A bad accident, a search for answers

 Just over a year ago I was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident. Thankfully I was in a car rather than on my Royal Enfield motorcycle, so I survived. Even so, the emotional "impact" has prevented me from writing about it before now. It is not a pleasant memory.

The accident could have been much worse, but there were painful injuries to all parties, and two cars were written off. Many sleepless nights followed, and not just because Ibuprofen could not erase the hurt.

I kept replaying the experience in my mind. What could possibly have caused this accident?

I was ticketed, based on the reporting officer's best guess about what had happened. She encouraged me to consider fighting the charges in court, as she could not be certain of her conclusions.

This was no surprise, as I could not initially explain the accident either. The other driver involved would have had no warning at all and likely would have no idea of the cause.

I did go to court, but the officer did not, and the charges were dismissed because she did not appear. I had prepared a defense but, with no chance to deliver it in court, I can't know how convincing it might have been.

I do not live near the crash site so, in the hope of finding answers for my defense I used Google Street View to revisit the scene. There, on the roadway, chipped and scarred by the many vehicles that had hit it before me, was the cause of the accident, I felt sure.

Confirmation came from an unexpected source: the owner of the car I was driving informed me that, unknown to me, it had a dash cam. It allowed him to play back the accident. He provided me with the video. He wasn't sure I would want to see it, because watching it would be frightening.

Of course I had to see it. I wanted some sort of closure.

Oddly, it was not frightening to watch: the accident happened so quickly that the video, even played at half speed, was over before the viewer's emotions could kick in. In the sense of "my whole life flashed in front of me" I would have expected the action to take much longer. It does, in Hollywood movies.

In real life, my life, and your life, can end in an instant. I knew that. But coming so close really drove the point home.

The video confirmed what I had guessed: the obstruction triggered this accident.

What lessons to take from this? Well, I'm deeply sorry that my wife, as a passenger, and the other driver involved had to experience the full measure of physical and emotional pain.

Already notoriously the slowest driver in our family, I have slowed down even more. I think that is the natural response.

Maybe it will help. I hate to add "next time," so as to acknowledge that there can be a next time.

In the weeks after the accident I wrote to highway authorities, supplying photos and the video to encourage them to address the problem on the road.

It was very difficult to even determine which department was responsible for this length of roadway. It turned out to be, of all agencies, a park district, one that is famously strapped for money to tend its roads.

A helpful contact person promised to let me know what the district would do. I have heard nothing in the months since then.

Obviously I am not confident that anything will be done. I haven't been back past the accident scene to examine it, but I expect it's unchanged.

I know that I am changed. Forever.

U-turn on a motorcycle? Looks easy in video

No hands! But this rider gets around a cone by slowing down and leaning in.

WARNING: The article that follows contains my own idle musings about motorcycling, in the face of contradictory advice. Those who really do know how to steer a motorcycle will likely disagree with me. No one should take my conclusions as gospel.

Although I was a decent bicyclist as a boy, and I have lots of miles on my Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle, I still can't get around corners.

I live in Florida, flat and cursed with only straight roads. I never have to corner, which is good, because, having no experience, I stink at it.

I can't escape having to make occasional U-turns, though. I just sort of blunder around, feeling as though I am about to fall.

Seeking advice I lazily turned, of course, not to time-honored text books or certified training courses, but to that well know tower of wisdom, YouTube.

Here I encountered two seemingly contradictory demonstrations of making U-turns on a motorcycle. One rider demonstrated turning the motorcycle by leaning INTO the turn. In fact, he did the turns without touching the handlebars, simply by slowing down and leaning his body (as seen above). It looked like he and the motorcycle should fall over, but they did not.

This rider puts all his weight on the outside peg, leaning away from the turn.

In the dueling video, another rider demonstrated turning the motorcycle by leaning to the OUTSIDE of the turn. He put his weight on the outside footpeg to "counter-balance" the motorcycle. In fact he took his foot entirely off the inside peg to illustrate that no weight was on it.

Again, it looked like the motorcycle should fall over, but it did not. Could his 180 pounds really have balanced a 500-pound motorcycle?

Watching the two videos, I have to conclude that experts can get motorcycles to do anything.

The key could be the factor that both videos have in common: letting the motorcycle slow down and the handlebars turn deeply into the turn.

Amazingly, doing this, the motorcycle (check out the videos, below) doesn't fall down. Why? It must be largely the action of the front wheel as the handlebars turn and speed drops off.

(SIDE NOTE: The usual explanation is that this is the benefit of "caster," often described as the offset that enables shopping cart wheels to automatically go straight when you push the cart. That makes no sense, though, as shopping cart wheels obviously go straight because they are offset to the rear of their steering attachment, whereas motorcycle front wheels are obviously offset ahead of the steering head. This would suggest that motorcycles will not behave like shopping carts, and, in fact, Wikipedia explains that shopping cart wheels in fact have "no caster." It's more complicated.)

Whatever. What must be happening on the ground is that the front wheel, sharply turning as the motorcycle slows and leans into the turn, is actually trying to force itself to go straight — which would automatically force the motorcycle upright.

Is the motorcycle, as it almost seems to fall over, actually counter-steering itself back to vertical, as the first video suggests?

I now realize I actually experienced this once, when I tried to turn at an intersection in Florida and hit a patch of oil. The motorcycle tried to fall down, but as it did, the front wheel turned into the fall and — magically, it seemed, without me doing much of anything — the motorcycle picked itself up and went straight. I didn't know what caused it.

I need to go practice U-turns.

Meanwhile, watch the videos. Both emphasize a complete technique, giving the motorcycle the proper amount of speed, avoiding brakes and sudden acceleration.

Here's a new overheating worry: Your iPad

Overheating is always a concern for motorcyclists, but here's a new one: Riding your Royal Enfield can overheat your iPad! The Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal  illustrates a warning about potential damage to personal electronic devices with this tale:

"It was March and financial consultant Dilip C.G. was riding his Royal Enfield in Mumbai when his new iPad, strapped to the petrol tank, shut down with a warning: 'iPad needs to cool down before you can use it.'

"Shocked, he parked his vehicle and tried to switch it back on. The iPad was scorching hot to the touch and would not respond.

“'I felt stranded,' says the 33-year-old, who was using the iPad for maps, and to record his road trip. 'I had no choice but to wait. Thankfully, it came back on after it had time to cool down in the shade.'

"Dilip was lucky that the iPad’s built-in heat sensor shut it down—otherwise, his expensive device would have become useless.

"'Gadgets are designed to run at a certain temperature,' says Bangalore-based Anandaroop Bhattacharya, a PhD research scientist who designs thermal management systems for electronic devices. 'As you use a device, its temperature tends to go up, till it reaches a certain limit. Any higher than that and the delicate circuitry in the CPU will melt.'"

The scientist recommended keeping electronic devices below 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

Royal Enfield 'saved' by gummy product called sugru

Charlie will do a nicer job of this bodge when he gets home.

A Royal Enfield motorcycle on a 1,000-mile trip across France figures in an unusual product endorsement for a substance I'd never heard of: "sugru" (the sugru company apparently does not capitalize its name).

Based on the true-life story told by "Charlie" on the sugru blog, this stuff might end up with duct tape and J-B Weld as the all-purpose tool kit. Certainly it seems destined to replace chewing gum.

As Charlie tells it:

“The chain oiler of my aging 500cc Royal Enfield motorcycle lost its nozzle on a 1,000-mile trip. Luckily, I had a spare breather tube on the carburetor and some sugru in my minimalist toolkit. Job done – Harry the Enfield rides again!

“I am very careful with the mechanics of the bike and when the chain oiler broke I was annoyed. The sugru did the job simply and quickly – and though it was a quick hack I will use sugru when I do the full repair! The rest of the toolkit is the sort of stuff you need on these old bikes. A lot of modern bikers carry virtually nothing. Maybe they should carry some sugru!”

Sugru is an air-curing silicone rubber for "anyone who wants to improve or repair their stuff." It looks like chewing gum and, like gum, can be hand formed for 30 minutes once removed from packaging. It sticks to aluminum, steel, ceramics glass wood and perspex, and cures into a soft, flexible, removable shape. It is electrically insulating.

It is powerful and heat resistant enough that some guy apparently used it to seal a leaky upper radiator hose connection on his engine block. Chewing gum won't work for that — I've tried it.

Sugru comes in more colors than chewing gum and black and white as well. The inventor says the name sugru was inspired by the Irish word for "play."

For the United States they ship from Michigan . I have no connection to this product and have never personally tried it. I can chew gum, however.

There goes another blinking Enfield blinker

The plastic turn signal stalks fitted to my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet lasted 40,000 miles. Then they began to snap, one right after the other, leaving the turn signal lens dangling from the wires.

I first reported this on this blog in March. At the time, I thought it was somewhat amusing, although a nuisance. Sunday I returned from another ride, with the right front signal dangling from its wires again. In my opinion, very few things look more foolish than riding around with limp-wristed turn signals.

I'm stubborn, so I'm just going to slather it with glue again and put it back. The trouble is not that the glue won't hold. The problem is that the stalk will (I know) break again in a different spot along its length.

If I were a classier fellow, I would just order nicer looking after market signals from Classic Motorworks and be better off for it. But, as I say: I'm stubborn. So, as long as the glue holds out, I will persist in trying to repair these.

Motorcycle safety's easiest little tip

The Motorcycle Rider Course I took to get my license taught me a lot of things, but one tip sticks out. I may never master counter steering or some of the other big concepts, but this little piece of advice was easy to put into effect. I find that I never forget to do it and it saves me potential trouble at every intersection.

What is this fantastic little tip? You might laugh.

The technique is simply to ride with your throttle hand held so that the finger tips are atop the front brake lever -- but not far enough to operate the brake. Your thumb wraps firmly around the throttle (as it must, since it is the only grip you have on it). Perfectly comfortable, but very important.

Here's why: holding your hand like this insures that when the time comes to grab the brake lever, even in an emergency, you will automatically close the throttle with your thumb as you stretch your fingers to reach the lever. Simple, huh?

What happens if you don't do this is dangerous and unsettling. If you ride with your fingers wrapped around the throttle (as I typically hold a bicycle hand grip), your hand can be in any position at all, depending on how much throttle you're using.

In an emergency, you won't think. You'll open your hand (thumb included) and grab forward for the lever. When you get it, you'll clamp down hard, pulling back and down to get maximum pressure. That back-and-down movement will actually roll on more throttle as you apply the brake.

Since you instinctively grabbed for the clutch with your other hand, the engine will begin roaring as you're trying to stop. It's terrifying: I know, because I didn't count this little tip for much in class and had to experience an emergency stop without it for myself.

Got a tip you'd like to share? Comment here.