Posts about ongoing “project daily driver” below:
- Project Daily Driver / Gift From Past Me
- Project Daily Driver: Coming Apart At The Seams
- Project Daily Driver: Who Are You Calling An Antique?!?
- Project Daily Driver: Strange Observations In The Hinterlands
In 2022 I’m trying to level up so all of my machines are a daily drivers. I’ve never done this before.
I haven’t written much about my Quixotic initiative to “get my mechanical shit together”. I’m still working at it.
I don’t like pro-actively fixing things that aren’t 100% fully dead! I prefer to use my equipment ruthlessly until it’s very worn out. When a machine finally gives up the ghost I don’t immediately replace it. I go without for as long as I can.
This year is different. Reluctantly, and with a tear in my eye, I’ve pried my wallet open and bled money to fix shit like there’s no tomorrow.
There’s a reason for this, in the Bidenverse there is no tomorrow. I mean that rationally. Don’t wait for tomorrow because nothing will be cheaper and more convenient tomorrow than it is today. Conditions like 2019 won’t recur for years or decades if at all; so don’t wait for them. You’re in “the good old days” right fucking now! For the next few years the time to do things is immediately and the time to build your savings has passed. (As always, show moderation.)
It’s a fact, or at least a reasoned projection, that shit will cost more in the future. That’s the exact definition of inflation.
Furthermore getting shit done requires more than money. It requires a stable functioning economy. We’re nowhere near the word “stable” AND were in a recession. Getting any good or service becomes a bigger pain in the ass during recessions. (Wikipedia or administrative tweaking of definitions are irrelevant. Some tool at a teleprompter says it’s only a recession if the administration says it’s a recession. Hogwash! If life takes a shit and the President says it’s a cupcake, don’t eat it!)
A time of inflation, recession, faltering supply chains, and unstaffed mechanic’s shops is not the time to keep all of your powder dry. Use some of what you stored. Get what you can while it’s possible. Even for simple things like replacing a truck tire, tomorrow is going suck more than today… for years. That’s the reason for project daily driver!
All this brings me to another step in the path; motorcycle safety gear. In Project Daily Driver: Coming Apart At The Seams all my gear; jacket and chaps and helmet just plain gave out. It all gave out at once! Comically, I got my old cruiser nicely serviced only to have my clothes turn into a fucking circus!
I needed replacement safety gear. At the same moment, I had a small premonition of my own vulnerability. I wanted better safety gear.
Good gear is hard to find and it ain’t cheap. Better gear is impossible to find and costs a fortune.
Local motorcycle shops suck. They stock a smattering of dirt bike racing stuff and sexy but useless fashion leather.
Painting with a broad brush, it goes like this:
Dirt bike racing stuff is appropriate for a proper dirt bike flying through forests and down tracks at stupid speeds. That’s nothing like me and my farm bike trundling through National Forests like a pack mule and its owner.
Dirt bike racing stuff fits people who weigh half as much and ride twice as fast as me. It sucks at everything except protection. It sucks at being waterproof. It’s hot, uncomfortable, and comes in colors that make you look like Spiderman.
Walk a mile in those boots and your feet will fall off. Ride that gear in cold rain and your nuts will freeze off.
Don’t get me wrong. Dirt bike racing shit is perfect for when you piledrive your ass into a pine tree. It’s very protective. (There’s also straight on one-piece motorcycle racing suits. They’re impressively protective for pavement wrecks but unspeakably expensive.)
Dirt bike racing shit wasn’t going to help me. If I run my cruiser down the interstate for a week it’ll chafe in places I haven’t even thought of. If I ride in the rain or cold I’ll freeze. If I step off my dirt bike to shoot a grouse I’ll clank around like Robocop until every bird in the county is long gone.
Fashion leather isn’t much better. Beyond a minimal level of protection it usually sucks at everything other than looking good.
More or less the same as riding naked.
You’ve seen lots of fashion leather. Probably half the bikes on the road are ridden by folks wearing leather jackets that are somewhere between minimally and non-protective. Some such jackets are cheap and some are expensive. They all look cool.
Absolutely useless in a motorcycle crash; including the girl.
No man has ever been turned off by a woman wearing leather (though Trinity could use a sandwich). On dudes, fashion leather looks manly. Any limp noodle accountant who dons a leather jacket and fires up an overpriced chromed out Harley will look cool.
Leather often looks tough without being tough. The guy in the photo below looks like he woke up under a bridge abutment and drowned a wolverine in his cornflakes. Then again, five hours riding in Arizona deserts dressed like that will cook his skin until he’s a whiny little bitch. If it rains he’ll risk hypothermia. If he crashes, he’ll wind up experiencing God’s own belt-sander. You can look that tough or you can be that tough… you don’t get both.
You can look like a complete badass and still bleed like a stuck pig if your bike goes down.
Fashion leather won’t help me. I ride in all sorts or weather and conditions. I’ve been caught riding in snow. I rode in Death Valley. I submerged Honey Badger in a lake. I’m clearly an idiot!
The deal killer for me is that most of it (not all) is less protective than it looks. Take a slide on the interstate when you’re wearing fashion leather and you’ll leave pieces of your ass on the pavement. In case you’re wondering, denim jeans are only modestly more protective than a silk negligee if you slide on pavement!
BTW: good quality safety gear can be made with leather components. It’s expensive as shit but it exists. It’s the best way to look cool and still retain most of your skin… provided you can afford it. However, you can bet your Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt that the guy who rides a maximum five miles on sunny Saturdays to park his Harley at the bar is probably not wearing the quality stuff.
Back to my Curmudgeonly situation; I don’t race, I’ll never look cool, I’m stupid enough to ride anywhere, I’ll ride in dumb weather, I ride far. I need something that’s good for many environments. I also… deep breath… am getting older. Ack! Small injuries take longer for recovery and a big one could jack me up. Of the two options available locally I picked neither. It was a hassle but I ordered custom Touring Gear.
Touring gear doesn’t look cool. It is cool.
This is a screen shot from Long Way Round. Scottish Actor Ewan McGregor and relative nobody Charley Boorman (and a cameraman) rode motorcycles from London to New York. In most photos, McGregor ditches his touring jacket to engage in his professional trade of looking cool. Boorman is a normal human being so he doesn’t think to do that. It gives you a window into touring gear.
The jacket Boorman (on the right) is wearing is nothing like what folks think of as a “motorcycle jacket”. Fonzie never wore that! It’s the color of dirt. It has a billion pockets and they’re designed to shed water. It’s cut to form for a person sitting and holding handlebars. The thick material looks like a fireman’s jacket. See the protective elbow pad sewn into the arm (along with the pit vent at the shoulder)?
Boorman looks (and probably smells) like he just rode around the planet; because he did. His jacket isn’t leather and doesn’t look cool because looks were low priority. Utility in many conditions and safety while crashing were paramount.
Jackets like this (and pants!) are not quite as safe as racing gear but they’re close. They’re more useful in diverse environments and less handy for wearing around town. They don’t impress women (or men). You won’t see such stuff at the local biker bar, or on the guy that motorcycle commutes to his college campus on sunny days but takes the bus when it rains, etc… I guess that maybe 10% of riders choose touring gear.
The photo below is Ed March from C90 Adventures. Ed March specializes in riding ridiculous little bikes mind bending distances. He does this over sketchy terrain for no good reason. The outfit he’s wearing probably costs more than the bike he’s riding.
Look where he is; a million miles from nowhere, slightly past a sign that probably says “road closed”. He’s unconcerned with looking good while stopping for beer at Hooters. He’s very concerned about remaining unscathed if he dumps his tiny bike because the front tire washed out on a pile of moose crap.
This is the look of a guy who’s not a poseur.
I ordered up a touring jacket and pants from a company that sells… you ready for this… touring jackets and pants. They sell almost nothing else.
It almost killed me! It wasn’t cheap. I about hyperventilated. After I emailed the order I was all keyed up. I have occasionally been more or less desperately impoverished. I can never really shake that experience.
But I’ve been riding with junk that pushed me to action by basically dissolving around me. I’ve been very safe and don’t have any missing pieces but past performance is no guarantee of future returns.
Now I’ve shored up not just the motorcycle but the safety side of riding. As I’m a little older (and in no small part encouraged by inflation that’s burning my savings away) it felt like the right time to do it. I’ve got to wait for delivery. I hope it arrives before winter!
Pre-Paid Emergency Room:
I had an interesting thought. Think of all the times you’ve been injured; particularly if it involved an Emergency Room visit. You’re in the ER and in pain. The doctor is from Bangladesh and the nurse is stealing your pain meds and the IV is crooked and someone in the hall just threw up and the front desk is bitching about your insurance provider network… how much would you pay to go back in time to make it not happen? I just paid that fee.
The jacket and pants I bought cost in the ballpark of a mid level ER visit. Theoretically, the heavy padding and tough stitching might let me walk away from things that would rip off skin in my old gear. Or not. (No jacket will protect me against a Kenworth grill.)
Life has no guarantees. I added pre-paid emergency room to my preps. Remember that when someone is bitching at you to stack another pound of silver or billion rounds of ammo. (You can never have too much ammo, but after you’ve got the first truckload you might want to consider mitigating other risks.)
Did I make the right call? I hope so.