This past weekend marked the 15th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death in a violent racing crash at Daytona Speedway. Earnhardt’s death was due to a basal skull fracture in which his skull separated from his spine. The impact tore his harness and his body was further injured by impact to the steering wheel. To this day, no single person has made a greater or more significant impact on automotive safety. Earnhardt’s death shined a spotlight on the available safety gear and structural limits of vehicles that was far brighter than Nader’s dim bulb – millions of people watched their hero refuse to don a full face helmet and HANS device due to the restrictions they would impose, and avoid an antisubmarining harness for the same reasons. That freedom of movement cost him his life.

Today even the lowest levels of club racing require extensive safety gear, all more than Earnhardt chose, and participants wear it as a badge of honor. The day you have to upgrade to a HANS to keep racing is a big day. Automakers worked with suppliers to redesign seat belts and airbags, and the old standby – the crumple zone – got a remake in process, too. I spent some time with one of GM’s NASCAR safety engineers, who said that in the months after the accident, they spent most of their time meeting with safety teams from the “regular” car lines, all who wanted to upgrade wherever they could, because people were dying. It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact Earnhardt’s death had on passenger safety.

Coming back to my title, who will be the Dale Earnhardt of motorcycling? Who will be the person who is so well-known and respected that everyone follows? Who will shine a bright light on our safety issues, make the world turn around and notice? The adventure and dirt bike crowds seem to spend enough time picking themselves up that gear is not a question for them. Brittany Morrow has done an excellent job advocating for more gear, and by and large, the sportbike crowd is slowly coming around. People like one of my old coworkers, though, aren’t. In one sentence, he explained that even a 3/4 helmet was too limiting to his hearing and visual field while bemoaning the deaths of two of his riding crew buddies who were hit while processing through a red light to keep the group together. Motorcycling is a club, but it is a club of clubs, with no unifying center. Unlike NASCAR and the automotive world, there is no one person everyone recognizes, no one who can impact the entire group.

Our chrome-and-black-leather colleagues (and certainly many of our friends in the power rangers) have a lot in common with Mr Earnhardt when it comes to choice. Safety gear is limiting – it restricts you in some ways and takes a while to get comfortable in. Choosing which gear to wear is a privilege, and I understand that people want that privilege. The AMA continues to give lip service to the notion that wearing gear so basic as a helmet is a choice. As a senior driver on the NASCAR circuit, Mr Earnhardt used his privilege of choice to avoid the single most effective piece of gear the safety guys had to offer that year – the HANS device – and paid with his life for it. No doubt, the crash would have put him out of racing for a while anyway due to the failure of his harness. But he likely would have lived to tell the tale. Riders without helmets don’t.

It’s time for motorcycling to catch up with our four-wheeled friends on the safety front. I’m hoping that we don’t need our own Dale Earnhardt to make the case for stronger equipment rules. And if we do, who would it be, anyway?

It’s on the bike! A few notes….

One. The plastic bit that comes up at the back is a bit annoying. My butt is going to have to acclimate to that.

Two. I sit closer to the “tank” than on the other seats. This is ergonomically weird, but kind of cool. I can see the top of my windshield for the first time ever.

Three. The height is perfect. My feet graze the ground nicely. I can get them down plenty, all the way, actually. One foot down is super comfy.

I’m happy.

I don’t think any adventure rider ever goes out with the plan to field strip their motorcycle, but most drag a few tools along anyway. The question that I get a lot is “which tools should I take?” The answer is “the ones you are going to use.” Every rider can answer that question differently, and I’d like to give some guidance on how I set up my tool kit for a ride.

Firstly, it’s not a question of which tools to take, but which jobs might I have to do. Simply listing a bunch of tools is great, but with each bike out there having different fasteners, it’s a bit of a crapshoot to just say “T27, T45, 13mm, and 10mm” or such. I learned that the hard way on a trip that involved a rental bike and every Torx bit except the T50 that I needed to make a small repair. On the rental bike. My bike at home has no T50s. Ooops. So lets get onto the general list of jobs.

First up is battery and bulb replacement. This is a no-brainer. The most common cause of dead modern bike is dead battery, so that gets top priority. Getting to the battery on most bikes requires some fairing removal, so start with those pieces. I need a T20 and a T25, then a pair of 10mm wrenches to get the battery cables loose. In many parts of the EU, you have to carry spare bulbs anyway, so may as well be equipped to install them, right? A small Phillips screwdriver will get me into my turn signals and tail lamp assembly. My headlamp is thankfully tool-free.

Fairing removal is generally pretty much more of the same, so you are covered for getting to the innards of the bike if necessary once you can get to the battery box.

The next job I like to prepare for is untweaking forks. Any bumps or bangs into stationary objects can lead to tweaked forks, which can make riding challenging at best. Untweaking is easy and quick and gets you back in motion. This is generally a one-tool job, as most bikes use the same fasteners on the top and bottom of the tripletree. The potential additional bits would be whatever is required to loosen the front axle and its pinch bolt. The ability to loosen things up and straighten a tweaked fork in the field is basically a superpower – it can put you back on the road/trail in a few minutes with only a few quick fasteners and jabs to the fork assembly. Same goes for lever and bar adjustments – few tools, more fun.

Chain adjustments are a matter of course, and that means the wrenches or sockets required to loosen the rear axle and the bits – in my case, two different Torx bits, thank you BMW – required to move and tighten the adjusters. Fairly simple, and figure that if your trip is any longer than about 1000 miles, this is a good thing to plan for.

There are a few other standard tools that are worth mentioning and can serve many purposes. If you know that most of the bolts and other fasteners on your bike are, say, 10mm, by all means, throw a 10mm combination wrench in there. Just don’t throw every wrench you own in – you won’t need them and they are extra weight. I also like to carry a small needle-nosed electrician’s plier. This includes a wire cutter, wire stripper, and crimper, which will get me through most electrical fiascos. I make sure that in some of my tool-selecting-activity above, I’ve brought a 3/8″ ratchet and a 6″ extension, along with that 10mm socket that fits on so many of the bolts on my bike. A 12mm socket if I’m on the Kawasaki. Another must-have tool I bring is a strange old pair of Knipex Style 9 pliers, which I’ve found one hundred and one uses for, from pulling fuel injectors to replacing drum brake springs. Those who find tyre changes fun and exciting will no doubt plan for them and pack tyre irons and an inflator. An inflator is a good idea anyway.

Speaking of brakes, check yours, and check your tool kit from the three big jobs at the top. You will likely find that you have already packed what is needed to replace brake pads. On a trip of more than 3000 miles, you might want to consider having that option. My calipers come off with the same bits needed to loosen the axles, so I’ve got this covered already.

The very last thing I bring along, and only when I’m leaving home for a while, is my GS-911, a diagnostic tool that lets me reset my EFI system. I’ve never had to use it on the road, thankfully, and it’s become more of a talisman than anything else. It’s lightweight and peace of mind.

The potential jobs you might face on the road may vary from the ones I expect to face, and you should vary your toolkit accordingly. Do consider what you are willing to do yourself – there is a reason I don’t carry tyre irons. I don’t expect that even if I had them, I would change out a tube myself. Everyone is different with different limits and needs. Offroad riders might carry extra chain and chain tools. RTW riders may bring the entire shop. Or not. And commuters probably make do with a AAA card. I know that I do when I’m commuting. What’s important is to transition from the “what tools” mentality to the “what job” mentality, and then to pack accordingly. Like the Boy Scouts say – Be Prepared.

Nothing like a good farkle, right?

Right before I left Germany, I saw an F650GS set up for fire department work. I promptly fell head-over-heels in love with the Einsatzfahrzeugzubehör, the emergency vehicle accessories. These consist of a front light bar and a solo seat with a luggage bin behind it. My days of two-up are over due to both of my pillions having grown to six feet tall-plus, so why pretend any more? This is a solo bike and I love it that way. More light is always better, too.

Last month, I scored the light bar (apparently the last extant one, too), and this month, I managed to score a solo seat from ebay.nl. Several trips to the local BMW dealer netted me the luggage bin and some of the other bits needed to install it. I’m still sorting out the lock cylinder and a few other mounting bits so I can complete the install of the luggage bin to the seat and the completed assembly to the bike.

The seat arrived with a weird padded roll on the back and some sort of mounting bracket that was unnecessary for my project. It came from a Police bike, so perhaps there was a special kind of box in the back?

I removed the roll and then the bracket.

Next, I test fit everything on the bike.

I particularly like the additional tie-down hoops on the sides of the bin. Those will come in handy. Of course, they will make it impossible to get into the bin when I’m using them, but whatever. The bin can become tool storage or home to things that are necessary for trips, but not needed at a moment’s notice.

The seat measures 800mm, twenty more than the 780mm seat that I normally use, and twenty less that the Dakar seat that is plush, but drives me crazy. If needed, I’ll cut this one down or perhaps even reupholster it to a new shape. Needless to say, I’m quite excited about bringing this all together.

It occurred to me that we are missing the meaning of Honda’s slogan, “The Power of Dreams”. It’s a wonderful Honda pun.

This is a Dream.

So, someone tell me exactly where you go to buy motorcycle boots around here.

It’s time for me to retire another pair of Dainese touring boots, and that means a replacement pair is required. Worn soles, leaky membranes, small perforations, etc. I’ve found several pair that I’d like to try on, but the trying on part is the sticking point. I can’t find a place that either carries them or bothers stocking them. Because, you know, women’s gear isn’t a deal here in the midwest. Or anywhere in the US, as far as I can tell. Which is pretty darn lame because like most women, I want to try things on before I buy them.

I contacted the local internet shop, Sport Bike Track Gear. Great website with a lot of gear on it, but when I asked about visiting the shop, Eric explained that they “don’t really have any women’s gear” in stock at the showroom.

Revzilla suggested that I check my item numbers using their stock checker tool, and I found out that they have exactly one of the five pair I am interested in at their Philly gear boutique. Again, women’s = no stock. This extra sucks because I’ll be in Philly this weekend and I would gladly head over to drop some cash on boots and winter gloves. Maybe even a heated vest. Which they also don’t stock in the boutique. For women. I’m sensing a trend.

What’s missing here is neither place offered to bring the boots in for me by appointment. Sad, because I need boots and whoever can get my feet into them is getting a sale.

CycleGear carries the brands I want, but not the actual boots. The problem there is that I want the high-end styles with GoreTex. Too spendy for the average CG customer, maybe? Regardless, it’s still a dead end, albeit a bit closer to home over near Cleveland.

The Iron Pony is hit or miss depending on what they have bought out lately. And in this case, totally miss. Too bad, I’d enjoy the ride down to Columbus.

The rest of the gear “shops” I’ve found are internet only. Super.

To pull off actually trying on the boots side-by-side, I figure that I will need to drop upwards of $1700 on my credit card to get them all delivered to my doorstep, and then I’ll have to deal with the hassle of shipping the unwanted ones back. Presuming at least one pair is actually wanted. And whoever I order them from will get socked with a bunch of shipping costs.

I suppose I could just price shop to the bitter end and order another pair of Dainese boots that I know will fit and that I will get three years out of. Or I could just put plastic bags in my existing boots for another few months until I can snag a trip back to Germany. Over there, I can simply go downtown to the motorbike corner and *gasp* go across the street if I want to try on more than three or four pair at a time.

American retailers need to get the point – women riders will gladly buy. But they have to stock the gear first. And “available online” is not the same as stocking in store. Sorry.