Unscripted Moments

Steve Hoffarth has a good editorial piece in the August/September 2014 edition of Inside Motorcycles that got me thinking about scripted experience.  Steve was lamenting his inability to go racing this year.  He compared going on rides at a theme park and found them lacking.  A scripted experience like being a passive rider on a roller coaster has nothing on the complex, non-linear and entirely participatory experience of racing.

I was sitting in the garage last night working on the Concours when my wife stuck her head in the door and asked how I was doing.  “I’m in my happy place,” I replied.

What made it happy was that I was fixing a problem that had no instruction manual.  Success wasn’t guaranteed and I had to approach it from several different angles before I could finally come up with a solution.  Real satisfaction followed a resolution to a situation that could easily have ended in failure.  It was an entirely unscripted situation, the kind I long for after your typically scripted day in the life of a 21st Century human.

So much of our lives are scripted nowadays, from phones telling us when to be where to GPS units telling us how to get there.  Brakes script themselves for us because we can’t be bothered to learn how to use them effectively, traction control leaps in at a moment’s notice to script your acceleration, vehicles will park themselves, warn you when something is behind you because you couldn’t be bothered to turn your head, and even avoid obstacles you couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to.  I used to enjoy driving, now, at its best, it feels more like sitting on a roller coaster.

All this scripting is a result of software.  It may sound funny coming from a computer technology teacher, but that software kills it for me.  If I wanted to watch machines race I wouldn’t put people in the cars at all, it’s safer that way.  It’s been a long time since a driver could take a car by the scruff of its neck and drag it around a circuit.  We do all this in the name of safety, but ultimately I think it’s lowest common denominator thinking; software engineers design life for the least capable people, they can sell more of it that way.

There are places in mechanics where it just makes sense to incorporate computer control, especially when it amplifies an operator’s nuanced control of a vehicle rather than overwriting it.  Thank goodness for fuel injection.  It allows us to create responsive, linear fuelling and use less of a diminishing resource, it’s all good, as are disc brakes and other technological advances that improve rider feel.  I’m certainly not anti-technology, I make my living teaching it, but I am anti-technology when it takes over human inputs instead of improving them.  That kind of thinking breeds sheeple.

Traction control (many settings!), antilock brakes (many
settings!), hill start control and more electronics than a
moon shot – perhaps bikes aren’t the last bastion after all.

Unscripted moments are increasingly hard to come by.  Perhaps that freedom we feel on a motorcycle is one of the last bastions of unscripted moments when a software engineer isn’t deciding how you’ll spend your time, or worse, spending it for you.

Except they increasingly are.  After I started riding last year I was astonished that this is legal.  In a granny state-world where safety is all that matters, where SUVs are considered better because they’re bigger and collision avoidance systems are desirable because you shouldn’t have to pay attention while operating a vehicle, motorcycles too are succumbing to our vapid, software scripted lives.

Perfect Moments

Riding a motorcycle feels special every time I do it, but I had a couple of perfect zen moments on Wednesday that approached nirvana.  After dropping off my son at day care I was trundling down an empty country road in a golden, early morning fog on my way to work.  


You feel more connected to the world around you on a motorcycle because you’re vulnerable and exposed to it, and in that moment the beauty of creation came flooding in.  Unimpeded by windshields or closed off in a box, the sights, smells and sounds of the world filled me with happiness.  The machine and I were a single thing, gliding through the golden morning mist.

I got to work with a smile on my face that wouldn’t go away.

Later the same day I was riding home from a meeting after dark.  The half moon was so bright it lit the few scudding clouds in the sky, the rest was a dome of stars.  

Riding through the dark countryside I would drop down into pools of ground fog, my head just above the silver mist.

If you’re on two wheels you feel like you’re flying most of the time, but as I tore through that ground fog I felt like I was was truly learning to fly.

From the golden fog of sunrise to the moonlit night, it was a beautiful day to be out in the world, and my motorbike delivered it to me as only two wheels can.

Night Ninja
beneath a darkened sky
skimming through the dark
under a dome of stars

Track Day Dreams Part 2

For a first trackday using an intermediary like Pro 6 Cycle gives you the support you’d need to ensure your bike is prepped well (they have tires, mechanics and other bits and pieces on hand).  Pro 6 runs track days at Calabogie Motorsports Park in Eastern Ontario.  It happens to be on the other side of some of the best riding roads in Ontario, and on the way to my buddy’s house in Osgoode.

A couple of hours at speed on the highway and I’m up past
Gravenhurst and turning toward the Haliburton Highlands!

For me the trip is a Southern Ontario grind out and up the 400 before turning east to face some of the nicest roads in Ontario.  Giving three hours for the highway part, I’d aim to meet up with Jason somewhere in the highlands and then we could ride the twisties to Calabogie.

Day one would get me into the Highlands.  Day two would be riding twisties.  Day three would be the track day at Calabogie and Day four would be the return ride home.

To prep for the track day I’d swap out coolant for distilled water at home before the trip and practice stripping the bike down (covering and disconnecting lights, removing mirrors).  I’d also strip the bike back as light as possible, removing the passenger pegs for single pegs, the toolkit, any extra attachments at all.

I’d get a big duffle to carry my gear for the track day (I’d carry rain gear and clothes in a separate, smaller bag).  The track duffle would have to be big enough to carry track leathers, tools, a bike stand and the parts needed to prep the bike.  The idea would be to get to the track and be able to open up the bag and prep the bike quickly and efficiently.

The trackday bag would open up trackdays around Ontario, and once I’d experienced how the pros at Pro 6 Cycle do it, I’d be able to prep better for future days.

I’m a ways away from this at the moment.  Here’s a wish list of needed bits and pieces:




A Vicious Cycle
Firstgear-Torrent waterproof duffel = 40l… should carry everything needed for a trackday…

$84



motorcyclesuperstore.ca
Alpinestars S-MX-5 Boots




$264



motorcyclesuperstore.ca
Alpinestars GP PRO one piece leather suit
Size 50 – this one’s a bit tricky.  I’m everything from a 2-4x (tall, long in the body, shorter in the leg and triangle shaped)
$857 (on sale!)

A full body suit is going to be a tricky proposition off the rack.  There are some custom options out there, but you’re buying from the other side of the world and I imagine returning a poorly done suit would be next to impossible.  That TopGearLeather site offers custom race suits for less than the off the rack retail suits (~$600), but caveat emptor (they may be awesome, I don’t know).



motorcyclesuperstore.ca
Alpinestars GP PLUS gloves


$190







motorcyclesuperstore.ca
Schuberth SR1 Stealth Helmet



$950




motorcyclesuperstore.ca
Vortex V3 rear bike stand


$90 (+$70 wheel kit)




So I’m looking at about $2600 worth of riding kit before I even start considering the bike, and I’d want to consider the bike.  I’d start with the current Ninja 650r and build up experience and certifications, but I’d eventually like to get into The Vintage Road Racing Association.  The dream would be race prepping a 1980s Honda Interceptor (strip lights and extras, whittle it down the bare minimum, race prep the engine), and race it!

Racing ain’t cheap.  I’d be dangerous if I had a lot of money and free time on my hands.  Since the summer’s almost over and I’m back to the classroom, I’m hoping to put together (Kijiji, ebay, whatever cheap alternative I can find) the bits I need to get myself on a track next year.

If I can’t arrange the equipment, I might (make a big) ask for the Racer5 3-stage introduction program.  It’s one hell of a birthday present, but if supported track days cost you about $250 a pop anyway, paying an extra hundred to rent someone else’s bike and get close instruction seems like one hell of a deal.

LINKS
FOLLOWUP


I tried on the Joe Rocket race suit at Royal Distributing the other day.  It was a 46.  It fit at the shoulders and waist/legs, but it was too short in the body.  If I were proportioned properly I’d be about 5’11”, but with this long body I’m 6’3″, my inseam is only 32″.  I’m hoping a 48 is a bit longer in the body, and would be a loose fit everywhere else.  I wish there were more local places I could go try race suits on.  If RD gets a 48 in, that might end my quest for a suit for now.