Helmets and IMS San Mateo December 12-08

Helmets.

My good friend, Brian has written a great post on helmets, with a lot of useful information for those of you who are shopping for a new helmet, or are debating whether or not you need a full face helmet. And some interesting insight from someone who's been riding for a while.

http://mylifeatscuderiawest.blogspot.com/2008/11/gear-helmets-and-what-you-need-to-know.html

The only other thing I'd like to add to his post is that you should always try on as many helmets as you can. Even if you can't afford the $500 Arai, you need that frame of reference. Once you know what a good, perfect fit is, then you know what you need. So if you can't afford the Arai, find the $200 helmet that fits *almost* as good as that Arai. The same goes for gear. Try on everything, figure out what is supposed to fit and where, and then shop for the less expensive piece of gear that fits *almost* perfect.

And, yes, white won't automatically save your life either. Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

IMS

So it looks like this year at the San Mateo IMS, I'll be doing a couple of things. Friday will be Ladies Night, with the IMS offering a 50% off coupon for Friday night. (I noticed that the coupon says Sunday, although the title and fine print say Friday) I'll be giving a 25 minute seminar on gear, specifically focused towards women motorcycle riders. I'll also be hanging out in the Welcome Center at the Women's Info desk. I always love talking to women who are thinking about getting into riding and hope to help everyone in any way I can.

There will also be a new area called the "Hub", which is a presentation stage. There's going to be quite a few speakers, covering topics like off road riding and motorcycle insurance. I'm thrilled to be here as well. I just hope people show up to hear me talk! On Saturday and Sunday I'll be speaking to an audience of potential riders, interested in hearing about what they should be wearing while riding. I'm thinking of covering some general topics such as:

• How to dress from head to toe
• General tips when shopping for gear
• How your gear should fit

I just hope I can squeeze these all into 15 minutes. There's going to be a 10 minute Q-A afterwards. I need to write up some notes, because if I start rambling there's no telling when I'll stop. I can talk for hours about gear!

I hope to see you there. :)

New Toy and Ladies' Night

So my husband and I are planning a 2 week vacation to Vancouver, stopping in Portland and Seattle, and other little cities on the way. We decided to prep for this ride by purchasing the BlueAnt Interphone (bluetooth) headset system.

PRODUCT FEATURES
• Wireless headset for your Bluetooth enabled cell phone at a range of up to 33 feet (10 metres)
• Bike-to-bike Intercom* for rider and passenger or two separate bikes up to 490 feet (150 metres)
• World class Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for noise and echo reduction
• Excellent performance at speeds of up to 80mph (130 Km/h)
• Microphone incorporates anti-noise and anti-wind feature
• All weather, water resistant including heavy rain
• Large multi-function button for easy use with gloves on
• Automatic volume adjustment depending on speed induced environmental noise
• Configurable with Bluetooth Headset compatible GPS devices
• Easily mounts to all full faced and open faced helmets
• 2 clip mounts included - Clamp mount and Adhesive
• Voice answer, voice dialing; redial
• Up to 10 hours talk time when connected to your cell phone
• Up to 5 hours talk time when using the Intercom* feature
• Up to 700 hours standby
• 2 year replacement warranty
• Where to Buy:

www.alternativewireless.com

We bought it from NewEgg.com but it appears that they aren't selling these anymore, the last time I checked. I just installed and set it up to work with my iphone and so far so good! Apparently we'll be able to connect our iphones and talk to eachother while riding. I think this will be especially useful if I need to stop for a bathroom break or what not.

We also purchased their Portable Handsfree Car Kit as well. I hate fumbling for my earphones and I can't stand walking around with a bluetooth headset thing on my ear. I haven't used it just yet, but we've read great things about this product.

Last night was also the Scuderia's Ladies Event and it was really great to see women come together just to talk about riding! How often do you get to hang out with a bunch of cool women who ride and talk as much as you want about motorcycles? I'm guessing not very often. I also had the opportunity to help a few women find some overpants as well. I also had the pleasure of meeting Carla King, an author who's written a book about her adventures riding around the US on a Russian sidecar motorcycle. We're hoping to have her back as a guest speaker at the next event hosted at Scuderia.

Full Face Helmets

"I'm not going very far"
"I only ride a scooter"
"I don't ride very fast"
"But I only ride on the back"

Sound familiar? People have many, many misconceptions about why you need to wear a full face helmet. You do not, I repeat do not have to be going 80 mph on the freeway to have a head injury!

Read this and then let me know if you still don't think you need to wear a full face helmet.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352566

Gorgeous Helmet

As some of you may know, Scorpion helmets are an awesome helmet in the less than $400/Shoei/Arai range. For the price, this helmet is an amazing deal. There are currently 2 types, the ex 400 and ex 700. The 700 is a little pricier at ~$200-$250, compared to the 400 which runs less than $200.

There's this new style of the 700 called the Black Dahlia that I think you will all LOVE. I wish my head were bigger, because I'd ditch my arai and go with the 'Black Dahlia'. It's only $209.95 on NewEnough.Com!