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Welcome To Your
Abate Local
27 Safety Cafe
I am your Safety Officer, Bob Marshall,
A bit about me, 30 something, Son, Brother, Government Employee and above all else, Father. I love riding my motorcycles but enjoy coming home to my children even more, thats why I am here!
Here in our Safety Cafe you will find bullets of EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION all aimed at providing YOU the ABATE MEMBER with TIPS on making you and your ride safer, more enjoyable and above all else, FUN. Some of it will get pretty intense on detail but, your totally worth it!
It will be updated randomly so feel free to check back often and contact me if you ever have any questions or comments, I am here for us, the Union or Motorcyclist!
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November,
So here it is, several, sveral months since the last time I have updated this for you my fellow Abate members. Lets just say I have had a few wild rides and good times that I am about to share with you.
In August, I loaded up my Honda vt1100 and set off for the famed Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. I started the morning early at 5 a.m. picking my Pops up in Barstow. As we mounted our Honda's, I realized what a lucky man I was to have this opportunity to travel for two weeks, half way across this beautiful Country with my him. We rode several hundred miles a day chosing the longer route thru the Colorado Rookies on I-70, then north thru the mountains and into Sturgis. We had taken several rides before that lasted several days but this time, we were camping and the challenges of carrying all that extra gear were much more difficult then we could of ever imagined.
When I set out, I had 4 days worth of clothing, all the cold and hot weather riding gear, and way to much camping gear including a stove top coffee maker compleete with mini stove. I think I was really worried about being in the middle of nowhere with out services and comforts that I was used too. So I have made a few personnal changes to how I will travel next time. First, almost everything you could ever need, someone else also needs so these things are usually available at gas stations and road side quick marts. I LOVE COFFEE, so naturally I brought an insulated coffee cup, and two large stanley thermos's ( one for me and one for my Pops). This was not needed as everywhere I could wash out my coffee cup, fill up, and drink as I ride. Other extra Items I brought that I figured I didnt need included:
1 gallon water jug,
extra sleeping bag,
coffee maker and mini stove,
extra boots,
air mattress and pump (The ground is really soft, next time just a pad will do for Pops)
camping chairs, (We where so busy running around we never really sat in them)
4 pairs of pants (2 would of worked as I wore my chaps most of the time anyways)
The bottom line is I over packed as did my Pops. We learned very quickly that just because you have this cool extra camping stuff does NOT mean you need to figure out how to bring it. The wasted time packing, un-packing and weight moving, fuel usage, etc was just not worth it.
After several days of awesomeness at the rally, we headed east to the far side of South Dakota to the Families home town of Aberdeen S. D. where my Pops was born and raised. After a day riding across the great state in the prairie wind, we hit town finding the U.P.S. store where the only 18 year old woman stock car driver I have ever met sold us a monster box for 10 bucks. We filled it with 50 pounds of our un-needed crap and shipped it back home for 50 bucks. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! We spend a day there then headed home lighter, wiser and with out so much wind resistance. There were a few things I found invaluable I would also like to list:
Black Nitrile Gloves to wear under riding gloves when you are hitting the mountain passes after dark,
two pairs of sunglasses and dark goggles as my eyes enjoyed the variation,
neck warmer and scarf,
two pairs of riding gloves,
insulated jean pants (they REALLY kept the fitique down on my legs as well)
saddle rag, i.e. old mexican blanket I sat on and moved around to save my bum and it doubled as a pillow,
rope as well as bungy cords,
All my Pops medication...
My Pops is 61, diabetic, ashmatic, half blind, cant see at night, worn out hips, a bit over weight and he didn't complain once. He carried one bag for his clothing and the other for his medication. He has truely proven himself as a Man among Men, and re-assured his place as My Hero in life.
It was definately the trip of a life time and we cant wait to do it again. We have gained great experiences and knowledge of motorcycles and riding but more importantly, of each other. I have started writting down all the riding trips my Pops and I have taken and hope to one day have something entertaining as well as educational for my grand kids to read.
IN the near future, I will be updating this page more often. Its getting colder out, use your gear, enjoy your ride and play it safe. YOU ARE TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!
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June
- Riding Season is in full swing!!!! Lets all take a few extra minutes here and there to do safety inspections on our bikes... It may save you being stuck on the side of the road or even YOUR LIFE!!!
- lets talk the web!!! It is full of information for even us motorcyclist. Check out the California Motorcycle Safety Programs web site, cmsp.org Move though every inch of it then check out the National Motorcycle Safety Program web site, msp.org. Your tax dollars pay for these sites so eat them up and enjoy all the cool information available.
- If you missed the meeting, I handed out all sorts of cool information all gathered from the previous stated web sites, ENJOY!!!
May
- Folks, heres the honest to god truth, " YOU CAN ALWAYS BE A BETTER RIDER"
- I dont care how long you have been riding or how long you have been riding, like anything else in life, be it shooting a gun or playing a video game, you need to always increase your skill!!
- A great way of doing this on a motorcycle in taking a class. If you have your M1 endorcement, take the advance motorcycle course... If you have already taken the course, take it again to freshen up...
April
- So if you missed the General Membership Meeting this month, here is a bit of what we went over.
- Your health in riding!! it doesnt matter who you are or how healthy you think you are, know your body better then you know your bike. Be aware of things changing and see a doc. for a physical if you can, it wont kill you!
- Also we stressed how important it can be to keep abreast on the lastest motorcycle safety issues. Look up Sate Safety Officer John Del Santo's writting in your bailing wire, read them a few times if it helps, he really has a lot of cool things he is talking about and it all makes sense. Also feel free to Google anything motorcycle related. We do have several pages to click on here but, if you have a question or just want to read, check it out. There are thousands of articles and writtings for motorcyclist safety that all have one thing behind them, to keep you safe and alive.
- May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. We will have some cool things to talk about but more importantly, we need to spread the word to all motorist to look out for motorcyclist!
March.
- March is a month of one of the oldest questions in the book, "Is it too cold to ride?"
- On Febuary 27th, 2011 a local ride was scheduled for all of us to ride up to ABATE Local #1's Polar Bear Run. At 7 a.m. sharp I arrived at the set meeting spot at our Local American Legions Hall to find myself and our president Greg Covel the only two there for the ride. We waited around a few minutes just in case anyone was running a bit late. We soon realized that we were the only two there for the run up to northern L.A. We put on all our gear and I checked the thermometer on my phone to see it read 34 degrees! No wonder we were the only two for the ride, is this freakin' nuts?? As we rode west on the 60 freeway, I realized how cold 34 degrees can be at 65 m.p.h. The biggest obstacle was our goggles and facesheilds fogging up, no matter how fast we were going, my goggles were on my nose and Greg's Facesheild was partially up. The ride, albeit cold, was actually quite comfortable for my body except, half way there I realized the tips of my fingers were icing up and trying to detach from the rest of my body. Greg reminded me of the old trick of putting black latex type gloves on under my insulated riding gloves. I did this and for the rest of the day my hands were nice and cozy as it never got above 45 degrees for the entire ride.
- These old guys that we younger types are fortunate enough to hang around sure do know their stuff sometimes. They think we are being their friends but really we are spongeing information off of them to better our lives. The black glove theory was originally presented to me by our merchandise man Jack. I figured they would sweat to much to be effective but that never happened, and they were re-usable. Jack was kind enough to donate several other pairs of gloves for the Local and I handed them out at our membership meeting. YOU ROCK JACK!
- If you haven't been able to make it to the meeting lately, you have missed a few key points of information. We are scheduling to take the Advanced Motorcycle Riding Course for the 2nd or 3rd weekend of June. Cost should be around $90.00. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to increase our riding skills and lower our insurance rates at the same time. Even friends of ABATE are welcome.
- Also, you need to check out this month's Bailing Wire. As well as the usual informative safety articles, there is an especially cool one entitled "You Have to Have a Heart" about maintaining our main organ and what to do if you or someone around you is having a heart attack. Check it out, it could save your life or mine!
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Feb.
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The 5 Key Principles of "Safe Cushion Riding." At our last meeting I introduced this theory I had heard several years ago that can be applied to the operation of any motor vehicle. It started back in the 1950's or so with a optometrist named Smith. He figured that we as humans only use about 3% of our eyes as the center focal point and there are a few principle rules we can follow to make us all a little safer in driving. They are,
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Aim High In Steering
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Keep Your Eyes Moving
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Leave Yourself An Out
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Make Sure They See or Hear You
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Get The Big Picture
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By simple practice of these few principles, it can make a huge difference on your safety and enjoyment of riding. I will be covering them in depth for the next several weeks at our meetings and encouraging the practice of them. For years now I have spent a lot of time putting them to use myself and although it takes some getting use to, I beleive they are extremely effective in riding.
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Some nice weathered Sunday in the month of May I will be setting up an "Advance Motorcycle Training Class" for Abate members and friends. I have found the Honda Riding Institute in Colton has offered us a 10% discount ($90.00 total per person) as well as our own instructors if we can have 5 people sign up for the class. Think about it now as they will need payment from you a week before the class starts. It should be an educational and fun time plus, your insurance company can offer you a discount for taking the class.
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Hope to see you at the general meetings on the first Tuesday of every month! Remember to be patient in life as human life should always come first above all else!
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Dec. - Jan.
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Leather is worn by us riding motorcycles not to look cool, it has a very real function, PROTECTION!!! Rain, cold, heat, road debris and anything else the open road will threw at us and should be cared for accordingly. Leather needs to be cleaned and oiled to stay effective. I personally like to sit down with my leather every 6 months or so, clean it with just a moist terry cloth then put on my leather ridding gloves and massage it with my favorite leather oil LEXOL (Cowboy or Motorcycle appearal shops). Sometimes I hit a few spots as needed with a black or brown shoe stain called nugget (99 cent store). I let it hang dry for a day and it is ready to keep out the elements as well go threw the beating it will take tied up on my bike. If I ever hit the pavement I have a better chance of walking away without the added weight of gravel in my body. Also I do not sew patches or hang pins on my chaps or jacket in an effort to keep the rain out, it works! Take care of your duds and they will take care of you!
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When should a Motorcyclist wear leather? AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!
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If its cold (below 60F), I put it all on, chaps over long johns, jeans, insulated pants, or try leather pants, they may work for you. Jacket over long john / long sleeve shirt, flannels, sweaters, whatever. I personally put my vest over my jacket because I am to lazy to empty and move the contents of the pockets, beside I know where everything is on my vest! I do have to add button extension chains on the front of my vest to make it work but I keep those in the pocket of my jacket for just an occassion. I also like to add a fleece neck warmer I can pull over my mouth as needed, thin fleece gloves inside my insulated gontlet gloves and an oversized beanie to pull down over my ears. Snowboarders socks times two, and I can ride for hours and be quite comfortable.
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If its hot (over 100F) I put on my chaps and leather jacket on to keep the heat out and my moisture in! Otherwise the human body can turn into one large stick of salt and dehydration will set in. I have tried a cooling vest but it only seems to work for about two hours. I keep ice cold water on me or stop often to buy it!! I poor it down the front of my jacket as I ride, maybe every 10 minutes or so and make sure the scarf around my neck is soaked when I start out, again and again!
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When weather is good (As it is a lot here in Riverside) I usually still keep my leather vest on so if I happen to hit the pavement at least my guts should stay in my body. I wear jeans, long sleeve shirts, fingerless leather riding gloves and my riding boots (More on those later).
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More To Follow!!
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Every membership meeting I give an in-depth presentation on different Motorcycle Safety Topic, handouts, live speakers and all sorts of cool stuff. If you would like to know what its all about, come on down to the meeting.