In the past we have heard from Ron McKinley, the state H.O.G. Safety Officer for North and South Dakota and an expert instructor for H.O.G.’s Primary Officer Training. He is sharing another one of his columns with us this month. This article was actually written for his July ‘06 newsletter.

Dear Fellow Hoggers;

If you were not at Hot Harley Nights, you missed an event. The parade alone had over 3500 motorcycles. The parade left J & L Harley and went downtown Sioux Falls, perhaps a four mile ride.

It is the parade I would like to address. The volunteers did an outstanding job getting the parade line up, getting the VIP’s in place, getting the honor guard in place, making sure the Make-A-Wish kids were in the vehicles.

A couple of things to look out for while riding in a parade, one is that we try to ride in a staggered formation, but be aware that this formation is not ridden by all riders, there are still some that “like” to ride side-by-side, they either think this is “cool” or they think they are motor officers. So expect the unexpected. Do NOT throw things, like candy to the crowd, you could hurt someone by doing this, do NOT give anyone in the crowd a high five, do not allow your passenger to give high fives. Again, remember you are traveling 15-20 mph, you could hurt someone. Waving and smiling SHOULD be done, “Racking” off the pipes should not be done, it is noise to some folks you know. Also, you should not do burn outs, it is smelly and dangerous. Just think about this, if you are the one who does a burn out, and you make one little slip of the front brake or clutch you now have a out of control motorcycle.

OK, now 3500 motorcycles have made it downtown to the Landing area, parking, there are a number of volunteer who have planned parking a large group of motorcycles very carefully, to get them parked as rapidly as possible. If you are not aware, this does take a lot of planning. They have the motorcycles come into the landing area side by side, at this point, and they usually are directing the motorcycles to go left or right to the parking areas. However, remember you may not be able to park together. Do NOT, for example, try to go to the left when you are being directed to go the right. This slows down the entire group of motorcycles, you are trying to cross traffic and no one knows about it, you just may cause an accident and YOU will upset the volunteers doing the parking. If you want to park next to your partner, do this after everyone has parked. Have a place where you can meet, and then go get the bikes and park them together. Any of the above causes distractions, and we all know what can happen when you are distracted from your riding.

Distractions, what do I mean, let’s say that you are riding down the road and notice that, oh, your saddlebag has come undone, and you reach down to fix it. As you reach back to do the repair, your eyes will look down at the saddle bag and we all know that the motorcycle will follow your eyes, and as you are looking at the bag, you will either push or pull with your hand that is still on the hand grip, this will cause the motorcycle to go left or right, depending on the push or pull of the handgrip. No matter how “seasoned” rider you are, this will happen. When you see something that is loose, broken, or what ever, all you have to do is pull over to the side of the road and may the repair. This SAFE action will take, what, a couple of minutes of your riding time.

YOU AND YOU ALONE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SAFETY.

I will leave you with this story, the four days over the Fourth of July, my nine-year-old grandson Kaden, and I did a motorcycle trip to the Black Hills. First of all it was truly great to be with Kaden, just him and I and the motorcycle. Anyway, we were riding in Custer State Park, looking for the donkeys, we were following a car load of Pilgrims Tourist you know, I just knew what they were looking for, so I gave myself more space behind them, I slowed down and Kaden ask me what was going on, I just told him Pilgrims, he has been around me enough to know what I was talking about. Sure enough, there were the donkeys and the Pilgrims made a very quick stop and the doors came open and out they came. The driver did not know, nor care that I was behind them, by giving myself more space I was able to come to a safe stop. I tell you this, to tell you this, after the park ride we went to Keystone and parked on Main Street. As we were getting off the bike, here comes four pilgrims walking down the street, they ask Kaden this, “Are you not afraid to ride on that motorcycle’? My grandson very politely answers them that he was not, and as the folks were walking away, he looked at me and said “PILGRIMS”. I felt so good the boy was sounding like me, now if we can just keep this from his Mother.

Be aware of your surroundings at all times, expect the expected and you will be better off to handle the unexpected.

More later

Freedom

Ron