This entry marks "one year" as a rider and about 4,000 miles on the CS. I'm not counting the mileage GZ250. No disrespect meant towards that bike, but training wheel miles don't count.

On the 20th I went to the Laguna Seca track with Dennis and Karolyn. I was the pit babe. I had a ten minute respite from duties planned, I was going to ride 2-up with Dennis, but the track gods decided to give Dennis the experience of a low-speed high-side in Turn 2 of the second sighting lap - effectively terminating his track day. Dennis walked away with a sprained wrist, but his bike wasn't so lucky. Damage to the frame, a cracked cylinder head, all the controls sanded off the right handle. Real yucky. The bike went back onto the truck. Karolyn had two pit babes to look after her and her bike for the rest of the day.

After lunch I rode 2-up with Tom, the videographer for Pacific Track Time, on his GSXR 600. The sound of his in-line 4 winding up to 12,500 rpm in the straight-away was, ummm, very stimulating. Tom did a great job introducing me to the track - he rode conservatively for the first two laps, then asked with a gesture how I was doing. I gave him the "crank it up" response and off we went. What a difference from my previous 2-up rides at Thunderhill. From those two rides I had learned:

* He'll keep his head down so your helmets won't bash into each other. Other than your head, endeavor to plaster your body to his so he knows where you are at all times. You don't have to worry about him feeling your nipples get hard (assuming they do), you are wearing leather and so is he, and, he's got a back protector on.

* As you feel him getting ready to accelerate, clasp your hands around his hips and hold on tight. Incline your body into the acceleration path. Look through the turn. Listen and feel for the moment he starts braking.

* As you feel him getting ready to brake, especially for hard-braked turns, unclasp your hands and press your palms against the gas tank. Bracing yourself against the tank takes the load of your decelerating body off of him and gives him more ability to control his input to the bike as he makes the turn. Listen and feel for the moment he starts accelerating out of the turn.

* Other than changing your hands for acceleration and braking, stay still and stay close.

I've watched guys riding 2-up - they hold onto the pillion seat. What a pity. I pick up a lot of information from body contact with the person in front of me.

Tom kindly sent a video tape of the ride. It is nice to have a record of his lines. Sometime after I ride the track myself I'm sure I'll appreciate his lines even more. And when might that "sometime" be? Possibly in 2003, more likely in 2004. But who knows, my track plans for 2003 are just plans.

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At this year's Rohatsu sesshin (8-day meditation Winter retreat), it was important to me to express the role of the CS in my practice. Riding is not the same as formal sitting, but riding has become my sitting practice. Since last year I have been working on one of the "mu" koans. I had made zip, zilch, not a whit of progress on it. The response to a koan is supposed to emerge from your belly, a thought-out response will get you rung out of the dokusan room with an encouragement to allow the koan to "ripen". After a year all that was ripe was my frustration, but I managed to come up with an acceptable response to the one-year constipation. My next instruction was to show what makes me happiest. Not a problem.

In my next dokusan meeting, I pantomimed putting on a one-piece riding suit, complete with the shimmies and shrugs, stepped in to my boots, zipping everything up, flipped back my hair, which is now long enough to flip, but not toss, pulled on an imaginary helmet, fastened it, donned sun glasses and gloves, and swung my leg over an imaginary cobalt blue, black and silver Aprilia RSV Mille R. I started the "engine" (growly noises in my throat), closed my eyes briefly and opened them, now with the look of complete concentration across my face and "rode" a few twisties in a deep crouch. Tears of laughter were running down Genjo Osho-san's face. I dismounted and returned to my seiza position in front of him, and told him, "If one has to go through perimenopause, a motorcycle is a great way to do it." I passed that koan, learned later that this is a technique for showing the student that she has already found personal harmony with the universe.

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How many times have I sat at the traffic signal that is three blocks from my home, and fumed when I realized that the darn thing didn't know I was there? I've repositioned my bike on the cut out area many times, but I haven't found a "sweet spot". The following tip for street riding from Sam, who sends email from the department of transportation in Ohio. He says humbly that he knows a thing or two about how traffic signals work. He was looking at a product called "Green Light Triggers", available on eBay. The trigger is a magnet that you attach to the bottom of your bike. The magnet allegedly trips the traffic-actuated signals at intersections.

Sam's district traffic engineer, Ken, is not convinced that the trigger could be effective. Ken hypothesizes that for the magnet to be strong enough to affect the electromagnetic field and trigger the light, the magnet would probably pick up metal off the road, or, disrupt the electronics on the bike. Also, since it is the mass of metal that trips the detector, the effect of a magnet weighing a few ounces would be negligible. So, ...

... the next time that you pull up to a signal, look for a rectangle that is cut into the pavement. That is the actuator, commonly called a "loop detector". We cut a slot into the pavement, put a couple strands of wire in that slot, then fill up the slot with a filler material. A low voltage current is run through that wire, creating an electromagnetic field. When a vehicle with sufficient steel mass stops over that rectangle, it disrupts the field. The unit on the pole detects this disruption and triggers the system to change the signal from red to green.

The problem for motorcycles is that they don't have enough metal mass to affect the field. We are able to adjust the sensitivity, however, if its turned low enough for motorcycles, then it will also pick up the opposing traffic in the next lane.

So here's the tip: next time you pull up to one of these types of signals, stop your bike on the corner of the loop detector. That is where the field is the most sensitive and most likely to pick up the metal mass of the bike. You want the center of the bike, say, beneath the motor, completely on the longitudinal segment of the loop detector. Having the front wheel on one of the approach corners would expose only the small amount of metal from the front wheel, not the best scenario. I think the "sweet spot" would be somewhere on that line, near the corners, with the complete length of the bike on the line.

I'll try it tomorrow. If this works for you, let me know, and I'll pass the feedback on to Sam.

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I actually lane-split in San Francisco, but I can't take full credit because Dennis was leading. I have done the "start-and-stop" bit on the Fell hill before, and it is not fun. When Dennis signaled, "let's run to the top of this hill", I thought, "Oh shit. Sure, why not." and carefully steered through the dense-packed lanes to the front of the line. I expected horns to honk and people to be shaking their collective fist at us, but no one did. We were off the line quickly when the light changed, so we caused few if any eddies in the flow. Still, my heart was pounding. When I lane-split on 101 during rush-hour I'll give myself that check mark.

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All in all, from the motorcycling perspective, this has been a very good year. My most sincere thanks to Karolyn, Bart, Dennis, and Peter for their encouragement and support. I would also like to thank the people like Sam who have been lurking on this site and sending their comments - your emails mean a lot to me.

Here's wishing you and your loved ones, mechanical and human, all a safe new year!