Safe zone: needs maintenance

As we get used to things, we leave ourselves less and less room. Sound familiar? It happens in all things. In an unfamiliar house, you will usually keep away from walls and furniture. Then you get used to it, and get closer and closer. Then, one day, you'll stub your toe and maintain a safer distance again. Do you see where we are going with this? Stubbing your toe, is effectively a reset or reality check button. It tells you that you are taking something for granted and shouldn't be.

How does this work on the bike?

In my case, I hit a reset today when my mirror gently made contact with the mirror of the chap parked next to me. I will admit that I needn't have stopped to think about this – we were pretty much packed up like sardines in a traffic jam, but still, contact is not good. So today onwards, I will reset my safety zone to a much wider area.

Take it as a thumb rule. Anytime you find yourself squirming slightly because someone's moving, standing, whatever-ing too close to you, that's a sign you need to re-check what you consider as a safe zone around your motorcycle and what you are doing about it.

And don't worry about the idiots who will run smaller safe zones and want you to squeeze between the bus and sidewalk. Not going there is your privilege. All they can do about it is honk.

Rash Riders: The defensive gambit

How I deal with the rash riders is a depends scene... I've created a matrix above on the lines of the win-win win-lose argument theory. I think. Let me explain the four situations.

1. Thug-good mood
   In this case, I will usually suffer the slight and not react. If I get very upset or angry, a couple of deep breaths, or the distraction of sipping water from my Camelbak will usually take care of the elevated blood pressure. Thugs aren't worth messing with, no matter how much carbon-fibre, plastic, kevlar, titanium and fibreglass you have on.
   
   
2. Thug-bad mood
   In this case, I will usually suffer the slight and not react. If I get very upset or angry, a couple of deep breaths, or the distraction of sipping water from my Camelbak will usually take care of the elevated blood pressure. Thugs aren't worth messing with, no matter how much carbon-fibre, plastic, kevlar, titanium and fibreglass you have on. However, if the anger gets really bad, I will usually pull over and stop. Ideally at a chai place or an Aarey milk place and have a drink. That helps.
   
   
3. Idiot-good mood
   If I really feel up to it, I might re-pass him, coming close enough in a very low gear (high revs are very, very frightening) to slap his mirrors with mine or with my armour clad elbow. If I don't feel up to that, and I rarely do, a dark stare from behind a dark visor while parked intimately close at the next traffic light will usually do the trick. Most often though, I will usually suffer the slight and not react. If I get very upset or angry, a couple of deep breaths, or the distraction of sipping water from my Camelbak will usually take care of the elevated blood pressure. Idiots aren't worth messing with either.
   
   
4. Idiot-bad mood
   If I really feel up to it, I might re-pass him, coming close enough in a very low gear (high revs are very, very frightening) to slap his mirrors with mine or with my armour clad elbow. If I don't feel up to that, and I rarely do, a dark stare from behind a dark visor while parked intimately close at the next traffic light will usually do the trick. Most often though, I will usually suffer the slight and not react. If I get very upset or angry, a couple of deep breaths, or the distraction of sipping water from my Camelbak will usually take care of the elevated blood pressure. Idiots aren't worth messing with either. Or, I will simply let him suck some exhaust as I quickly warp into a twinkling red dot on the horizon.
   

At all times, swearing under your breath inside the helmet helps. Screaming inside a helmet only hurts your own ears...

No, I didn't just indulge in a heavy copy-pasting session to tickle the blog post count (rapidly heading to 500...). What I'm trying to get at is that rider education is not an option. Your confronting or acting like a vigilante (as the Americans like to call it) is not going to help. You end up guilty of the very same thing that pissed you off in the first place. Think, 'What an idiot! Who gave him a license?' and direct your rage at the nameless sod – far more creative, distracting and not a chance of a violent reaction at all. Also consider how you ended up in that situation and what you could do to correct it. If it happens very often (and please no angry comments about this), you might be riding too defensively for your own good. At least look aggressive. All it takes is a couple of rather unnecessary blips at the lights, hunch forward purposefully when you can and accelerate with authority when you do.

Shattered: great, sobering video at YouTube

While I'd love to, I cannot embed this vid. So click here and watch this.

And a thousand apologies to Old Guy's Place, the blog where I came across
the link to this great video. I did not credit that blog, and that's my bad.
Here's a link to the blog and here's one to the post

Motorcycle Helmets From Angels Racing

I just received this email that Angels Racing just started selling lids in addition to riding kit. Check out the two photos I received. The prices range between Rs 2500 and Rs 3750. The message says the helmets are manufactured 'according to' DOT standards which could mean anything really. They are certainly not BIS-certified. But the second one looks pretty neat, eh?

I also love the tool-less visor and the idea of having a pink option for the feminine ladies.

The one with the curlicue design costs Rs 2,750, with the Lady version tagged marginally lower at Rs 2,500. Sizes available as XS and S only. The other one, the one with the more speed stripe, macho look comes in M, L and XL for Rs 3750. You can also have that one in plain black for Rs 3500. These prices exclude octroi and shipping and that will be extra. AR is offering ten per cent off on the base price for purchases made before June 15, 2007. So hurry.

Address:
253, Samarthaprasad, Navi Peth, Pune
Bhuvan Chowdhary : +91-9881445704
Rohit Paradkar : +91-9822217198
angelsracingonline[at]gmail.com

Related Links

• Mailbag #2: Should you buy kit while learning?
• Neck Brace Systems: The next step in rider protection
  
• Cramster Riding Gear: Details
• User review: planetdsg.com
  
• Rider Error 3
  
• Indian Riding Gear
  
• Integrity disintegrates
• Riding jackets for India
  
• New Enough!
• What a mesh
• Crash investigation

Brake test: I pass!

Yesterday, while going home with The Wife, we were following a Qualis (actually I was lining him up for an overtake and was accelerating towards him from about ten or twelve bike lengths behind). But I was closing at fairly elevated speed knowing the slight curve ahead always created space and there weren't any peds in that area. Except that his brakes lit up and he began to slow. I realised that I wouldn't have the time to swerve around him, besides, I couldn't see why he was braking so hard. So I had no choice but to brake to a stop myself. I was most impressed at how controlled and how hard I made the stop. I think The Wife reacted splendidly, squeezing her knees together to stop sliding forward. She and I both lifted a couple of inches of our seats right at the end before our CBZ X-Treme came to a complete, no-squealing, no-squirrelling, picture perfect stop. I'm amazed. I'm also thrilled to note that while it was close (I think there was about an inch or two to spare once we and the Qualis stopped), I wasn't for a moment tense, panic-ed or any such. Cool like the Iceman, I was.

Then I spotted the two effing idiots who were merrily crossing the road hand in hand. Even as the Qualis and I stopped in a hurry to avoid running them over, they were completely oblivious. The Grim Reaper was hurtling towards them, blood-dripping scythe windmilling at the prospect of a fresh kill, and extra points for a two-for-one shot too... and these two were probably still discussing Kareena's hairdo, or whatever it is you discuss to deeply that it makes you forget the Reaper's claw perched on your shoulder...

Stars: The big and small of it

The Wife was woken up in the train the other day by a lady. She'd fallen asleep and not been awakened by the shuddering of the train reaching the final stop. The lady told her that the rather muscular, fetching look ticket checker outside asked her to do this good deed. The Wife being the curious sort, automatically went to thank this person, a familiar face, I'm told at the station in question. As it turns out, he offered to buy her a Maaza, which she obviously turned down, but this isn't what you were thinking. This chap had checked her ticket before and had obviously seen her pass through before. More to the point, his name turns out to be Fayyaz Hussain (I'm not sure how Mr Hussain chooses to spell his name). And he, get this, is an medal-winning, India-representing weight lifter. Really. So what's he doing pacing a Mumbai suburban platform checking tickets? He says, 'One's gotta feed oneself, no? This is the sort of job being a national level athlete will get you. But I'm not complaining, it could be worse.'

A few days later, thrumming past SNDT, The Wife and I were rather pleased to see PT Usha on a billboard, advertising something I can no longer recall... er... Nice as it was to see old Usha getting some publicity and hopefully some dosh from all this, at some level, this makes me sick. How come your ability to stand around all day waiting for a rock hard red ball to come your way, or your natural talent to hit it outside the ground or you god given gift of being able to smash the bails into half are the only ways for sportsmen in India to make a decent living then? I think that sucks. I think I'll stop watching cricket in protest. I won't watch anymore cricket until Mid Day can no longer print stories of sportsmen being ill-treated while twelve other gentlemen are paid five figure sums for losing to the under-underdogs.

Oh I forgot, I don't watch cricket any way...

How rearset handles the rain

Someone asked how I manage in the rains. Okay, while I will review them in detail later, my daily luggage consists of a Cramster Turtle, a Cramster Elemental and a One Polar bum bag (The red bum bag, centre top row;similar to the Cramster Hippo, but a wee bit larger). Inside (usually) will go the spare lid for The Wife (she travels back with me on most days), my rain suit (Prince brand, PVC, Rs 300, bought new every season), lunch, her rain jacket, my 60Gb iPod, my phone, USB cables for iPod and phone, FastTrack goggles in box (not used much since I got the dark visor).

In the morning, I will usually bungee The Wife's FieldSheer Mag 1 jacket, My Joe Rocket Ballistic waterproof gloves, a large plastic bag, my waterproof overshoe and multitool (wrapped in the One Polar and Elemental) to the rear seat, and the rest goes in the tank bag. In the evening, once The Wife dons her kit, the tank bag is all the luggage I have on the bike. Oh, and my trusty two-litre CamelBak HotShot goes under my riding jacket with a courier bag style sling arrangement. Phew! Yes, that much kit and stuff does make the daily trip a fairly planned sort of thing. Most cinema theaters would not permit me inside, so the bike stays home on those days. Also off-bike are days when the evening plan is to hit the pub. If I ever have to leave the bike at the office and pick up another one from home or any such, I will usually fill the average Mumbai cab to the roof with kit... I'm OCD, I already told you that...

rearset's spam blog

It seems bloggers spam robots could not handle the scorching pace at which I have been blogging... so my blog is temporarily blocked while someone at blogger verifies and unlocks it. Which is why you will not see new posts for a while and then read lots suddenly... I am saving them as drafts until I can publish again...

That was three days ago. I am now back online and able to post again. Thanks, all of you chaps at Blogger, thanks to the readers for waiting three whole days (and no 'Where are the posts, comments, either...). rearset is back.

Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: I liked it a lot

A sketch of Captain Caughtilya Sparrow, savvy?

I went and saw the film yesterday at the new PVR near Chandan Cinema. The theatre, I must say, is impressive, despite the foyer between the screens being kind of small. The seats are lovely (though they don't slide forward to recline) and the sound is good too.

Now to the movie. I think a few of you will be disappointed. While certainly not low on story or content, the third part seems more graphicky than the first two and also happens to be a whopping three hour long epic. And not all of it is piracy on the high seas. The third part has a few boring bits, like the Sparrow clones and some slow, but not uninteresting parts.

Overall though, the spirit of the first two film lives on in full colour, and Pirates fans shall not return unsatiated.

Of course, the highlight of the film, standing head, shoulders and all above all, is Johnny Depp as the delightfully clumsy, self-assured Captain Jack Sparrow. He's still one of the most colourful colours to have graced the screen and he easily outperforms the superb acting on the part of Captain Barbossa, Liz Swann and the slightly pansy, but brave Will Turner Jr. The other highlight for me, is the superb, utterly menacing, almost nightmarish Flying Dutchman. Awesome, awesome looking ship.

Watch out for two sequences that I really loved. The first is the time when Sparrow and Barbossa saunter over to the rotting carcass of the Kraken. And the other, and this one had my hair standing, is when the Black Pearl surfs down the dune and into the sea...

The graphic is my handiwork, but the Jack Sparrow sketch is originally from here