ISSUE 217 M ARCH -APRIL 2018

PREZ Notes - Page 2

Club Calendar - Page 3 Club Rally - Page 4

Anke Eve Goldmann - Page 5-6 Feb Socal Trip- Page 7

It’s All In the Mind- Page 8-12

This year, 2018, marks a special anniversary for me, 50 years of legally riding a motorcycle. Though I had spent a few years puttering around the dirt roads of Wilson county on an old scooter it was not until 1968 that I got my motorcycle license. But, it almost did-n’t happen. I was just waiting for my birthday to get my car license, so I could be mobile and do all those fun things the older kids were doing (you remember those days), but, the summer before my birthday the state changed the legal age to drive a car and I was left out in the cold. But, they did not change the legal age to drive a motorcycle, so I bugged my dad until he agreed to by me a used Sears Sabre (yes, Sears used to sell MC’s). It was a two stroke 50cc made by Puch. Maximum speed was about 45 mph and the gas cap had a cup built in so you could measure the oil to mix with the gas. I rode that bike for over a year and put about 10K miles on it. I will never for-get my first “long” trip on that bike. I rode out to my father’s farm down in Wilson County, a whole 50 miles one way. Of course, with a top speed of only 45mph (on a good day) and a headwind it took almost 2 hours to get there. But, it planted the bug for mo-torcycle travel that never died. It would be almost 15 years before I took a real “long” trip (about 1500 miles that time) and another 5 years after that before I started serious long-distance motorcycle touring.

Back in 1968 I had no idea of where that motorcycle was going to take me. Today, 50 years later, I’ve lost track of all the places I’ve been on a motorcycle. But as important as where I’ve been in all those years is the people I have met; the community I be-came part of that fateful day back in 1968 when that clerk congratulated me and handed me that simple piece of paper. One of the best expressions of that community is the local rally where riders of different backgrounds get together to share their experiences and meet other travelers. A place where, for a brief period in these turbulent times, we concentrate not on what makes us different but, what we have in common; the love of motorcycles, travel and meeting people. I encour-age you to join us April 6-8 up in Kerrville and en-joy that moment with us. Whether you stay for the day or the weekend; whether you come to help or just visit; you’ll be welcome. I hope to see you there.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-

mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely

on these accounts. – Mark Twain

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PREZ Notes

SAN ANTONIO BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION

Hill Country Hangout

6-8 April 2018

Kerrville-Schreiner Park

Kerrville, TX

Club social – Club socials for the first quarter of 2018 (Jan 11th, Feb 8th and March 8th) will be at Guajillos Mexican restaurant, 1001 Loop 410 (NW corner Blanco Rd. and Loop 410). Fun starts at 7pm and goes till we get full (about 1.5 hours)

ACTIVITIES – This calendar does not include every Thursday social and Sunday breakfast ride. Events will be filled in as they are planned.

*Every Sunday there is an informal breakfast ride (weather permitting). The destination for the Sunday breakfast ride will be determined by participants un-less previously announced via e-mail. The ride de-parts at 8:30 a.m. from the Starbuck’s at 1604 and NW Military Hwy (Shavano Park).

*The first Wednesday of each month is Euro Bike Nite at about 6:30 at Pizza Italia, 3023 Thousand Oaks, just east of Jones Maltsberger.

2018 Events Calendar -Date in bold is a club activi-ty, dates not bolded are simply items of interest to members. NOTE – Everything is subject to change so remember to check the club calendar, http://www.sabmwra.org/html/calendar.html for the latest.

March

17th - Lunch ride to Lum’s BBQ in Juction. Ride will depart from Boerne. Details TBA

24th – 11am to 1pm – Officers meeting at Alamo BMW. Open to all members

April

6-8th SABMWRA Hill Country Hangout in Kerr-ville. Details -See page 4.

21st– Tentative - Trash PU along our adopted roadway

May

5th-7th - The semi-annual ride is back on the schedule to the Alpine area. May 5,6,&7th. 12 Rooms are be-ing held till April 1 for our club, more rooms are

available if we book early. $55.00 per night includes tax. Highland Inn on Hwy 90, they have clean rooms, and are very friendly toward us in the past. Phone 432-837-5811.

July

12-15th – BMW MOA National Rally in Des Moines, Iowa

August

4th – 9am- trash PU along our adopted roadway

November

3rd – 10am Trash PU along our adopted roadway

2nd-4th – Houston BMW Club rally- details to fol-low.

9th-11th – BMW MOA Weekend Getaway – YO Hotel in Kerrville, TX Details to follow.

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Club Calendar

SAN ANTONIO BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION

2018 Hill Country Hangout Rally Schedule

Friday April 6th

NOON – Registration opens 6pm – Paella dinner - Dining Hall 8pm – Registration closes

Saturday April 7th 6am – coffee 8am – Registration opens 9am – Poker run begins 5pm – Poker run finish 6pm – Chili Dinner – Dining Hall 7pm – Awards and door prizes – Dining Hall 8pm – Guest speaker – Dining Hall

Sunday April 8th 5am – coffee 10am – clean up, close up and pack up

Noon – Last person out

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Club Rally

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Anke Eve Goldmann By Paul d'Orléans , The Vintagent Newsletter, September 7, 2017, thevintegent.com

The independent, strong, and beautiful, Anke-Eve Goldmann (AEG) has become a 21st Century icon, a leather-clad goddess on two wheels. The commotion began in 2008, when a selection of photos mysteri-ously appeared on the photo-sharing website Flikr, showing AEG in a skintight leather racing suit, aboard a BMW R69 in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. The photos naturally went viral – the original Internet ‘who is she’ meme – and were quickly re-posted in other photo collections about motorcycles, women in leather, and bondage. AEG was as compelling in the 1950s as she is now, although the controversy she stirred is long forgotten – except by her. The exploitation of her image for others’ fantasies isn’t new either; she corresponded with French author Andre Peyre de Mandiargues in the mid-1960s, and she was surely the model for ‘Rebecca’ in his 1968 novel ‘The Motorcycle.’ What other woman, after all, was wearing one-piece leather catsuits while riding motorbikes in the mid-1960s?

‘The Motorcycle’ was Mandiargues’ best selling book, and was soon adapted for the Marianne Faithful movie ‘Girl on a Motorcycle’, or as the rest of the world knew it, ‘Naked Under Leather’. AEG was not pleased; soon, she disap-peared entirely.

A picture of innocence? Anke Eve Goldmann was a schoolteacher in 1955, pictured here with her second BMW, an R69 sports model.

By vanishing from view in the mid-1970s, after 20 years of being very much in the public eye as an in-ternationally published journalist, Anke-Eve became a cypher, because a beguiling woman riding a motor-cycle in the 1950s remains extraordinary. Her real life story was almost forgotten, as those who knew her best have mostly died, and AEG herself, born in 1929, is not long for this world (if indeed she’s still alive). The chance to interview her directly has passed. But…The Vintagent corresponded with and eventually interviewed her ex-husband Hans in 2012, after Anke-Eve, through her daughter, made it clear she wanted no part of a biography. She was too upset that the Internet had exploited her image for ‘pornography’, as she put it. Then again, even Hans admitted, “She was devastating on a motorcycle.”

Anke Eve’s ten years of writing for motorcycle mag-azines has survived. The Vintagent has already re-published her article on the women’s motorcycle rac-ing series in the Soviet Union, originally published in Cycle World in 1962 [‘Soviet Racing Women’]. She wrote regularly for Moto Nytt in Sweden, Motorrad in Germany, Moto Revue in France, Motociclismo in Spain, Auto-Moto in Hungary, and even Japanese magazines. She corresponded with women riders everywhere, and was instrumental in founding WI-MA (the Women’s International Motorcyclist Associ-ation) in Europe, and was their press officer for many years. She wasn’t anonymous, just the opposite; she was a famous figure in her day, although as a woman she faced considerable opposition – first at home, then in the German motorcycle community, then with racing organizations, and ultimately with patriarchy, which constrained her activities while exploiting her image.

To clarify a few questions usually asked about her: she wasn’t Jewish, despite the Goldmann name. She was born in Berlin in 1929, and after the war took a job teaching German at a US Air Force school near Dortmund, where her family had moved when Berlin became uninhabitable. She spoke good English, with

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Anke Eve Goldmann

an American accent. She first started riding motorcy-cles in 1953, on a BMW R67/3, trading it in on what is believed to be the second production BMW R69 built, in 1955.

This period saw her full commitment to motorcy-cling; racing in the UK, organizing WIMA Europe, gaining recognition from BMW as a brand ambassa-dor, writing articles for magazines, and working with German riding gear manufacturer Harro to build rid-ing suits to her design. Her distinctive racing suit used a diagonal zipper across the chest for easy entry, and was form-fitting for style and wind re-sistance. Harro presumably also built her heavy win-ter riding gear, kidney belts, and other accessories she’s photographed with…also presumably these were one-offs, as no other women wore such gear in the 1950s, and very few people rode their motorcy-cles in the snow! She was an avid fan of the mid-winter Elephant Rally in Germany.

It was the end of an era for AEG when BMW intro-duced the R75/5 in 1970. She bought an early exam-ple, but thought it ugly, calling it a ‘Hyena’. She felt it was no competition for other sporting motorcycles on the market, like the Honda CB750 and Norton

Commando, and so she looked elsewhere – to Italy, actually. In late 1970, at age 40, she purchased an MV Agusta 750 Sport, perhaps the only woman to buy such a machine new. She loved the handling, and the power, and the noise, and the looks. In 1973 she commissioned a fully race-tuned MV 750 Super Sports with an overbored engine, larger carbs, and open megaphones, that produced over 100hp. It was the first motorcycle in Germany road-registered with magnesium wheels and triple disc brakes; it was an awesome machine, utterly gorgeous, and one of the finest cafe racers ever built. Hans laments she never raced the hot MV, because “a motivated Anke-Eve riding the MV Agusta on a race track would have been a tremendous experience”.

After a dear friend was killed on his MV Agusta in the mid-1970s, AEG gave up motorcycling. She traveled considerably, in Asia especially, and usually solo. Over time, her story was forgotten, until an im-age-hungry Internet raised her profile again, and The Vintagent ferreted out her identity and her story, which will be told in full when the stars align. She was a pioneer of women in love with speed, and a feminist hero, working for the recognition of women in her chosen domain of motorcycling. In her youth she facing jeers for her riding and racing, was called horrible names by the public and kicked out of her

In action at a Women’s race in the UK aboard her R69, c.1960

Continued on Page 12

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February SOCAL TRIP

A tale of great service and a must see BMW dealer

By Graham Littrell

The ‘Great Service’ story was in dealing with Schu-berth and my C3 Pro SRC communication system. It would not recharge the battery, so in early December I called Schuberth and spoke with Brian, the service manager. He offered up several suggestions as to a possible solution. Tried them…nothing. Called back, and another option was to send them the hel-met, or plan a trip and bring it in. So, I flew out, made an appointment and brought the helmet into their location. I’d also spoken with Phil who was waiting for me, Phil took the helmet to their service and support area. In 45 minutes, Phil walks out with a working helmet and no charge for the repair. You can find Brian, Phil and Wyatt at 33 Journey, Suite 200 in Aliso Viejo 92656, or 949.215.0893 I would have ridden out in a few weeks, but our son lives 17 miles from Schuberth, so why not fly out and get away from the crummy weather we have been experiencing in February. Now how about the ‘Must See BMW Dealer’, that’s Irv Seaver BMW, in the city of Orange, CA. What makes them must see is the BMW Airhead museum upstairs, and this is a business that will celebrate it’s 106 year anniversary in 2018. They have around 15 bikes, very vintage and award winners. The bikes used to be hanging from the ceil-ing in the showroom, now you can get up close and personal. Even Bell has been the owner, since 1979, and has been involved with this dealership since the late 50’s. Evan gave me a tour of the museum and told some great stories on the history of the bikes. You will also want to say hello to the General Manager, David Di-az, who looked at me as I walked in and said, “I re-member you”. Well yeah, I bought bikes here over the years and got to know some great people. The link below tells the story of this place, be sure to scroll through the photos. https://www.ocregister.com/2012/05/05/oranges-bmw-motorcycle-shop-turns-100/

It really is worth a visit.

1923 R32 Serial Number 041 The earliest remaining example of this model

Although not part of the Museum, Graham sent this picture of a 1948 Whizzer. He says his first ride was not in such pristine condition as the bike shown in this pho-to He was in the seventh grade at the time. This bike became available again about 20 years ago and the only difference was the price which was around $2,000

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"It's All In the Mind!" By Guy Putnam

Preface 'It's All In the Mind,' is the first of a number of arti-cles I am hoping to write for the magazine. My inten-tion is to pass on snippets of information that I have been fortunate enough to glean over the years. Within the arena of motorcycle training I am of the opinion that life enhancing skills should be shared, as op-posed to merely being the preserve of the few who wish to make money out of other people's shortfalls. What is written here is for your consumption with the hope that one day it may save someone's life. The articles are deliberately thought provoking, with the unabashed intention of making the reader feel a little uncomfortable, in-so-much as asking the question, 'Is he talking about me?' or, 'Do I really do that?' At the very least it gives you a glimpse into the specialist world of police and counter terrorism driver training, and maybe, just maybe open a door onto an alterna-tive way of riding. Regards Guy

I was reading an article in a magazine the other day and it got me thinking. The author, who was new to motorcycling, was explaining how the standard mo-torcycle test taught him how to obey basic rules, but not how to stay alive once he was let loose on his own. Luckily for him, unlike many of his contempo-raries salvation was close at hand, his neighbour just so happened to be a police motorcyclist. After a quick conversation over the garden fence our budding biker came away with two of the most important rules for self preservation: Rule 1 - Never Assume Rule 2 - Everyone else out there is trying to kill you Armed with these two pearls of wisdom our man donned his helmet and set forth into the world. And this is what got me thinking, if only...if only we could instill in those who are new to two wheels the simple fact that, people really do try to kill you, not deliber-ately of course which is what makes the whole situa-tion rather bizarre. My own epiphany, with regards to the above came in the summer of 1983 when I found myself, rather self

consciously stood in the doorway of a large depart-ment store, in full uniform with my eyes closed. It was day one of my police motorcycle instructor's course and the Inspector in charge of us had simply said, 'Listen, don't talk, just listen!' So we did and almost immediately the lesson hit home, all we could hear was, 'Sorry.' 'Oh I am sorry, I didn't see you there!' People, walking at less than two miles per hour were so wrapped up in their own thoughts they did not see who or what was immediately in front of them. 'Imagine,' said Inspector Stilling, once we had reached the more comfortable surroundings of a near-by cafe, 'what they would be like behind the wheel of a car?' And that was my introduction to the fact that you really do have to treat everyone else on the road as a potential killer. Immediately my game was raised and this single exercise had me, for the next eight weeks expecting everyone around me to do something really stupid and believe me I was not dis-appointed!

This of course is only part of the puzzle in relation to what is happening whilst you are out riding. Once you begin to expect every vehicle at every intersec-tion to pull out in front of you, you automatically take your personal risk assessment to the next level.

Not expecting someone to do something just be-cause they shouldn't makes you as culpable as the

driver who pulls out in front of you! This is where the men and women are sorted out from the boys. Twenty years as a Highway Patrol Officer has shown me that we can, as road users re-duce the number of times we put ourselves at risk. If I had a penny for every time I have heard, 'It was not my fault, he pulled out in front of me,' I would be a millionaire. In an attempt to explore an individual's rationale for being knocked off his motorcycle I would then ask, 'Did you not even consider that this might happen?' The victim (sic) would look at me blankly and simply say, 'No!' If you pushed a little further and asked, 'Why did you not expect it to hap-pen?' They would, after a short pause, tell you that, 'It was my right of way, and he should have stopped.' The irony of my final comment, 'Hospital beds are full of people who had the right of way.' was, as ex-

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pected, completely lost. This reliance, that people place on the rules of the road is obviously flawed and needs to be addressed. Making your own decisions and taking responsibility for what happens to you is the first step - transference of liability, to mask poor riding technique only ensures you commit the same mistake again and again. Whilst we do need a basic set of rules to build our initial skill set around, for instance, always stop at a Stop sign or, never drink and drive, they cannot, as you get more miles under your belt ever be a substitute for the reality of riding on the road. An analogy would be, still relying on the stabiliser wheels on your first bicycle when you have already learned how to balance for yourself.

Base your riding on: What can be seen - What can't be seen - What can

reasonably be expected to develop.

Indulge me and ask yourself this question. 'What have I to lose by expecting the driver, who I can see at the intersection twenty yards ahead, to pull out in front of me when I am almost on top of him?' Hope-fully you have answered, 'Nothing.' If our man does the right thing and stays where he is, excellent; how-ever, if he does compromise your safety you will al-ready be covering the brakes and horn. By expecting the unexpected, you have physically reduced your reaction time and hence your overall stopping dis-tance. You will also, by being prepared, be able to apply the brakes in a smooth and controlled manner as opposed to being caught out and grabbing a hand-ful of lever, then having to relying on ABS to get you out of a situation that should never have materialized in the first place.

TIME to REACT! The essential ingredient to safe motorcycling.

Through converting the unseen, i.e. your belief that the driver will in fact compromise your safety, into the physical, the covering of the brakes, you have ele-vated your skill set to the next stage. Taking, Mind-Riding to an even higher level; we know that we can-not simply rely on eye contact and other accepted practices to keep us safe; these are but a few facets of

a very complex and difficult jigsaw. Once we get in-side the mind of the other driver and accept the fact that, we really don't know what he or she is thinking, we increase our chances of remaining upright. Is the person in front of you rushing to the hospital for the birth of their first child? Is the driver late for the school run and fearful that their child will be left standing alone outside the school gates? If the thought, irrespective of what form it takes is all con-suming, then our potential killer will not even be aware of our presence. Couple this to the food-chain effect (WHAT! I hear you say, where is Putnam going with this?), and where we, as motorcyclists fit into it, and you sud-denly begin to wonder how you have survived as long as you have. 'So, what is this food-chain-effect, Guy? Well; you very rarely hear of a car or truck pulling out in front of a Semi, or a cyclist pulling out in front of a car. Why is this? The answer is two-fold. The obvious is that the Semi and the car are physically bigger and we see them, simple as that. The second reason is a bit more complex; self preser-vation and where we as an individual fit in to the sce-nario developing in front of us. If you are in close proximity to something you believe cannot harm you, there is a good chance you will either subconsciously dismiss it or not see it at all; hence the old adage: 'Sorry mate I didn't see you!' An analogy could be; would you be more cautious of being approached by a lion or a jack-rabbit? And remember this; your food-chain position is dependent on what you are driving at the time. Definitely food for thought there?

City riding in particular places additional demands on a person's concentration. This inability to pick up on a vehicle smaller than ourselves is more prevalent when a driver has to process numerous thoughts at the same time - I'm lost...do I turn here? - What is the speed limit? -Get out of my way; I'm late for work - etc.

Where are YOU in the food-chain? It is human nature to make life as easy as possible for ourselves, even when driving. The brain processes four hundred billion bits of information per second. In reality we are only aware of approximately two

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thousand of these, otherwise we would not be able to function on a day to day basis. Add to this the fact that, when riding there are two observations per sec-ond we should be making, that is one hundred and twenty a minute or, seven thousand two hundred per hour. A dose of honest self-reflection in so much as, 'Am I seeing as much as I should be?' will allow you to become aware of how much you are probably missing.

If we happen to be stressed or tired, our ability to correctly evaluate risk diminishes; this condition is sometimes referred to as, 'red mist.' The brain, with-out any help from us tries to restore some semblance of order to what it is experiencing. It logically (as far as the brain is concerned) decides what it can dismiss in order to survive, and this is where the rot sets in. We begin to take what we believe to be, calculated risks, such as exceeding the speed limit or rolling through a Stop sign. There is now a body of research that suggests the subconscious, although aware of the dangers a particular situation poses to us, will block out what it sees if that observation contradicts the conscious thought process. So our, calculated risk, irrespective of how uncalculated and reckless it actu-ally is, is aided by the subconscious dismissing any-thing that challenges the brains main goal. Result, you, the motorcyclist, complete with High-Viz vest and Clearwater's blazing away become invisible! In essence we sea what we want to see, and our decision-making process, controlled by the brain reacts ac-cordingly. If we are unable to, or we allow the super-ego to convince us that we are a good enough rider anyway, and there is no need to, convert our thoughts (this car is going to pull out in front of me) into phys-ical actions, we become a victim of ourselves with no one else to blame for our own misfortune. Take a look at the following pictures:

Do you see a face, an Eskimo going into a cave or something entirely different?

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"It's All In the Mind!" As I said, we c what we want to sea as opposed to what is actually there and, until we begin to question our initial thought, in this case; 'I'm sure it's an Eski-mo,' or more topically,' I've got the green light so everyone else will stop,' we do ourselves a dis-service.

See, don't just look! So, how do we take back control, and attempt to make ourselves safer on the road? A good place to begin, regardless of experience is to understand that everyone's perception of risk is different, and we should never judge anyone by our own standards. Many peoples’ approach to everyday life alters when they get behind the wheel. The journey from, A to B becomes a challenge similar to a medieval jousting contest. Accelerating, in an attempt to beat a red light may not, to the driver concerned be a risk at all, it's what he's always done. He has never had an acci-dent so why should he change his modus-operandi. The DWI will, I am sure, in their convoluted mindset still consider themselves safe to drive after consum-ing copious amounts of alcohol.

Conclusion? What is blatantly reckless to us is normal driving to another!'

I was always taught that, paranoia is only a height-ened state of awareness, and this adage has allowed me to circumnavigate numerous situations safely. I am not saying, taking on board what is written here will make you invincible; it is simply a step in the right direction. Sometimes, no matter what you do, once you are in that kill zone you are at the mercy of the gods, my job is to make you think twice before you find yourself in the arena. Equally, expecting other drivers to break the rules prepares you mental-ly, allowing you to take that first physical step to avoid becoming a victim. If the driver at the intersec-tion does pull out you are in a win-win situation, a positive outcome brought about by simply expecting the unexpected. You have lost nothing and gained everything.

'Expect the unexpected then the unexpected be-comes what you expect!'

Or, loosely quoting the famous Sherlock Holmes: Dismiss the impossible, and whatever remains,

however improbable is possible

'Whenever we have been exposed to a situation for a

long period of time it becomes the norm. Reality is often masked by a belief that, because nothing has happened so far, it will not happen at all. Compla-cency will get you killed, nothing is ever as it seems, you may have driven along a certain stretch of road

on numerous occasions with nothing happening, however, a false sense of security and a lack of

awareness will in the end catch you out.'

Nothing is ever as it seems!

So! Now that we have decided that, we have no idea of another driver's threshold of risk taking, due to the fact that we do not know what they are thinking, we have begun to subtly change our mindset in relation to what we will allow others to do to us. Acknowl-edging the fact that, all is not as it seems, allows us to understand what hazard perception is all about, and in doing so we are able to focus our attention on what, at that very moment is either a potential or actual risk. For instance: Is the child in the playground a real or potential risk? The person driving behind you, who is looking down and texting, real or poten-tial? Hopefully you can see what I am getting at. Everything we see is in some way or another, a haz-ard. Equally, to be a fully functioning and safe motor-cyclist we have to decide what can go on the back burner and what cannot, this state of affairs can only come about through further training and/or experi-ence; the latter though does not always equate to a safer rider, especially if the individual has never been exposed too or recognised certain hazards. Riding a million miles in the Highlands of Scotland would in no way prepare you for, I410 on a Friday evening!

Never leave things to chance. PLAN! Okay. So far, we have recognised the truth that we cannot truly know or assume what another driver is going to do, and by preparing for the worst, which takes little effort on our part, but can pay enormous dividends, we are well on the way to anticipating oth-er people's mistakes, even before they know they are going to make them! A good example here is a car entering a circle with no indicator on, or the vehicle approaching a new housing development, were we have just observed intermittent brake light flashing. Subconsciously the driver does not want to commit to a particular route due to the fact that he is lost. Only

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at the last moment will he swerve and commit to a particular course of action. Add to this his out of state licence plate, screaming kids in the back and his passenger gesticulating wildly that he should have turned left back there, (why do people always tell us where to turn just after we have passed the intersec-tion?) and you begin to build up a profile of who is actually in front of you. Equally, it could be that he is simply a bad driver, but again it's a win-win for us as early recognition of the hazard already has us rid-ing defensively. Our ability to correctly filter the wheat from the chaff, with regards to what is happing in our immediate vicinity is what increases the odds in our favour. In essence, all of the above can be summed up in a definition taken from the police rider's manual, 'Roadcraft.' 'The Police System of Motorcycle Control is a simple system that ensures the rider omits no detail, leaves

nothing to chance, and when perfected gives that one safe ingredient essential to safe motorcycling, time to

react to any hazard. A hazard being anything that contains any element of actual or potential danger. Such as: Intersections, junctions and bends. Those created by the position or movement of other road

users. Those created by the variations in road surface and weather conditions.'

I openly admit that what is written here may seem challenging and take some people outside of their comfort zone, but only because it is different, not be-cause it is wrong! It used to be taught only on spe-cialist courses where the rider was already an ex-tremely skilled individual and had a sound knowledge of human nature. Fortunately, and not be-fore time this is now changing, and a wider audience is being introduced to what was once deemed, esoter-ic knowledge. Every scenario has to be judged on its own merits, there is no hard and fast rule, there can't be we are dealing with a road full of, 'loose cannons.' Expecting a driver to pull out in front of you does not, as many people put forward; require the rider to roll off the throttle every time he perceives the threat, thus allowing a following vehicle to compromise you and persuading the driver in the intersection to seize his, half opportunity. Again, the suggestion that, ex-pecting the unexpected would be so mentally tiring

you would become a risk to yourself through draining your levels of concentration, is simply not true, it on-ly requires the rider to anticipate what could happen, and be ready.

Observe - Assess - React! Not: Observe - React Being exposed to, 'out of the box' thinking for over forty years has, through hard won experience allowed me to form the opinion that, this system of riding, (my explanation to pupils takes the form of asking them if they would rather be part of the, 'Ittlebe' fami-ly or the, 'What If' family) is far easier to employ, and much safer than riding along blindly, and ignoring all the observation links that come your way; that might sound obvious but so many people really do miss the point. Someone wishing to improve their skill set (and it genuinely is very easy to incorporate into your usual riding style) and who is prepared to apply the above, every time they take to the road will, without fail begin to see things that before had, as far as they were concerned, never existed. Confidence in their ability to read others through enhanced hazard per-ception will soon become the norm. Equally, if that same person ignores what is available, or uses the aforementioned information sporadically, it is more than likely that he or she will, at some stage miss the potential manifesting itself into the actual; when this happens it usually hurts and ends up being very ex-pensive. Like most life decisions it is, in the end, up to the individual. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink…

Safe Riding Editors note: Guy is a qualified U.K. Government Driving Examin-er, and a RoSPA advanced examiner for both cars and motorcycles. He has operated his own motorcy-cle training school and has been involved in motorcy-cle training for almost forty years. He is a qualified police and civilian motorcycle instructor and has worked for Honda UK as an advanced instructor. As a former Traffic Patrol Officer, he has presented nu-merous seminars on road safety, has written a num-ber of published articles on various aspects of ad-vanced driving, and is a State Court expert witness in

Continued page 13

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Anke Eve Goldmann

home, but carried on regardless, ultimately changing how people think about women on wheels.

ED note: I first posted an article on Anke Eve Gold-mann three or four years ago. The article was also

from Paul d’Orleans' Motorcycle blog, “the Vin-tagent”, thevintagent.com. In the first issue, there was some mystery around why AEG left the media world. Perhaps her treatment from this same media world answers the that question as highlighted by d’ Orleans.

In any case, AEG was a remarkable motorcycle fig-ure then as her story is now.

If you have not taken a look at The Vintagent, I high-ly recommend you do so. There are stories of motor-cycle culture, art and a whole host of just good read-ing. Article reprinted with permission of Paul d’Or-leans.

legal cases relating to motoring and road safety is-sues. From 2001 to 2004 he was head of driver training for BMW (GB) and developed their ground-breaking programme which led to a 57% reduction in blameworthy road traffic accidents within the first twelve months of operation. In 2005 Guy worked for a company in Iraq who were, at the time concerned about the amount of blameworthy road accidents be-ing reported. Implementing a programme that later became a key component of both the company and the U.S. Army's executive protection/road safety strategy in the Middle East, road traffic accidents were reduced from, one per 12,000 miles to, one per 93,000 miles. Guy has also produced and delivered driver training throughout, Europe, Pakistan and Ku-wait. Until recently he was the head of the E.U. Am-bassador to Pakistan's close protection team.

Anke Eve with her second MV Agusta, a specially tuned 750SS with over 100hp, making it one of the fastest motorcycles in the world in 1973. She was a devastatingly fast rider.

"It's All In the Mind!"

Contact Dave Hoover, ahbeemerdmh@yahoo.com. We need help in the following areas: -Registration Fri/Sat -Dinner Prep/Service Saturday Night -Coffee/Water Station Maintenance -Security -Cleanup -Promotion

Page 14 SAN ANTONIO BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION

Steve & Helen have camping and cabins for rent & a web site - check it out at http://www.blancobeemerwerkes.com/cabin/index.html

SAN ANTONIO BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION Page 15

SA BMW RA P.O. Box 15143

San Antonio, TX 78212 WWW.SABMWRA.ORG

Club dues are $15 single,

$20 w/associate(s).

President Paul Mulhern

(210) 279-6074 pmulhern@swbell.net

Vice President Mary Putnam

(505) 220-2563 scous-er505@hotmail.com

Secretary

Bill Edwards (210) 410-9638

edwardsw@gvtc.com

Treasurer Kirk Snelling

PH: 210-366-8914 snelling.kirk@gmail.com

Ridemeister

Chuck Wetzel (210) 410-5353

cwetzel@satx.rr.com

Newsletter Editor Dave Hoover

(210) 247-8821 ahbeemerdmh@yahoo.com

The San Antonio BMW Riders Newsletter is published bi-monthly solely for the use of its members. Any copying and/or duplicating is acceptable provided it is not done for profit. Classified ads are free to members Please call or e-mail the ads to the editor. Advertising rates for businesses are: One year - 6 issues Business Card $ 50.00 Quarter Page $100.00 Half page $190.00 Full Page $350.00

Editor Notes

The weather has allowed me to ride back and forth to work most of this last week. It is nice to get out other than on a Saturday or Sunday, even though the trips are less than 20 miles each way. The nice weather has also pushed me into the garage to finish up repairs on two of my airheads. Hope to see them both running this next month. I think by now you are aware of the club rally; “Hill Country Hangout”, coming up 6-8 April, less than a month away. Take a break, come on out, you will enjoy yourself. Thanks to Guy Putnam and Graham Littrell for their articles this month. As always, I need your articles and pictures to keep this newsletter interesting. Blue Bonnet season is coming up and I will need a good one to put on the cover of our next issue. Be safe, be out riding .

Hank Arriazola 201 N Commerce, Dilley Texas 78017 (830) 963-1203 info@motohank.com

Steve Henson

In The Heart Of The Hill Country

(512)413-5662 Henzilla57@earthlink.net

Call For an Appointment

Blanco BeeMerWerkes