Geezer with a Grudge: All the News that Didn't Fit

Jun 6, 2011

All the News that Didn't Fit

A Motorcycle Safer May?
May was officially Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. Early in the month, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) asked that "all motorists" use this as an opportunity "to improve their driving, improve their riding, make better decisions and increase safety for everyone on the road." I want to add to that that May should have been a month when we all got better SAT and IQ scores and made more informed voter decisions. How'd that go for you?

BMW and Husky
BMW's plans for Husqvarna is beginning to make sense. The German company has announced a new 900cc street model using BMW's 800cc Rotax twin power plant. It appears that BMW is going after KTM's adventure touring, supermoto business with their new label.

Motorcycles and Toll Booth Lines
Have you ever been stuck behind a truck in a toll booth line, or any kind of line? At a toll booth in France, a truck belonging to Herve Poncharal's MotoGP team decided another line was moving faster, backed up, and headed for the other line, only to find a motorcyclist tangled in the truck's wheels. The rider died before emergency vehicles arrived. The driver has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The incident makes a strong case for motorcycle-only lanes in similar situations.

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The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.