The Idiocy Continues

October 14, 2007

Another pretty day, today. So I headed westward, into the mountains, like I usually do.

Alas, I dunno what it is with my timing this year. Three times this year I’ve come upon a motorcycle crash scene moments after it happened. The common theme seems to be a nice day, a pleasantly curvaceous road, and some guy’s ego writing a check his skill level can’t cash. After awhile you just have to shake your head.

This one was on the western flank of Thornton Gap, around 1:30pm. I passed a large group of sportbikes heading up the mountain, as I made my descent. First one group of a dozen or so. Then a slight gap. Then another ten or twelve. I thought that was it. But then I came around a corner and there it was.

He was supine and unmoving when I rolled slowly past him. But I didn’t get the vibe, like I did with the one a month ago, that he was dead or dying. I’m guessing he came through it. I hope so.

There have always been plenty of people around so I haven’t stopped. Today I did, just long enough to take a couple of quick snapshots, even though it felt a bit ghoulish. I only had the 28mm and 50mm lenses with me, the 28 on the camera. So I changed to the 50, popped a couple of frames, then mounted back up. I could hear the sirens in the distance.

From the perspective of the bikes heading up the mountain this was the first set of esses, after the left-hand sweeper at the bottom and then the long straight with the store on the left. It’s the first really good corner on the western flank, the one where your suspension firms up, the first one where you really feel the bike. Its got good camber. It’s not a hard corner.

But even saying that isn’t right. Because it begs the question of basic competency in making a motorcycle go around a corner. It occurs to me that the MSF teaches many things - crucial, important things. But going around a corner isn’t one of them.

crop...

What the state has put at the bottom of the mountain...

And what they've placed at the top...