No Joke
From the Editor
The other day while returning from a weekend trip up north to do a tech shoot/install on a friend’s bike, I had just careened down the backside of the notorious Grapevine on I-5 and entered into Southern California’s freeway system when I noticed a rather unusual amount of bikes on the road. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon with warm temps and clear blue skies—well as clear as our smog-laden skies can offer. Of course there are always plenty of bikes on the road just about every weekend, but I noticed that there were lots of groups out riding.
As I passed group after group, I quickly scanned the assortment of bikes to see who was riding what and what kind of modifications/customizations had been done to the bikes. The majority of the bikes were Harleys—more specifically baggers, and most of them had the typical mods: new pipes, bars, seat, and maybe some custom paint or pinstriping, nothing too wild or out of the ordinary. What really caught my attention as I passed one group was several bikes that were loaded two-up with the wife or girlfriend on the back—not that unusual right? Well I noticed one of the girls had her phone out and appeared to be texting. I actually did a double-take as I passed to make sure I actually saw what I thought I saw. I was shocked, but not really surprised. I was a little bothered though when about 2 miles later I passed another group and spotted another female passenger texting—maybe they were texting each other?
Riding as a passenger on a motorcycle is a completely different and unique experience than riding as a passenger in an automobile. Riding in a car or truck is a passive experience, where all you have to do is sit there and not distract the driver. On a motorcycle however, you are an active participant and should be paying attention. Leaning with the rider in and out of turns and scanning the road for hazards or other vehicles that may not see your motorcycle are all part of the passenger’s responsibilities. You have to work together as a team, and if the passenger isn’t paying attention or is engrossed in a text conversation, they may not be ready for an evasive maneuver or sudden braking which could cause serious consequences for all involved.
Coincidentally, the next morning while getting ready for work, I had the news on and when I got out of the shower, I heard a report about the Love Ride. Apparently, the Love Ride was the day before, hence all the riders/groups of riders on the road. In the past the Love Ride was in November and after talking to several friends, we all seemed to have forgotten or didn’t realize the date had been moved up. But what I found really intriguing about the news report were the comments made by the event’s Grand Marshall, Jay Leno, as he kicked off the ride from Glendale Harley-Davidson to Castaic Lake, California.
“Every year Oliver (Love Ride founder) says, ‘Drive safe.’ I’m going to say ‘Don’t drive safe,’ I wanna see somebody go down so it’ll be fun. I wanna be in front, look behind me and see a whole row of bikes go down,” Leno stated to the crowd. “Don’t forget we are bikers: go out on the road, get drunk, fall down. The crowd has become too damn polite. We haven’t had one incident. What we need is a real asshole at this thing at least once. Well you got one: that’s right, you got me. Hey, ride safe everybody, have fun.”
Obviously I wasn’t there, but after a quick search I found a recording of the comments on the L.A. Times website. And while it was obvious that Jay’s comments weren’t to be taken seriously and that he was just making jokes about the event’s long history without any major incidents, to which the crowd was chuckling along, I just found it disheartening that a motorcycle enthusiast would make jokes like that. Fast, slow, or even stopped at a light, it doesn’t matter how it happens, when you go down on a bike, odds are it’s going to cause some kind of injury, whether it be light abrasions, bruising, broken bones, or worse.
Unfortunately there were several riders that did go down that day, amongst them was a rider and his passenger who were killed. And in an unrelated incident, another rider went down and Jay accompanied that rider to a local hospital to get treated for his injuries. Obviously no one could have foreseen these unfortunate events, and I am not trying to crucify Jay for his comments because I understand he was being lighthearted and didn’t really want to see anyone go down. But it is unfortunate that he would joke around like that.
Our thoughts go out to the family and friends who lost their loved ones.
I’m interested to hear your thoughts on either of these two situations. Send your comments to [email protected].
Until next time,
Eric
Riding as a passenger on a motorcycle is a completely different and unique experience than riding as a passenger in an automobile.
