Motorcycling Illegal?

In the very near future, a fully autonomous (drives itself) car will be available for purchase from multiple companies. Recently, I listened to a lecture claiming that it could be possible that when these cars become the norm, it would be illegal to operate your own vehicle. I can see this greatly reducing the amount of injuries and deaths from auto accidents, but my question is what will happen to motorcycles?

Let's face it; our sport is not an inherently safe one. Hell, that's part of the appeal. However, I have a feeling that if we are not careful, we may not be able to ride in twenty years. I cannot imagine an autonomous motorcycle. It would kind of defeat the purpose in my opinion. A motorcycle ride would become more like a carnival ride with the element of fear removed.

I in no way want to damn the autonomous car technology. I am all for advances in science and engineering and I am excited for what we will see in the future. How some of this technology will affect the motorcycle industry is what I tend to think of. Hopefully, we'll still be riding legally for generations to come. However, if motorcycling does become illegal, I have a feeling there will many of us that will become outlaws so we can continue to ride.

"An outlaw can be defined as someone who lives outside the law, beyond the law and not necessarily against it." - Hunter S. Thompson



Strength Training for the Busy Biker



About four years ago, I was chubby (ok, I was fat!!) and weak as a kitten. My wife had just given birth to our first child, a girl! I decided that I needed to be in decent shape not only for myself, but also to be a good example for my daughter. I also wanted to be alive to see her grow up!

I had weight trained in high school for football, but I pretty much gave it up after graduating. My real passion was motorcycles, so I spent most of my focus on those. Well, I actually focused on motorcycles, girls, beer, and my buddies (the fun stuff).  Training just wasn’t important anymore. My body and health were beginning to show it.  I was 245 pounds and on medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol.

A great thing that I learned while training in high school, was the importance of the big lifts (bench, squat, and deadlift). I wanted a training program that was based on these lifts. After doing some research, I picked a 5x5 full body routine for three days a week as it seemed to be a very efficient program that would get fast results. I remembered how much I could push myself back in high school and I tried to emulate that. What I didn’t realize was that back then, I’d get between eight and ten hours of sleep. Now, with the baby, I was getting around four hours (she was a VERY light sleeper). I also was working a fifty plus hour a week job. My body wasn’t recovering from the workouts and I was picking up a lot of little injuries (back tweaks, shoulder and elbow strains). My wife also works full time as a teacher, so it was hard to justify being away from home for a couple of hours in the evening, leaving her to fend for herself with the baby. The result was missing workouts, a lot of them. I’d take off a month straight sometimes.

I was going through cycles of this for over a year - training hard for a month or two, then getting injured or burned out and stopping for a month. Needless to say, progress was minimal. Then we found out my wife was pregnant again! How was I going to focus on training with two babies to take care of along with my busy job (and my wife’s)? I wasn't making any progress while having just one kid!

Then, I watched a video from Jason Blaha detailing a two day full body routine for non-athletes. I can't say I used his exact program, but I was inspired by it. You mean I can make progress by only training two days a week? My coach in high school had driven the idea in my head that strength was only gained by training a minimum of three days per week. I thought anything less than that would be virtually useless. That video completely reshaped my view of weight training.

A little while later, I read Steve Shaw's Massive Iron and loved the method of pushing sets for maximum reps. I was used to looking at a chart to determine how many sets and reps to complete for each workout. I knew that there were certain times that I could have pushed sets for more than the prescribed reps, but the program didn’t call for it. This was yet another way that my predetermined notions on training had been changed.

I sat down and wrote out my plan of attack to progress in my training. Here are the principles: train squat, deadlift, some kind of press, and some kind of row two days per week. Warm up for each exercise and do one big working set. I used Steve Shaw's rep goal system on the working sets to progress. My goal was to hit eight reps; when I did, I added five pounds to the bar. More than anything else, this plan eliminated any excuses from getting in the gym and training.

Do you know what happened? I didn't miss workouts anymore! The nagging injuries went away! I began to steadily progress! I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass and say that I'm crazy strong now, but I went from a guy who couldn't make progress to achieving an intermediate strength level. I did this all while having a pretty busy life (and still focusing on motorcycles as my main hobby). No matter what, I can always find time to get in the gym for an hour (or less) for two days a week. Last year my son was born, so I was thrown back into the near sleepless nights, but I still committed to two workouts each week.

Now, I’m no longer on any medication and I’m a lean(ish) 205 pounds. Getting stronger was great, but this was the real accomplishment! Every now and then I consider going back to a program that will provide more efficient results. Then, I say to myself that this plan is working for me. Why change it?

 

Buying Gifts for the Biker in Your Life

 

Are you stumped on what to buy your favorite biker for the Holidays? Here're 5 tips to help you out.

1. Black clothes are best. This is obviously a generalization, but in my experience and especially with me personally, you can't go wrong with a black shirt or jacket. There have been a few bikers that I have met that wear bright, flashy colors, but they are the minority.

2. Find out what type and brand of motorcycle he/she rides and buy a shirt with that on it. For example, if a biker has a Honda Goldwing, chances are that this person won't want a Harley Davidson shirt. Again, there are exceptions here (I, for example, wear plenty of motocross shirts even though I ride street), but we're playing the odds here. Buy a Honda shirt for the guy who rides a Honda.

3. Stay away from buying motorcycle parts or accessories. This is true unless you know for sure which part this particular biker wants/needs, but then you wouldn't be reading a blog post giving advice on what to get a biker. There's just too much information to know before you order parts.

4. If you do buy a shirt, make sure the design is fairly basic. I know there are bikers out there who love the shirts with sparkles, skulls, stars, and flames, but you're way safer buying a shirt with a simple logo, or maybe one skull. Simple is best.

5. Check the biker apparel websites for their close out deals. All of the sites usually have a bunch of stuff that's marked way down from list price and chances are that you'll be able to find something that fits the above criteria. You'll save a lot of money and will still get a great gift.

Bonus tip: The tips above pretty much steered you toward clothing as your go-to gift. If that's not your bag, there are plenty of motorcycle books and DVDs to choose from (Amazon.com has many of both). One of my favorite gifts ever was a book that laid out photos of custom motorcycles as if it was an art book. Let's face it, many of the custom bikes are pieces of art.

"The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value." - Charles Dudley Warner

Me Gusta El Niño

The unthinkable happened...all of the snow melted! Apparently the unusually warm weather we're having is due to the El Niño weather pattern. I, for one, am stoked! If you read the last two blog posts, they consist of me basically pissing and moaning that winter started and now my attitude has definitely adjusted. However, even though the snow melted, I haven't ridden my bike yet because the local road crews sanded and salted the hell out of the roads over the past few weeks. If you read this post last spring, you'll know my feelings about riding in these conditions.

With a little luck and rain, the roads will be clear enough and I'll get a ride in before the snow starts to fly again. It sure is great to hear the local snowmobilers and hunters bitch about the weather instead of me. Even if I don't get out riding during this warm spell, it'll still be a couple weeks less of winter weather!

Weather like this is also why I advise against winterizing your bike too early (see post here). This is especially true if you store your motorcycle away from home for the winter. I'm still ready to get out on the roads as soon as they're mostly clear of sand and salt. Here's to December motorcycling!
"I am El Niño. Yo soy El Niño. For those of you who don't habla Español, El Niño is Spanish for: The Niño." - Chris Farley

Stress Relief...Moto Style

Now that my riding season is officially over, I've noticed my stress and aggravation levels skyrocketing. Every time I hear someone sarcastically say, "Did you ride your bike to work today?" I want to reply, "Hahaha! Shut up, you unoriginal fuck!" But, while this response might lower my stress level in the short term, it might have some pretty bad long term effects on my life, so I just smile and laugh.

I think that the pure concentration that is needed while riding is what relieves my stress. The need to be totally focused on that moment really causes all other problems to fade away. Let's face it, if you're not totally focused on your surroundings while riding, bad things can happen. I guess this is also true for a car, but the consequences are usually less severe, so I don't have the stress relieving focus that I do while riding.

I've tried to focus my negative energy into other areas. Loud music in the car and through my headphones tends to help. Also, I'm more focused on weight training at the moment. The final rep on a set of squats also forces me to focus on that moment. However, neither music nor weight training seem to be as good as motorcycling for an outlet, but they'll have to do for now. Hey, with any luck I'll be riding again in April!

"You do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle, any kind of motorcycle!" - Dan Aykroyd