Adventures in Motorcycle Touring and Photography
Ran across this photo while doing some backups last night. The bike/scooter culture is prevalent in Taipei. This is transportation, not a toy or a weekend hobby, so the streets, laws, and traffic patterns reflect it. Against this little shop there were four spaces with four bikes and a bicycle when I set up to take the photo. And just before I clicked this guy races up and parks right in the middle where there was just enough room.
As my friend Francisco Dao said: “This does not bode well.”
“The California Department of Motor Vehicles has joined the California Highway Patrol in withdrawing safety guidelines for motorcycle lane-splitting.
The agency confirmed late Tuesday that it had removed its online guidelines, and would also be removing guidelines from its printed literature.
“The DMV will not be including lane splitting language in the next revisions of handbooks in the next revision of 2015,” said DMV Information Officer Jaime Garza, who added that the DMV had dropped the online language as of July 7.”
In six short words: Back to the drawing board gentlemen.
Before I completely wade in, I must say that my Arai RX-Q helmet is the best fitting, quietest, most comfortable, and least leaky helmet I’ve ever owned. And I’ve put close to 40k miles on it in the last three years. Perhaps I’m differnt than most, but coming from a cruiser background and loving the wind in my face, I almost always ride with the shield up unless the dust is blowing, the rain is falling, or the bugs are just too thick. And yeah, I flip it down when riding in 93+ degree temps (F).
But there is a lot of innovation happening in helments these days from the top of the line modelers like the Schuberth C3 Pro and the Shoei Neotech to the wildly innovative and upcoming Skully AR-1. And unfortunately, if the Pro Shade is is Arai’s response, it is anemic at best.
Even with a three year old helmet, I’ve resisted upgrading for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that I’ve been hoping to land on Skully’s beta test program. So, when the Pro Shade System was announced I promptly got in line for Arai’s answer to the integrated sun shield. I received it two days before my last big ride and have put a little over 2000 miles on the shield.
External vs. Internal
First, let’s look at what drives Arai to create an external sun shield in the first place. Arai is demonstrably committed to the SNELL standard as per the Dexter Ford kerfuffle over his article in the NYT and subsequent firing from Motorcyclist magazine.
In short, no modular helmet meets the current SNELL standard, nor apparently do any of the full face helmets with internal visors. Thus, Arai is looking for an external solution. On the face of it, so far, so good.
Position One: Closed
So lets start with the good:
Position Two: Sun Screen Up
The not-so good:
Position Three: Shield and Sun Screen Up
And the butt-ugly:
Position Four: Damn that hurt!
I’ve been trying to come up with a riding scenario in which the Pro Shade System would be a valuable edition and 2000 plus miles later I’m still at a loss. To me and my style of riding, this just doesn’t provide any value at all.
The external solution just doesn’t cut it and the Arai engineers need to go back to the drawing board. This certainly won’t prevent me from buying another Arai helmet, but there is a slightly used Pro Shield for sale in the original packaging collecting dust on my garage shelf. (Comment if you are interested.)
No Stars
Spend your $100 on a steak dinner – you’ll get more mileage from it.
Update: Matt Chambers over at SF Moto arranged for a warranty replacement which allowed me to return it for a refund. (If you haven’t been in, make it a point. Matt went out of his way to reach out and help with this issue.)
He also said he’s ridden several different bikes (mostly sport bikes) and did not have the same problem. Perhaps my experience with the position change is related to the upright seating position of the Connie?
It was near a perfect night’s sleep. In bed early, the neighbors were courteously quiet, and and sound of the stream by the campsite, although low, made for great background noise.
I awoke with a decision to make. Hang a right out of camp and I get to ride one of my favorite roads in California – Hwy 36. Well, at least 120 miles of it. Of course that means slabbing it for hours on 5. Or, I can take 101 all the way down. Given that I haven’t been on 36 since Billy Bartles and I were through here back in ’11 – Hwy 36 won. Here’s why:
Still a little foggy
But burning off
Almost perfect road
the view
The road beckons
And it is tempting pick up the pace
In 120 miles I counted around 35 autos or trucks, 9 motorcycles and 6 deer. Most of the cars (including the two police suvs) were near Red Bluff. I think they depend on the deer to slow down the speeders. I only got one shot of a hoofed deputy after having dodged her crossing.
Check out the lightened area
Getting near Red Bluff
That was about as perfect of a morning ride as one can have driving east. Knowing I had a 1:30 PM client call, I stopped in Red Bluff and calculated where I’d need to be at 1:30 to have a cell signal, grabbed a coffee and hit I-5. Nothing to see here, so no pics, made my call, ate lunch and made it home around 4PM.
This was a delightful trip and it only whetted my appetite for another longer trip. We’ll see if I can fit one in this fall. Thanks to everyone involved for making this a great mini-vacation.
Today’s Mileage: 297
Mileage: 297
Final Count was 6 days and 1430 Miles
Final Count – 1430 Miles
Awoke to low fog, packed camp and was ready to say my goodbyes and head out in search of breakfast. “Where you going? We are about to start breakfast.”
And thus I was shanghaied. A half hour and a breakfast burrito later, Brian and I took our leave. He has to be back to work tomorrow, but I have Monday off so we agreed to split up at my first stop for photos.
On the way out we narrowly missed five our the whitetail locals. We split the group which is never really a comforting feeling. We wound our way down 42S to 101 and split up at Port Orford where I stopped for a photo.
Quiet, Windy, Clear
The fog hugged the coast and it was quite a treat to be cool on the bike for a change. Sixty degrees beats 100 degrees on a bike every time. I snapped another pic at stop somewhere along the way that had a small break in the fog.
Small break in the fog
After four nights of camping with no shower and considering camping again in the cold and fog I began to consider a hotel for Sunday night. On longer trips in the past I am almost always in a hotel on the fourth night, but I’ve been wanting to stay at Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park for years and this seemed the best opportunity to take advantage of that. Finally I decided that if they didn’t have room for me, I’d hoof it on into Redding and find a hotel.
A quick stop in Rio Dell netted me a sandwich for dinner later and upon arriving, I was delighted to find not only did they have space and firewood, but they also had showers! I was check-in by another ADVRider who’s name now escapes me but we both knew AceRalph and some of the other riders I had just spent the weekend with. Small world.
By 5 PM I was clean, settled-in, and satiated. This really is a pleasant camping spot. Far enough away from the coast to not be so damp and foggy, but close enough not to be quite so hot.
Final Camp
Final Mileage today: 279
279 Miles