The Heat Is On

by John Reblin

The heat is still on in Wisconsin!! It seems hot and humid and not much rain is the forecast for summer of 2023. The lawns are turning brown and crispy. Hope you are getting out and able to ride and enjoy the roads of Wisconsin. Or maybe you joined a few others and rode out to Sturgis to celebrate that epic event in South Dakota. And hopefully, if you headed onto the roads no matter where you were heading, you were able to make it there and back without injury or crashing.

I read a lot of different things throughout the day, reports, emails, magazines and books. If it looks interesting in the book department, I will usually pick it up and start it and see where it takes me. I just received the Willie G. Davidson memoir Ride Free and so far, it looks pretty good. Near the start a section struck me that the strategy to promote motorcycle sales was to be “good neighbors.” To go out and have fun but do it in the right place and time. Same with riding a loud motorcycle. They had the exhaust cut offs on their bikes, but encouraged quiet in the city and out in the country well, go nuts. It was the reason for the name Silent Gray Fellow. I think we agree with this today.

For whatever reason 2023 seems to be picking up steam in the motorcycle crash department. If you remember 2020 motorcycle and all other types of transportation fatalities spiked up to 114 fatalities from the low 80’s. Thinking it was an off year with Covid we waited for 2021 and that bumped up a bit higher to 121 fatalities. No one is really sure why this all happened. Maybe a little pent-up energy, maybe the police were not watching as closely. I don’t know but I breathed some relief when last year it went down to 80 fatalities. You could almost hear that sigh of relief from Madison and the people at the DOT. I thought this is perfect, things are getting back to normal.

Unfortunately, our crash numbers this year, as of this writing, is matching up closely with 2022. And this is not a good thing. In discussions with other people that I know I am hearing the “How can we fix this?” As we look into the issue, we are seeing over 50 percent of the motorcycle fatalities are single bike crashes. No known contact with an animal or another vehicle was involved in the crash. This is the scary part of it all. Sure, there may be some with alcohol or drugs involved, some speeding, or some overdriving their skill level. So how do you craft a message to correct this? I think we did this a few years ago with Ride Your Own Ride along with remember to make better decisions.

Remember not to drink too much when out on the bike. You can wait until you get home and park the bike to really relax right? Make sure to ride within your skill level. Going on that group ride, follow the group if you’re not used to riding within the group. Don’t try to keep up, get into trouble, and cause a crash. Slow down at night so you can see what is coming up and be ready to react to the upcoming curve or stop sign. And always watch out for the deer and other large animals. I would rather drive a little slower and make it home than drive normally and have to worry about surviving.

We talked a little about training last month, and I know it is getting a little late in the year, but I have an offer for you.

A motorcycle rider coach that I know from the Madison area is doing some innovative thinking in the classroom and out on the track. Jason Herheim thinks that you should train at higher than 25 mph and has come up with some really great training skills that will help you out. He also came up with a three-hour course that he will be holding in Columbus with a focus on just a couple skills such as braking or curves. The link to his site is https://ridingsolutions.com/wisconsin-motorcycle-safety-course/. Go to his website and check out the “Rider Skills Tune Up” for more information.

Legislatively, things may seem quiet in Wisconsin and federally, but we will be working on a response to Governor Evers veto of our fuel choice bill over concerns of taking away local controls. We thought this would be coming so we have had some discussion on the what if? Now that it is official, we can start the discussion about what are we going to do to make this something he would feel good signing.

I am making plans now to head to the MRF Meeting of the Minds in Harrisburg PA and think it will be a great time there with like-minded people. Hearing what other states are doing and things going on legislatively gives us thoughts and insight of things we could be up against here and a head start on how we will approach our discussions. But more on this next month.

One last thing. The State Meeting is the weekend of October 6,7, and 8^th. I hope everyone tries to get up to Stevens Point to see your organization take time out to honor those that really put in all the hard work to make this all worthwhile. I know that people give up a lot of time where they could be doing other things more fun to make sure we are able to make a difference in the motorcycling community in Wisconsin. This is one of the times we get together, talk, tell jokes and stories, and learn from those doing a great job for ABATE of Wisconsin.

Ride Your Own Ride,

John