[8345]

Ok.

(comment on the article, not the poster.)

so tell us what we don't already know.

It makes all sportbikers look bad.

It's never going to change.

Darwinism will weed them out but they're are more waiting in the wings to take their place.

 

[JALacroix]

I think any rebuttal that I would make would simply state that I am a responsible motorcyclist, always wear full gear, and don't treat our nations highways as my personal race track despite the fact that I ride an open-class sportbike. All of my riding friends do as well.



Thus I would urge the writer to not overgeneralize. Unfortunately, it only takes a few of these 'nitwits' to have a large negative impact on public perception.

 

[Pud]

While it's true the riders would be far smarter wearing proper protective gear the question should be why the author gives a s*#t. If I'm blasting by you, on the freeway, going twice your speed, how does that affect you? As long as you don't have to alter course, or change speed, how are you inconvenienced? If some fool wants to ride without protective gear it's not my skin.

 

[christian_gates]

I didn't take that article as particularly "anti-biker" but "anti-youth-biker culture" - which is characterized by semi-fast riding, passengers and no protective gear. Her point is that you should watch out so you don't hit these folks.



All that being said, her points are somewhat inconsistent. I've driven through Chicago, and I don't remember any 70MPH speed limits; there's a whole lot of 35, and some 55 on the freeways - but not 70. So this women cruising by in her SUV at 70 is likely exceeding the speed limit by a minimum of 15 MPH and perhaps by much more - in a 6,000 pound mass that can cause real damage not to the drive but to everyone else. In other words, she has the potential to cause a lot more "inconvenience" for a lot more people than some jerk in sunglasses with a loud pipe.



Beyond that, modern sportbikes stop from 60 in about 120 feet (some less); SUV's are 150 - 170, a Honda Civic is 150 - 170, and Euro sports sedans are 110 - 120. I imagine that there are some high-end sports cars that are in the 100 - 110. So the argument that bike take longer to stop than cars is specious.



Basically, what you have here is a member of the safety-crat brigade who sees something dangerous and dislikes it purely because of its danger; if that biker was going 65 on a Goldwing, she'd still find a way to hate it.



My response to people like that is to declare that I think that airbags and ABS are worse traffic menaces than even the jumbo SUV, and because I'm inherently in mortal danger at all times on my bike, I'm definitionally incentivized to behave in ways that won't kill me.



So many issues are evident in that rant that it's impossible to address all of them in a brief (or not so brief!) forum note. Rant is a good description, though.



cdg

 

[sarnali]

I'd say the "stinger in her rear bumper" and refrences to butterfly tattoos and halters on the passenger show her clear penil-obsessive lesbonic tendencies.

Other than that she probably spilled her latte` on the sumptious cream colored leather of her new Toureg when some squids "suddenly appeared beside her" and can't get the stain out. So she's directing her angst and pent up frustration at her own inability to rise to her percieved level of competance in her chosen field, held back by the glass ceiling and good-ol'-boy network who view her not as the aggressive young women on the move she percieves herself to be, but a snotty little witch who can't even make a decent pot of coffee, and transfering it to some young people who don't have enough sense to conform to her orderly little view world. Probably has a cat too.

That's my guess

 

[4940]

Somebody should inform the joker that wrote this diatribe that the sport bikes he is complianing about will stop more quickly that he can in his family truckster. As for nitwits on motorcycles in the Chicago area, perhaps we can dissuade Kpaul from riding there in the future. VWW

 

[tomhorn]

Nyucknyucknyucknyuck! You forgot to mention that she couldn't hear NPR over the exhaust wail.

 

[TuneREX]

Dammit, you made me spill my latte on my keyboard...

 

[TuneREX]

"Incentivized"!!?? Stop it, you guys are killing me.

 

[tomhorn]

Read between the lines here. Her biggest complaint isn't the rider's lack of protection (she couldn't give a rat's ass), it's the fact that she has to PAY MORE ATTENTION WHILE SHE'S DRIVING. Don't want to have to miss a sales call while tracking down somebody to get the blood stains off her ML430 I guess. Essentially, we're making it harder for her to go through life with her head up her ass, a warm, comfortable feeling some people resent being deprived of.

 

[wwalkersd]

Well, first of all, it startles me, because I wasn't expecting it. And maybe I was about to change lanes but had to abort the manuever because you suddenly appeared alongside me, so I did have to alter course. And when you misjudge one of your high-speed lane changes and splatter yourself (and your passenger, whose safety is your responsibility) all over the highway, I have to sit and wait in the traffic jam you cause.



It's easy to view cagers as "the enemy", but I'm of the opinion that a large number of motorcycle accidents are caused by motorcyclists doing things that cagers don't expect, i.e., by not driving like a cager. Splitting lanes at high speed is an obvious example. A less-obvious one is riding toward a surface street intersection at a higher speed than most traffic, thus making it hard for the cager to judge your arrival time. I think this is the cause of many of the classic left-turn accidents. Even things as simple as not using your turn signals for a lane change may surprise a driver. Being predictable is a major component of being safe, IMHO.

 

[keywestblues]

At first I thought of offering comments on being a responsible rider, headgear, protective clothing and such; but it would be a waste of time to attempt logic on such a prejudiced individual.

If the bikes are going by so fast how does she make out the tattoos! Also, why is she so preoccupied with tattoos on other womens butts. Was her article signed Leslie or Lesbian?

 

[SeanAlexander]

We all know it wasn't KPaul, because the author said they were being passed by the motorcyclist.

 

[Winger4Life]

Damn sport bike riders!

 

[derekb]

Rebuttal? To what. This person is suggesting that you watch out for someone who is not watching out for themselves. That sounds like the correct course of action. They are not suggesting that you try to police them by blocking them or running them off the road.



What's the problem. Maybe every little comment about idiots on motorcycles shouldn't be taken so personal. Unless you you are one of those idiots. In that case please take it personal.

 

[seruzawa]

I would feel sorry for this shrinking violet who can't deal with people who are more alert and talented than she is, but I'll reserve my symapthy for the woman's poor students.

 

[kjam68]

The point is very simple. If the cager kills you and a passenger you aren't the one to suffer. The cager and your loved ones you leave behind are another matter. We all speed at times, but every time I see someone weaving through traffic in a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops on a new "insert Japanese bike here" it makes me want to beat the idiots a**. We all look like dummies because of a few bad apples. The more I think about it, Harley guys very rarely wear the proper attire either! The point is simple, there are 2 kinds of riders, those who have had a spill and those that are going to have one. Don't end up in the ER getting skin grafts because you are a little warm. O.K., I feel better now.

 

[kjam68]

First of all, The Cruiser guys don't wear much more than shorts and t-shirts in this neck of the woods. Road rash doesn't discriminate between sport bikes and cruisers. Second, most people just don't like being passed. It's like starring a down a dog. People are more aggressive in their driving behavior as witnessed by attempting to merge into traffic in ANY city. This article should be titled " Yes, as a matter of Fact, my Lexus and I DO own the road". She needs to get an earfull from all of us that ride responsibly and well outfitted for the road.

 

[sportbike_pilot]

The most impervious substance in the Universe

Forget about it my friend. You are dealing with an example of the hardest substance in the Universe to penetrate -- the psyche of a middle-aged woman all cranked up in a righteous cause (add points for elementary school teacher). People like this exist because we have done such a good job of making life easy in modern times that people who whould have had their hands full just getting by in times past now have enough time to find things to b*tch about. You have about as much chance of changing their minds as you do stopping the freeze-thaw cycle.

People like this are responsible for your kids getting taken away from you by child welfare if they show up at school with a band-aid, DUI's for 0.0000001 levels, the McMartin preschool scandal, recovered memory syndrome, and all manner of mischief. Of course when the day comes that they run over a biker in the old SUV that they didn't see because they were dialing up Marge to see what time the MADD meeting is that'll just be plumb bad luck.

I'm with you all the way on the sentiment but you are p*ssiing up a rope.

cheers

sbp

 

[4940]

With all of the talk about tatoos on women's backsides I assumed that the author was a man as Leslie is also a man's name. Now that others have made me aware of my oversight this whole premenstrual rant is put in it's proper perspective. VWW