TOPIC:

Well, I am out for a ride tonight to cool off in this heat wave, and pull up to a light. There are two bikes in a left turn lane waiting for the green.

I really wish I could have got my camera out in time, and asked the woman on the first bike if I could take her picture, as I have never seen anything so F#%@^& stupid in my life.

She had a dog on her lap! Some people shouldn't be allowed in a car, let alone on a bike...

For god's sake lets keep the pets in the sidecar.
Mark

I don't mean to "one up" you on this...but you northern boys don't have the 'stupid market' locked up. Last week I took the wife and kids to a hot-rod car show (called Lead Sleds here in Salina, Kansas) and turning in front of me was a guy on a Magna with his wife on the back and his kid (who had to be less than 4!!!) on the gas tank riding in front of him!!!

We all know the kid is a human 'air bag' in that situation...hey, at least the one helmet (half a helmet, for half a head) was on the 4 yr old...dumb asses...let's hope it's not contageous and that it's not heriditary.

Bad Kaw wrote:

hey, at least the one helmet (half a helmet, for half a head) was on the 4 yr old...dumb asses...let's hope it's not contageous and that it's not heriditary.

Yeah, but it was a bicycle helmet and it wasn't even strapped on...

I had a garage sale a few months back and sold a blue lightning patern bicycle helmet to a guy on a dual sport. He pulled up without a helmet...and left with that one sitting unstrapped to his head...good grief. Whatever you want, buddy...

Bad Kaw wrote:

I don't mean to "one up" you on this...but you northern boys don't have the 'stupid market' locked up. Last week I took the wife and kids to a hot-rod car show (called Lead Sleds here in Salina, Kansas) and turning in front of me was a guy on a Magna with his wife on the back and his kid (who had to be less than 4!!!) on the gas tank riding in front of him!!!

We all know the kid is a human 'air bag' in that situation...hey, at least the one helmet (half a helmet, for half a head) was on the 4 yr old...dumb asses...let's hope it's not contageous and that it's not heriditary.

What you describe was a sight I saw very often when I was in Cali, Columbia in January. Husband driving wife on the back and junior on the tank in the middle of rush hour traffic on a 100 cc two stroke bike surrounded bike the craziest taxi drivers on the planet. Yes they deserve a Darwin award.

Come to think of it Bad Kaw I think they must have been riding a KZ 650 since everyone in the world has one except you.

Post edited by: The Gringo, at: 2007/08/02 07:14

Back in the 70's when I was in the Air Force, I lived in a trailer park on Isle of Palms down by Charleston South Carolina. There was this little stray dog that hung out at this trailer park. Kind of a chihuaha looking thing. He ended up being my dog for a while. I could not keep him off of my bike. As soon as I'd get on it, the dog would jump up onto the gas tank wanting me to take it for a ride. I never knew where he might have learned to ride. Of course he had a hard time hanging on the first time we tried it, so I found a piece of carpet and bungeed it to my tank so he'd have something to grip. I'd only ride him around the trailer park and along the beach road, never went over twenty with him on it. It was fairly safe there. He became the neighborhood celebrity, and quite a chick magnet I might add. Then he disappeared one day. Never knew if someone had stolen him, got run over, or eaten by a gator. He was just gone.
I'd never even think about trying a stunt like that with a kid.

Post edited by: riverroad, at: 2007/08/02 07:45

The Gringo wrote:

...Yes they deserve a Darwin award...Come to think of it Bad Kaw I think they must have been riding a KZ 650 since everyone in the world has one except you. <br><br>Post edited by: The Gringo, at: 2007/08/02 07:14

...the shame of it all...

My boys, 3 and 5, have both ridden. And yes, we put them on the tank. 5 year old rode with Daddy for the first time when he was only about 18 months old. All the rides were either in our driveway at the old farmhouse or back and forth down to the Cul de Sac on our street. I wouldn't put them on the bike on any busy street.

One thing I'm most looking forward to is getting us all out on the bikes, maybe starting next summer.

I have serously thought about looking into the harness thing that teachers used for Cindy, anybody remember that?

Abbie

All things within reason. The situation I was describing was a 6 lane city street, 55 mph speeds, on a Saturday with lots of traffic.

There is a thing (biker buddy???) I see advertised in teh back of magazines a lot. You wear it and the passenger uses the 'handlebar' on the back that is wrapped around your waist. All states (that I know of) have passenger rules, in Kansas it's simple: the passenger needs to be able to touch both feet on the passenger pegs and under 18 must wear a helmet. HD riders get little passengers on by the use of aftermarket footpegs that are designed to raise the pegs up for the smaller riders.

I teach police sciences and I think (danger!) that all states view passengers who ride in front of the driver as an 'illegal passenger'. I am certain that this is the case in Kansas and with specific qualifiers (traffic speed, the presence of heavy traffic, and the disposition [age] of the passenger) the driver can be charged with reckless driving (a misdemeanor crime) for endangering the physical safety of the passenger. Long story made short: on public roads (in all the states that I am aware of) the passenger belongs on the passenger seat. It's just the law...I didn't make it, I just teach it.

-KR

I'm going with the "Columbia Experience" listed above. When I was in Paris, I saw the craziest things, I simply couldn't believe, cars, motorcycles and bicycles. Mostly it was the aggresive driving.
Chicks riding bicycles with short skirts, stop to stop racing on crotch rockets in heavy city traffic etc.

Then it was Rome, and it got wilder yet, as far as aggresive driving.

Then it was India, and that was enough. A bizillion people, all driving hell bent for leather, with no rules, no stop signs, no nothing. Just go out there and floor it. Kinda like riding your pit bike at Mid Ohio, except with a lot more traffic, including cars, going faster with no real defined "right of way".


Driving up to an intersection?? Just everybody floor it from all four directions and be ready to swerve or crash.

And yup, they put everything on the scooters, mom, dad, the kids and the goat. Hey, it's a family affair.

Incredible, simply incredible.!!!!!!

Too much for this Michigan Farm Boy. Put me back in the states, where folks are reasonably sane. Just a little dumb sometimes.

Bad Kaw wrote:

I teach police sciences and I think (danger!) that all states view passengers who ride in front of the driver as an 'illegal passenger'. I am certain that this is the case in Kansas and with specific qualifiers (traffic speed, the presence of heavy traffic, and the disposition [age] of the passenger) the driver can be charged with reckless driving (a misdemeanor crime) for endangering the physical safety of the passenger. Long story made short: on public roads (in all the states that I am aware of) the passenger belongs on the passenger seat. It's just the law...I didn't make it, I just teach it.

-KR

I know in MA although I have seen no specific laws regarding motorcycle passengers (there may in fact be some). Having a small child on the tank would be an easy case to make for child endangerment. Similar to having a child in a car without a seatbelt or car seat. I'm sure the liberal judges here would collectively gasp and take the child away I mean it is illegal for a child under 12 to ride in the back of a pickup truck so...

To illustrate ThousandKaws point about India: