Motorcycle Week
 

What a great week weather wise, especially compared to the past few years. We were up last weekend and will be back either tonight or tomorrow.
It's always sad to hear about the motorcycle accidents that happen all around the state during motorcycle week. I have to say though, I wish the bikers didn't insist on claiming the center line of the road as so many do. Seems like doing so throws caution to the wind as cars going in the opposite direction are forced to move further in their own lane to maintain some margin of safety with the oncoming traffic. Though they may have the right to ride as close to the center line as they can, it just doesn't make sense to me to insist on being dead right.
Be careful out there this weekend. Ride safe. Enjoy.

To many non riders the "close to the center line" riding looks dangerous when in fact the bike is usually in a track where the left wheels of a car would travel. The issue is brought up by non-riders here every year. The following is from a post I made in 2009.

I also hope that all ride safe and enjoy the area. We have been out twice this week and as always rode safe.

We really get a huge charge out of Bike Week! I love seeing everyone having so much fun, especially when the weather is as beautiful as it has been this week. We wish them a great time while they're here and then we wish them a safe journey going home. There's only one thing that concerns me. Even though it's not a NH law, I wish all of them would wear their helmets!

Four motorcycle cashes resulting in 4 deaths on Friday in NH. This is very very sad.

You people have no helmet law.

"Live free, then die"

I have to agree the weather has been great for the week. However I am not surprised by the amount of accidents around the area due to the lack of common sense. Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday I was out doing my weekly mowing. Here I am pulling a loaded 12 foot trailer with 3 lawn mowers and out of every intersection or parking lot a bikes would pull right out in front of me without looking! With the new pavement on Route 25 and only the yellow center line, with the no white fog line (to the right) I have seen motorcycles ride or pass cars to the extreme right. You would think the bikers would use common sense, but in this case it appears not!

Slick, it's not riding in the left portion of the lane. It's the high number of goons who ride with the peg and their left foot over the yellow line. And I'm not a "non rider"

There is a huge difference between riding on the left side of the travel lane and riding with the bike handle bar extending over the center line. I don't know why there aren't more accidents caused by this type of bike riding. Please remember all those times when opposing traffic drifts over on to the center line, perhaps due to drivers texting etc. or otherwise not paying attention.

I see a lot of bikes hug the yellow. When I do I make sure to give them plenty of room.

More dangerous, and encountered multiple times this week: A line of bikes ignoring yield sign on a rotary as traffic is coming around. Two close calls in those situations this week.

I have 220,000 miles all over the USA and Canada on bikes with my bride of 45 years. Never rode with a group. Always ride in the right or left "Rut". If you ride in the Center of your lane...you will be riding on a Hump..and the OIL patch...where the oil drips from cars and trucks land..don't want to be there. You always want to ride on clean pavement.

This "Oily" condition is particularly noted when riding into a toll booth. I figure my Allotment of "Time" is at the limit..SO I have QUIT riding. I am 70 :D NB

PS: Picture a watermellon tossed out of a car at 60...:D

Smart to quit while you're ahead,NoBozo.It would be a shame if you got yourself banged up after almost 1/4 million miles of safe riding.

Was following some bikes last night and this ride in the tire tracks thing came to mind. What I noticed, is a car or truck only has a little bit that sticks out beyond the tire(mirror mostly), a motorcycle has basically half of its overall width sticking out beyond the tire. On some bikes this is a considerable amount of bike and distance toward oncoming traffic. :eek:

My procedure was this: I would ride in the left rut. ALWAYS keepng an eye on oncoming traffic. If someone coming toward me was leaning toward my lane...I would switch over to my Right rut ..ie..using judgment if I thought there was ANY problem at all...then back to the left rut after the offending car passed.

The reason for staying in the left rut to begin with...is to show your headlight to oncoming traffic...you are behind a car. You want the oncoming traffic to SEE that there is a motorcycle behind the car. :look:

We had many enjoyable thousands of miles..and sights of our Great Country....Very few close calls.......but it only takes ONE..On a motorcycle. :D NB

Left rut
 

Exactly the point I was trying to make. I am a former rider from the 60's to the 80's. With no oncoming traffic, I would ride the left rut, but always moved over to the right rut when oncoming traffic was present. I thought it was good to have as much room as possible between me and opposing traffic. A little more margin for error is a good thing.

I heard the numbers for Bike week, 230-240,000 bikers. A lot but when compared to 2006 , 440,000. The lower numbers are noticeable on the roads leading north, I drive Spaulding turnpike. At the lake its noisy at night but not as noisy as used to be,. Economy, I hope the local business did well.

This is our 3rd bike week at Burrito Me Laconia and we had our best single day since we opened on Friday. We had a lot of repeat business from the previous years bringing their friends and a lot of new bikers as well. It was a good year for us in downtown.

This is the problem...I am a rider, I prefer to ride the left rut. I ride a street bike so pegs aren't usually an issue. However, there are a handful of Harley riders who think they own the road with their pegs and feet extended OVER the center line. Foolish IMO. All I can say is stay cognizant of the factors around you and whether you're in a car or on a bike, try to ride on the defensive side.

I've been a rider since the early 70's and I find that when bikes are riding side by side in the same lane you tend to see the inside bikes footpegs very close to the line. I never liked riding side by side for many reasons, one of many is, if you have an obstruction or pothole in your way, you have nowhere to go to avoid it without crossing yellow line or crowding your buddy.
But all in all it was a fantastic bike week and I was very happy to see local businesses get a well deserved boost.

Did we see fewer boat trailers this weekend due to traffic?

There doesn't seem to be a way to find NH's economic "net gain" for Bike Week.

Gavia...

The full economic gain is hard to nail down, however a good indicator is the jump in the meals & rooms tax for June....

Woodsy

I was amazed we got an outside seat at Garwoods at 1pm last Saturday... There were a bunch of bikes out front, but plenty of tables available.

The safest way to ride is to move back and forth in your lane to maximize sight lines and conspicuity. If you are approaching a corner than bends to the left, you should be on the right side of your lane. If you are approaching a corner that bends to the right, you should be closer to the yellow line.
Do this so that you can see as far around the corner as possible. This gives you the most time to react to things ahead of you and gives people ahead of you the most time to react to you.

This technique also puts you in the correct place (wide, like a "race line") to start a corner, but the difference between this line ("street line") and a "race line" being that you stay wide on a street line until you can see the corner exit, then apex (usually a late apex).

I use the same technique in my little commuter car, but obviously I can't move from side to side as much due to the width of the car. Can't do it while towing my boat though, trailer is too wide...

I don't operate my car or bike with any part of me or my vehicle over the center line unless I am overtaking. I can't fathom why anyone would ever do that, but I see it all the time. It's so incredibly dangerous. Why anyone would ever put themselves in a perfect position for a head-on collision is beyond me.

I'm a 14 year veteran of street riding both harley and rice rocket (can't belive how fast it's gone by), with quite a few years of off road riding before that. I got my licence in MA thru a saftey course, and the tips and tricks of all of my instructors ring in my head to this day as I'm riding, but the one that stands out the most is "you have to drive like they are all out to f'n kill you!". That being said I never pass on the left, ride too close and when I ride side by side with my hubby, he takes the left rut, I take the right and stay a bit staggered with me a bit behind. Never too close to the yellow line.

Scariest thing I saw was a dumb girl, deciding to take a right turn right in front of hubby not looking of course (words of instructor ring in my head). He rolled right off the windshield and didn't have a scratch. I think I was more shook up than him and the dumb girl was pretty much hysterical because she never saw him coming. Too busy looking at her cell phone probably.

But it's sad that some bozos who ride feel the need to ride like jerks make us all look bad. I stay away from the "organized cahos" of rides and gatherings like bike week becuase of said bozos. Nothing like seeing someone slugging back beers just before the run at 10:00 am and knowing they will be riding in close proximity to you with thousands of others.

And helmet law or not, mine is always on my head. Might not be a full face, but it's there.

Yah "us people" have a choice to wear one or not.
I shouldn't have some pencil pusher in the big house telling me to wear one...

There was one intoxicated person driving a car that killed all four of them.

Well... no. It was four separate accidents, four separate deaths, and they were spread all over the state, with only one of the four being in the Lakes Region on Roller Coaster Rd. If I read the article correctly, looks like 2 cars crossed the centerline and 2 bikes crossed the centerline.

Regardless of fault, it's still sad that anyone was killed.

http://www.necn.com/06/16/12/Police-...3299faaa1eee98

Rule of the road when on a bike
 

It's been a few years since I rode bikes, gave them up when we started having kids. Basic rule of the road for me was: You NEVER EVER UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY.
I now use the same rule when I am out in the boat.

Agreed. Sad and tragic.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/....-everett.html

The good news is it brought in 200 million dollars to the local economy!:cheers:

Is that accurate, that seems like it has an extra zero that would mean every bike spent close to $1000, I am sure many spent more than that but for everyone of those there is probably 10 that only buy gas.

a zero was added . it was only 200k

Here is the article I got the number from......http://www.unionleader.com/article/2...NEWS/706159973

Does anybody know a figure that is usually brought in by tourists in an average week during the summer?

Wow, I would love to hear where the author got that number. It is just really hard to believe, am I the only one that thinks it kinda just sounds made up?

They said it was estimated at 250,000 people so that is about $800 per person which is not an outrageous number because I am sure most hotels alone are over $200 a night. That being 200 million still seems high because how many of the 250,000 were only there for a day and only dropped $50-$100. Another question is how many people might have trailered their boat up there for a day or how many families might have gone there for a couple of days or the whole week and did not because of bike week. It seems they only ever mention the income gained and not the income that was lost. I am sure it is more income gained but not as much as people might realize.

That was attributed to ONE state legislator , think a little more research would be in order . the article from last year had ½ that amount .

I think I have read some where that some businesses close up during bike week because the bikers do not go there and non-bikers do not feel like fighting traffic to get there.

I think its a hard number to gauge, but $200 million is not completely unreasonable.... especially given the weather.

Think about it.... all the people who run the concessions statewide spend money to be here... all the day trippers who drive an hour or so to be here. people sleeping in hotel rooms 4-5 people in a room. You have 10 days of people spending money in different places statewide.... for example North Conway gets a great shot in the arm for Bike Week. as does the Seacoast!

Woodsy

Is anyone really afraid of the traffic on bike week any more?

Other than Saturday afternoon at the Weirs is there enough traffic to cause more than a nuisance?

All the Weirs businesses adopted the "can't fight them join them" years ago.

Personally, I hope the transition from "let's go to the Weirs, get drunk and start a fight" to "let's take a bike ride around NH" continues. My nostalgia for the wild days of old is fading.

You old fart!

Amen... I guess I am an old fart too!

I think the No. Conway area is working hard to get some of the bikers up there too. They have "Rally in the Valley" or something like that which is trying to lure bikers.

I am with you on that; NH has some wonderful motorcycle roads. The best are in the western part of the state, far from Weirs Beach. It's hard to find a bad road when you get west of 93 a few miles. Not saying there's no good ones east of 93 though, but there does tend to be a lot more congestion.

I find it amusing to hear people talk about riding the "Kanc", like that's some special treat on a bike, Route 112 out by the VT border is VASTLY superior to 112 between Lincoln and Conway. It's also gorgeous out that way, but there's almost no traffic, and the road twists and turns along the river in a very pleasant manner. The "Kanc" only has a few good corners.

Agreed Dave, but you need to drive the "Kanc" at least once.

Used to do it every Summer weekend when I was crossing over from western NH into ME to help a friend build a house. It's just a long two lane road with lots of traffic, to me.