The Lonely Rider

You would think that I had learned a lesson from riding in the winter and that day being caught in a blizzard. The lesson being Don’t Ride in the Winter! But nooooo…sometimes you just can’t help yourself, especially when its so nice out. Even though the temps may be freezing, the sun is shining and your bike is calling to you “Come ride me…take me out for a spin…”

So sometime last March…I couldn’t say no. I donned my many layers of clothing that I wore while riding in the winter. I’ve ridden in temps as low as -15c but today it was a balmy -2c and the sun was shinning. Two pair of long-johns, jeans, two pair of socks (one cotton, one wool), thermal undershirt, two sweaters, riding pants with liner, balaclava, riding jacket…10min later, I was ready to ride. I was all puffed up and looked like a black Michelin Man but I didn’t care. Grabbing my helmet and my snow mobile gloves, I headed out the door to my garage.

The first task was to finesse my bike out of my small garage and over the pile of snow in front of it. I wasn’t even sure it would start and probably should of tested it first before getting all dressed up. Oh well. I turned the key and pressed the start button and vrrrooomm! The lovely and long missed sound of my single cylinder engine firing to life, brought a huge smile to my face.

As I let the bike warm up a little and while putting my balaclava, I noticed people staring at me like I must be daft. I could imagine them thinking “What nutcase rides in the winter?”. I laughed quietly to myself as they walked past me, shaking their heads.

I put on my helmet, pulled on my gloves, hopped on my bike and off I went. My smile must of been from ear to ear as I splashed through the slush of my side street and headed out onto the clear and dry main roads.

I was having such a great ride. I recall thinking to myself that nothing could ruin it. Well…I was wrong again.

Riding in the curb lane, I came upon a section of road where my lane and the one beside was covered in deep slush and water from a broken water main. My curb lane was really bad, so I changed into the next one without incident. No problem I thought to my self. Although as I came up to an intersection 200ft later…I had a problem.

Now lets stop for a moment and think about this. It’s -2 degrees outside and I just rode though a section of road all wet and slushy from a broken water main. Ok…so what? Well…lots of other vehicles drove through it too, carrying the water further down the road. Ya…so? Did anyone think…BLACK ICE???

As I approached the intersection, I moved back into the curb lane so that I could turn right and I did notice that the road did indeed look black. Not that grey colour that indicates dry roads in the winter but black. I figured it was just wet but knowing that I had to corner coming up, I rolled off the throttle, gently downshifted and slowed right down to what I thought to be a rather slow pace. Not slow enough.

Now the intersection that I was entering had one of those islands separating the right turn from the straight through lane. I observed several pedestrians standing on it waiting to cross my lane but all saw me and made no attempt to step in front of me.

As I entered the curve and began to lean my bike to the right…my back wheel did exactly what you are all thinking and slid out…WAY out. I was well on my way for a dramatic low-side crash. As my bike began to fall past the point of no return, I glanced at the pedestrians out of the corner of my eye as they all took several steps backward realizing what was happening to me. They all suddenly looked much like bowling pins and I wondered if I was about to get a Strike.

Knowing I was about to crash but not willing to give up knowing how many people were about to get hurt, my right foot went down and I kicked off the ground as hard as I could in an attempt to bring my bike back to vertical. I snapped my bars to the left, full lock and as the bike became more vertical, I twisted the throttle wide open!

My engine roared, pedestrians scattered for their lives and my foot twisted sideways against the curb as it slid across the black ice beneath me. A sudden pain flashed through my knee as it too twisted but I figured it was just a sample of the further pain I was about to experience.

My back wheel was spinning wildly, my front wheel was turned full to the left, I was drifting way out as I tried to recover this gentle right hand turn. This ordinarily mild corner, one that I’ve taken many times before, had turned into pure hell. Although I refused to give up until I was flat on my back.

As the RPM’s soared and my rear wheel spinning at max speed for the gear I was in, the gyroscopic effects began to make the bike stable and although I was still Motarding through the corner, the bike felt more sure footed. I rounded the corner, much to my relief and I’m sure to the relief of the human bowling pins now left behind me, and my bike became vertical beneath me. I rolled off the throttle just as the black ice ended and the rear wheel once again hooked up on the asphalt.

I screamed a resounding YES!!!! inside my helmet that I’m sure the panicked pedestrians could hear as I pulled off in the distance.

Rule of thumb…if your are riding in the winter and the road looks wet, assume that it’s black ice.

With all the snow I’ve gotten in my area recently and hearing about all the collisions on the roads, I recall a close-call that I had myself just a couple years ago on snowy roads…on my bike.

Two weeks after picking up my BMW F650GS, I was riding home from my dealership (needed to order a couple things). It was in Feb and the forecast called for light flurries late in the evening. I figured I had plenty of time to get home. I was wrong and so was the forecast. The weather system arrived 3hrs early and it wasn’t just flurries…it was a full out storm.

As I rode the highway, the roads became wet but I wasn’t concerned. At least not until I came to my exit and saw the off ramp was at least 1cm deep with wet snow. Oh crap! Not only was I thinking this but I nearly did too! I wished at this point that my bike had ABS but it didn’t.

I knew well enough to not touch the front brake but every time I applied the slightest rear brake, my rear wheel locked up causing me to fish tail dramatically. Ok…I’m gonna crash I thought to myself. I accepted it. I double downshifted in hopes of using engine braking to slow down. Of course my rear wheel slid out as I varied clutch and throttle inputs, but because my rear wheel was still spinning, I still had vertical stability thanks to the laws of physics and how gyroscopes work. I fish-tailed through the entire ramp Motard style but managed to stay upright and was able to come to a safe stop at the lights.

Sitting at the light, my heart pounding in my chest, I observed the conditions on Victoria Park and it was bad. Cars were skidding through the intersection, drifting into snow banks and once again thought to myself…I’m gonna crash.

I gingerly turned onto Vic Park, and every foot traveled was a challenging, white-knuckle ride. My heart was pounding hard and my eyes were popping out of my head as I watched cars slamming into each other. How the hell was I going to make it home? The snow was coming down so hard and visibility was near-zero. This was a bloody blizzard!!!!

This was getting bad…really bad. I thought of parking the bike and calling for a tow truck but I was nearly home. Just take it easy…control your breathing and don’t bloody panic! I needed to get off this road though before I turned into a speed bump for some incompetent SUV driver. I turned onto a side street and was grateful to be away from the carnage I was witnessing on the main road. I literally lost count of the number of cars I observed crashing into snow banks or each other. I was happy with my choice to get off the main road; well…that was until I actually turned onto the side street and saw that the snow was so much deeper because there was no traffic driving on it. Damn…now I’m sliding sideways at 10km/hr down hill approaching a curve and what do I see? A car attempting to go up the hill towards me but skidded sideways and it was blocking my path. Yup…I’m screwed. No way I can stop. I’m gonna crash.

At the last moment, I saw what I needed…an escape hole around the backside of the car against the left curb. I aimed for it and figured I was going down for sure but at least I would hit the snow bank and not the side of the car.

Screw it…I’m going for it! I recall talking to myself “take it easy..stay smooth…look were you want to go…don’t screw up!” You can imagine my surprise when I rounded the back of the sideways sliding car, my rear wheel grazing the snow bank, which actually straightened me out and I proceeded down the hill without dumping and filling my helmet with snow.

I couldn’t believe it! Only half a kilometer left to get home and although I continued slipping, sliding and drifting…I made it…without crashing.

Was it skill? Was it luck? I would say a good combo of both!

It was one of those times that you either soil yourself in fear or pucker up so tight that you can’t take a dump for two days. Well I didn’t ruin my shorts that day and two days later…I was able to go again.

Made me think though…why with four wheels and ABS did so many cars crash but I didn’t with half the wheels and no ABS?

February 25, 2010 – Grande Prairie Alberta and Digby Nova Scotia: In early August 2010 a group of passionate motorcycle riders will leave Grand Prairie Alberta and ride across Canada to the Wharf Rat Rally, Canada’s biggest motorcycle rally in Digby Nova Scotia.

Belt Drive Betty from the Busted Knuckle Chronicles, along with Mike Cole from the Winter Ride for Diabetes, will be heading out from Grande Prairie Alberta to Canada’s Largest Motorcycle Rally – the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby Nova Scotia. Together these riders are going to raise funds for the Give the Kids the World Village for terminally ill kids in Orlando Florida and bring awareness to other causes that they support.

Along the way they will hook-up with comedian Daryl Makk and his Planet Tour in Regina mid-August. The riders will make stops in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sault St Marie and Barrie. From Barrie the conga will head to Toronto to join Shaun de Jager from RoadAwareness.org. Then to Petawawa, Ottawa, Montreal, Moncton and Halifax. The last stop will be Digby for the September 1st opening of the Wharf Rat Rally. Along the way the kids from the Bernice MacNaughton High School Bike Klub of Moncton and their Championship Motorcycle Bobber – Betty, will meet up with the riders for the last leg into Digby.

“This will be an incredible ride, which will attract hundreds of motorcycle riders to a worthy cause and have them join a conga type line as it travels across Canada.” says Glenn Dunn, Chairman, Wharf Rat Rally. Peter Robertson, co-founder and executive director of the Wharf Rat Rally says; “Belt Drive Betty and I first started taking about an awareness ride across Canada in 2009 and now it has come to fruition.” “The interest has been tremendous. Along the way hundreds of riders will join up with the awareness riders for a few hours to a few days” says Belt Drive Betty.

Ben Cleveland, the Mayor of Digby says; “We pleased and proud that an event of this magnitude takes place in Digby, Nova Scotia.” “Intergy eMarketing and Reservation service of Bedford Nova Scotia is providing a toll free “One Call Does It All” service to book hotels homes for riders coming to the Wharf Rat Rally from all over Canada and the USA” says Clark Squires, Vice President of Intergy. “Intergy’s www.GoTravelCanada.com and Pacrim Hospitality of Bedford have stepped up to provide a national hotel booking website says Squires.

The Wharf Rat Rally is a Digby Nova Scotia based five day event presented by the not-for-profit Wharf Rat Rally Motorcycle Association. Now in its sixth year, attendance has grown from 10,000 in 2005 to a projected to attract 94,000 in 2010 making it one of Nova Scotia’s largest tourism events and the largest motorcycle rally in Canada. The event has been the recipient of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (TIANS) Ambassador Award in 2009 and the Motorcycle Regional Award of the North American International Motorcycle Supershow.

Please welcome colleague and fellow rider Ken Venus to the world of online Blogging. I have been working with Ken on and off for a couple years on local issues and he is a great asset to the Ontario riding community.

He is also a contributor for The Motorcycle News and has his own show call Biker Radio Magazine.

You can find his blog at Cycle Babble.

Greetings everyone!

It is with great pleasure to announce that my RoadAwareness Campaign now operating as RoadAwareness.org. Road safety issues don’t stop at any border and neither do we!

The Facebook Group name has changed to reflect the new orientation and to make it easier to find us in searches. Please be sure to invite all your friends to check out our website and join our Facebook group as road safety affects us all. Safer roads begin with safer drivers!

We are now coming up on one year of successfully bringing awareness on road safety related issues and we look forward to another exciting year in 2010. In the past year, RoadAwareness has been involved with three notable awareness rallies in Southern Ontario, with attendance ranging from 60 to 200 participants. Each time, we had favourable coverage by the media, public attendance and support of local law enforcement at those events. Newspapers, TV and various online websites & forums, have all covered events associated with us and we hope that they will continue to do so as we spread the message on improving situational awareness when operating a motor vehicle as well as the importance of advanced driver & rider training.

The RoadAwareness Campaign is proud to have been covered by the media several times, not only locally where it began in Southern Ontario but the word is now spreading across North America and the rest of the world. Our website is now being viewed by visitors from around the globe. Here is some of the media coverage we’ve gotten so far:
http://www.roadawareness.org/about-us/media-coverage/

In addition to awareness rallies, RoadAwareness also performed a Distracted Driving Experiment to highlight the dangers of using your cell phone while driving and was successful in showing that hands-free kits are really no safer than using a hand-held phone while talking. In addition, the results of texting while driving were jaw-dropping. All of the participants were far more likely to loose control of their vehicles and hit obstacles…and most did.

RoadAwareness is joining forces with some great partners in 2010. We are also pleased to announce our involvement in Belt Drive Betty’s Awareness Conga to the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, Nova Scotia. For more information on this rally, please check out and join this group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=291129346434
We hope to assist with arranging various awareness rallies along their route across the country. Stay tuned and join us along the way.

Another notable mention is the establishment of some great working relationships with Young Drivers of Canada and the Traffic Services Division of Toronto Police Services. We continue to solidify these alliances and look forward to working with them further in 2010. Developing new relationships, on an ongoing basis, is a primary focus for us.

Promising discussions with Queensway AUDI are ongoing now that they’ve launched a Teen Driver Development Program, focusing on arming our young drivers with the skills they need to survive our roadways. Moving onward, we are constantly looking for important changes in the industry on a global level. We are also in need of like-minded partners to assist us as we continue to send two simple messages…the importance of advanced driver & rider training and that “There is no excuse for paying anything less than 100 percent attention to the task of driving and to our surroundings.” -Shaun de Jager, Founder

Your continued support of the RoadAwareness Campaign is valuable to us. Drive safe.

In the real world…these are your pylons. They aren’t made of plastic.

On January 24th, 2010 RoadAwareness.org hosted a Distracted Driving Experiment at Formula Kartways in Brampton, ON. The objective was simple enough…take drivers with various levels of experience and get them to drive while distracted. Each driver was subjected to various exercises including a slalom course, swerve & avoid as well as reaction time tests. At first participants drove without any distractions but later had to perform the same tests while talking on a cell phone (including using hands-free kits) and while texting.

Click here to read more…

With the hands-free ban coming into full affect February 1st, RoadAwareness.ca will be performing a practical experiment of how distracted driving affects situational awareness and reflexes. This is an interactive opportunity for media to get on the track and test how much distracted driving really changes their driving ability.

The objective is to highlight that any handheld or cell phone usage (even with the use of a hands-free kit) significantly reduces a driver’s situational awareness and reflexes and greatly increases the chance of being in a collision.

The experiment will be held on January 24th, 2010 in a controlled environment at Formula Kartways located at 79 Bramsteele road in Brampton. While seated behind the wheel of purpose built gokarts, drivers will go through several practical driving tests to gauge their skill, reflexes and awareness, with and without distractions. The experiment will be held from 10am to 1pm and it will take approximately 30 minutes for each person to complete.

Click here for details

Belt Drive Betty's Blog: Too true, too sad…Colors are banned in Virginia Bars

As a rider…eventually something goes wrong. Sometimes it’s something simple like a dead battery, a flat tire or even running out of gas. Sometimes it’s far worse like a crash. So what do you do? Who do you call?

When I purchased my F650GS, it came with the BMW Roadside Assistance program, which at the time I thought was great. How nice, I thought, of them to include that even though it was a used bike. Well…that’s what I thought at the time until I actually had to use it. I remember my frustration quite vividly the night that my bike wouldn’t start. It was in the middle of winter and despite the sub-zero temperatures, I was still riding since the roads were clear of snow and ice. At 2am, I was leaving work, got suited up with many layers to protect me from the cold, only to discover that my bike wouldn’t start. Sigh.

Again and again I tried to start my bike but nothing happened. I figured the engine and battery was just too cold from the -15c (5F) temps that the bike had been sitting in for several hours. No worries I thought…I have Roadside Assistance. I’ll just call them for help. I figured I just needed a boost.

The agent on the phone was nice enough but explained that my bike would have to be towed to the nearest BMW Dealership nearly 20km (12.5 miles) away. This was annoying…I only lived 10min away but they refused to bring me and my bike home. I had a battery booster at home and was certain that was all I needed. Oh ya…I was also told I would have to wait about two hours for someone to show up (apparently this is the standard response time).

Ok…fine. Tow me to the dealership. I’ll take a taxi home. Well…that was until I found out that at 2am they didn’t have any flatbed tow trucks available and my bike would have to be slung from the back of a standard tow truck. I don’t think so! “Look lady…just give me a boost. I’m sure that’s all I need”. It was then that I found out that they didn’t have the proper connections for my model of bike and planned on using a regular car battery booster, which would require me taking much of the fairings off my bike. Once again…I don’t think so! Boosting a motorcycle like that can cause a fair amount of damage to the electronics, never mind the fact that in those freezing temps, I was going to have a hell of a time taking the bike apart enough to access the battery anyway. Forget this nonesense.

I called them back and told them to cancel the tow truck. I was going to take a taxi home and return the next day with a proper booster. Sigh…ok…lets try starting the bike again before I call a cab and after two attempts….VRRROOOMM…followed by a huge sigh of relief. I hopped on my bike and headed home.

As luck would have it, later in the year I threw my chain but I luckily had the tools on hand to deal with the situation (tools not included with the bike but ones that I brought with me…just in case). 10 minutes later I was up and riding again but what if I hadn’t packed those extra tools? I would of been stuck on the side of some road waiting for some other roadside assistance program to respond in two hours time.

So this left me wondering about Roadside assistance programs. It turns out that most dealers offer some sort of service but all of them insist on towing your bike to the nearest dealership or “authorized” repair centre. Even CAA has similar restrictions and if you need help in the USA, you have to submit your receipts and hope for the best.

However this year I came across MotoLimo.com. They provide all sorts of motorcycle transportation services with specialized trucks. They even joined all the RoadAwareness Events that I held in support of the cause. Although I never personally needed their services, we developed a strong relationship and I’ve given their contact info to pretty much every rider I’ve met in case they ever found themselves stranded. They are even affiliated with CAA. The limitation was that they only serviced the Greater Toronto Area. This may be fine for local riders but what about those who do a lot of touring?

Well, they answered that call too and launced MotoRescue, which is part of North America’s largest towing service provider with over 20,000 units in service. This means riders are covered across Canada with coverage in the United States too and they only deal with companies who understand the needs of motorcyclists. Not bad and the real bonus is the price! Talk about reasonable!

Ok…I’m not trying to sound like a commercial but when you find a good product or service, it should be shared and this is one of those times.

For more information, check out MotoRescue Emergency Roadside Assistance Program

TourByTwo.com is looking for new amateur writers to become contributors to the site. Have you ever dreamed of having your motorcycle travel stories published? Now is your chance to enter the world of motorcycle and travel journalism.

TourByTwo’s Founder and Chief Editor, will review and judge potential candidates. Submit your 300-word (or 5min video) travel piece by January 31st, 2010 to be one of five new motorcycle travel journalists.

We’re looking for inspired riders with a desire to write about their adventures, who can mix multimedia savvy with an engaging writing style. Our emphasis is on riding related stories and adventures. Video documentaries will also be acceptable for online story submissions.

The right candidates will know how to recognize and tell a story, write or record and edit it, clean and get it up on our site fast. You will of course be credited for your contributions and will have an online profile established on the site.

Please send a brief cover letter, clips or writing samples and a resume to info@tourbytwo.com. Links to your stories are acceptable as well as video submissions.