Page 66 – Mechanical Sympathy

You’re Supposed To Tell Me The Answer

“You’re supposed to tell me the answer, you’re the teacher, it’s your job!”

Isn’t that a sad expectation from a senior high school student? After twelve years in education this is what they think the process is about. I wonder how many teachers it took to embed this thinking in these students.

My considered response to this was, “it’s not my job to give you the answer. If I give you an answer it isn’t yours. It’s my job to ask you the right questions and give you the tools you need to answer them yourself.” This isn’t a handing off of the responsibilities of teaching, and it isn’t easier than giving students answers by talking at them each period; this isn’t a case of a teacher becoming a facilitator.

Part of setting up the right question is carefully considering the student’s knowledge and where it can go next. The right question is a tricky proposition. Your classroom relationship with students has to contain a lot of two way communication and observation if you’re going to get a handle on where they are in their learning, you’re never doing that when you’re talking at students giving them all the answers. You can’t frame questions that are in a student’s zone of proximal development without a lot of feedback and observation. Teachers who talk at students and hand out answers and information like candy have little idea of where student understanding begins or ends.

The other side of this equation is providing tools for learning. This is a bit more complicated in an engineering class as I have to bring in a lot of equipment for student use. That equipment needs to be open and accessible so that students are the ones setting it up and making it functional. I was amazed this year when the vast majority of my senior computer engineering students had never partitioned a hard drive and installed an operating system. That kind of nuts and bolts work when building a functional learning environment is vital if students are going to begin to take responsibility for their learning.

Responsibility is at the bottom of this. Learning isn’t something that you do to someone, though many of our students believe this to be the case. Learning never happens unless the student doing the learning is active in the process, no one ever learned something from being told.

We’re back at it again tomorrow, and I’m still working to convince my senior engineers that they are the ones creating their learning, not me, I do a lot to curation though.

Finding My Way Back From The Dead (red)

What I miss most about STAY AT HOME pandemics: Getting lost on unfamiliar roads…

I’m lost in the Grey Highlands on my way to Coffin Ridge Winery for a COVID-shutdown social-distancing/prohibition vibe pickup of some of their Back From The Dead Red.

I lost my internal compass on the unfamiliar, winding roads of Walter’s Falls (though it could have been the meteorite buried under the town) and ended up in Bognor! It doesn’t just sound like it’s out of Lord of the Rings, it looks it too. I guessed west when I should have turned east and found myself in the Bognor Marsh battling fetid, shambling swamp creatures like a later day knight aboard my trusty Tiger.

I eventually fought my way out to the shores of Georgian Bay, looking north across the never ending grey water to the end of the world (or its equivalent in French River). Coffin Ridge Winery, perched on the north facing edge of the Niagara Escarpment, was pandemic deserted but for a lone fellow looking over the vines in the bitter, overcast April wind blowing in off the bay.

Ironically, adventure is hard to come by in a stay-home pandemic shut down, but this gave me a much needed shot of it.

Kiri at Coffin Ridge was a delight to communicate with on email and had our order sitting on the red chair ready to go (I was only 20 minutes late, battling Bognorian Shambling Mounds not withstanding).

If you’re riding in Southern Ontario and looking for a bit of adventure in your antiseptic COVID bubble, a ride into the Grey Highlands might just bring you back from the dead (red). You can reach Kiri here.

A deserted Coffin Ridge Winery, just before the COVID zombie attack, but I can’t talk about that, the government is involved.

Thornbury Harbour closed – no standing on the rocks communing with Georgian Bay for me this time. The GB Kraken must be getting lonely, and hungry…

The bizarrely Victorian and completely deserted hydro generation building in Beaver Valley, where I had a lonely stretch before being beset by a pack of OHM-wolves infected by the now feral electricity leaking out of the abandoned generator and into the surrounding wilderness. Jerry Bruckheimer couldn’t have done this spectacular battle justice, that beautiful brick building is now a smouldering ruin. The Tiger and I barely escaped with our lives!

From the #covid19 closed Thornbury Harbour inland through Beaver Valley, with a brief comfort stop at the hydro generator before heading south west through Flesherton – I eventually had to turn the camera off due to rain.
#Theta360 on a flexible tripod attached to the wing mirror of my Triumph Tiger 955i. One timed photo every five seconds. #360Photos modified in Adobe #Photoshop into #LittlePlanet format and then formatted in Premiere Pro into a stop motion video. AIVA AI generated background music.

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Demonizing Public Employment

An article by a conservative think tank, disseminated by a conservative media outlet:

http://m.torontosun.com/News/1304708716881

“Teachers have also seen very decent raises — 12.55% between 2008 and 2012 (10.4% for public elementary teachers) — while the rest of us have lost jobs or are just treading water.“

Facts by the government:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/cpi-ipc/cpi-ipc-eng.htm

“The largest increase occurred in the transportation component, where prices rose 6.6% in the 12 months to March.”

Here’s where the opinion starts:

So, according to StatsCan, we are in an inflationary spiral (a boom/bust cycle predicted by Jeff Rubin in Why Your World is About to Get a lot Smaller caused by increasing limitations on oil production and economies designed to work on nothing else).

If we’re averaging 2-3+% inflation every year since 2008, that ENORMOUS 12.55% teacher salary increase actually looks more like (2008 2%, 2009 2%, 2010 3%, 2011 3% 2012 3% = 13%) a net loss in standard of living. But we shouldn’t even try to keep up with the standard of living, should we?

Why is the economy in such a mess? Because the free market has swallowed itself with its own greed. Public employees didn’t crash the economy, private business did.

I first heard this a couple of years ago in the middle of the financial melt down, when an investment banker had the nerve (after his industry made a mockery of capitalism) to suggest that the local waste removal workers should take pay cuts to help pay for something they had nothing to do with. The people who orchestrated this market collapse have somehow convinced the dull, cow-eyed public that they should enjoy a less restricted marketplace and continue to serve themselves bail outs with taxpayers’ money.

In an unrestricted marketplace, private employees lose their jobs, take pay cuts and can do nothing. With no oversight they are indentured servants to the wealthy. They are then incited to riot against the public sector employees who work for the social collective (government), performing duties vital to the public good. In the process, there is some kind of odd flip that happens where the private wage earners actually feel that what they do is more inherently valuable (putting money in rich people’s pockets), than what a public employee does (earning a living while serving the public good).

I’m choking on this nonsense. Evidently business and the economy are vital to us, but we shouldn’t oversee and ensure its smooth operation. We should eviscerate government services and oversight and put all that money back into the pockets of a self serving marketplace that would destroy itself for short term gain that benefits a tiny percentage of people. They then seem to Jedi mind trick a weak willed public that they employ as minimally as possible to accept the lie that private sector salaries are somehow more honestly earned than public sector ones.

Don’t pay taxes and slash government oversight now so you can pay enormous bailouts later. It’s not a great deal you idiots, and in the meantime you’re fired and hired for less over and over again. Left to its own devices, an unrestricted marketplace would place the lowest possible value on human work as it can. There are more and more people in the world, where do you think that puts your value as a worker?

Democracy isn’t going to work when special interest groups make claims regardless of the truth, and are allowed to manipulate media to indoctrinate a dim, accepting public.

Don’t feel bad about working for the public good, it’s one hell of a lot better than working as disposable labour to make the rich a bit richer.

And if you work for a private company? It’s not a bad thing unless you give them the reigns, they’ll sell you for a short term gain in a second (if it hasn’t happened already to you, it will). Only intelligent public oversight will ensure a reasonable, sustainable, fair private sector. Left to itself private business would cannibalize society for short term gain.

Ninja Blues

This has been many weeks in the making. I began de-blacking the ’07 Kawasaki Ninja 650r (my first bike) in May. Last weekend I took another big run at it. This weekend I finally got it to the point where I can live with it. I think I’ll do the rest once the riding season is over in Canada, but in the meantime, I’ve got a Ninja that looks a lot better than it did.

I’ve blued the front end and the fairings down to the air intake. I’ll eventually do the entire bike, but those fairing are big and it takes a long time to strip the flat black off them (I’m using graffiti remover in small areas at a time).

At the moment the tank, front end and rear end are completely covered, but the fairings are only half blue. I’ve faded the metallic blue into the existing flat black and it doesn’t look half bad.

The more interesting bit is the frame. I wanted a burnt orange, but every orange on the shelf was a pylon orange. I was all set to mix a yellow and dark red to a burnt orange, but the mixing didn’t go well, it ended up looking an angry pink. It eventually settled into a darker orange, but I still wasn’t happy with it, it looked muddy..

I had greater success getting the orange I wanted by doing a base coat of pylon orange spray with a cover of candy apple red metallic. The result is the sparkling burnt orange I was looking for. The plastic drop sheets and cardboard I was using to shield the rest of the bike looked like they’d come out of a volcano when I was done. I’m not entirely thrilled with the finish, but now that I have some sense of how to mix the colours (orange based, mix in light layers of red while the orange is still wet), I’m ready to experiment more.

Orange base, light candy apple
red metallic over top
while still wet

I think I’ll eventually make the entire frame that burnt metallic orange. It’s also rust paint, so it’ll seal up the frame nicely.

I got a different gloss this time, thinking they are all pretty much the same,
they aren’t.

You want the one on the
right; AWESOME clear coat

The ultra-cover 2x (the blue and white can), gives you what looks like a factory clear coat finish. The lacquer makes a foggy mess. I’ll only use the Ultra Cover in
future applications.

The angry young man’s flat black Ninja:

A truer, bluer Ninja:

One heck of a lot more visible, and it sparkles in the sun.

When I get the fairings finally done I’ll giver her a real photo shoot.

I’m now thinking about Kanji-ing up the front end… Ninja Kingfisher…

Public Teacher, Public Job

Originally published November, 2012 in Dusty World

I’ve been teaching now for eight years so this is my first time experiencing work action. I’ve had union jobs before, union jobs that went to the wall with job action, but the teacher experience is very different. When I was a warehouse worker for National Grocers we were fighting for our benefits and pay, but no one in the general public ever thought that they knew what my job was or demanded that I stay after my shift to volunteer to do extra work for no pay; I guess the private sector has it easy.

The public nature of this teacher job action has produced a startling realization – there is a portion of the population that hates teachers. Around that small kernel of teacher-haters is a larger layer of people in the general public who think that teachers are lazy, overpaid and undeserving of even basic Charter rights. I have noted that many of these people tend to be under-educated and have a lasting hatred of what happened to them in school.

Listening to someone who couldn’t hack high school, let alone university (twice, once for undergrad, and again for teacher’s college) crying about how little teachers do is like listening to the guy who thinks he can play hockey but can barely skate going on about how he could have gone pro. That doesn’t stop ignorant, lazy people from making noise though.

Then there is the management thing. If you’ve ever tried to work out a deal with private business, they are cheap and relentless, but they are consistent. If you can understand what their parameters are in negotiating, you can come to an agreement. Also, if you do your job very efficiently and make money for them it makes more room for you in negotiation. At no point in private bargaining situations did I see a deal stopped for political reasons. You also have the benefit of working for bosses who are experts in the business (because they made it). I never had to explain to National Grocers management what our job was because everyone at the table knew the business.

Ontario: top 3 in the world, midpack in cost –
best bang for the buck in education in the world!
If you don’t believe me, believe the freaking UN!

If you’re a teacher in Ontario these days your boss has no background whatsoever in what you do, and even though you produce some of the best results in your field in the world it isn’t acknowledged at all; you still get to hear an unrelenting carcophany in media and the public about how easy your job is and how lazy you are. Even your boss, a lawyer who hasn’t taught a day in her life, likes to point out that you just took the whole summer off (which you hadn’t).

Ontario’s education system is truly world class, to the point where it is copied around the world. If you go to an international school there is a very good chance that it will be running the Ontario K to 12 curriculum. Private schools copy our public school system, it’s that awesome. If we were building cars, they would be the best in the world, they’d be selling like hotcakes, no one would think to question what we were doing.

So here we are, dealing with a Minister of Education who has never actually worked in Education – ever, a government that is more interested in poll numbers than in resolving serious issues and getting everyone back to work, and it’s all happening while Ontario Education is the envy of the world. Trying to negotiate in this environment makes very little sense. It makes me long for the private sector where things made sense.

We threw money at GM so they could stop making crappy cars and become solvent. We threw money at banks that had purchased bad loans. If private businesses make bad choices, we cripple ourselves financially to support them.

However, if we create excellence we bitterly attack it, demean it and then use it for shabby political ends. It’s not hard to see why Ontario is going down the toilet. We don’t even recognize and protect excellence any more. And when we’ve let ignorant (dare I say stupid?) loud mouths vent their frustrations at their own failures by blaming teachers for their own short comings while at school, we’re left with a demoralized education system… hardly the kind of place that can compete successfully on the global stage.

Other Notes:
The poor right winger: what you get when laziness and greed replace industry and reward
All Hands on Deck: when politics dictate economics
Death of Vision: where our leadership went
Educational Maelstroms: what it’s like to hear the negativity
Surfed PISA lately?: How fantastic our Ed system is!

Passing Etiquette

I came upon a group of riders after exiting the ferry and getting most of the way across Manitoulin; first off the ferry gives you wide open roads!

I’d been moving along at a nice clip alone but had to slow down to follow them. Had they been a car or truck I’d have used my power to weight ratio to good advantage and made a quick, safe pass. This clump of bikers were much longer than your typical truck, so passing them would be tricky. In addition to the physics there was suddenly a lot of motorcycle psychology to consider. Would these riders take offence at being passed? I’m not safely ensconced in a box if they got aggressive.

In wondering about this I sparked a rather heated debate on COG. The sensible (and rather Zen) solution seems to be to find a nice place to have a stop, a stretch and a drink, then get back on the road when they’re well down it. In this case that would have meant a long, patient wait while the entire guts of the ferry that had been trundling along behind you ruminate down the road at their cow-like pace. Strangely enough, the only thing that seems to be able to clip the wings of a motorcycle are a bunch of motorcycles in front of it.

I had a moment when I first started riding where I suddenly realized I’m on a machine that has Lamborghini like power to weight ratio. Since then I’ve made a point of exploring what this means. When you ride you’re missing the steel cage, but what you lack in mass you make up for in agility and power, and learning to harness that power is vital to your well being. Following that logic I prefer to have things coming at me and don’t like being passed or boxed in, but for twenty frustrating minutes that’s exactly where I was as a line of campers and SUVs formed up behind me.

What eclecticism in motorcycling looks like.

The general feeling on COG was to either pull over or take your chances passing a bunch of leather clad bikers not knowing if these are wannabes or one percenters. The later are much more likely to do something about it if they perceive disrespect. In any case, it’s not like you’re in a big box so antagonizing them seems like a potentially dangerous course of action from both a physics and a psychology point of view.

I was out on a ride with a group the other week for the first time, but these guys didn’t hang about and were making a point of using side roads rather than main through fairs so we weren’t holding anyone up, and there were only half a dozen of us. We were also riding a wide variety of machines designed to exploit the natural agility of the motorbike from GSX-Rs to forty year old Kawasakis in genres from adventure to standard to sport and sport touring. I’d also say we were pretty approachable based on the number of people who approached us. Eclectic would be a good way to describe us, we certainly weren’t wearing anything approaching a uniform.

On COG someone suggested that when they ride in a group they intentionally get out of the way if they feel they are holding up traffic because everyone has the right to enjoy the road how they want to, but not everyone feels that way:

A clip from Henry Cole’s World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides: Riding the American Deserts

I’d say physics and some rather negative stereotypes (along with a lot of bikers adopting those stereotypes) held up that traffic. I don’t think respect had anything to do with it.

So there you have it: the best advice when you come upon a large group of floorboard grinders is to pull over and take a break, it’s not worth the hassle of trying to make a pass, even though you’re on the machine best able to do it.

Google motorcycle films and this is what you get, the odd intelligent attempt amidst the bikespoitation flicks. And we wonder why the general public still has doubts about motorcycling…

Café racer

I’ve been getting a handle on café racer culture recently. A good place to start is the documentary below available on youtube:

A motorcycle phenomenon that combines DIY backyard mechanics, customization, restoration, links to British post war culture and a focus on pure two wheeling? I’m in! When you also factor in the old RAF inspired bike gear café racing only gets better.

What first got me thinking about it was It’s Better In The Wind, a beautifully shot and music themed short art piece about friends on their classic café racers. As a mood piece it captured a lot of the gritty romanticism in motorcycling.

Last summer I was reading Shopclass As Soulcraft, and in it Matt Crawford described motorcycling as ‘a beautiful war’, which captured the risk and reward beautifully. That book is mind expanding stuff written by a guy who walked away from academia and the magical thinking of the thought economy to open his own independent bike repair shop. It’s a must read, change your life kind of book that will make you want to get your hands busy again; just the sort of thing that racer building encourages.

I’ve tried my hand at restoring old cars or just keeping them on the road, but that tended to be a make it work to get to work kind of situation, lots of stress in that. This is a hands on project that may very well lapse into a piece of rolling sculpture. Mechanics, electronics and sculpture? I’m in love with the idea!

So, I’m on the lookout for an old bike that needs to come in out of the cold for the winter, one that’s looking for a new lease on life. It can be rusty and rough, the more it needs changing the more I’ll want to change. The end result will only enhance the feeling of oneness I’ve already felt with the Ninja.

There are many café racer links that will catch you up online:
http://rustyknuckles.blogspot.ca/2010/03/cafe-racer-magazine.html
http://www.caferacermag.com/
http://www.caferacertv.com/
http://silodrome.com/triumph-cafe-racers/

1964: The ‘leather boys’ later generation rockers on modded cafe racers

Rocker style, 1950s England

The leather jackets, boots and gloves, the helmets and googles, RAF uniforms
were an obvious inspiration for the cafe racer look

Virtual Possibilities

I was asked the other day what virtual reality could do beyond the obvious entertainment it provides. A bit of online research shows VR moving in a number of directions beneficial to education.

Below is a list that covers everything from currently available software to academic research and emerging uses. It isn’t even remotely complete.

***

VR for physio therapy

Phantom Limb Pain Recovery
http://ift.tt/2gZdE69

When I worked in Japan I did a lot of work with a local doctor who was researching therapeutic muscle stimulation in patients recovering from paralysis. A lot of that physiotherapy was very hard work for both the patients and the people working with them. VR would offer a way to produce more natural, targeted and full range interaction without the tedium and limitation of repetitive exercise.

The CBC piece above is talking about how amputees with phantom limb syndrome use VR to reconnect the neural pathways that used to operate the missing part. Body confusion over the missing part appears to be the cause of phantom pains in missing limbs. The immersive nature of VR allows patients to exercise those neurons and reduce instances of false pain responses.

Physical Therapy VR Research
http://ift.tt/2i3rUbH
If you’ve ever immersed yourself in VR you quickly become aware of how elsewhere you feel. I’ve felt vertigo while standing on a cliff in Google Earth. As a tool for balance and movement it has obvious immediate applications.

A Home-made VR Motion Sensor and Data Collection Tool

Currently, my senior computer engineering students are designing an Arduino based virtual reality movement sensor that will collect data on a user’s movements while immersed. They are programming a Java based back end in computer science to collect the data streaming from the ultrasonic sensor in order to create data-sets of movement while immersed. This data could be used to measure the depth of immersion the user is experiencing. More immersed people tend to physically interact more with the virtual environment – that physical interaction can be used to collect data.

Analysis of the data means they might be able to produce accurate information on how well a user is playing a game, how effectively an athlete is following a VR training regimen or perhaps if a patient recovering from an injury is making the right motions in physio. It should be able to isolate and describe the physical limitations of a user in VR. Unlike previous digital experiences through the window of a monitor, VR offers immediate physical feedback that we’re going to record.

Digital interaction is going to be much less sedentary in the future.

VR and Autism

Floreo Autism Therapy

http://ift.tt/2i3pdqV
Founded by two dads of kids with autism, Floreo explores VR as a therapy. I like their approach: autism isn’t seen as a defect but a difference that we can support with therapies designed to allow these different thinking kids to survive and thrive with everyone else.

Austism Speaks on Virtual Reality
http://ift.tt/2i3oKoj

Autism Speaks is a science focused advocacy group that is encouraging a seed change in how society views the spectrum of atypical autism related thinking.

In this article they are funding research into a VR based social cognition training in order for autistic people to function more effectively with others. The complexities of autism means they need to proceed carefully with data collection. VR’s unique sense of immersion means they can simulate social situations (and the anxiety that arises from them) more accurately and produce responses that reflect it. The data collected from this specifically targeted research is vital to creating tools to help people with autism practice social skills more effectively.

Having kids who are already comfortable with VR means that when this therapy is ready they won’t have to get familiar with the technology before they benefit from the therapeutic value of the program.

Sensitivity Training for Neurotypicals
http://ift.tt/1PM1nPM
We’re currently using a 360 camera to create a VR based tour of our school. In it students get to move around the building looking where they want in order to begin to get a sense of where everything is. Editing 4k 360° video is a challenge – I have to use the best VR PC we have to do it (when it isn’t running VR), but we’ll get there.

In the meantime, I came across this immersive video made by the UK’s National Autistic Society. Designed in collaboration with autistic people, it gives you some idea of how overwhelming the world can be when an autistic child has a panic attack. It’s overwhelming watching it on the screen. Watching it in VR I was in tears…

If you’re not in VR and haven’t done 360° video before, you can move the point of view around with your mouse as you watch. As a way of trying to explain to others how it feels to have a panic attack when you’re autistic, it’s a powerful tool.

Using VR to Teach Autistic Teens How to Drive
http://ift.tt/2i3toTC
Another ready-now application for VR is in vehicle operation. High performance operators such as racers use it to learn tracks. Heavy equipment operators are using it to train people on expensive industrial machines before they ever get into the cab for the first time. Pilots have to log flight time in a simulator as part of becoming qualified on a new plane. As a way to get people familiar with a complex machine it’s cheap and effective.

In this case VR is being used to ease the anxiety of learning to drive in teens with autism. Every high school in our board has driving instruction starting in their parking lots. They should all be adopting this first step in order to ease anxiety before putting any kid behind the wheel for the first time.

General education links

The Virtual Reality Society
http://ift.tt/2gZexMj
Based out of the UK, this group offers a great resource site to get your feet wet in VR. They are also very interested in how VR can be used in teaching and learning and a lot of their links will take you emerging uses of this technology.

That Tim King Guy
http://ift.tt/2i3piLf

There’s this guy in Canada who jumped into this early and has his students building VR kits for other schools. He’s out and about often demonstrating the technology in his school, his board and his province to anyone who will listen. He and his students have put hundreds of people through their first experience with VR.

His interest is in the engineering that creates the immersive VR experience. It takes astonishing amounts of computing power to produce 3d immersive simulations. Astonishing amounts of computing power are what got his attention in the first place.

Education isn’t usually responsive to emerging technologies but this guy’s MO is to explore new technologies, and this one is going take immersive simulation (something he’s always been interested in) to unforeseen levels.

VR and Mathematics
http://ift.tt/2i3tkDe
Experiential algebra in VR. The benefits of visualizing mathematics in 3d are obvious. This is one of many academic papers on the subject.

http://ift.tt/29awe9z
Geometry is another obvious use for 3d data visualization. This is another academic paper on using VR in teaching geometry.

VR and Chemistry
https://devpos http://ift.tt/2gZ7seo
Chemistry is one of those hands on teaching environments that have a lot of safety oversight. Using VR to familiarize students with the safety needs of the lab could drastically reduce damage costs. The safety training applications school-wide in technology and science are obvious.

These guys used Unity just like my software engineering course does – this is something that capable high school students could render. Perhaps we will next semester.

http://ift.tt/2i3rUsp
Drop into a chemistry lab and explore.

http://ift.tt/2gZ7cMG
Data visualization is a huge part of VR. Chemistry researchers are already envisioning how it could be used to better understand advanced chemical interactions.

http://ift.tt/2i3tmuQ
An academic paper on how immersive simulation can advance the learning of chemistry.

The Body VR

http://thebodyvr.com/

A trip through the body. You can observe infections happening at a microscopic level. It has my twelve year old talking about viral nucleocapsids – I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Gender and Virtual Reality

http://ift.tt/2gZdFHf

There has been a lot of talk about gender in schools this year. The immersive nature of VR means empathy can go from difficult to access to something approaching a lived experience. Having a red neck experience the looks of distrust aimed at a black man or a misogynist spend an hour as a woman would go a long way toward addressing inequity. It’s hard to hate or belittle someone when you’ve spent some time in their shoes.

***

Does VR have any value beyond entertainment? It’s an explosive new area of technological growth and we’ve barely begun to explore what it can do. Even so, there are already hundreds of immediately useful educationally focused VR apps, and more come on line every day.

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Motorcycle Insurance

I’ve been frustrated with motorcycle insurance and the blanket approach it takes to covering a bike, even one you’re not riding. When I’m paying the same for a new car as I am for a seven year old bike that I use for only a few thousand kilometres a year, usually in very good road conditions, it strikes me as unfair. The car does about five times as many kilometres and can do much more damage in a crash. It also has to drive through snow storms and the other perils of winter driving while my bike sits in the garage undergoing a full maintenance overhaul.

Maintained to within an inch of its life and spending
the most dangerous driving time of the year in a garage.

Speaking of maintenance, the bike sees a heck of a lot more of it that the car does, especially in the winter. The bike is checked before each ride and sees weekly maintenance and checks on a larger scale. The bike is a cherished tool of self expression, the car is an appliance.

When I called up the insurance company I’ve been with for over twenty years and asked for a quote they said they wouldn’t even consider me, but told me to come back in a few years. Nice, eh?

I finally got in touch with RidersPlus, who specialize in bikes. It wasn’t cheap, but they got me sorted out quickly. My first bike isn’t a big cc monster, I tried to be

One of these things is not like
the other, though both are the
same in the eyes of insurance

sensible with my first ride and only considered mid-displacement machines. Having insured a lot of cars, I knew what could happen between a Mustang and a Crown Vic, yet in motorcycle terms these two vehicles would be considered equal simply because they have the same displacement.

I was on the verge of getting a KLR (a big, single cylinder on/off road bike) when I came across the Ninja. It has almost identical displacement though almost nothing else in common with the KLR. One is a sport bike for the road, the other is an all terrain bike that rides on the road when needed. The Ninja is fast and agile, the KLR sturdy and stable. With such different intentions and abilities, I expected the Ninja to be a much more expensive option, but was shocked to be quoted the same price.

What is at the bottom of my insurance despair is that a second bike costs me pretty much the same as the first. At the Toronto Motorcycle Show last weekend I stopped by RidersPlus again and had a chat. The guy there confirmed that your insurance does in fact drop quite significantly over the first few years of riding and by my forth or fifth year I’d be able to insure two bikes for basically what I’m paying for one now.

Honda CB500X, a nice fit, multi-purpose
machine that is easy on insurance

In the short term if I want to minimize insurance costs while I’m learning to ride, a low displacement bike is the key. I sat on the Honda CB500X at the show. A nice, tall bike that could handle a wider range of duties than the road focused Ninja. I’d be giving up a bit of power, but even a 500cc bike still has a much better power to weight ratio than most cars.

Another option is to dig up an older enduro bike, like the Suzuki DRZ-400. This would be a go-anywhere bike that I’d get used and not worry about tipping over occasionally. Being an even lower cc bike, it would be even cheaper on insurance.

Notes

Some interesting Stats-Canada vehicle collision statistics – very easy to look through. It shows a downward trend in accidents, injuries and deaths over the past twenty years. Glad to see my insurance is coming down with it.

Forbes Article: The most dangerous time to drive – A Saturday in August in an urban environment. It turns out the most dangerous places to drive are where there are a lot of other people – places most bikers avoid like the plague.

Forks of the Credit

What does the double hair pin at Forks of the Credit look like on a sunny Sunday in May?

… and I missed the first ten that went by right to left!

It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon on May 25th and I’ve got an afternoon on the Ninja. Rather than do a pointless local loop I aim at The Forks and head east. It’s a nice ride on relatively interesting roads across Wellington County, Hillsburgh and Erin to Belfountain. When I get there I realize that I’ve just walked into a mecca of bike culture in Southern Ontario.

The parking lot of the local ice cream and coffee shop is covered in motorcycles of all description, from Harleys to Ducatis and everything in between. I hang a left and head onto seven of the best kilometres in Ontario. On the ride down I’ve timed it perfectly, no one is in front of me and I lean the bike more than I ever have before. Suddenly timely gear changes are vital to balancing the bike and the tires get some wear on the sides.

I’ve been coming up to The Forks since I got my driver’s license in the 1980s, but this is the first time I’ve done it on two wheels (except for once in an Escort GT, but that wasn’t intentional). On my way back I get stuck behind a guy in a Prius (a Prius? Really?) and decide to pull over at the hairpin to get some media. An OPP cruiser slows as he sees me on the side of the road but I give him a wave and when he realizes I’m taking pictures and not hurt he gives me a wave back and continues on his way.

Forks of the Credit, from
Belfountain to Highway 10

That train of bikes in the opening video was actually ten bikes longer, I’d already put the phone away when they started and didn’t get it out and recording until halfway through the two wheeled parade.

Watching the cars lumber around the hairpin is a stark contrast to the bikes as they weave through the 180° hairpin. At one point I thought one of the cars was going to have to back up to make it.

Back in Belfountain (where I got married sixteen years ago), I have a cup’o’tea and wander around looking at the bikes. There is a constant stream of people coming and going, all ages, genders and interests. The leather clad Harley guys are there, adventure types in their Aerostich, the sport bike crowd in their leathers, the touring riders on their Goldwings with pillions in tow, and even some cafe racers in their vintage gear. It’s a cross section of Ontario motorbiking culture.

That’s me on the right.

After my wander I do The Forks once more, this time I’m clear both ways. I pass back through Belfountain and a whole new flock of bikes have flown in. My blood is pumping now and I get home fifteen minutes faster than I got here.

Pictures from The Forks of the Credit on May 25th, 2014.