Roadshow: Speeding motorcyclists pose risks in Santa Cruz Mountains

[Killroy1999]

Now the spotlight is on BARFers

http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roads...motorcyclists-pose-risks-santa-cruz-mountains

Q I had something like the motorcycle gang attack in New York City happen locally a couple of months ago but not nearly as prolonged or dangerous.

Brad Todd

Los Gatos

Q There was a large group of 20 or so motorcyclists heading up to Skyline Boulevard on Black Road on a Saturday.
They were driving in both lanes of a narrow winding road, coming at us fast and cutting the inside of blind curves.
It scared the heck out of me as I headed down toward Los Gatos with my wife and grandbaby.

I was scared, then angry. It is common for people who don't know Black Road to cut the inside of blind corners.
Just above Black Mountain Winery there is a double S curve and a narrow stretch where we met maybe eight more cyclists.
One of them couldn't handle the corner at the speed he was going and dropped his bike in front of my car.
I slowed to a crawl and probably five cyclists stopped when their comrade went down. I called 911, stopped my car,
got out and started yelling at the motorcyclists.

One struck me once in the head, knocking my glasses off, and I couldn't see well after that.
My wife got out and started yelling at the group and they backed away.

My wife and I were terrified on many levels, but I become angry when I have had enough.
I did not and would not have hit anyone, but I was mad.

Brad Todd
A I field more comments about motorcyclists on these roads than almost anywhere else.
Sadly, Todd has more scary tales to tell.

Q This is not the first time we have been terrified by bikers in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Skyline is notorious for being a racetrack for cyclists between Highway 9 and Alice's Restaurant.
Three years ago we were struck by a cyclist coming around a corner too fast and had our car totaled when he hit our front end.
He did not die but neither did he have insurance or a motorcycle license.

Brad Todd

A And ...

Q Earlier this year on a Tuesday evening, we were passed by a motorcyclist who was perhaps exceeding 100 mph south of Alice's going in the same direction as we were.
If you know this stretch of road you know how unsafe for everyone this type of behavior is. We no longer drive on Skyline except in the early morning or after dark during the week.
Never on a weekend when the weather is nice.

Just saying that these wild crowd gatherings are happening here as well as in New York.

Brad Todd

A Where do I begin with this? I once ran into a similar situation with a large group of motorcyclists passing me on a blind uphill curve near Skyline going way too fast and far too close to my van.
You were right to call 911, but you should not have yelled at the motorcyclists. In potential road-rage situations, tempers can flare, especially when one has been injured, and a bad situation can turn even nastier.

Q What does one do in a situation like that in New York with the motorcyclists and SUV driver? Do you continue to drive slowly even if that means running over or hitting those who are impeding your way?

D.M.

A Stay inside your car, don't make eye contact, keep moving at a slow speed if possible, call 911 and remain calm.

 

[TheBoatDude]

Was that on a BARF ride?

Regardless, I see your point: People see a group of riders and automatically think "Biker Gang" and "Oh my God, we all gonna die". Perhaps one of BARF's esteemed elders could give a nice counterpoint to Mr. Roadshow?

 

[Killroy1999]

I don't know if that was a BARF ride, but it is possible that there were some BARFers on the ride.

 

[HeatXfer]

Wow. It's extremely uncomfortable to be lumped-in with a group of people that I routinely avoid. This New York cluster-fuck has now painted all of us with a very broad brush. We know the group the media and general population are taking about is a small (I hope) segment of the broad motorcycling community.

I know it's not me. I hope it's not us.

It's all fun and games playing the hooligan, but isn't it tiring being in character all the time; can these people ever turn it off? Do we really need the tough-guy persona to get through life?

You're not helping.

 

[Hooli]

We can all thank the NY fuckers for this. :mad

 

[hisg58]

I've been waiting for someone to write roadshow (or waiting for him to address the topic) for weeks now. Sadly, it comes across just as I was afraid it would.

 

[Cabrito]

This guy's experience has very little in common with the NY fiasco, but he's ready to make it seem like the same thing.

That article or QandA or whatever it is just left me with my head shaking and asking my self WTF?

Amazing how uninformed a lot of people are.
The woman who cuts my hair even asked me if I was part of the group in NY.. I couldn't believe she asked me that.

 

[EastBayDave]

Mr. Roadshow has been anti-biker for years; aren't ever going to change that.

 

[Ruslank]

I'm sorry but Seeing the part where he says one of them dropped his bike in front of my car and I got out and start yelling That is kind of stupid. Its kind of like Its ok to run him over because he was acting dumb and fell. Guy just crashed and you are going to get out and give him a harder time?

 

[flying_hun]

We can all thank the NY fuckers for this. :mad

Yeah, they raised the profile and the possibility of getting stuff published, but if the guy who wrote about his experience on Black Rd is even half right, those riders are responsible, not the ones in NY.

Mr. Roadshow has been anti-biker for years; aren't ever going to change that.

True that, yet I generally give the SC mountains a miss on weekends in nice weather because I don't want to be around those kind of riders coming the other way. Asshattery is asshattery.

 

[EastBayDave]

I'm sorry but Seeing the part where he says one of them dropped his bike in front of my car and I got out and start yelling That is kind of stupid. Its kind of like Its ok to run him over because he was acting dumb and fell. Guy just crashed and you are going to get out and give him a harder time?

Shows how much the NYC thing is affecting the public.

People now think it's ok to run a biker over, because it looks like the guy in NYC is going to get away w/it.

If only the public as a whole could see past the sensationalism, & realize the rider was hit FIRST before the video started....


Maroon mentioned above didn't even think about IF the rider may have been hurt, & was thinking about running him over. Oh brother...:mad

 

[ST Guy]

We can all thank the NY fuckers for this. :mad

And the local fuckers.

 

[corndog67]

I think Brad Todd has a very active imagination, or he's been up there every day for years. He started yelling at a group of guys that had a member crash, and someone socked him upside the head, and he was terrified. If, instead of yelling at someone that made a mistake, maybe he should have tried to help him, and might have made some friends, instead of , in his mind, enemies.

There is a good point here about how people ride up there, and he's right about some people using 9 and 35 as a racetrack. I've had someone slide across the road, going the opposite way, between the bike ahead of me and me.

Even when I lived up there, I quit riding up there for fun a long time ago.

 

[ST Guy]

I'm sorry but Seeing the part where he says one of them dropped his bike in front of my car and I got out and start yelling That is kind of stupid. Its kind of like Its ok to run him over because he was acting dumb and fell. Guy just crashed and you are going to get out and give him a harder time?

I can easily see someone who's been scared/terrified by hooligan bikers dong dumb shit vocalizing their opinions in a situation like that. 'Might not be the brightest move, but understandable.

And FUCK the guy who hit the driver. If he's found I hope charges are filed.

 

[boney]

I think Brad Todd has a very active imagination, or he's been up there every day for years. He started yelling at a group of guys that had a member crash, and someone socked him upside the head, and he was terrified. If, instead of yelling at someone that made a mistake, maybe he should have tried to help him, and might have made some friends, instead of , in his mind, enemies.

There is a good point here about how people ride up there, and he's right about some people using 9 and 35 as a racetrack. I've had someone slide across the road, going the opposite way, between the bike ahead of me and me.

Even when I lived up there, I quit riding up there for fun a long time ago.

I think Brad Todd does not actually exist. There is no requirement for journalists who publish opinion pieces to have any amount of truth or realism in their column.

OTOH, I'm lucky to be able to ride on the weekdays. I skip all the popular roads on the weekends for the same reason as Brad Todd. Motorcyclists are our own worst enemy. We act like idiotic hooligans on the road and then complain when we get caught doing some stupid or get called out for it. "It's a fee country!" we like to claim, but it won't be free for us much longer if we continue the lameness.

 

[louemc]

There is a good point here about how people ride up there, and he's right about some people using 9 and 35 as a racetrack. I've had someone slide across the road, going the opposite way, between the bike ahead of me and me.

Even when I lived up there, I quit riding up there for fun a long time ago.

Yeah, it goes back a long ways...And the population explosion/race quality performance/street legal appointments/no skill and judgement riders, has ramped it up right off the charts.


I had a friend on a Ducati 916, his bike got totaled by a rider coming the other way, Sliding around/across a blind corner. I wasn't there, didn't see it.

He said the guy was cut in half, in the collision.

 

[Gixxergirl1000]

It really sucks that the actions of 100+ morons on the East Coast are having such a big, negative impact on us.
For starters, FOR OUR SAFETY, we as riders need to quit cutting corners on the back roads. C'mon, people! Wait for a straight to do your DY pass... and make it SAFE. Don't ride over your head- that should eliminate a whole lot of crashing. Understand that WE SCARE PEOPLE IN CARS. If they had the "wrong wiring" that WE do (because no one of fully sound mind is going to get on something so dangerous! ), then they'd be riding, too. But they're NOT. So THINK about that!
And I don't care WHAT a cager says to you... I don't care HOW badly your buddy is hurt because he binned his shit... YOU.DON'T.ASSAULT.PEOPLE. Hit an old person in the head??? :wtf WTF is wrong with you??? You want to stop someone from yelling?? Then POLITELY ask him for help! Tell him you're sorry for the inconvenience (no matter HOW much it galls you!!!), and would he please help you and call 911? When you ask most people for help, especially in a medical emergency like that, most people are going to throttle back and help. It's what decent people do. And most people out there are "decent people"!
That situation was an opportunity for US to make a difference in a POSITIVE way. Instead, some moron with no impulse control just pounded another nail in our collective coffin.
We as riders need to accept that we have contributed to the foundation of negative public opinion that those idiots on the east coast are building a mausoleum on.
So let's start paying a little more attention to how our fun is negatively impacting the people we share the roads with. When you pass, WAVE. Wait til it's safe and there's plenty of room to make that pass. If you're splitting in traffic, quit being "that guy" that's doing 70 through 30mph traffic. You're not helping- not to mention, your riding could make you dead. Knock it off. If you have to ride that fast through stopped traffic to get to school/work, then man up and leave 15 minutes earlier!
Stay in your own lane. If you need to cut the corner to make the corner, you're not nearly the rider you think you are.
Let's try and do what we can to change perceptions of drivers out here. It might mean we have to slow down, or maybe actually think about others... but it might end up keeping more of us alive. Sounds like a win/win to me.

 

[flying_hun]

^^^^^Truth^^^^^

 

[Gixxergirl1000]

Motorcyclists are our own worst enemy. We act like idiotic hooligans on the road and then complain when we get caught doing some stupid or get called out for it. "It's a fee country!" we like to claim, but it won't be free for us much longer if we continue the lameness.

Agreed, on all counts.

 

[kongjie]

I think Brad Todd does not actually exist. There is no requirement for journalists who publish opinion pieces to have any amount of truth or realism in their column.

I have to stand up for Gary ("Mr. Roadshow") here. His column provides a lot of useful information and although you may not agree with everything he says, he tries to explore both sides of the issue. And you can be sure that he is going to follow up this letter with another one from a responsible rider--maybe even someone from BARF.

His column isn't strictly an opinion piece, either; and even if it were, op-eds still have to maintain some semblance of journalistic practice.