags of groceries. *huff puff huff puff* bad air quality wasnt helping me.

Sunday morning, got up early and could not for the life of me find my vanson leather pants. Seriously, its been so long that I've worn them, I think they are lost in the bottom of my closet. I gave up and got into my mesh HeinGericke gear and set off. Took an good 45 minutes to take muholland to the 405 mostly due to traffic getting up laurel canyon, but then a straight shot down sunset to the water. A quick jaunt up some tiny canyon road off of PCH which left poor P in a muddle -- something about coming down hill tight canyon roads throws off his vision -- kinda like me trying to go down a bunch of moguls, after a while there is too much to process.

Then we hopped on muholland and took it all the way to the end of PCH, where at parts, it turns into a 1.5 lane goat trail. I like it, but its hard on my forearms when I havent ridden in weeks.

PCH was great heading south, no traffic and lots of great ocean views. I got good clean air for a while there.
Back up sunset to WeHo.

It was  LONG ride. I left the house at 10 am, and got back after 4, tho that included a late lunch and P's neighbor's dog biting my boot (apparently she's afraid of bikes)

My friend Jodi is a member of the Ladies of Harley, and happens to know Debbie Evans (http://debbieevans.com ) and convinced her to come and talk to the LoH meeting. So... I.. Um. tagged along. I mean, y'all have seen the Matrix with the bike stunts, right? I knew she'd played Trinity riding the bike in that stunt with the cars and I really wanted to meet a 40-something mother of three who has done so much amazing stuff in her life

So I got to spend dinner with her, I got to sit next to her, and amazingly enough, she RECOGNIZED me from Ducati Revs America (30 lbs and much longer hair ago!)

The thing I noticed is 1. not many of the women asked her questions 2. the harley guys wanted to ask more about her injuries (which she has a few, but not many given her 28 years of doing this!) and I kept picking up on this weird thing. She's TINY -- maybe 5'3 or 5'4, and slender, blond and yet she carried herself so strongly, I think some of the guys were trying to ask questions to intimidate her, or put her down. She was too classy to let it get to her, but I wonder if it must get tiring.

She and I talked about racing, about trials riding, about getting her kids into the sport, her duc 996, and her husband's r1, all sorts of things. I wanted to hear more about how they do these stunts safely, and the lessons she learned growing up in the sport, and got to talk to her a bit about it during the dinner.

I gotta say, she was so laid back and very approachable, I invited her to FemMoto and told her about the LoLaBikers who were going. :) I hope she goes!