Interesting Web Film "Chasing Susan" and Upcoming Ride

[INDIANAPOLIS]

Various BMW folks attended the Raider Dahlongega Dash! Turns out that Averill Townsend while there created a fun film now posted at RaiderSportTouring.com The film has Averill on his K1200 LT rolling behind Susan Galpin on her K 75 while she "illustrates" proper lines and fast cornering in the Smokies and never hits the breaks. Part Two has her blowing through some 20mph corners. She endangers no one and if you have a problem with double yellows best not view the film. As for THIS year the last Raider Ride where someone if interested could get their Saddle Sore Certificate will be mid November. We call it The Boogie To The Bayou! Just another Raiding Party as we roll into the Swamp Scooters BMW Guzzi Rally. Your way back could be your saddle sore day as three of us have only one day (Sunday) to get home, so for sure you'd have company. For a direct link to the flick go here: http://www.raidersporttouring.com/RaiderMovie1.htm While there check out the slide show which tells yet another story!

[SheRidesABeemer]

:dance Nice riding. thanks for posting!

[txtinman]

Isn't it a bit ironic that we often rail against the harley crowd for not wearing their helmets and other safety gear, but when one of our own displays unsafe and unlwful riding we call it great riding?

[sgborgstrom]

This should be interesting... :lurk

Steve

[Belquar]

:lurk

[Burnszilla]

Riding videos to me are like pornos. You get bored of them after about 1 minute.

[Belquar]

Riding videos to me are like pornos. You get bored of them after about 1 minute.


A one minute man huh!!
























:hide :stick

[Burnszilla]

A one minute man huh!!
:hide :stick

Sometimes even less.

Boy, I left the garage door open on that one. :)

[Daver90s]

Looks like she's a very smooth rider but very foolish crossing the double yellow on blind turns at that speed - I assume the traffic they were passing was doing around 50mph. ATGATT doesn't mean you get to ride like a dope.
I did find myself leaning into the turns here at the computer....ha ha
Glad the rider that was filming had the sense to not follow and "ride their own bike"
trying to remember the last porno that I got tired of watching.
:kiss

[ironMan]

Looks like she's a very smooth rider but very foolish crossing the double yellow on blind turns at that speed - I assume the traffic they were passing was doing around 50mph. ATGATT doesn't mean you get to ride like a dope.



Looks like a Billy Lane training film

[Visian]

She endangers no one ...

sorry dave, gotta call you on this one.

while i don't have a big issue on reasonable double yellow passing, i've seen sue up in the n. ga. mountains and she abuses the privilege. she does so in this footage, too. Her second pass, where she loses the LT, is on a blind corner.

there's a reason the "men in the two white cars" are seen more and more in Lunmpkin and Union counties... it's what's shown on these videos. this is the definition of reckless riding.

ian

[MysticRed]

Reminded me of skiing the trees except the "trees" could be comin' at you at 60mph! :uhoh

[cjack]

Susan Galpin on her K 75 while she "illustrates" proper lines and fast cornering in the Smokies and never hits the breaks. !

Nice video. Thanks.
I've been on those roads, but not since they became so popular...looks a lot like Missouri...

[knary]

sorry dave, gotta call you on this one.

while i don't have a big issue on reasonable double yellow passing, i've seen sue up in the n. ga. mountains and she abuses the privilege. she does so in this footage, too. Her second pass, where she loses the LT, is on a blind corner.

there's a reason the "men in the two white cars" are seen more and more in Lunmpkin and Union counties... it's what's shown on these videos. this is the definition of reckless riding.

ian

What I saw in the video is a reminder that some BMW motorcycle riders are a bit too much like BMW car owners.

:hide

:ha

I'm with you. Passing on a double yellow is sometimes 'necessary', but not on a right hand blind corner. Just when you think you've got a sense of traffic speed and how easily you can get around that vehicle on a right hand corner, coming the other way is someone else abusing the speed limit. BTDT.

[sgtboring]

When is doubt -----don't.

When no doubt be careful :stick

[kbasa]

Looks like pretty typical western style riding to me, at least with regard to the double yellows. From our perspective, it's difficult to see what she saw when passing.

She sure is smooth, though.

[cjack]

Looks like pretty typical western style riding to me, at least with regard to the double yellows. From our perspective, it's difficult to see what she saw when passing.

She sure is smooth, though.

That was my thought on the passing also. I think you have to be the one in front to know.

[username]

personally, i think riding like that is better suited to the track, or to country roads with no other traffic.

i have certainly ridden the way she is riding, except there were no other cars, and i had more visibility around corners. if i am crossing the double yellow to pass i've already ridden behind the car for a while, and they are below the speed limit. i'll admit that i'm a bit of a nervous nelly when it comes to risks on the bike that if improperly assessed, result in situations with closing speeds in excess of 120 mph, while leaning at 30 degrees.

riding fast and passing cars like that will eventually end up with a left turner (in her own lane) not seeing her and then bang, she's airborne. it also is unlikely that the opinion of motorcyclists is raised when bikes are whizzing by motorists like that.

smooth riding? yes. fun? most certainly. safe? i doubt it. our sport/hobby is always a balance between fun and safety, and everyone has to make their own decision as to how to behave in a particular situation. i wish her many more years of fun riding with no mishaps.

i'll put her in the category of physically skilled, and mentally flawed.

[Hodag]

hope she had loud pipes

[PMonk]

Turned off my computer after watching the first time but couldn't stand it.

Watched the My Tube video earlier of the Bad Ass Harley Riders.
I really like Harley Davidson baggers but I don't respect the attitude of a some of the new breed of riders as portrayed in that video.

Well I don't respect the disregard for responsible riding as seen in Susan's video.
Passing several motorcycles as well as automobiles approaching a right hand curve on a double yellow is lunacy. I hope no young newbies ever see this video and wan't to copy it. Ever heard the tern "squids"?

We all want automobile drivers to respect us. Do we gain any respect by blasting them with loud pipes or by blowing by them at unsafe speeds in blind corners in a no passing zone?

I am 55 yrs old and have been riding since I was 19. Yes I have passed a few slow cars in a no passing zone but never like I saw in this video.
Maybe I am just an old fogey, but I plan to enjoy riding as long as God allows me the time on this earth. Hopefully Suzan and others who want to emulate her will live long enough to get to be an old fogey too.

[BradfordBenn]

And we wonder why insurance rates get so high. And why some motorists do not treat motorcyclists with respect.

Closed course or race course, okay very impressive. Public road, not so much.

[Mika]

I don’t want to get into the value judgments, though can understand the arguments. The lead rider is smooth. I will give her that.

Ignoring the comments that can be made about “Claudio’s” riding judgment I am much more impressed with the job the camera person does keeping up and keeping her reasonably in frame. The title says it all about who the real hot shoe is in this film as fare as I can see. It is the one Chasing Susan.

[Visian]

personally, i think riding like that is better suited to the track, or to country roads with no other traffic.

so here's the deal...

i've been riding our mountains for 25 years. when i started, there was almost no one going up there.

now it is a zoo on the weekends, especially on the loop (the stonepile at GA60 to GA180, south on US129 and US19 back to the stonepile).

loud bikes, squids, stunt porn, supermotos, people trailering their bikes to TWO with racing slicks... to the point where they're scraping at least one poor someone off the road every weekend.

this has led to extremely heavy handed enforcement by the local police and the state highway patrol. license and registration checks where the cars get waved past. there is a special two-car squad just to catch riders... two unmarked white cars with blacked-out windows, driving about 1/4 mile apart. the first one acquires and the second one pulls across the road and waits. great.

needless to say, the people who live up there just *love* motorcyclists. i've had people swerve at me in turns, there have been stories of oil poured in the road. local politicians run on a platform about "doing something about it."

end of the story: i can't even ride our local roads, at least the paved ones, on the weekends. I actually ride right past them to go to north carolina (which is too far for a lot of the a**holes from in-town to ride).

sure could do with fewer out-of-towner "raiders".... jeesh, i sound like a surfer with a locals-only sticker on my car.

[Visian]

Looks like pretty typical western style riding to me, at least with regard to the double yellows. From our perspective, it's difficult to see what she saw when passing.


i know *exactly* where she was riding. the speed limit is 35 mph with tons of blind curves, driveways and local drivers. it used to be 55 until the locals voted to lower it in the interest of making it easier to ticket motorcyclists.

[snoone]

The title of the video should be DEATH WISH

[SHUNK]

I hope no young newbies ever see this video and wan't to copy it. Ever heard the tern "squids"?

I can only hope that my daughter never sees this type of "smooth" riding.

Yes, I think Susan is a very talented motorcyclist. But luck will only get you so far.

Friends and family are constantly telling me about the idiot on a bike who did this or did that. No matter how we try to differentiate ourselves from reckless riders, the public will only see what they want to see.

I like to ride fast and take curves as much as the next guy, but I also understand that my foolish actions may aggravate others and cause them to do something just as foolish - i.e. pour oil on the road, swerve at them in a corner, etc. - to the next rider down the road.

[jdmetzger]

I can only hope that my daughter never sees this type of "smooth" riding.

Yes, I think Susan is a very talented motorcyclist. But luck will only get you so far.

Friends and family are constantly telling me about the idiot on a bike who did this or did that. No matter how we try to differentiate ourselves from reckless riders, the public will only see what they want to see.

I like to ride fast and take curves as much as the next guy, but I also understand that my foolish actions may aggravate others and cause them to do something just as foolish - i.e. pour oil on the road, swerve at them in a corner, etc. - to the next rider down the road.

I was surprised to see that she's an MSF instructor. I guess it's a case of "Do as I say, not as I do"?

You're correct about people seeing what they want to, and it's a reason I really dislike a sportbike riding group we have in town. Just yesterday, I had a doctor tell me about "those fast bikes shooting down the road past my office at insane speeds, every week". His office is just down the road from where they have their weekly gatherings. Of course, you never hear "This well mannered biker went past doing the speed limit, and signaling for lane changes. His bike wasn't loud, and he was wearing all his gear." I DO have a problem with reckless people ruining things for the rest of us. That same sprotbike group kept taking the same routes on their weekend group rides, and that ended up with heavy police patrols in those areas. :mad

[PacWestGS]

OK, I've watched this twice now and read all the replies. I think I'm going to say what I'm thinking.

They are not going that fast, maybe 10-MPH faster than all the other riders on the road and sometimes they wick it up max for a short burst. (Cameras tend to speed things up. It's an LT for one not an R-RS playing keep up)

They can clearly see better than the camera when it's safe to break the law, and I'm sure we have all done that kind of passing in the past, so lets be less hipocritical.

Now, if I were a nit-picking-man? I'd say:
> She needs to stop riding so close to the edge of the road - unless she wants to meet Bambi and get taken out.
> She needs to keep racing lines on a race track and stick to a delayed-apex so she can make changes if something is in the road or on the road through and around the turns.
> She needs to hang-off the inside of the bike and stop counter-leaning (her body over the top and her bike towards the ground) all the way over on the inside edge - 'cuase now she has reached the limits of her equipment and left no room for corrections - should one arrise.
> She really does need to learn what that front brake lever is for before entering corners - so that if something is there she can do something about it.

JMHO
YMMV

(I have no interest in taking her course - I think she is a dangerous rider - who is unaware of the riding style she uses) Again JMHO... But who am I to judge - I ride beyond myself sometimes too. :brow

Doc

[rinty]

I think the actual sight lines are hard to judge from the video; the picture's just too small (at least, not being an IT professional, I couldn't get mine to go bigger than about 5 by 5).

She's real good though.

Rinty

[Visian]

I think the actual sight lines are hard to judge from the video; the picture's just too small (at least, not being an IT professional, I couldn't get mine to go bigger than about 5 by 5).

She's real good though.

Rinty

Click this link to view the movie in a full browser.

http://www.raidersporttouring.com/susan_0001.wmv.SWF (http://)

This road is GA60, north of TWO, south of the gas station. Speed limit 35 (set intentionally low to make it easy to ticket riders) and goes through neighborhoods with no shortage of driveways and local traffic.

[Visian]

She endangers no one and if you have a problem with double yellows best not view the film.

An update on this. (http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=1362188&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.1.1)

The report was shot on the very same roads that Sue Galpin was riding.

This pisses me off on so many levels. :banghead

Can't wait to watch part two of this report.

Ian

[Rich]

That was very interesting to watch. Another prime example of how a few are going to ruin it for the rest of us.

Make sure you post part 2 if you are able, I sure would like to see it.

Thanks.

[rgvilla]

a pretty amazing report, everyone ought to watch it. At least there was mention of the fact that it is a minority of riders who are doing this. No sympathy from me for the idiots who killed themselves. Where I live we have a bunch of two lane curvy double yellow roads and I have foresworn passing on the double yellow, even when IMO it is safe. I also keep the speed down. Maybe I'm getting old, I ashamedly admit that there was a time in my life when I rode like an *******. When you're young you're invinciple. I am totally opposed to riding like she does. Save it for the track.
Ride safe

[The_Veg]

Typical TV news to present the T.W.O. guy in the defensive light. I also would have liked the report to have included comments from some of the 'good' motorcyclists who ride responsibly.

The noise angle was interesting too, even if it was something of a sideline in the story. I'm in favour of riding on the quiet side up in the hills. Don't get me wrong- I'm not a noise-nazi, and I like the sound of really cool engines doing what they do- but we all have to share the countryside and there is definitely something to be said for the meditative peace of a quiet forest. You'd be surprised how far the sound of a bike up on the highway will carry through wilderness.

[BradfordBenn]

Seemed to be pretty fair, but there was one thing that did concern me. The reporter stated that there were ~319 accidents in the five county area. However he did not indicate that those might have included accidents caused by the other driver, and that they might not have happened on the "Loop"

But thanks for bringing this to our attention

[Visian]

Make sure you post part 2 if you are able, I sure would like to see it.


Here it is. (http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=1375282&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.1.1)

Couple of points.... posting these links doesn't mean I think the articles are fair. I feel that they are rather sensational, aimed just as much at boosting ratings as they are informing the public. This same channel did a pretty unbalanced report on a local off-road riding facility recently, too.

Note that no riders were interviewed. That is unbalanced.

Also note that no comment was made regarding noise, which is just about as bad a problem as the reckless riding.

My main point is that the situation in our N. Georgia Mountains is about as out of control as it can get. Imagine how fun it is to tell your friends to visit and ride, but to be sure they bring all their documents with them because they may get stopped in a license check aimed at riders.

Or having to tell them about the two-car teams aimed specifically at riders. The report didn't mention them, and I bet I know why... but the teams exist.

About the last thing we need is "raiders" positing videos of behavior similar to this news report.

Sorry to have to take my friends to task publicly in a forum like this, but the damage they're doing is pretty close to home. These news reports pretty much say it all.

Ian

[RebeccaV]

About the last thing we need is "raiders" positing videos of behavior similar to this news report.
You have an unfortunate situation in GA. People who ride irresponsibly/dangerously are just as bad for motorcycling as the folks with loud pipes. Eventually such behavior affects all motorcyclists in terms of public perception, legislation, insurance rates, etc.

I wish that the person who started this thread could see the responses but he hasn't logged in since his original post. Perhaps he is reading uncookied.

[BradfordBenn]

Visian, I didn't think you were endorsing or commenting on the issue.

[Mika]

The situation is not limited to the mountain states. Minnesota may be a flat western state but I can take you to several runs frequented by the sport bike hot shoes that are being perceived as a growing problem by locals and law enforcement. I expect that will translate into an issue for all riders at some time in the future.

http://www.stcforriders.com/ Here is a link to the Sprint Training Camp featuring Susan Galpin.

Is she a member?

Would there be interest in following Burnszilla’s Alton Brown example and trying to contact her? What is her side of the intial video we looked at? Would she comment on the forum or in print to the issue in general, the two television I-team reports and questions that we would pose ahead of time?

What questions would you ask of her if we could get her to respond?

[Motor31]

I'm commenting here as it was mentioned and liked to a thread I started at a later time. I missed this thread entirely. I'll likely copy my post from here to add to the other one.

I have to state that smooth riding does not excuse stupid. Having a modicum of control over a piece of equipment does not grant permission to abuse the priveledge of using in in public. If a person wants to cross double lines, ride well in excess of a speed limit they should ride in that manner on a track where there is no cross traffic, no driveways that people will be exiting / entering and most certainly no one driving in the oposite direction perhaps just as stupidly.

Unless you must cross a double yellow line in evasive action to avoid a collision, there simply is no justification to do so. Period. That goes especially so in the case of a blind curve. If traffic is going too slow for you, pull off and wait for an open area. If traffic is moving the speed limit stop fretting and drive responsibly, you certainly have no need to cross the line and pass in that case, the only exception I can think of being an emergency vehicle with lights and siren and even they have limits.

There is absolutely no excuse nor justification for a civilian rider to go over 150 MPH on an open road with other traffic as seen in the videos Visian linked (and I did also in my thread). Selfish pleasure is not a justification. When it comes down to it there really is no legal justification for a rider to exceed the speed limit unless again they are in an emergency vehicle with all of the proper equipment going and even then there is no excuse for 150 MPH in a 55, 65 or 75 MPH zone for them either. Pursuits are called off for a reason. The aftermath of a pursuit can far exceed any positive benefit from catching the problem starter.

I'm fresh out of rat's rectums for concern for a rider like was depicted in the films on this thread. Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not. Smooth stupidity or stupidity repeated does not make it anything but stupid. Attempting to justify stupidity and pass it on as something good is simply stupidity magnified.

[cjack]

If traffic is going too slow for you, pull off and wait for an open area. If traffic is moving the speed limit stop fretting and drive responsibly, you certainly have no need to cross the line and pass in that case, the only exception I can think of being an emergency vehicle with lights and siren and even they have limits.
snippage...

Along these thoughts, not liking to ride the crowded slabs, we ride a lot of two lanes. I used to pass everything in front of me going slower than the limit. I tried not doing that in the last couple of years and tried to enjoy the ride without so much work. I notice now that most traffic in front of me turns off within a fairly short time. I figure that most of the traffic on two lanes live around there or they would be on the Interstate. It's just amazing what you learn by trying a different tack.