A meeting with the California Highway Patrol

No, I didn't get pulled over.  Now that that is out of the way, I went to a scheduled event at Irv Seaver's BMW in Orange California.  The topic was BBQ and questions and answers with the CHP.  I'm not usually critical of BBQ; but, I found the pulled pork, ribs and brisket lacking something...Well, they were lacking all together.  They served brats.  Brats <> BBQ.  Maybe I could refer them to some caterers that would be more than happy to put a pig on a spit.  I can understand though.  I'm sure the intent was simply to draw bikers into the showroom and not spend more than the days take doing it.

Interestingly enough, I understand the CHP to be the biggest motorcycle advocates among all the police departments.  They do these public safety briefings fairly frequently and it's not just a public service message they are delivering.  They stood before us and answered the hard questions.  They spoke from a bikers point of view; and they also told us where the law was, as well as the gray areas.

There were some interesting take home points:

1)  CHP motor officers are hammered on covering the clutch ALL THE TIME and not covering the front brake.  When they go to their 2 week training course, they lose points every time they're caught not covering the clutch.  Some cops wash out of school because of it.  It's that important.  To me, it make a ton of sense.  In a panic situation, grabbing the front brake could be the wrong action to take.  Not covering the brake gives you that split second to think about what you're about to do; and, pulling the clutch is enough to change the geometry of the bike by causing slight compression of the front shocks and increasing the front tire's contact patch.  When the front brake is pulled, the front tire will have more surface area to work with making braking more effective.  They didn't say all that; but, after thinking about it and other things I've learned, I bought the idea and incorporated it into my riding.

2)  Motorcycle accidents seem to happen for one of two reasons, and sometimes both.  It's either lane sharing or excessive speed.  They do advocate lane sharing and are concerned that it might become a think of the past if motorcyclists don't learn how to do it right.  They spend probably 25 minutes or more of their 1 hour talk on lane sharing alone, so they see it as important.  Speed got less than about 15 seconds of coverage.  Some of what they said about lane sharing made sense to me, like lane sharing in the far left lanes only.  What didn't make sense is that they believe you should be sharing the right side of a vehicles lane with them, not the left.  That to me is counter intuitive.  They were also very emphatic about not crossing the double yellow line into the car pool lane  If you're there to start with, fine; but, you shouldn't be sharing the left side of the #1 lane and crossing the double yellow consistently.  If the car in the lane strolls over toward you and you have to, fine; but, they really don't want you there in the first place.  The law is not this explicit on which part of the lane to share; but, they gave their recommendations.  Also, they recommended not lane splitting above 35 mph.  Apparently, the law made it onto the books in California for air cooled bikes, which would clearly overheat in the California  sun and traffic.  Interesting; but, not covered in the presentation, it is illegal in California to impeded a motorcycle's path of travel.  There's also a specific law for those motorists that decide to open their door to stop a motorcyclists path of travel.  Both are illegal.  The CHP has a motorcycle safety program.  Click here to view their web page.

3)  Riding long distance and want to stretch your legs?  Standing on the pegs is fine as long as the bike is stable and the front tire is on the ground.  Enough said.

4)  Stuck on a pressure pad at a light that won't turn green for you.  That sucks and sorry, you can't run the red-light.  Try waiting a few minutes for a cage to pull up behind you.  If that doesn't work, you're on your own.

Another good biker event.  I met some other interesting riders.  Unfortunately, I saw a rider tuck entering the highway on the way home.  He was coming out of a gas station and for whatever reason, he grabbed his front brake in the lean and the next thing he knew, he was down on the pavement.  I helped him get back up and he was uninjured; but, his fairing was damaged and I'm sure his pride was also.

Now, I patiently await my next ride...