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What You Need To Know About Your Smartphone
If you send pictures over the internet on your smartphone, you need to watch this video. Your privacy can be compromised.
Motorcycle Gloves – Why Wouldn’t You Wear Them?
These are my gloves to the left. I wear them because I love my knuckles. You’ll notice that the backsides have kevlar plates across all the knuckle points. If I go down, I may end up with broken fingers, but I expect to still have my knuckles.
I see motorcyclists all the time riding without gloves and I wonder…do they value their hands. Maybe they do some kind of work where their hands don’t matter. Maybe they just just expect to never go down. Who knows what their reason is, but I think it’s foolish to gamble such an important part of your body for the pleasure of a motorcycle ride.
I can think of numerous times when I have scraped the skin off my knuckles doing minor things like tightening a bolt and having the wrench slip off. Just that small incident hurt badly. I don’t even want to think about the pain involved doing the same thing at motorcycle speeds. Ouch!
Motorcycle safety is always first and foremost on my mind when I hop on my bike for a ride. The only protection I have on a motorcycle is my skills, my awareness, and my gear. I wear it all, the boots, the jacket, the pants, the helmet, and the gloves. There are times when it’s so hot when I put this gear on, that I almost can’t ride. It’s times like this when I think about skipping the gear so I can stay cooler. It ain’t gonna happen.
The consequences are just too severe. The human body is just too fragile. One good fall, if it doesn’t kill you, can result in a lifetime of disfigurement and HANDicaps.
I have never had a serious fall on my motorcycle but I have gone over, and I have experienced many falls on my mountain bike. The first thing to hit the ground is usually my hands, trying to break the fall. In every case, I was wearing gloves that saved my skin.
Life without the use of my hands is not an option. Besides my mouth and feet, they are one of the most used parts of my body. I will wear motorcycle gear, including good, protective, motorcycle gloves for as long as I ride. And I will continue to encourage every motorcyclist to do the same thing.
Before you go out for a ride, stop, and think about how your life would be without the use of your hands. WEAR GLOVES!
Don’t own any gloves? Here’s a good place to start: Motorcycle Apparel & Gear at BikeBandit.com!
2011 Triumph Tiger 800 XC vs. BMW GS
I for one really like the looks of the 2011 Triumph Tiger 800XC better than the BMW, but, I would still consider the BMW 800GS as an alternative, because it is a proven performer. There is another good comparison article at Motorcycle Consumer News, between the 800XC and the 800GS. Check them both out. Meantime, here’s a review from Motorcycle USA…
2011 Triumph Tiger 800 XC Comparison Review – Motorcycle USA
Triumph obviously took a good look at its competition, and fortunately for us the bar was pretty high to begin with. The Tiger 800 XC has a very similar stance to the F800GS. The XC employs a trellis chassis but with a different design.
Polaris-The New Indian Chief
After miraculously surviving five ill-fated resurrections since its initial demise in 1953, America’s original motorcycle brand has found a more worthy and hopefully permanent home. Polaris Industries, Inc.—makers of Victory motorcycles, popular four-wheel off-roaders, snowmobiles and other specialty vehicles—acquired the King’s Mountain, North Carolina -based business from British private-equity firms Stellican Limited and Novator Partners LLP for an undisclosed sum last April.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/newsandupdates/motorcycle_news/122_1108_indians_new_chiefs/index.html#ixzz1SE2Y6ly4
Beware! Motorcycles may enhance life experience
November 24, 2011 By Gary Leave a Comment
Beware! Motorcycles may enhance life experience: ”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – When was the last time someone said you were too old to dream?
For me, motorcycles and dreams, dreaming, have always been intertwined and I was unexpectedly cut low recently when a colleague told me there are few spots he would venture to on a motorcycle in Africa today.
We were drinking beer, celebrating a successful meeting and waxing poetic about bike adventures and the beauty of being at the same time more vulnerable, and more open to transformative experiences on a bike.
I was thinking of my lifelong dream to take a bike from Nuevo Laredo, Texas (nostalgic point of departure South) to Tierra del Fuego, loaded with a tent, some food and a camera. I asked aloud if he thought it was statistically more dangerous to adventure-travel in the world of today than it was, say, 23 years ago when I was crisscrossing Central America.
His reply of “Good God yes man!” couldn’t have deflated me more than if he’d have hit me in the gonads. I was struck suddenly with the fear that not only had that dream vanished in time, but so would so many others, based on the fact that humanity has gone to hell.
Shortly afterwards I begged off for the evening, blaming it on a headache, and walked back towards my motorcycle, wondering if he was right.
And then another thought came to me regarding a work discussion earlier in the day on perceptions of increased xenophobia in Switzerland and beyond. One colleague pointed out that historically bigotry has done quite well in Europe, and in most parts of the world at one time or another (frequently when work is in short supply).
For two weeks I have been ruminating on this. Are we going to hell then, really? Has the state of humanity declined? Do I need to rethink my 10 year plan for trekking in the Americas? Or is this a functioning of fear-mongering and how we see the world as we get older?
A little perspective is a good thing: I bought my first motorcycle in Nicaragua, where I was living during the tail end of the Contra War and I traveled solo on local buses through at least three nations living through civil wars. Granted, ignorance and stupidity are sometimes saving graces, literally, in lieu of knowledge and intelligence. But the only near-death experience I have had on a motorcycle (that I know of) involved a drunk driver at 4AM in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The historical record would seem to show that the world is just as complicated as it has always been, that adventure is inherently risky, and that we only see what we allow ourselves to see.
Planning is back on for the 2021 TransAm(erica).
”
(Via WHEELS ENTHUSIAST.)