VBR 5 and Me

A while back, Andy Goldfine invited me to be a guest storyteller at the 5th Very Boring Rally (Aerostich’s 40th anniversary). I have had a long, enlightening, and valuable friendship, first with Aerostich, and, after I moved to MN in 1996, with Andy. I bought my first ‘Stich gear in 1983, after moving to California from Minnesota. I wore that suit until I replaced it with a Darien in 2008, not long before I rode my V-Strom to Alaska. Mostly from when I moved to Minnesota, my collection of ‘Stich gear has grown steadily and every product I purchased from the company exceeded my expectations along with the company’s legendary customer service.

I was the first speaker in the VBR5 series and I didn’t have high expectations for a turnout. Andy and his marketing team must have over-hyped me substantially; or the draw of a free lunch overcame a fair number of motorcyclists’ better judgement. We had a nice crowd of about 15 rider/spectators and nobody threw tomatoes or other produce at me. Some disagreements, especially on the AGAT propaganda, but I’m used to that.

The industry has changed a lot since my first experience with a Roadcrafter and US motorcycling is either in serious decline or at a moment of serious change. In 2022, Honda sold 17M+ and a peak of 22M unit/motorcycles in 2018 worldwide, but on 32,000 of those in 2022 were US sales (0.19% of total motorcycle sales). When the US motorcycle market crashed in 2007, the worst year of the US recession only amounted to about a 0.05% drop in world motorcycle sales. The average age of a US motorcyclist has increased nearly one year each year for the past couple of decades. When the Hardly/chopper Boomer boom ends, which will be damned soon, something is going to pop. With the insane public costs of motorcycle crashes “the GAO further found that motorcycle crashes’ total direct measurable costs were approximately $16 billion.” The fact that the total USA motorcycle market had an estimated 2022 revenue of $6.24b USD out to be a total wakeup call for the public who foot the bulk of that $10B in totally unjustified taxpayer expense. If you add up the drunk riders, the unlicensed riders, the reckless riders, the unprotected riders, and the uninsured (medical and/or vehicle) riders, you are looking at a responsibility-free recreational vehicle that is ripe for recreational vehicle status and a public road banishment.

There is, finally, the beginnings of a couple of responsible motorcyclist organizations; since the AMA vacated that for the marketing riches of being nothing more than an industry spokesbabbler. Stupid crap like this Rick Gray side-stepping shuffle-dance (https://www.nonoise.org/resource/trans/highway/motorcycles/ama.htm) is typical of the AMA’s uselessness. However, both Andy’s Ride to Work Day campaign and SMARTER (Skilled Motorcyclist Association–Responsible, Trained, and Educated Riders) are trying to bring motorcycling as a reasonable transportation alternative, along with the responsibilities associated with that privilege, up front and personally. It might be too little, too late but it’s also better late than never time.

Harley’s Last Ditch Effort to Make A Motorcycle

Harley Davidson is really putting on a marketing push for the “Adventure Pan America 2021” (although it was originally called the “Pan America 2020,” Thanks Donny). Harley’s marketeers have been talking about this bike as long as they talked about the Livewire before it actually “arrived.” And, like their electric bike, Pan America sightings are a lot like flying saucer reports. Some folks in the media have been allowed to see and even ride the prototypes over the last year, but they haven’t come up with any interesting specifications for the mythical ADV Harley: like weight, ground clearance, suspension travel, or even fuel capacity. All reports on the bike indicate it has a low seat height: which means it also has a low ground clearance, which hardly means the Pan American is a serious off-pavement vehicle.

Concept-wise, the new bike is nearly all non-USA-all-the-time with Brembo (Italy) front brakes styled specifically for HD, Harley branded tires by Michelin (France), Showa (Hitachi, Japan) forks, lots of Japanese and Chinese EFI, ABS, and EIS electronics, and a new liquid-cooled 1250cc “Revolution Max” engine that actually produces 21st Century power (143bhp and 90lb-ft of torque). Pointing out the many made-somewhere-not-America parts isn’t news to anyone these days. Pretty much, the only things most US companies are able to make are 1950’s technology bits, like bike frames and, hopefully, the gas tanks.

There isn’t much about this “news” that changes my mind about HD or it’s products, except that picture in their ad. At first, I thought, “Damn, HD finally hooked up with Aerostich to sell some good motorcycle gear?” A little research and I learned that is not the case. Aerostich is American-made in Minnesota, a few miles down the road from HD and Milwaukee, WI. Harley’s marketing folks decided to keep up the foreign sourcing of their crap by going to made-in-Pakistan and Holland-owned brand, RevIt. So, what little respect I had for HD’s made-in-the-USA self-delusion went out the door forever.

If you don’t see the similarities between HD’s promotional photo and my 2006 Aerostich Darien jacket and pants (at right), you’re just not trying. Everything about the HD ADV riding gear is ripped straight from the Aerostich drawing board. Everything, except the high quality materials, the real-rider design details, and the American-made quality that Aerostich has always provided.

The picture of me and my Darien suit has some context that might explain my frustration with HD and their lazy, cheap-ass marketing goobers. Moments before that picture was taken, I was sailing down the Canadian Yukon’s infamous Dempster Highway—bucking a 50-70mph side-wind, skating across a recently poured gravel road—when that wind got a grip on my luggage and flipped the bike backwards, dumping me in the gravel at 50+-mph. One second, I was “havin’ fun” (as my wife would say) and, the next, I was on my back sliding toward the edge of the highway and a permafrost swamp. Lucky for me, I was wearing real Aerostich gear (and several layers of insulation and clothing, since it was barely above freezing that day). The Darien’s well-placed TF6 armor and “Mil-spec 500 Denier Cordura®” kept my skin in place and most of my bones intact. (I broke a small bone in my right hand and re-cracked some ribs.) My Shoei helmet was trashed, with a small hole ground into the back of the helmet by that vicious, pointy Dempster gravel.

I still have that suit, probably a dozen or more cleanings later. I have a second Darien Hi-Viz jacket that I bought about ten years ago. I admit that I’m an Aerostich homer. I have owned and advocated for Aerostich gear and the Darien or Roadcrafter riding suits since the mid-1980s when I moved to Southern California and began a couple decades of spending almost all of my commuting and travel time on a motorcycle. Since my first Roadcrafter, I’ve seen dozens of Aerostich imitators and, through experiments by friends and acquaintances, watched people try to save a few up-front-bucks on made-in-China or Pakistan or where ever riding jackets and pants result in disappointment and/or injury. Some things just can’t be made well and cheaply.

Somehow, Harley and the motorcycle press are calling the Pan America a “middleweight bike.” I have to ask, in what world is a 1250cc hippobike “middleweight?” I guess, in this world. [Which means, I’m no longer obese. Yea Me! I might even be lightweight in this brave new, screwball world.] The Pan American’s weight and marginal off-pavement capabilities aside, Harley is taking a hard road in trying to catch up with and attract a motorcycle community that the Company has alienated with both its products and its gangbanger marketing tactics for decades. My guess would be “too little, too late,” but in copying and under-cutting the design of an actual American company that is near-and-dear to many of ADV and long distance motorcyclists with slightly cheaper made-in-Pakistan gear, Harley is making a statement (intended or not) that it is still either their way or no way and it won’t be hard to simply ignore the Pan America and the Company for a lot of people who have been in this market since the 80s or before. Harley is just another US company that can’t make a good decision even when it is staring them in the face from their own backyard.

Motorcycle Bingo

Here's the card, in case you want to play.

Some of these statements are really interesting; to me. The "Have more than 200,000 lifetime miles" question, for example. Several times in the last 20 years I've tried to add up my lifetime miles and mostly I come away baffled that someone would keep track of that. Fifty years ago, I worked with a salesman who quit his job and bought a Chevy dealership. He was probably 45-50 at the time (really old) and said he'd just past 200,000 lifetime driving miles and since the average American in the 70's drove ab out 100,000 miles between fatal accidents (according to him) he figured his days were numbered. So, he bought a car dealership and quit pounding the miles. About 5 years later, I passed 600.000 miles just from that job. 

Six years of 100,000 miles per year and I still wasn't dead. Pure luck, I know. 

Around that same time, I guestimated that I had somewhere around 10,000-25,000 off-road miles and I had tested my luck severely and it hadn't been all that great: a dozen  busted ribs, five broken toes, both clavicles broke, both shoulders separated, broken thumb and index finger, and enough other stuff to entertain every x-ray tech who has ever scanned my body. About then, I bought my first street bike and the rest has been mostly uneventful, but I really haven't kept track of the miles I've ridden, ever. Mostly, my count comes from recollections of the miles the bikes had on the odometer when I bought and sold them. With some bikes, that wasn't particularly accurate because the odometers either failed and were replaced or never existed.  

Here's my score, keeping in mind that some of these points came from a while ago, some a long while ago. The IBA stuff and the intercom system boxed me out of a couple lines. The IBA has always just seemed like conspicuous consumption to me and everything about an intercom system would ruin motorcycling for me.

 I have at least half of a million miles in the saddle, maybe closer to 2/3. I racked up 130,000 miles on my poor Honda CX500 before selling it to a friend. My 1st TDM also had 100k on the odometer when I sold it. I put 30k in a year on 3 bikes between '83 and '95: the CX500 in 1983, a Yamaha 550 Vision in 1988 and '89, and my '92 Vision in 1993. I will be sorry for as long as I live that I didn't put that many miles on my V-Strom, my all time favorite road bike. Every bike I've owned since my first Yamaha Vision has had a custom seat, including my WR250X. 

It's cheating, I suspect, to have ridden 12 months a year in California, but I did for 10 years. I also rode 12 months a year in Denver for 5 years, and 3 or 4 times when I lived in the Twin Cities. I could almost claim "Don't own a car," because the car I did own was my wife's for 5 of the 10 years I lived in southern California. I all but forgot how to drive until I bought a 1973 Toyota Hilux for hauling my kayak. The other spaces are just boring "doesn't everybody do that?" stuff.

I'd hoped to tag all 50 states before I quit riding, but that may turn out to be a pipedream. There are just a few southeastern states in which I have not burned fuel: 6 plus Hawaii.

VBR 4 and Beyond: Reflections on Now, Then, and the Future

What makes a guy who started the whole textile riding suit business tick? As you’d expect, it’s complicated. Andy Goldfine really only wanted to make Aerostich Roadcrafters; the company’s posterchild product intended to make daily commuting on a motorcycle practical, fun, comfortable, and safe. As he said during a talk at the Very Boring Rally (VBR4), he started the Riderwearhouse retail and mailorder business to be able to support the 3-4 Roadcrafters the company would make each month. Being a retail store businessman was a long ways from a dream Andy had for himself.

35 years later, Andy and his company are throwing a party for the people who kept the company alive after every other motorcycle clothing company in the world copied their designs, moved production to the 3rd world, undercut Aerostich’s prices and quality in equal percentages, and out-marketed Aerostich’s Whole Earth Catalog style to a couple of generations of riders who get most of their information from Google searches and make most of their major purchases from Amazon.com. “Word of mouth” has devolved into Yelp and Google reviews by strangers with undeclared motivations and relationships and minimal information of value. If you look closely at the audience for this VBR seminar, you’ll see a lot of bald and/or grey heads, which is pretty much what motorcycling in 2018 resembles: lots of geezers with grudges.

It’s easy to imagine the end of motorcycling. I do it all the time. However, when I was talking to another rider about my first Aerostich I was reminded of the fact that motorcycling looked pretty doomed in 1983 or 84 when I  bought that first Roadcrafter. The California dealers were vanishing. In 1984, there were loads of brand new 1980-1983 motorcycles still on showroom floors. In fact, in late 1983 I talked the owner of a 1982 Yamaha Vision 550 down from his once-reasonable $2200 asking price to $1,000 because the local Yamaha dealer was dumping 1982’s for $1400 and new 1983’s for $1800. Two years later, I bought a like-new 1983 Vision for $1,000 with the same argument. I sold that 2nd Vision in late 1991 in Colorado for $2200 to a guy who drove all the way from California to buy it.  By then, the industry was in yet another motorcycle recession and new Japanese bikes were stagnating on showrooms once again.

It’s easy to imagine the sad current state-of-affairs is a predictor of the future, just like when people imagine current inflated house prices are going to last forever. The only thing experience with the past has taught me is that I am pretty good at guessing when crashes will occur and I suck at predicting bull markets for anything.

People in the industry want to blame Millenials for the current crisis. In Eric Brandt’s article, “Analysts are Wrong about Why Millennials Aren't Buying Harleys,” he wrote, “This all reminds me of a fascinating story Bob Lutz told about the Chrysler Imperial in an interview with Popular Mechanics. ‘That was the source of one of the major arguments Lee Iacocca and I had,’ Lutz said of the Imperial. He said Iacocca showed him the car and asked what he thought. Lutz responded saying it looked ‘aesthetically, 10 years old the day it comes out’ and went on to criticize the vinyl roof, the fake wire wheels, and the opera windows. Shocked, Iacocca responded saying ‘you might not like it because you’re too young, but by the time you’re 65, you’ll like a car like that.’ What Lutz says next applied to the Imperial then and it applies to Harley-Davidson now. ‘I won’t because my generation admires high-end European cars. You like [the Imperial] because when you were 40-years-old, that’s what American luxury cars looked like.’” Harley isn’t the only company to cling to what worked 30 years ago, but there is going to be a hole in one or two generations’ knowledge of what motorcycles “looked like” and someone is going to fill it.

Aerostich’s riding products have changed substantially, while hanging on to the functional concepts that attracted me and thousands of riders to their gear. Their quality standards have only become more refined and stronger over their 35 years of production and invention. There is only one model of what motorcyclists look like and it is the variations on Aerostich’s Roadcrafter and Darien riding suits. In 30 years, if today’s younger riders are wanting to look like motorcyclists from their 20’s and 30’s, they are going to have to be wearing Aerostich gear. Every other brand is a cheap imitation, even if they aren’t cheap.

Here’s hoping Andy and Aerostich will keep doing what they do best as long as they want to be doing it.

VBR4 2018

Media Release: For immediate publication

Date: 06/11/18

Subject: Aerostich Very Boring Rally 4

  2018 Very Boring Rally 4

You are cordially invited to help us celebrate 35 years of Aerostich at the VBR4, from Friday August 17^th thru August 19^th! All activities take place in and around our Duluth, Minnesota World Headquarters factory and facility: There will be great food, interesting presentations, loudish music, a collectable T-shirt and rally pin, factory tours and a souvenir booklet…Plus lots of in-store-only discounts, FREE SWAG and a chance to win dozens of great prizes!

The cost of the weekend event is $35 per person and pre-registration is available online at www.veryboringrally.com. Shelter and lodging options and connections are here.

Join the usual assortment of cycle bums, malcontents, hipsters (?), curmudgeons and road grimed astronauts for good-times, both planned and impromptu. Activities are scheduled all 3-Days of the event, including prizes and awards for motorcycle poetry readings, the oldest/youngest/farthest distance riders and much more. Even an award for the sorriest bike ridden to the party, and one for the most worn-out Aerostich suit. Top door prize is a $3000 Aerostich gear collection!

In addition to the VBR4, nearby pleasures include the world's biggest white sand freshwater swimming beach (six miles long), eight micro-breweries (including a great one just a block down the street. There are also plenty of great roads and interesting places to explore. Dry, sunny, warm weather guaranteed* (video).

For more information about the Very Boring Rally 4, and for advanced ticket sales, please visit www.veryboringrally.com or call 800-222-1994.

Thank you & good riding!

Web: www.veryboringrally.com

Media contact: Kyle Allen kallen@aerostich.com Lynn Wisneski <lwisneski@aerostich.com>

NOTE TO EDITORS: This text and artwork is also downloadable at: www.aerostich.com/pressroom/press.html

*We're from Minnesota, so we guarantee your definition of dry, sunny and warm is different than ours...

© 2018 Aero Design, Inc

The Easy Way or My Way

The day started simple. I just need to replace the V-Strom’s front tire. Nothing to it, should be no more than 10 minutes of really hard work and 30 minutes of easy stuff, put the tools away and to back to screwing around for another day of simple retirement. Of course, I had to reorganize the back of the garage to make it so it would be easy to put everything back when the tire job was done. That took about 45 minutes, but now the back of the garage is organized.

As expected, pulling the old tire off was the hard part and it took about 10 minutes to break the beads and pop the tire free from the wheel. The new tire went on easily and quickly. The wheel balanced right up, with 4 weights (28grams) which is about twice what I’m used to needing. The tools went back hassle-free. I got the garage cleaned up and rode the bike back to the lower level garage.

That is when everything went to hell.

Trying to horse the bike into the garage, over the loose gravel driveway, I lost control of the bike and it dropped into the retaining wall. Total damage: one brake lever, one hand guard, and one turn signal. After wrestling the V-Strom back up, I started stripping off the body parts to get to the portion of the fairing where the turn signal piece lives. That didn’t go too well, so I disassembled the hand guard to evaluate that broken section.

I decided it was time for me to learn how to use my Harbor Freight plastic welding rig. I’d played with it before, but only with throw-away plastic bits. The hand guard break was clean and clamp-able, so I gave it a shot. It welded up pretty well. I wouldn’t call my weld “beautiful,” but it is strong and could be repainted to look fairly decent. The ABS weld material is white and the V-Strom parts are all black, so the weld will definately show unless I decide to paint it. Next is the fairing bit that holds the turn signal. This is a piece that I broke when I crashed in the Yukon in 2007 and cobbled back together with Gorilla Glue. Nothing on that fairing piece is cosemetic, so a big strong weld could be better than the original design. I also cracked the front fender in Alaska and have been ignoring that for a decade. That repair was next and it went badly. The fairing isn’t ABS, but some cheaper, crappier sort of plastic that refused to accept any of the plastic material that came with my rig. Just like 2007 in Alaska, I ended up gluing that piece back together. After that failure, most of the rest of the repairs were taken care of in a similar half-hearted manner.

However, the rest of the repairs went about as well as you could expect, knowing that my mood was dark and my patience expired. I’d turned a couple hours work into two days of fumbling around and my V-Strom looks a little more beat-up for the experience. The good news is that it all hung together for the 800 mile trip and so did I.

Motorcyclist Gets It Right



Out of the tens of thousands of worthy motorcyclists in the country, Motorcyclist Magazine got it absolutely right this year in declaring Andy Goldfine "Motorcyclist of the Year." Andy and the amazing folks at Aerostich/RiderWearHouse have been making motorcycling safer, easier, more fun, and drier/warmer for 33 years (which means another Very Boring Rally is due in 2 years). Many of us would have been doing something else by now (if we were still alive) if it weren't for Aerostich gear.

Andy has been a friend since I moved to Minnesota and started writing for MMM. Andy's gear has been protecting my body for a whole lot longer.

One of the last pictures of me wearing my ancient (1984) Roadcrafter was in the KLR MMM review way back in 2002. I bought this fine stylish assortment of nylon, zippers, snaps, and cotton bat padding when I first moved to California and discovered that California motorcyclists thought 50F was "too cold" for motorcycling. Since I'd just moved there by motorcycle from Nebraska, my opinion of Californians went down a few notches. Worse, none of the motorcycle shops within easy range of my new home, Huntington Beach, stocked any sort of wet weather riding gear. However, in the back of Cycle or Cycle News (I forget which) I found a picture of a rider in a full-length suit and the ad claimed the suit was "waterproof" or some such thing. Desperate for protection, I ordered the grey/red suit pictured above (the red turned to salmon sometime in the 80's) and I have to give that suit some credit for my Cal State Long Beach bachelor's degree and a ten year California career in professional audio equipment because without that suit, I'd have given up on California a few weeks after being forced to commute by cage.

 

I can't explain why, but this is my favorite picture of me in my

Darien suit circa 2007. It was taken with my old beater Canon

camera by a Montana ranger who told me the story of this

sabotaged dam.

In the late 90's, I met Andy and he immediately dubbed me and my Roadcrafter to be a pair resembling "an overstuffed sausage" (probably the reason the suit had spent the last decade at the bottom of my closet). He sold me a (considerably larger) Darien suit in 2006, before I left for Alaska and a few years later I bought a prototype AD1 jacket and AD1 pants for backup. I've written about both here more than a few times.

 

It's not like there weren't obstacles to overcome. In the Motorcyclist Magazine interview, Andy said, “At first only a handful of riders ‘got it,’ including motojournalists, who were on bikes every day. And even then we were made fun of.” I still get the "going into outerspace?" bullshit whenever I stop near the usual pirate crowd. Usually, when we compare our day's ride (100-150 for them, 400-1,000 for me) the conversation comes to a stuttering end.

 

Google "aerostich roadcrafter crash" and it is impossible to not be impressed by the stories of the skin, bones, and lives saved by Aerostich equipment. There are dozens of Aerostich imitators, but only one company makes gear that you can wear for most of your life and Andy Goldfine founded that company. Even the owners of the imitation gear owe Andy a debt because none of that cheap Chinese-made gear would be here today without Aerostich to copy.

 

Helmets off to you, Andy.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Aerostich Triple Digit Rain Covers

All Rights Reserved © 2008 Thomas W. Day

Aerostich Triple Digit Insulated Glove Covers $57.00 (Aerostich photo)
If you pick your motorcycle gear by trying it on and looking in the mirror, you will probably pass on the Triple Digit Rain Covers. They look stupid. This product will turn your elegant, well trimmed five digit manipulators into three-fingered cartoon-character paws. This is a product that appeals only to those self-assured, style-ignorant types. Freaks who ride year-around, don't like being defeated by the weather, and don't care what they look like in the process.


Triple Digit Rain Covers saving me from the cold. $47.00 (T Day photo)

My only true complaint about this product is that I found it too late to save a good bit of my 2007 trip to Alaska. So, I need to go back and do some of that ride again. I was set from head to toe and chest to wrist for the trip, but my hand protection plan was a disaster. I carried  two sets of "waterproof gloves" to the frozen north; a set of insulated First Gear motorcycle gloves and a pair of REI Goretex-lined skiing gloves. Both of these products failed to keep my hands dry and on several freezing days, my whole body comfort was destroyed because I could not keep my hands warm. It may be that 90% of your body heat is dedicated to keeping your brain and heart warm, but my experience demonstrated that the body doesn't want to let the hands go without a fight. The result of that fight is whole body discomfort.


Triple Digit Rain Covers protecting the back of my hand. (T Day photo)

Late in 2007, a friend and I were exploring the North Shore and stopped in Duluth for his first visit to the RiderWearhouse. I had been looking for a solution to my frozen hand problems and when I tried on the Triple Digit Rain Covers I found it. We both bought a pair and they have been a solution for a variety of cold and wet hand problems. The covers provide flawless rain protection, terrific wind and cold insulation, and the three finger design is absolutely functional, although a little comical. On my 2008 Nova Scotia trip, I was rained on for a dozen days and my hands were well protected. 2,,500 miles of North Dakota's 2009 spring rain and my hands stayed as dry as the rest of my 'stich-covered body. When the weather turned cold last fall, I didn't have to put away my summer gloves until after Thanksgiving. The covers pack small, too, so you can easily carry them in a jacket pocket for wet weather emergencies.

The Triple Digits are laminated ripstop nylon and the design includes an elastic drawcord and a hook and loop wrist cinch to keep the covers in place over your regular riding gloves. You'd think nylon would provide a slippery-when-wet grip on the bars, but the grip is fine. For my troll wrists, the cinch strap is too short to stay in place when I try to sneak my hands into the covers. Aerostich sent me a strip of the hook & loop material to extend the strap. If your hands don't look like hairy hams, you probably won't have this problem. The left thumb has a squeegee for cleaning your visor and you'll want to remember that when you wipe your nose. They come in dark blue and florescent orange and both have a Scotchlite reflective stripe to attract attention in traffic. They're available in M-XL sizes. Aerostich also makes an insulated version of the Glove Covers that adds even more protection from the cold, wet world we live in.

POSTSCRIPT: So, I’ve had my Triple Digits for seven years and they are still exactly as useful as they were in 2008. They extend (downwardly) the temperatures I can comfortably ride and even add a little to my visibility. I wouldn’t go any serious distance without these gloves in my tankbag.

#50 A Witless Battle

http://www.amazon.com/Geezer-with-A-Grudge/dp/B007RPQJ24

All Rights Reserved © 2005 Thomas W. Day

I don’t just write Geezer rants. I write all kinds of crap; short stories, long stories, tech articles, personal letters, e-mail, and (regrettably) letters to editors. I stumbled into this gig with a letter to an editor, in fact. I write even when anyone with good sense would watch TV or play Monopoly. A while back, I was infected by an overwhelming desire to write to the editor of the Ride to Work News, Andy Goldfine.

Like panic reactions, angry impulses, elective surgery, and sexual perversions, “overwhelming desires” should probably be resisted.

Ride to Work had published a collection of letters and articles about how persecuted motorcycles and motorcyclists are on the road and in court. We’re, apparently, a hobby populated by victims and most of the folks who wrote letters to RTW seemed to think motorcycles have been singled out for special neglect by the court system.

I wrote Andy that I didn’t think that was the case. My own experience led me to believe that cars and trucks, in general, are a specially protected “weapon,” regardless of who gets hurt: motorcyclists, pedestrians, bicyclists, non-mobile spectators, or other cagers. As most states’ motor vehicle manslaughter and homicide laws stand, the murder weapon of choice should always be a cage. Kill a kid with a semi-automatic weapon, go to jail for life or get fried. Kill the same kid (and a collection of his family members) with a Hummer or a Cadillac and you might get out of jail in six months. My feeling for the rationale behind these irrational laws is that the public keeps electing drunks and irresponsible/incompetent drivers to public office, There is no way that those characters are going to write laws that are likely to put themselves away for life. So my logic went.

Andy, in one of his articles, contended that motorcycles are a “clear social good” and that caught my attention. In doing my Motorcycling Minnesota cable show, I’ve been working on a series of short articles about motorcycles and motorcyclists’ public image. The put it bluntly, our image isn’t positive, no matter how many Rides for Kids or other benefits motorcyclists do. In fact, many of those benefit rides create as many enemies as friends (or, at least, acquaintances).

Andy’s contention is that motorcycles reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and parking space problems. He argues that motorcycles could reduce fuel consumption, natural resource depletion, and enhance urban transportation options. Mostly, I agree with him. The problem I have with the argument is that, today in the US of A, much of it isn’t true. A large collection of the bikes we choose to ride produce more air and noise pollution and use as much or more fuel than considerably larger cages. The first thing most motorcyclists do to their new bike is dump the EPA-approved exhaust and install a pipe that rattles windows for miles. In the Cities, available parking space isn’t a problem. There are graveyards that experience more traffic than downtown St. Paul and the city counts on parking ticket revenue to fund good bit of the police department.

The reduced congestion argument isn’t going to create a lot of interest with the powers that be in Minnesota urban areas. Minnesota hasn’t even decided if light rail is worth the effort. Reducing congestion is the exact opposite of the Metro Council’s plans. They’d like to transform the Cites and the burbs into a “New L.A.” If the developers and the state government has their way, we’ll be packed, standing-room-only, from the St. Croix to Brainerd.

I think, before any of the socially responsible arguments begin to receive a serious reception, we’re going to be living and driving elbow-to-elbow, buying $6/gallon gas, and breathing air that would choke a Californian. For some reason, Minnesota’s political heavyweights have decided that marketing Minnesota’s quality of life requires sacrificing our quality of life. In the meantime, doing smart things such as reducing pollution and congestion are so far from being on the front burner that they aren’t even being kept warm.

Regardless of which if us is sitting on the perfect side of this debate, Andy makes solidly the most persuasive, literate, and thoughtful presentation; which is what spawned the title of this rant. We passed a few e-mails back and forth and even when it appeared that he agreed with my position, he restated it in such an improved condition that it was no longer something to which I could claim ownership. You’ve heard the expression “a battle of wits against an unarmed man?” That was what I experienced and I realized I was unarmed even before I got into the battle.

MMM Winter 2005-2006

Book Review: Bodies in Motion

by Steven L. Thompson, 2008

All Rights Reserved © 2011 Thomas W. Day

This academic look at motorcycles and motorcycling might be the first and only publication issued by Aero Design and Manufacturing (aka Aerostich). Andy Goldfine wrote the forward and it is clear that this piece of research is near and dear to his heart and his company's mission which he described as "motorcycling is a social good--an activity that benefits everyone, not just the rider . . . because even the most mundane riding experience changes the rider in psycho-biological ways which ultimately are beneficial to everyone." Andy and Thompson clearly believe this is true and Bodies in Motion attempts to prove that argument and explain why it's true.

Using sociology, psychology, human and technological history, accelerometers, data collection, statistics, and personal experience, Thompson attempts to document and explain every aspect of why we ride motorcycles and why we ride the specific motorcycles that we chose as individuals. With chapter titles like "Speed in the Genes," "Go Fast, Look good, Feel Great," and "Different Strokes for Different Folks," Thompson dives into our personalities and the "personalities" of our motorcycles. While Bodies is an academic creation, Thompson is not an academic motorcycle voyeur. He has raced motorcycles since the 1960's and has been a competitor at the Isle of Man TT and was a veteran road racer with some success under his belt, a Formula 5000 driver, a former editor of Car and Driver and Cycle World, a pilot, and a PhD candidate. Thompson is also a successful writer who has published several books of fiction and he can generate page-turning text.

Bodies in Motion is not, largely, recreational reading, though. I made it halfway through the book three times before forging to the end. The book was originally proposed as "a social history of motorcycling" for the University of California Press in 1997. By 2001, Thompson's book had turned into something else and he commissioned a bit of Stanford's engineering department to make measurements of "nine iconic motorcycles" in the hopes of explaining why those bikes have been attractive to so many motorcyclists. The end result was a book that the University of California Press turned down and Andy Goldfine picked up. Bodies in Motion is, as Thompson describes the book, something "midway between being a scholarly study and a popular moto-book."

Thompson does  a nice job of blending the academic with the moto-book, though. His analysis of  "high-sensation seekers" vs. the rest of the herd (in the chapter titled "Fast Is Never Fast Enough") was an entertaining chapter. He even comes up with a justification for street racing that didn't piss me off. I'm not convinced that the skill required for street racing is even in the territory of the standard set by real racers, but I can buy the Darwinian argument for racing when an organized track isn't available. His discussion of the motorcycle as "Performance Art" only sort of made sense to me because I am not particularly entertained by shiny motorcycles or the light they reflect.

Thompson has a habit of flipping from an academic viewpoint to the personal and, sometimes, that works well. Sometimes it is irritating or distracting. Aggressive editing to make the writing style more consistent would have improved Bodies considerably. Still, there are lots of interesting ideas and insights into motorcycling, motorcyclists, psychology, biology, and how all of those things come together in the motorcycling experience.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Aerostich 92 Piece Molex Connector Kit

All Rights Reserved © 2007 Thomas W. Day

Most of us who go places on our motorcycles want to take a little of home along with us. You got your GPS, your radar detector, your satellite radio,  your MP3 player, your camera battery and cell phone chargers, your electric razor, curling irons, and so on. That means we need electricity to power that home-bound stuff. The Aerostich Molex Connector Kit was made for you. 92 pieces of three different sized connectors, accepting wire as small as 24ga up to 14-20ga and tolerating currents from 3A max for the smallest terminal to 10A on the largest. Of course, the wire you choose to use may limit the current more than the connectors. Photo courtesy of the 2007 RiderWearhouse Catalog.

Molex connectors are as ubiquitous as Kleenex, Vice-Grips, and Tampons; all trademarks are assumed. If you own a computer, chances are you already possess a few of these connectors, probably made by one of Molex's many Asian competitors. If you're electrically inclined, you could, of course, find and purchase these connectors from an electronics supplier. Aerostich isn't marking up the kit much, though, and you'll spend a lot more than $25 in time and shipping (and minimum purchase costs) putting together your own kit.

The Aerostich Molex Connector Kit comes with male and female connectors and pins for all three connector sizes. There are a total of thirteen (13) connector sets with a generous allocation of extra pins of every size and both sexes.  I've used all of the small connectors and about half of the medium connectors on my V-Strom, wiring the bike for accessory 12V lighter connections, GPS, radar detection, camera chargers and battery substitutes, and a laptop computer charger.

I haven't yet found a need or place for the larger, higher-current connectors (my "illuminated arm jester" is busted). After an afternoon spent wiring, my bike is bristling with places to connect stuff. If I sell my house, I'll still be able to use most of the appliances I care about on my motorcycle.  Molex, of course, recommends you use their special crimping tool for connecting wires to the pins. If you're careful and moderately nimble-fingered, you can get by with a small pair of pliers to do that job. If you're somewhat paranoid ("Murphy hates me."), you can solder the pins for extra security.  Aerostich's

Mr. Subjective also recommends capping the connectors with a little sealant, to keep moisture out of the connector. The Molex connectors are not even a little watertight, so I followed that advice, using SeamSeal which also provided a little strain relief for the wires and connectors. When I'm not using a connector, I cover it with a pencil eraser to keep water and dirt from getting into the pin-end of the connector.  $25 at the RiderWearhouse (http://www.Aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-92-Piece-Molex-Connector-Kit-p-16290.html)

Can't Get More Patriotic Than This

RiderwearHouse/Aerostich are two of the most American things I know of. You should buy something from this great Duluth, Minnesota company and keep America strong (and keep a few jobs in America, while you're at it):

Gear Up or Else

One of my favorite motorcycle campaigns from the last decade or two has been the GearUpProject. I've been sporting one of their stickers on the gashed up side-panel of my V-Strom since I gashed it up (2007 or thereabouts). This group accumulates statistics on riders, crashes, and the effectiveness of gear.

I stumbled on this sneaker/flip-flop wearer's pre-surgery/post-clean-up shot and it is a gross reminder of the high cost of hoping for the best and planning for the same. Nature loves vacuums and hates fools. Like my experience with scooter-ownership, if you aren't smart enough to imagine how much damage sliding down the road at 5-75mph will do to your skin, you aren't smart enough to ride a motorcycle (you can own one, just don't take it out of your living room). The old "Death on the Highway" films the Highway Patrol used to show to high school kids to gross them out and make them consider sticking with bicycles for a few more years before venturing on to highways in Mom's Buick, this kind of illustration is a good reminder of how poorly we are constructed. (NOTE: Someone sent me a note saying this was post-snake bite, rather than a bike related rash. I got the picture from someone and can't even find the original email. I did wonder why the bones weren't ground up. I'm having a bad computer day and managed to "delete" the correction email instead of "publish" it. Sorry.)

After stopping at Fleet Farm to grab some cheap synthetic oil (yes, they do carry several brands of 2-and-4-stroke motorcycle oil for cheaper than average prices), a squid on an R6 rolled in beside us (parking in a regular space instead of Fleet Farm's spacious and roped in motorcycle parking area) dressed in baggy shorts, a wife-beater, and flipflops. He inspired me to consider blowing up this picture (and a dozen other hospital shots into a "squid hall of fame montage") and turning it into a window poster to go along with a "Start Seeing Motorcyclists in Hospitals" sign. How dumb do you have to be to risk this kind of damage?

Driving the camper back from Washington, I was amazed at the number of people wearing helmets (in helmet law states) and going, otherwise, naked on motorcycles. Not coincidentally, I didn't see a single one of those characters showing a lick of skill on their motorcycles. There seems to be a link between riding unprotected and being talentless on a motorcycle.

A Way Back for You Girliemen

For all of you lightweights who let your girlfriend or wife (or whatever other wimpy politically-correct title you give "the boss") who told you to sell the motorcycle, Aerostich has a solution: the "Magnetic Baby Onsie."

"Having a baby changes everything -- including your motorcycle riding. This new Aerostich Magnetic Baby Onsie (View action video.) helps you manage it without giving up your bike. Simply place any child within the Onsie and position it on your gas tank as if it were a magnetic tank bag. Then clip the safety leash to handlebar and ride! Prototypes have been endorsed by experts and baby-tested at over 140mph! For security and peace-of-mind it’s made of strong abrasion-resistant GORE-TEX Cordura with a full-length water-proof zipper, an internal comfort pad and three strong rare-earth magnets per side. A large strip of 3M SOLUS reflective provides nighttime conspicuity and inside is a removable, washable, fire-retardant 100% cotton fleece lining. There’s also a detachable 36” shoulder-strap to maximize off-bike portability. Available in Small (1-6 months) or Medium (6–18 months) and either Hello Kitty, Sponge Bob, California Raisin, or Spiderman-licensed styles. A Millard-Marcus-Rebeka product. View action video."

I only wish I had a kid to test this with. Can I borrow yours?

Because They're Water Soluble?

Redverz Gear Series II Motorcycle Tent

You probably didn't know you needed this product: a tent with a motorcycle garage. It turns out that there are a few versions of this silly-assed idea. The Redverz Gear Series II Expedition pictured at right costs $449 and is is a 13 1/2 pound, 3-season, 3-person, 16 3/4 foot long, "expedition grade" tent  with "anodized tent poles."

Harley-Davidson Rider's Dome Tent

As always, when a really dumb consumer product turns out to have a large, rich, and brain-dead market, you would expect Hardly to jump right in and they have. Since they are the largest manufacturer of dissolve-able motorcycles, I'm sure their product is sold purely as a service to their suck . . . customers. The Harley-Davidson Rider's Dome Tent sells for "only" $229and is slightly less dorky/cool than the Redverz Gear tent, but half the price. It is also nylon and uses fiberglass poles, presumably not-anodized. Harley's 4-person tent-plus-garage sports features like breathable mesh roof panels, front and rear doors with bug screens, inside zipper storm flaps, "clearview" windows on the rainfly, and the desperately needed "motorcycle vestibule." The whole thing weighs 12 pounds.

Finally, a company called "Catoma" sells a series of "Lone Rider Adventure Shelters Motorcycle tents" that Sears sells to the poncho biker crowd (Yep, that's a Frank Zappa reference.). I'm not gonna bother with a picture of that company's silly shit because Lone Riders apparently only need normal popup tents with a trendy name.

Aerostich Ultralight Bike Cover covering my fully-loaded V-Strom.

Unless you desperately feel the need to sleep with your bike, you might know that I've recommended the Aerostich Ultralight Bike Covers (I use small for the WR250X and large for the full-bagged and ready-to-tour V-Strom 650) in a previous life on this very blog. You can't sleep with your bike using one of these covers, but it will keep your gear dry on the seat during some pretty nasty weather. I know, I've tested it under conditions that practically floated away my North Face tent..

Fixin' What Ain't Broke

Sometimes I wonder what goes through the heads of the average consumer? Take, for example, cable television. Why the hell would anyone pay a nickel for dozens of channels of "reality" crap, extended sales pitches, recycled network sitcoms, and 1950's programming? What moron doesn't know that all of that crap is free over the air? Originally, cable television was promoted as being commercial free, but today cable station commercials are longer than they are on the networks. What do you get for $85/month: HBO, mind-numbingly repetitive sports, Starz, Showtime, and repeats of the same 4 movies for a week. Since 99% of all movies are worse than reality television, that seems more like a punishment than a reward.

The REVIT Sand 2 Jacket.

Motorcycle gear appears to be going through a similar silly phase. The silly consumer was perfectly portrayed on a recent ADVRider thread when a wannabe wrote, "Aerostich's gear is superb but outdated. Maybe somebody else knows for sure, but most of what they sell appears to be circa 1985 or so. Motorcycle gear has come a long way since the Roadcrafter, Darien, and Combat Touring boots were invented. I'd love to see Aerostich modernize that stuff." Apparently, Aerostich isn't sticking on enough pockets and cupholders for this dude. A knockoff Chinese brand, Rev'IT, appears to have tripped this guy's trigger, which pretty much says all there is to say about his standards: trend over function.

 

The classic Darien Jacket, circa 2013.

Any gear is better than none, of course. Today, even the worst gear that tries to imitate the Aerostich Darien is better than everything except racing leathers from a few years back. And let's face it, everything that looks like a Darien is imitating a Darien. Outside of the canvas stuff from Belstaff, Aerostich pretty much invented modern motorcycle weather-resistant gear. While this douche bag imgaines that the Darien has been locked in 1985, I'm here to tell you that the first generation of this totally original product bears practically no resemblance to the current well-refined and massively practical gear. I owned one of the early versions and while it was state-of-a-brand-new-art, it sucked compared to my current Aerostich gear. For one, Goretex was a ways from being waterproof in 1985.



While I'm a regular maintenance guy, I'm not a fan of fixing things that aren't broke. My day-gig exposes me to a crap-load of people who believe that skill-lessly hacking into functioning gear to "improve" its performance  by mangling specifications and measurable characteristics. As a tech/engineer this whole perspective makes me want to move to my Montana hermit's cave and avoid contact with human beings until the big-asteroid Apocalypse settles the whole issue. The modern Aerostich-knock-offs are laden with silly shit that is more likely to be dangerous than useful. Belts and buckles, for example, are dangerous on a motorcycle. The only person who thinks multiple straps on a jacket is a good idea is someone who has never slid down a gravel road on his ass stuck to a 500 pound motorcycle by a damn bootstrap or belt tangled in some protrusion of the motorcycle. "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast," and smooth is also tangle-free. All those useless pockets make me nervous, too, for a totally different reason. With dozen pockets available to me on my Darien, I'm constantly losing shit; like my keys. I have been known to drive back 100 miles, convinced I'd lost something precious, only to find it in a pocket I use once a decade. Do not tell me I need more pockets. I'm warning you.

After giving me a lecture just like the ADVRider psycho-jabber a few years back, a friend decided to put his money where his mouth lived and bought a few bits of trendy looking made-in-China crap. The stuff lasted about 10,000 miles and two seasons before it bleached out, began to fray everywhere, and began to unravel itself everywhere from the multitude of unnecessary, weather-unresistant pockets to the seams that held the zippers in place. My 6-year-old Darien rig is still as water-resistant, tough, and practical as it was 110,000 miles ago and my new Darien is even tougher, more comfortable, better fitting, and more water-tight. I didn't really need a new suit, but it started with a brain fart and ended with $700 out the door and a 2nd set of riding gear. My excuse would be hi-viz. It would be a better excuse if the pants weren't black.

The Darien armor works. The hip pads and back armor are, I'll admit, expensive and big but I've fallen on my prosthetic ass hard a couple of times and it remains unbent. I've slid down the trail on my butt and back and not only did the Darien hold up but I didn't even get a bruise out of the ordeal. I'm old and I bruise easily. Hell, I break pretty damn easily.

So the gear costs a little extra. No CEO is getting rich from cheap Chinese labor or idiotically designed import laws that encourage companies to create jobs outside of the US. In fact, Andy Goldfine might be the most underpaid executive in American industry. He and his staff are all crazy people who would rather make great motorcycle gear and live in [gulp] the frozenest of all of the frozen woods of Duluth than go the usual route and pay $0.50/day for labor and cut rates on cheap and defective materials. If that bothers you, don't whine to me when your job gets Bain Capital'd into history. You deserve the misery you've asked for.

[Note: Yes I'm pissed off. This one has been boiling in my gut for a while.]

Guilty Pleasure

I'm not wearing my AD1 pants in this picture because this
was my 3rd attempt at a self-portrait and I was tired of putting
on gear just for a damn picture. I ride AGAT everywhere.

Last April, I loaded up my V-Strom with all three hard cases and rode up to Duluth to check out the Aerostich-Riderwearhouse garage sale. I don't need much motivation to go to Duluth, since I love the city, Aerostich is one of the few examples of incorporation that I believe justifies any societal consideration, and the chance to spend even a few moments with Andy Goldfine is worth four hours on the motorcycle. An Aerostich Garage Sale was just icing on an already over-sweetened cake.

The brilliant folks at Aerostich go through a gauntlet of procedures before something finds its way into the Aerostich Catalog. Lots of cool stuff never makes it to the printer because Andy or someone at Aerostich decides the product isn't right for the Aerostich community. And "community" we are. Those of us who own Aerostich gear are committed to sticking with this stuff that works so well and with the company that has us in mind when they develop new gear or find something they think we "need." That means a lot of almost-good-enough stuff ended up on the garage sale shelves. I came home with all three cases stuffed with stuff that I either bought or had worn to the sale and would be toting back because I would be wearing my new stuff on the ride home.

The buy of the day was a prototype Darien HiVz AD1 jacket (I'm wearing it in this picture.) This incredible jacket, which has still not seen the light-of-production-day, has absolutely replaced my 5 year-old Darien for no reason other than comfort, the HiViz bit, and all-around coolness. The extra-tight nylon outer shell works so well that the Goretex has yet to be tested, even though I've ridden in awesome downpours and a couple of spring snow storms. Water just beads on the surface of this stuff and wind blows it away before the nylon gets damp enough to allow the Goretex to go to work. My old Darien is totally broken in and plenty flexible, after 80,000 miles of use, but something about this jacket is just more comfortable. If I could manage to lose another 20 pounds, it would be even more comfortable.

Andy gearing up for a ride to the Cities in 2009. Definitely,
my favorite picture of one of my favorite people.

Andy tests all of the company's prototype designs, so they are his more svelte size than my more rotund shape. In fact, the chances are good that anytime you see Andy he's testing something for Aerostich. Still, I'd lost about 20 pounds before the garage sale and that was enough to make this a practical jacket for me.

I do feel a little guilty, though, when other riders say they'd love to own some Aerostich gear but can't afford it. This incredible jacket cost me less than I ended up paying for the armor I added to it (new hardshell pads and a back protector). I shouldn't brag about this great buy and this isn't really about that. But just yesterday I was out playing on a favorite dirt road (that's giving this path way more credit than it deserves) north of the cities and went down pretty hard pretending to be a real motorcyclist in a tight sweeper with a bit of a berm. This was my third pass at the corner, so I thought I had it down. The first two times, I got sideways before the apex, so I didn't need the berm to get through the corner. It's been a while since I busted a berm, though, and I wanted to push the corner hard enough to need more than just speedway tactics to get around it.

The berm turned out to be less bermish than I hoped and it caved on me right at the apex, sending me, the WR, and a lot of dirt and gravel into a ditch. Once again, I busted the right side rear turn signal and gouged up the plastic exhaust pipe cover a little more. The signal is easy to fix. The exhaust cover was cheap. I hit my new Aerostich hip pads first, got on to my back in time to slide into the ditch feet first. My beater HJC took a little whack and scooped up enough goo to soak the collar of the Darien. It was a bit chilly and I had the Darien's collar pulled tight, which kept my neck and back dry. Overall, I ended up with my boots wet (about 4" of muck in the bottom of the ditch), pissed off, and slightly less aggressive for the rest of the ride home. My gear protected me from everything but a little soreness this morning. Could have been a whole lot worse. Thanks, once again, to the folks at Aerostich.

PS: Don't tell my wife about this. She's already convinced I'm retarded after dropping the bike yesterday morning when the cold engine stalled on me in the driveway.

Does This Armor Make My Butt Look Big?

A little while back, I was freaking out because I heard about someone bending her hip implant. So, I ordered hip pads for my Darien pants and those fine products arrived yesterday. I installed them this morning and took them for a test drive to work today. First, I think the extra protection is more than worthwhile. Second, as usual I immediately began to have second thoughts about my purchase. Aerostich makes two options for the pads, the soft shell set of TF3 foam and a curved hard shell set that has a hard plastic outer shell and might provide more protection. Now that I bothered to look, I see that my ole' buddy, Mr. Subjective, explained the differences in the pads at the bottom of the website page for the pads. [I use the smaller TF 5 hip pads, with optional sleeves in my Roadcrafter one piece. They are the easiest to manipulate my hand around to get into my pants pockets. (To reach a wallet or whatever.) And of the two versions of the larger size TF3 pads, the curved ones with the hard shells fit and function a little better -- but the flat ones are by far the best-seller. As far as protecting your hips from impacts they're all roughly similar, with the curved hard shell and TF5 models being slightly better. So if you want bigger and better, go with the curved hard shell model. For optimum street-pant access, the TF5 model. And for effective lower-cost protection, it's the flat ones. - Mr. Subjective 2012] The hard shell pads are $10 more, but that isn't what made me pick the softer pads.

Honestly, I was worried about comfort. There I said it. What kind of idiot chooses armor based on comfort? Me and a few thousand other riders and anyone else who uses armor on a daily basis. I know me and I know that if the gear is uncomfortable, hard to use, or in any way inconvenient, I'll find a way to avoid using it. My Darien and A.D.1. pants fit perfectly. They go over my regular pants and fit comfortably. Adding the hip pads decreases the flexibility, increases the insulation factor (and temperature, especially when it's already hot out), and makes the pants fit a little tighter. I can't say that any of those "features" are comfort oriented. So, I opted for the least protection possible because I know it is more than I had before and there is a fair chance that I'll stick with wearing it after the fragile old fart freakout is over. I'm still thinking about the hard shells, though.

Get 'em While They're Green

This is officially the must have gift for any real motorcyclist. Get yours by April 1st and be the first in your gang, biker bar, or "club" brag about it. 

New  Inflatable Shade Tree

The biggest of 156 all-new items in the new 2012 Aerostich/RiderWearHouse catalogs...and a must-have on any road trip. Deploys quickly and converts any barren roadside area into an oasis of shaded respite. Available in four arboreal varieties: Douglas Fir, White Pine, Walnut or Maple. Each inflates to a full-grown 20'x10', yet packs small enough to carry along on every ride. Set-up is fast and easy with optional compressor/inflator. Enjoy nearly instantaneous shade in any environment. A survival aid in arid desert scenarios which makes impromptu repairs tolerable under even the most relentless broiling sun. Rugged Chinese-engineered construction ensures many seasons of trouble free use. Prices start at $309.17, including patch kit, Kevlar guy lines and Ti stakes. Forest pack deal: Fifth tree is free with purchase of four.

Revised I-94 Reader

A few days before Xmas, I received a package from the kind and generous folks at Aerostich that contained a motorcycle-themed card and a book, Revised I-94 Reader; Eclectic Stories and Rides. Amazon sells a Kindle-based version of the book for $4 and, I suspect, it is available from Riderwearhouse and old fashioned form. The author, Rand Rasmussen, is a Minnesota guy who commutes big miles for fun and occupation between Fargo and the Twin Cities. He isn't exclusively a freeway rider but he's unashamed of the long miles he puts on Minnesota's east-to-west interstate and in some ways that's a refreshing view of motorcycling's generally accepted disdainful take on freeway riding.

When the book arrived, I was in a poor mind to appreciate the gift. Only a few days away from having the top end of my leg cut off and having had a several-inch titanium railroad spike driven into the hole, my capacities were numbed and dumbed-down. Morphine and I were about to end our unhappy relationship and that would only be replaced with a slightly less miserable fling with oxycodone. My diminished opinion of Rush Limbaugh was lowered several more notches after getting to know his drug of choice. It's obvious why he is so poorly read, neither of those "medications" is conducive to intellectual pursuits. They made me stupid, grumpier than usual, more paranoid than usual, and I suspect even the pain-numbing qualities are overrated.

This week, I picked up the I-94 Reader and passed a brief afternoon with its 64 pages. Rasmussen is not a compelling writer, in my opinion. He overuses the first person perspective, "I had left work . . . I needed to chose between . . . county roads I usually take . . . I reasoned, I would take . . . I was fine for the first ten miles . . . etc." All from one overly long, I-filled paragraph at the beginning of one chapter. There are at least twenty more I's in that paragraph. This only warrants a mention because it became irritating after a few pages. In these days of either no editors in the book stream or working-for-free interns pretending to be editors, we probably have more of this kind of writing to look forward to than less in our futures. The days of Maxwell Perkins are probably over.

However, with that irritant either out of the way or ignored, Rasmussen is often an interesting story teller. He does big miles, "It has been a great riding year for me with nearly 35,000 miles and three Dunlop 491 rear tires to my credit." He is a tough, all-season rider who is neither afraid of sub-freezing weather or night riding. His chapter/stories are often short and to the point and the experiences he describes are personal and sometimes exciting (crazy dangerous). The I-94 Reader is a brief but interesting look into another rider's life and Rand Rasmussen has a lot to say about motorcycling and pushing the boundaries of common sense.