 |
| Group Ride - Laughlin - February 11, 2017 |
During our recently completed Laughlin Ride weekend I had plenty
of opportunities to contemplate the phenomenon of the group ride. We had the
rides out and back to Laughlin that grew in numbers at various meet points along
the way out and that dwindled at freeway junctions on the way home and then we
had a fun-ride filled with potholes, canyon runs with twisties, mountain passes
with twisties, and a town full of burros – vigilance required at every stage.
For the record, I consider anything from three bikes on up to be a
group ride. Two bikes is pairs-riding even though many of the things I’ll talk
about below apply, it feels like a different animal to me to the point that I
have a different bikers’ solute for three or more riders in a line where I go
from the easygoing down-low salute to a fist pump, my Howitzer solute for the
last rider in the line.
When we ride we need to use all our senses to maintain a
heightened degree of situational awareness. I confess though that as I write
this I’m struggling with where the sense of taste comes into play, feel free to
weigh in on this. Your sense of smell can tell you about skunkage on the road
ahead or a particularly nasty diesel truck laboring around the next bend. Our
sense of touch helps integrate us with our own machine and how it’s running as
well as tell us about the condition of the tarmac under our wheels.
Our sense of hearing in a group ride is our rider’s sonar as we
take in information from other riders, the road, and drivers. Let me set the
stage at bit; the two most well-known types of sonar for those of not working
with the technology are active and passive sonar.
Active sonar is where the device sends out a ping and listens for
the echo off a given target to measure size, distance and speed of the object.
I can draw a little parallel here for riders’ sonar such as when our eyes lock
onto an item of interest and our ears tune in for confirmation as when we see
flashing lights we listen for the siren to tell us if it’s moving or
stationary. This tells us what the signature is of the obstacle we are about to
encounter. It’s not a perfect corollary but it works for me.
Passive sonar is strictly listening. Naval vessels, particularly
submarines, use sonar to locate targets or obstacles. Submarines live and die
by sonar, both active and passive. Regarding the sub’s passive sonar; it is a
system of listening devices at various points on the sub or even trailed in the
water behind. These are all fed into computers these days that run algorithms
to tell range, speed, and location. One of the best examples of passive sonar
use that comes to mind can be found in The
Hunt for Red October where Jonesy detects the Russian sub and its
revolutionary propulsion system. The link to the relevant scene is found at the
end of this post.
Our riders’ passive sonar is hardly passive; it requires us to
tune into all the relevant noises around us while filtering those extraneous
sounds from cluttering up our attention. While riding in a group, particularly
from the number three spot back to the sweep, we need to listen to the sounds
of those ahead of us. Decelerations in RPMs, even backfires, warn us of a pending
need to slow down. Accelerations tell us where we can expect to speed up
through an apex on the turn. Break lights are fine but if like me, you happen
to riding behind folks who are particularly adept at throttle control and the
use of gearing to maintain proper speeds, their engine sounds are a vital clue.
Of course, our vision is number one. There is no substitute for
seeing and being seen. Our eyes must tune to the road ahead to pick out lines
through the twisties, road hazards, the action of other drivers and riders, and
seeing the riders in front point out road hazards and giving warning hand
signals. Lifehack has a nice article
called ’12 Motorcycle Hand Signals You Should Know’:
Regarding the thought that loud pipes saves lives; if that is
where you put your trust then you ride in a weak position. Relying on someone
in a cage with the sound system blaring and kids screaming or passengers
yammering in a car that advertised itself as quiet is trust ill placed.
Personally, I prefer relying on being seen and knowing that I’ve been seen and
even when I know I’ve been seen I don’t trust that the driver isn’t a nutcase.
I spend precious little time in anyone’s blind spot.
The bottom line is to keep our senses finely tuned to the ride and
everything about our riding environment. So tune in first, put your kickstand
up second, and enjoy the ride.
Keep it real and keep the iron side up.
Peace
jerry
UTube
link to Jonesy’s Report in The Hunt for Red October:
Facebook comment from Jspriders Scv: Great formation and that helmet cam does a real good job.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I like it. As long as I remember to remove the lens cap and check the angle of the lens. The earlier photos from this ride made it look like we were riding on a 25% angle and you know the worst about me missing some good stuff heading out of Oatman. Now the plan is to improve my video editing...always something.
Delete