LAGERFELD’S’ FUR HELMET NOT REALLY WOMEN’S ANSWER TO STYLISH GEAR

If you’ve not heard, about a week or so again, during a Paris Winter Fashion 2010 preview, the ever entertaining Karl Lagerfeld, renowned designer for Chanel (my personal fav) and Fendi, debuted his new line of genuine mink fur covered scooter helmets—with built in iPod capability! Here’s the pic:

The helmet is of fine quality--covered with authentic, not faux, mink, you know, from those cute little creatures. The French luxury artisan helmet maker, “Les Ateliers Ruby” have created the helmet for Lagerfeld, for if you know of Ruby (article on MOTORESS shortly), you’ll be aware of its amazing high quality standard. Road ready, full carbon fibre shells with ultra soft burgundy Napa lambskin linings (poor little lambs). Apple also collaborated with Lagerfeld on this project ensuring the iPod hook up lets you pipe music directly to the inner earpieces.

Lagerfeld was quoted saying “Now everyone is on scooters, even chic women, so we had to do the helmet," he said.
Let me break it down for you:

• Fur is not aerodynamic or conducive to your riding comfort—prepare for major neck ache! You will experience great discomfort from wind force. Perhaps a huge windscreen would resolve.
• Mink will not hold its charm when you’re riding in a downpour
• Fur is not the choice of a modern day woman– we all opted for fun faux fur a few years ago to save the planets little critters!
• You’ll have a tough time removing insects from the fur that have collided with your helmet-do while riding. Perhaps purchasing a live mink that’ll do some instinctual preening and rid the dead or alive bugs collected.
• Lambskin lining instils a feeling of guilt.
• iPod should not be used when riding! A crazy notion--mobile phones, music nothing should be in your ears while riding except for of course, your ear-rings. You cannot afford distractions!
  

The only benefit I see for such a helmet might be when, say, hiding out in a forest where falling branches or say, dropping squirrels may be a hazard.
Then again, there is an added benefit of your head appearing to have quadrupled in size due to the added layers of fur--you’ll have a slightly better advantage of being seen in traffic.

No word yet on when the helmets will be available for sale or their price point. One thing that’s safe to say is they'll certain to be extremely expensive-in more ways than one!
Shame on Karl Lagerfeld for placing fur fashion before the real world of riding comfort & safety for women.

BEST WAY FOR A GAL TO SEE MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS/FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP—BE A FLAGGER!

This coming weekend, 28 March, venue Rogers Centre Toronto, I’ve signed up to be a corner marshal or “flagger" as it’s also known, for the exciting Monster Energy AMA Supercross and FIM World Championship! I figure, what better way to get in with the action, outside of being talented enough to compete, than being right down there in the dirt.And I’ve never been to an AMA Supercross before. So I’ll be able to share the happenings here at MOTORESS. This event is managed by the CMA (Canadian Motorcycle Association) the FIM sanctioned body in Canada--who have arranged all the flaggers.

In The Netherlands, I took the official "Baan Commissaris (BACO) opleiding" circuit marshal training course with the aim to better understand the language of the race track. On top of that add to knowledge/skills required when working, riding or running a race track. The MAC Club Zandvoort offered the course for its club members, during the off season, of which I was one. It was a super programme. I remember the good skills learned in extinguishing fires or in the case that a competitor caught on fire. I believe this stuff is valuable from visitor on up to competitor.
And two weekends ago I renewed my emergency First Aid certificate, something I need as a motorcycle instructor, yet skills everyone should have.

Here’s the special competition set up being built now for the fast and furious arriving to maintain their standings this Saturday!Hope to see you there amidst all the racing action!
Come to think of it, you’ve got a better chance of seeing me!

VALENTINO ROSSI'S FLIRTING WITH THIRTY.

Nearly one week ago now, on the 16th of February, the most unique talent in MotoGP racing, Valentino Rossi the name every woman motorcyclist knows, loves; the person we all want so badly to spend time with either on or off a motorcycle-- celebrated his 30th birthday! By the way, we're both Aquarian's!

Have a look at all the special brithday messages he received on the British news site--even those from his mother and father! They all help us see a bit deeper into the life of this unique racing human being.

Happy Belated Valentino! May you have many happy more!

Buon Compleanno!

MANYO GIBBA CARES FOR AFRICAN VILLAGES EASILY ON HER MOTORCYCLE

This past Christmas I decided to make donations to charities for my family and friends instead of the usual form of gift giving. One of the charities was RIDERS FOR HEALTH—an organization that most motorcyclists should know about and if you don’t well, hopefully this note will provide a cue to visit and get involved! After making the donation I updated my mailing address in their system, it was still noted as The Netherlands—no wonder I hadn’t been receiving their newsletters! Well, the next newsletter to arrive held a wonderful bit about a female health worker and community nurse in the West African country of Gambia—Manyo Gibba. So I just had to share it here with you!

Manyo was taught to ride by Riders for Health—and not just to ride but to carry out basic maintenance to keep the bike running day in day out. Certainly there are few garages.

Manyo swaps her traditional dress for a helmet and protective gear and begins her 14 village rounds caring for nearly 20,000 people! She cares for pregnant women, mothers and children but also works with village health workers to monitor hygiene conditions, health education and disease prevention in the communities.

Prior to receiving her motorcycle from Riders For Health, she was accustom to walking or would sometimes hire a donkey cart taking her months before her responsible communities would see her! Now they see her at least once a week. It’s a very cool organization and just imagine the inspiration Manyo provides to other women of Gambia.

Manyo’s role is to provide regular and routine healthcare but she is also a vital lifeline in the case of an emergency. With her motorcycle she has been able to rush to assist countless women during bad labours. If not for her motorcycle, getting her to location quickly, the woman giving birth would in most cases have lost her life.

Three cheers for RFH, for Manyo and motorcycles! Visit Riders For Health and donate.

Training Wheels on Scooter Keep you Balanced.

Not ever in my nearly three decades of riding have I seen, considered or thought of training wheels for a motorcycle. But what a great idea!

Recently, when visiting the Scooty website located in India, and having a look over their product line  I discovered a scooter featured in their line with -‘training wheels'. As you can see in the pictures below, the wheels are attached onto the centre stand- a very interesting concept! I suppose these small wheels and brackets wouldn't really be that difficult to design and it all makes perfect sense. Naturally very handy and useful for the learner who has not had any experience balancing a two wheeler, namely a bicycle.

I frequently encounter this very challenge in rider training —students with no prior bicycle riding experience. Unlike when training someone to ride who has not ever driven a standard stick shift car, training a new student to ride when they've not yet learned to be stable on two wheels is much harder. They need to not only balance on two wheels but at the same time manage/cope with the additional weight of a motorbike.

I think the big question here is however —do the training wheels work? They really don't appear that strong. Nevertheless, I'm certain this manufacturer wouldn't provide them if they didn’t do the trick. And remember, this scooter is 80cc and similar to many smaller scooters, are not that weighty.

The wheels and their small attachment can be removed once the rider is safe to ride alone. Personally, I think these training wheels a great idea! And you might already know this--I'm for anything that'll help someone learn to ride and enjoy motorcycling!

SUPPORTING COMRADES IN THE DAKAR

Have you been watching the televised reviews of DAKAR? It’s the most gruelling, challenging motorcycle competition any rider could ever dream of riding—the top test of rider skills. Most wouldn’t last the first few hours. Have you seen the footage, the terrain, and the stage route details? This year the Dakar, a destination in Africa is still used as the name of the event, regardless of the race being moved to South America, finish line Buenos Aires. It was too dangerous to run the event in Africa due to political unrest which if you remember this caused the 2008 DAKAR to be cancelled! In watching the footage, South America looks even more challenging!

I am so proud to actually know and have motorsport comrades riding in this competition. These are Netherlanders-- Mirjam Pol one of the few women (officially registered as Gesina Maria Pol) riding Honda start number #48. Then there’s Gerrard Rond a former motocross champ and no stranger to Dakar where he rode his first in 1986. Gerrard and I ran the RaceGirl Motorsport off road days together hosted at his special 40 hectare (including lake) location. He’s on a KTM, start number #156. Then there’s the famed former Dutch MotoGP racer Jurgen van der Goorbergh. Jurgen has a strong motorsport background, very accomplished, on HONDA with start number # 57.

All my comrades are still in the game and at the time of this writing riding out stage #8 of the 15 stage competition. I’m so very proud and honoured to observe their fight in the DAKAR. Indeed I am jealous, as I too would love to add this competition to my list of motorsport accomplishments—who knows!

There were 235 motorcycles entered and started, not including the 44 participants not quad and not quite motorcycle sector that were bunched into the motorcycle start category—that’s 279 total. Sadly there has been one motorcyclist death, indeed there can be others before this race ends.

At the start of stage 8 today, 137 motorcycles remain—that’s less than half. THREE CHEERS to Mirjam, Gerrard and Jurgen—still in the game!

Each year, particularly for the past 8, I’ve enjoyed cheering on comrades in the Dakar (the Dutch have a strong presence in all categories) makes the DAKAR even more exciting bringing me even closer to this amazing race!
Check out the DAKAR website—exciting info available to view!

MOTORCYCLE NEW YEAR WISHES 2009

Someone once said-- the New Year is another chance to “get right” all the stuff you didn’t last year! Lucky us!
Looking forward at this new year, the fact that we're starting off economically challenged, observing more evidence of the not-so-positive reality causes me to recall a true Dutch and practiced value-- “less is more”. I think this “less is more” philosophy just might be the ticket to getting us through the concerns that surround us; prepare us for challenging times ahead. With Ducati not participating in the Canadian Thunder race series this year and cancelling out of BSB (British Superbikes)—Kawasaki announcing its discontinuance in MotoGP (can’t believe that one!) its proving to be a crazy year ahead in motorsport.

There’s such a buzz in the motorcycling industry, among others, reflecting concerns for motorcycling—some say it’s a luxury and will suffer, where others state motorcycling excels in tough times. These questions were put to me during a recent interview for a Clutch and Chrome podcast—how I personally felt it may affect the activity.

Well, we need it. Certainly we’ll elect common sense, caution and may not opt for that 2009 model upgrade or the new Akrapovic exhaust (darn!). Perhaps try to get another year out of our riding suit, even though we’d love a gear fashion upgrade. It’s my opinion we'll continue to enjoy our riding—its really our survival outlet and there’s no better way to get away from it all than when riding, absorbed, focused by the road.

Indeed a ride costs a bit of gas expense (thank goodness for the drop in gas prices!) and even if our rides might need to be shorter, our track days fewer, knowing that motorcycling is part of our life, seeing our bike standing in the garage or the driveway is a great inspiration of escape.

I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s the simple sensation--
the “less” that gives us all that “more”.

Best wishes to you and yours for a most joyful and healthy New Year!
May you continue to ride along the road of your dreams in 2009!
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And remember you’re the one steering!