Lots of little things have returned to my awareness since returning to two-wheeled wide-area transportation. Here are a few.
Push-to-cancel turn signals. Most modern bikes give you the comfort of ‘push-to-cancel’ turn signals. This explains what you see as a car driver: you’re waiting to turn left at a yellow light, and a biker enters the intersection across from you, his left turn signal blinking. Just as you’re about to turn left, he gives you the finger and cuts you off. I have ridden all the way across town with my turn signal on. Now you know why some bikers just stick to hand signals.
Putting your foot down. Putting your foot down is what you do when you ride a two-wheeled vehicle and you’re about to stop. (Yep. I’ve done that too.)
Bike lane is for bicyclists. Once, on my way home after a particularly trying day, I was coming up Valencia street–a street on which I have routinely been a bicyclist–being pretty psyched about passing all those cars and bicycles. One of the bicyclists pointed out I was in the bike lane, which was reserved for bicyclists. Lesson learned.
Furniture. Forget the danger posed by other motorists. The worst hazard on the freeway for two wheeled vehicles is the suite of dorm furniture that gets laid out on I-280 every Saturday morning. You’d think it wouldn’t hurt to drive over a mattress…
Motorcycle cops… do not, as a rule, think it’s cool that you ride a motorcycle too. In fairness, I have to say that the only time I was ever pulled over and *not* given a ticket (1 time out of 9 since moving to CA), it was by a SF motorcycle cop.
Progressive Insurance. My insurance bill for one year of driving a car in SF: $1200. Motorcycle insurance for the same year: $100.
Traffic Signal Sensors. You can wait forever at lights if the induction sensors in the pavement don’t register your bike. Only a few intersections are problematic; and these times I’m glad to see an SUV pull up behind: they always trigger the light.
Paying tolls. Nothing like pulling up to the toll booth and having to put your kickstand down so that you can root around in your backpack for $4. That’s right, motorcycles do not get to skip the Bay Area tolls… But from a cost perspective I can’t complain: I didn’t visit the gas pump for 6 weeks after I bought the bike.
Reverse gear? Even my light dualsport weighs 400 pounds. If you wind up pointed the wrong direction down a narrow downhill dead-end, you’re going to put some wear on your sneakers before you’re out of it.
Lane splitting in traffic. Whenever I see other bikers do it, I call them idiots. Then when I get on a bike and see the string of green lights down Cesar Chavez St, I can’t resist it either. Lane splitting must have come into being in the 60s and 70s when cars were lower than motorcycles. These days, you have the problem of mirrors at SUV height: exactly the same height as yours. I often sit stewing behind a pack of SUVs snuggled woolly-mammoth-style together so that I can’t get through to the green.
Conference calls. I used to burn through a big chunk of my 1500 T-Mobile minutes in the car. Not anymore. At least, not until I figure out how to get the headset working in my helmet.
A bike helmet is a great asset in a bar fight…whether you’re wearing it or not.
