look ma ... i'm on the radio

[Desmostro]

JohnC   Way to go  Way to keep it smart. 

Sorry I can't say the same for the psychotics who called in. Wow. That was frightening.

I lane SHARE all the way to work every morning. I've been able to do it politely and get mostly politeness back. People move over and stay chilled out mostly.

I did however rip an SUV's mirror off who moved into my lane even after repeated honking and knocking on his window. Yes it was THAT close. He looked right at me and kept on coming into my lane. Fist to mirror. Then he moved back. 

Ya the morning battle. What to do?

Great point about Italy and England. Best suggestion for sure. When I lived in Italy you could get ONLY a small CC scooter as your first vehicle. Then move up to motorcycle, then car. That makes it a whole other world of driving. You don't get that, 'omg-I'm-surrounded-by-blind dumb-asses' feeling. The kids on scooters are just as nuts if not more, but they're going 30MPH tops so who cares?! They don't hurt anyone. They just get busted riding through parks.

Goodness we really need that here. 

You know, I think that people get so angry because they get afraid. They're dead asleep driving and then ZOOOMROOAR goes by and they fruit their looms. People hate getting scared. Anger is a direct reaction to fear. I wonder what we can do to make people aware more than scare the shit out of them when we ride.

[desmoquattro]

All in all, a good show. A few things we missed this time that we probably want to tackle next time:

- Nobody challenged the completely BS comment by a caller that motorcycles pollute more than cars. This is an old canard that's thrown out by certain elements who hate anything related to internal combustion. The assertion may be true in some cases, but cannot be conclusively proven from available information. If anything, I'd be more comfortable saying that while some motorcycles pollute more than some cars, their usage (lane sharing instead of sitting in traffic, etc) probably makes them less polluting overall. And in this era where energy efficiency is arguably just as important as pollution controls, this tired old canard needs to be laid to rest.

- I recall reading in several motorcycle mags that most of the increase in motorcycle fatalities and accidents are due to older riders on machines 1200cc and above (read: cruisers). If true, this completely blows the synopsis of the Forum piece (e.g. "a more powerful crop of sportbikes leading to more fatalities") out of the water.

- I know everyone was trying to keep things civil on the board, but I'm surprised nobody challenged the CHP officer on his assertion that loud motorcycles don't cause motorists to take notice. We all know this to be anecdotally true, and it'd be nice to find and refute any evidence they present to the contrary.

- All of those who called in were, in one way or another, bashing motorcycles...even those who claim that they ride. I was a bit surprised by this.

Joe

[johnc]

ciao desmoquattro -

i must have misunderstood that caller's comment on pollution bikes vs. cars ...  i took him to mean "noise pollution" ... my bad if that is not what was meant.

hey, i am just glad i didn't drool on the mic and say really stooopid things 

 

All in all, a good show. A few things we missed this time that we probably want to tackle next time:

- Nobody challenged the completely BS comment by a caller that motorcycles pollute more than cars. This is an old canard that's thrown out by certain elements who hate anything related to internal combustion. The assertion may be true in some cases, but cannot be conclusively proven from available information. If anything, I'd be more comfortable saying that while some motorcycles pollute more than some cars, their usage (lane sharing instead of sitting in traffic, etc) probably makes them less polluting overall. And in this era where energy efficiency is arguably just as important as pollution controls, this tired old canard needs to be laid to rest.

- I recall reading in several motorcycle mags that most of the increase in motorcycle fatalities and accidents are due to older riders on machines 1200cc and above (read: cruisers). If true, this completely blows the synopsis of the Forum piece (e.g. "a more powerful crop of sportbikes leading to more fatalities") out of the water.

- I know everyone was trying to keep things civil on the board, but I'm surprised nobody challenged the CHP officer on his assertion that loud motorcycles don't cause motorists to take notice. We all know this to be anecdotally true, and it'd be nice to find and refute any evidence they present to the contrary.

- All of those who called in were, in one way or another, bashing motorcycles...even those who claim that they ride. I was a bit surprised by this.

Joe

[desmoquattro]

ciao desmoquattro -

i must have misunderstood that caller's comment on pollution bikes vs. cars ...  i took him to mean "noise pollution" ... my bad if that is not what was meant.

hey, i am just glad i didn't drool on the mic and say really stooopid things 

You did just fine!

There were a few callers ranting about noise pollution. But one of them caught my attention with the "bikes pollute 22 times more than cars" BS I've heard before.

[johnc]

ciao a tutti  DMFers ...

grazie for the kind words and support ... and thanks for locating the podcast link ... this intraweb thing is pretty darn cool.

[sonofabike]

Great show, John.  I'm a regular listener and was naturally more focused on this morning's program.  Love how you downplayed Ducs as "performance" machines (vs. "luxury").   

[johnc]

Great show, John.  I'm a regular listener and was naturally more focused on this morning's program.  Love how you downplayed Ducs as "performance" machines (vs. "luxury").   

grazie eshutter ... michael (the host) really seemed to enjoy the dialog for the show, and tried his best to grock modern bikes ( he admitted he has not ridden in some time now).  don't know where he would have gotten info that ducs are luxo bikes ... i would think his researchers are better than that, but you never know.

a presto,
johnc

[Drunken Monkey]

Nice show, although I only caught the first 30 minutes.

RE: Bike pollution.

Well, there's good news and bad news

The good news is new bikes pollute about the same as cars or less. If you've got a cat converter you pollute less.

The bad news is older bikes, esp. the carbed ones, produce about 30 times more soot per gallon of gas than a car. But, with the better mileage that works out to about 10 times more soot.

Having said all that, bikes produce far less co2 (the greenhouse gas) than cars under all circumstances.

And you could argue that all that soot has a net cooling effect on the Earth 

[Popeye the Sailor]

I was definitely surprised at the amount of hate out there. Some people have nothing better to do....

[petemg]

Ha! Did anyone else catch Michael's response after the opera interlude? "I was just imagining you with your helmet on, and your leather pants ... thank you for that."

Thank goodness it's not TV. On the whole though, it was a good listen. Nice work John!

[Desmostro]

You should send that in to NPR backed with a few factoids. Sometimes they read responses to shows recently past.

JohnC  - Way to go, again, its not easy on a live show. You were like a pro. 

EDIT:
I was surprised the screening staff let so many haters through. That was weird. Of course they prolly called up saying they "ride," then aired their nutty laundry. 
And Michael said NOTHING to the "I hope you all DIE!" comment. wow.

All in all, a good show. A few things we missed this time that we probably want to tackle next time:

- Nobody challenged the completely BS comment by a caller that motorcycles pollute more than cars. This is an old canard that's thrown out by certain elements who hate anything related to internal combustion. The assertion may be true in some cases, but cannot be conclusively proven from available information. If anything, I'd be more comfortable saying that while some motorcycles pollute more than some cars, their usage (lane sharing instead of sitting in traffic, etc) probably makes them less polluting overall. And in this era where energy efficiency is arguably just as important as pollution controls, this tired old canard needs to be laid to rest.

- I recall reading in several motorcycle mags that most of the increase in motorcycle fatalities and accidents are due to older riders on machines 1200cc and above (read: cruisers). If true, this completely blows the synopsis of the Forum piece (e.g. "a more powerful crop of sportbikes leading to more fatalities") out of the water.

- I know everyone was trying to keep things civil on the board, but I'm surprised nobody challenged the CHP officer on his assertion that loud motorcycles don't cause motorists to take notice. We all know this to be anecdotally true, and it'd be nice to find and refute any evidence they present to the contrary.

- All of those who called in were, in one way or another, bashing motorcycles...even those who claim that they ride. I was a bit surprised by this.

Joe

[mattv]

MendoDave - thanks for posting the link!

Johnc - great job in representing us all in a positive way.  Good job in keeping your cool and not getting baited into saying anything harsh after all the callers' negativity.