Oil Drippings: News and Opinion

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the rock band Rush knows that drummer Neil Peart has a love of motorcycles. While touring, he gets to concerts aboard a BMW R 1200 GS, usually taking the back roads to get there while his bandmates fly.

(Photo by Brutus)

On his website, Peart has written about his experiences in Scotland back in May, explaining the virtues of what he calls “Slow Touring.”

His motto, which is shared with his riding partners is, “The best roads are the ones no one travels unless they live on them.”

Peart’s column can be found here. Thanks to Myke Biondi for tipping me off to it.

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The editorial in “The Hartford Courant” appeared more than two weeks ago, but is still generating response from noisy readers, which is appropriate since it came out against “obnoxiously loud vehicles” and declared they “need to be quieted.”

The editorial, with an online headline that reads “Illegally Loud Motorcycles Are A Scourge,” applauded state Sen. John Fonfara for proposing legislation with would result in a quieter environment. The full editorial can be read here.

RIDE-CT.com’s take? Loud pipes don’t save lives as much as they piss people off. What gives us the right to obnoxiously invade the “quiet space” of anyone else?

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The Motorcycle Safety Foundation is now out with an educational app for iPhones and iPads which has Dr. James Heideman giving advice on how to improve riding skills. “Dr. Jim’s Riding Tips” can be found at iTunes here. It costs $1.99.

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Japan is still ahead in the voting on Motorcyclenews.com’s poll question “Which nation makes the world’s best motorcycles?”

With more than 1,800 votes being cast, Japan has 50.16 percent of the votes. Italy is second with 22.92 percent, followed by Great Britain with 14.66 percent and Germany with 10.07 percent. America continues to be last with its share of the votes dropping to a mere 2.19 percent.