Monday 18 July 2016

Moto Your Safe Commute - by Wendy Boucher

We see people riding their motorcycles around every day wearing T-shirts, shorts, and occasionally flip-flops. I cringe when I see that.  I have a friend who's a nurse. She refers to motorcycle riders as organ donors. I decided that I want to be the poster girl for riding safe, riding geared up, and of course being stylish while I'm at it.

One complaint people have is that it takes too long to put on all the gear. And a majority of accidents are people that say, "Oh, I'm just going for five minutes; I don't need all that stuff on." So I set out to debunk the inconvenience myth.

I've got my full face helmet, Alpinestars high boots and armoured gloves, armoured leather pants and jacket, and my Motochic backpack all in the front closet. I figure if I treat it all like daily wear then I will wear it daily.

I used to adventure race. Paddle, bike, hike, in the bush. As a team of three, we were constantly transitioning from bike to canoe, from canoe to hike, from hike back to bike, from bike to canoe then to the finish line all in under 8 hours. We weren't the fastest girls in the back country, but we rocked the transition areas. I have six gold medals. I use this experience to motivate me to practice transitioning from shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops to full leather armoured gear.

How fast can I do it? How good can I get at it? It's all about rocking the transitions areas, and that's all about practice.

I spent an afternoon putting on my gear, taking off my gear, putting on my gear, taking off my gear… To the point where I was sweating and breathing like a weight lifter.


First-round putting it on - three minutes 40 seconds

First-round taking it off - three minutes 51 seconds

Second-round putting on - two minutes 59 seconds

Second-round taking off - three minutes 15 seconds

Third - on - two minutes 41 seconds

Third - off - two minutes 25 seconds

You get the point…

Finally I got it down to one minute 59 seconds putting it on, and one minute 45 seconds taking off. And that includes stuffing it all in a big blue tote bag to carry with me to work, to school, or wherever I'm headed.

Just to put it in perspective, when I put on what I need for a winter hike it takes me one minute 25 seconds on, and one minute 11 seconds off. At the other end of the spectrum, when Diana Prince wants to change into Wonder Woman she spins around and it takes her about eight seconds - would love to know her secret.

So I challenge you to take the transition speed test.

How fast can you get your gear on?

If you practice, how much can you cut down your time?


Well, until we figure out Diana's secret, I think the important thing to remember is that road rash ain't sexy - safe is cool - yesterday's bikini is today's full leathers - and keeping all my skin intact is worth an extra four minutes.


And you know what? Wearing full armoured leathers is probably the closest I will ever get to looking like a super hero. And I like it.




NOTE:  All images taken in 'selfie' format by the writer, Wendy Boucher. I apologize for the crudity of the pics but.. hey, every cameraman deserves a day off I guess.



Moto Your Safe Commute - by Wendy Boucher

We see people riding their motorcycles around every day wearing T-shirts, shorts, and occasionally flip-flops. I cringe when I see that.  I have a friend who's a nurse. She refers to motorcycle riders as organ donors. I decided that I want to be the poster girl for riding safe, riding geared up, and of course being stylish while I'm at it.

One complaint people have is that it takes too long to put on all the gear. And a majority of accidents are people that say, "Oh, I'm just going for five minutes; I don't need all that stuff on." So I set out to debunk the inconvenience myth.

I've got my full face helmet, Alpinestars high boots and armoured gloves, armoured leather pants and jacket, and my Motochic backpack all in the front closet. I figure if I treat it all like daily wear then I will wear it daily.

I used to adventure race. Paddle, bike, hike, in the bush. As a team of three, we were constantly transitioning from bike to canoe, from canoe to hike, from hike back to bike, from bike to canoe then to the finish line all in under 8 hours. We weren't the fastest girls in the back country, but we rocked the transition areas. I have six gold medals. I use this experience to motivate me to practice transitioning from shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops to full leather armoured gear.

How fast can I do it? How good can I get at it? It's all about rocking the transitions areas, and that's all about practice.

I spent an afternoon putting on my gear, taking off my gear, putting on my gear, taking off my gear… To the point where I was sweating and breathing like a weight lifter.


First-round putting it on - three minutes 40 seconds

First-round taking it off - three minutes 51 seconds

Second-round putting on - two minutes 59 seconds

Second-round taking off - three minutes 15 seconds

Third - on - two minutes 41 seconds

Third - off - two minutes 25 seconds

You get the point…

Finally I got it down to one minute 59 seconds putting it on, and one minute 45 seconds taking off. And that includes stuffing it all in a big blue tote bag to carry with me to work, to school, or wherever I'm headed.

Just to put it in perspective, when I put on what I need for a winter hike it takes me one minute 25 seconds on, and one minute 11 seconds off. At the other end of the spectrum, when Diana Prince wants to change into Wonder Woman she spins around and it takes her about eight seconds - would love to know her secret.

So I challenge you to take the transition speed test.

How fast can you get your gear on?

If you practice, how much can you cut down your time?


Well, until we figure out Diana's secret, I think the important thing to remember is that road rash ain't sexy - safe is cool - yesterday's bikini is today's full leathers - and keeping all my skin intact is worth an extra four minutes.


And you know what? Wearing full armoured leathers is probably the closest I will ever get to looking like a super hero. And I like it.




NOTE:  All images taken in 'selfie' format by the writer, Wendy Boucher. I apologize for the crudity of the pics but.. hey, every cameraman deserves a day off I guess.