Excited about (by) that new BMW?

Well it turns out there may be a good reason. According to this news item (link) a California man found he got a little more than he bargained for when he installed a new Corbin seat on his 1993 BMW motorcycle. He has now launched a lawsuit for a “persistent erection” seeking compensation for emotional distress, medical expenses and “general damages”. No mention of excessive wear and tear, although I guess that could come under general damages.

Corbin claims there is no truth to the rumour that they have now sold out of that particular seat model since the story broke.

Sometimes I see motorcycles…..

Happy Easter!

The gorilla in the room

It’s that time of the year where, up here in Canada and the more northern states, riders are dusting off their motorcycles and hitting the road for another riding season. Some will take refresher riding courses, others will rely on skills learned long ago, and still others will count on luck to get them through the season safely. Most (unfortunately not all) will certainly be aware of rusty skills and will ride accordingly until a level of comfort behind the bars is again attained.
At the same time car drivers are beginning to encounter more and more motorcycles on the road than they’ve seen for many months. Their driving environment too is changing but they won’t realize it and will give no consideration whatsoever to the need to adapt to safely share those ribbons of tar with two-wheelers.
And so the annual carnage begins anew.
Statistics are all over the map on this issue but some studies have put the number as high as 80% of car-motorcycle collisions being the fault of the car driver. In a perfect, random world one would expect 50-50, so clearly something is out of whack here. And the “something” that is out of whack generally includes some combination of car drivers texting, talking on the phone, distracted by kids in the car, blinded by the sunlight, or that old canard “I just didn’t see him”. And the latter claim is subject to the most derision by us motorcyclists with most being of the opinion that it’s just a lame excuse for inattention and bad driving, with some riders going so far as to wear bright coloured t-shirts emblazoned with a large-print “CAN YOU SEE ME NOW ASSHOLE?” to enhance visibility and make a point.
Not to give bad drivers an excuse, but it seems there is an explanation as to why they really did not see you. And it boils down to the fact that we humans actually suck at multi-tasking.
Christopher Chabris, a psychology professor at Union College performed an experiment in which he had a number of people passing a basketball back and forth on stage. He then asked the audience to count the number of passes. While the ball was being passed back and forth, and the audience was focussed on counting the number of passes, a person wearing a gorilla suit stepped out on stage among the basketball passers and stood there for 9 seconds before exiting. 50% of the audience did not see the gorilla because they were so focussed on the task at hand – counting the passes. (There’s a great video on this experiment here.)
So apply that to the real world and a driver mentally replaying the fight she had with her husband that morning, or taking direction from his boss via cell phone while driving, or yelling at the squabbling kids in the back seat to shut the f*** up! Your presence just doesn’t register, and probably wouldn’t even if you were driving a Mack truck.
Of course this applies to motorcycle riders as well. Just  think back on how many times you were preoccupied with something and overcooked that exit onto an off-ramp, or completely missed a turn, or forgot to put the side stand down before getting off the bike. It’s happened to all of us at one time or another, but usually with less painful results than trying to tango with a cage.
It’s not clear to me how understanding what’s really going on can make me any less invisible to some drivers, but it does help me understand my own riding (and driving) habits and make me much more aware of the impact of distractions on my situational knowledge while on the road. And that’s a good thing.

Batteries – can’t live with ‘em and can’t live without ‘em.

In prepping my bike for the new year I went through all the basic maintenance activities – fluids, tires pressures, checking for loose nuts and bolts, etc. Then I came to the battery and I realised that beyond keeping a charger on it over the winter I had no idea if it was being properly maintained or not
The battery is an indispensible part of a modern motorcycle, and so battery failure is not an option. At one time it wasn’t that big a deal with kickstarters on all motorcycles, engine displacements in the 150 to 750 cc range, and few powered accessories requiring a fully charged battery. But just try bump-starting a modern 900-lb, 103-ci  Electra Glide!  Nope, isn’t gonna happen, so if your battery fails on the road you’re stranded.
And wishing you’d paid more attention to the health of your battery.
In my early days as a backyard mechanic one of the items in everyone’s basic tool kit was a hydrometer. This handy little device was an essential tool for measuring the specific gravity of the electrolyte in your battery. Those measurements (one per cell), combined with a fully-charged voltage reading provided a pretty good indication of the health of your battery. And checking the battery was a normal part of the maintenance routine.
But today’s batteries are so reliable we tend to view them as foolproof, essentially ignoring them until the day they don’t work (see ‘stranded’ above). So what can you do to minimize the risk of battery failure while maximizing your battery’s life, and just how much maintenance does your battery really need?
Well to answer those questions James over at Battery Stuff has offered up a few thoughts.

“Proper lead-acid battery maintenance involves periodic mechanical inspection, cleaning, and proper charging using a smart maintenance charger. Flooded (wet) batteries should have water levels checked routinely, particularly in hot weather and topped with distilled water if necessary. Terminal connections should be checked routinely, and any corrosion should be neutralized with baking soda and water, and removed. Battery post cleaners or small wire brushes can help with this process.

All motorcycle batteries, including the sealed AGM batteries, like to be kept fully charged when not actually being cycled. There is NO benefit to fully discharging lead acid batteries as part of maintenance or use. The newer microprocessor chargers allow long term maintenance with a float mode, which will not overcharge batteries. Batteries used infrequently and not on a float charger should be topped off about once a month if possible. This helps prevent sulfation build up, the number one cause of early battery failure.

When a battery is improperly charged or allowed to self discharge, as occurs during storage, sulfation builds up on the battery’s storage plates and can harden, preventing the battery from ever being fully charged and therefore able to deliver their full power. Routine charging or maintaining with a floating charger helps reduce and eliminate this process. Batteries that sit unattended for extended periods are subject to internal discharge and the degradation of capacity that sulfation introduces. There are electronic devices and battery chargers that address sulfation issues, but the best practice is proper battery management with a microprocessor controlled charger to prevent it in the first place.”

So now you (and I) know. You might also want to stop by Battery Stuff’s YouTube channel and check out some of their videos for even more battery information.