Bikers Playing Fast and Loose

LA Times ^ | 11.29.06 | Ralph Vartabedian

[absolootezer0]

A Suzuki racing bike screaming at 80 mph in a 25-mph zone slammed into Gigliotti on Oct. 4 as she was leaving her job at Long Beach City College, igniting a fireball inside her Ford Escort.

"It is not uncommon to see these kinds of accidents with motorcycles, particularly high-powered super bikes," said Raymond Dennison, the Long Beach detective who investigated the crash. "The whole function is to go as fast as they can."

[Wormwood]

Idiots that fly on bikes or cars like this on public roads are asking to die, hell they are begging for it.

Exactly. Take your bike out to the alkali flats and kill yourself for all I care. But when you are on a public thoroughfare, act like a responsible citizen.

[advertising guy]

same can be said for the experimental planes falling all over KaliFohnya

[Triggerhippie]

There are a lot of idiots on these sorts of bikes, and their idiocy endangers others. Best not to defend them.

There are buches of idiots on the roads, period. (An amazing number of them riding harleys w/o helmet or other PPE.)

I still suspect that the rider, while acting stupidly, probably did not intend to do a kamikaze attack on the car.

[Locomotive Breath]

I quiver in my shoes. I'm not around people like you.

[Ditter]

Of course it wasn't the bike's fault, it was the bike RIDERS fault. The bike HAS no actions with out the bike rider.

[advertising guy]

ain't that the truth...remember the yamaha RD 350 ?

oh my.........

[Smokin' Joe]

Nope. On a motorcycle, the bike has to lean to turn at any pace faster than roughly 10 mph. To get the bike to lean right, you actually turn the handlebars slightly to the left when initiating the turn.

Below 10 mph or so, you would turn the handlebars to the right and keep the bike upright.

Some riders do this instinctively, most need to be taught.

[-YYZ-]

"Bikers" to me means black leather-clad guys on cruisers, either 1%ers, or guys imitating the look.

The rest of us are motorcyclists. Idiots pulling this type of stuff, however, I would just call squids. And yes, they do give the rest of us a bad name, right along with the straight-pipe cruisers who blow your eardrums out every time they pull away from a stop.

[Ouderkirk]

The Ninja was a fast and very fun ride that begged the rider to push the envelope. I rode with leathers and brain bucket. Hated the thought of getting nailed by a bumble bee without the leathers, and the brain bucket is required. Those bumble bees would leave a welt that would last for weeks, even through the leathers, can't imagine hitting one without them.

Never got caught by the police, and they gave up their speed trap as it was just too easy a target for us.

I have given up the bikes. I'm just not interested in them anymore. Sure there's new and interesting models out there, just found other pastimes.

[Smokin' Joe]

Tough to see in this instance, and yes, his speed is definitely a contributing factor. Can I completely hang this on her? No. On him, to the larger extent.

But the answer is not to blame the motorcycle for the actions of the rider, any more than it is to blame the rifle for a school shooting.

[-YYZ-]

"typical anti-rider story. She pulled out in front of the bike and he's at fault?"

If he was going 80 in a 20 zone, yes. And I say that as a rider - when someone pulls out in front of me when I'm going faster than the posted limit, I assume that they probably looked and didn't see me, or saw me and judged from the distance that they were safe to pull out, based on the speed they assumed I would be going.

[taxed2death]

"There is NOTHING in this world funnier than watching a harley "rider" drop his bike. I saw two during Biketoberfest this year."

Well, ahem :(

There is a vid that makes it's rounds to all the parties I go to with my MC friends. It shows moi....falling over at a big fat zero MPH in my buddies driveway on my brand new Aprilia Falco (a few years back). Ouch. What can I say? A 32 inch inseam with a 33 1/2 inch seat height.

[Ditter]

Those kind of people are not exclusively bike riders, they drive cars too. I was mistaken I think the poster of this article and his defense of bike riders, is younger than 13.

[uglybiker]

I think this case is one of (paraphrasing Tom Clancy) too much power under the tank and not enough brains behind the handlebars.

To paraphrase further:

Too much power between the legs and too little between the ears.

[Triggerhippie]

Those are beautiful bikes.


You should get taller boots! :)

[absolootezer0]

actually, i ride a 73 cb350 and a 74 cl450. i ride for pleasure, not for speed.

[-YYZ-]

"I've never seen anyone on a Harley travelling down the Interstate at 80+ on one wheel."

Of course you haven't. It's a physical impossibility :)

OTOH, I've never seen anyone but cruiser riders doing a bar crawl on bikes. While I've been known to ride my bike after a beer, or two at the most (over lunch), most (non-cruiser) riders I known won't drink at all when riding. OTOH, I always see cruisers parked at bars.

But that's just another generalization, and I'm sure a lot of cruiser riders wouldn't think of riding drunk, either.

[taxed2death]

"Those are beautiful bikes."

Agree. It was a nice bike. The rear shock (sachs) that came on those bikes were horrible. All the Falco's that came to the US were wildly under sprung in the rear and had the preload collar cranked all the way down as tight as it would go. Once you tossed out the shock and put a real one in there it improved the handling greatly. It was pretty quick... but the 60 degree V twin left me a little cold...kinda like the Honda RR-51. Those two bikes are remarkably similar.
Soooooooooooooo Now I'm back to my first love..... a Ducati 888 SPO. I can't get enough of those 90 degree V's. :)

[The_Victor]

Those kind of people are not exclusively bike riders, they drive cars too. I was mistaken I think the poster of this article and his defense of bike riders, is younger than 13.

You should probably read the entire article and the poster's commentary before making such churlish comments. The poster is clearly NOT defending the idiot on the bike, but chiding the journalist for moronic commentary against a particular style of bike which have no relevance to the behavior of the person operating it.

[taxed2death]

RR-51 should be RC-51