Tallahassee Top 5 crash sites

Biker Bill sent this in reporting that the Democrat identifies the following as the top 5 crash sites in Tallahassee. Primarily from Running Red lights. I haven't has time to check it out yet but I do know that if Biker Bill said it, then it's true. Thanks Biker Bill for the tip off and the reminder that part of riding a Bike is not taking anything for granted:
rc,
Todays Democrat " newspaper " contained a list of top five crash sites Jan-July 2007:
1.Apalachee Parkway and Blair Stone Road
2.Apalachee Parkway and Capital Circle Southeast
3.Ocala Road and West Tennessee Street
4.High Road and West Tennessee Street
5.Ocala Road and West Pensacola Street
Most of the accidents were caused by drivers running red lights.I thought you may want to use this information in a blog article---might save a bikers life?
Biker Bill

MY HAT

This is my hat. Which sometimes (rarely) also serves double duty as my motorcycle helmet. Now I know this really don't much mater to you. But it does matter to me cause I have had this hat a very long time. I love my hat. So take a real good look at it so if it gets lost and you find it you will know whose hat it is.

Cause see, sometimes it does get lost. Now guys that ain't never been married they can probably stop reading now because they ain't gonna be able to relate and if you don't ride a motorcycle you may not be able to relate. Well even if ya do who knows....

But ya see there are some things I don't wash (and yes despite popular opinion I do occasionally wash my bike). I don't know about a lot of people but I don't generally wash my vest, or my leathers (well I take that back Pinesol is great for getting mold off leathers) or my boots. And there is probably a reason for that. I ride almost everyday and have no desire to spend a good part of my life washin stuff that is going to get dirty the next day.

Now I know right about now the ladies are cringing. But I do think there are guys that know what I mean. Maybe it isn't a hat. Maybe it's a favorite old t-shirt or pair of jeans that your ol lady keeps throwing away and you gots ta go dig it out of the trash. Can ya relate now?

Well see every once in awhile my hat comes up missing. So if your married and you can't find something what do you do? You holler at your ol lady, "hey you seen my hat (or insert whatever it is your looking for here)?"

Now my ol lady will always say no and I go to tearing the house apart looking for my damn hat. Then I start having anxiety cause I might have to ride without my "lucky" hat. But see I don't have to go through all that (even though I do) cause I always know where my hat is and I know whats happening if I can't find it so I'll holler, "you ain't washin my hat again are you?"

To which she will holler back, "no, I don't keep track of your hat. You told me not to wash it."
O.K. see this is where married guys will get it. Cause when is the last time your ol lady listened to you? Sure enough a couple days later out of nowhere my hat appears. And yepper. It's washed.

Now some may not understand this. But Papa John (no not that one, the other Papa John) and I have ridden together and he has a hat. But he has this funky clip type chin thing that he has to wear to keep it from blowing off. One time he asked me, "Doesn't your hat ever blow off?" Well, yeah, after my ol lady washes it. Ride free, ride funky....rc

And what about your Pipes???

Will it come to this in Fl???

Ticket for Loud Bike DISMISSED!

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News
August 9, 2007

The first and only ticket that police have issued to a motorcyclist under Denver's controversial new noise ordinance was dismissed Wednesday. The city's decision to drop the case highlights a fundamental flaw - Denver police aren't equipped with the $1,000 noise monitors needed to make the charge stick, said Wade Eldridge, lawyer for the ticketed biker.

The city's decision to drop the case highlights a fundamental flaw - Denver police aren't equipped with the $1,000 noise monitors needed to make the charge stick, said Wade Eldridge, lawyer for the ticketed biker.
"In any case in which it's properly challenged, the city has an impossible burden," said Eldridge.

The reason Assistant City Attorney April Snook cited in her motion to dismiss the case was the city was "unable to prove charge beyond a reasonable doubt." The ordinance, which took effect July 1, was in response to rising complaints about ear-splitting motorcycle noise in areas such as downtown, where more people are living in lofts and high-rise condos.

It limits noise levels to 82 decibels from a distance of 25 feet and requires motorcyclists with bikes made after 1982 to have a muffler with an EPA noise-certification stamp.

Ellen Dumm, spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Health Department, said an "oversight" caused the case to be dismissed. "The police officer did not inspect the pipes for the required (Environmental Protection Agency) sticker," she said. Dumm also said she thinks the dismissal was a "one-time" thing and that the ordinance's enforcement will result in quieter streets.

Eldridge's client, Stuart Sacks, was stopped in LoDo near Little Raven and 20th streets at 5:25 p.m. July 2. He was ticketed for having an "unlawful modified muffler," records show. Eldridge said he believes Sacks was initially pulled over for making an illegal lane change. "Basically, they had no noise meter and no visual inspection in this case," Eldridge said. "So the most they would have had was the officer's gut feeling that it was too loud, which is not enough."

Eldridge said he wasn't "at liberty to comment" about whether his client's motorcycle had an EPA noise-certification stamp.

"But," Eldridge said, "I'd be surprised if he did."

I'd be a bit surprised myself if it did. How may after market pipes do? Or maybe I should rephrase that, how many after market pipes that you may want do? Though I do know that reports have come out of South and Central Florida over "noisy" pipes issues. But to date am unaware of any ordinances that call for the "EPA" stamp on the pipes (if you know of one please let me know). It is nice to know that a court ruled that an "officers" gut feeling was not enough to uphold the charge.

But I got to thinking how normal regular ol pipes can sound when riding through a city with concrete canyons. And if it's a bunch of bikes well hell, it's almost as good as sex (note the almost please). But then I go to thinking (which apparently is one of my problems) in Florida, where cities can spring up almost over night where swamp use to be, what happens if your traveling say down highway 98 in the middle of nowhere and your pipes are legal, then three years later you travel the same road on the same bike with the same pipes to find a rich retired folks community has been dropped in the middle of nowhere? Did your legal pipes all of a become sudden illegal? Are you "grandfathered" in? Do you have to buy new pipes cause they built a new town? Or does the new town owe you some new pipes? Does it matter if you own an engraving machine????? Ride Free, Ride Hard, Ride Loud..rc