G.W.R.R.A., REGION H, TEXAS DISTRICT, CHAPTER W

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1 April, 2017 Volume 18, Issue 4 G.W.R.R.A., REGION H, TEXAS DISTRICT, CHAPTER W Chapter TX-W Director Cindy Harris Happy Easter!!! Hope you have been out riding in this beautiful weather. If you didn t go to Fredericksburg for the Chapter O Rally you missed out on some great rides, good friends, brisket and chicken smoked on site and the best deals in town on their silent auction items. I always find something to buy and always go home with lots of goodies. Lynn got the jackpot when he bought a tire with the rim for his 1800 Goldwing for $5.00. He plans on powder coating it and then putting it on his bike. The tire was in pretty good shape too. Good thing he had lots of room on his back seat for it. Lynn and I are trying to put together a date to invite everyone out to cook up some hamburgers and hot dogs at one of the parks nearby. It will be a Friday evening and all you need to do is bring your own drink and something easy to share. Should be a good time. Will keep you posted on the day. I have been looking at the schedule for the baseball team in Round Rock. Still looking at a weekend where we can ride over Saturday, go to the game, spend the night and ride home on Sunday. There was some talk about maybe doing our own Rally sometime in October. My tentative schedule is Saturday, October 21. We have been looking at several camp grounds between here and Bastrop and College Station. We plan on stopping in and asking them the rates for the camping and what type of enclosed pavilion they have. We have talked to Chapter O as how they make it run smoothly and they have been sharing lots of tips with us, especially how they handle their silent auction tables. This would be a great money maker for our group. Another ride I am pulling together is a picnic ride for the Painted Churches. That will be a great ride and enjoy a lunch outside at one of the pavilions along the way. As you can probably guess I have lots of plans for our Chapter. I hope you will get involved as I know we can have and have had a lot of fun riding with each other. Please share any rides or events that you would be interested in having our Chapter go to. Since Roger Caron will no longer be riding with us, please keep Jackie and him in your prayers, I have pretty much taken on the Road Captain position so I am working on getting us some good rides together. If you have a place you would like to go and do not want to lead the ride, please share and I m sure we can come up with a route to go there. Another one of our Chapter Members has decided to stop riding and sell his bike also. He has a 1500 Goldwing and if you would like more information please contact me at charris8521@gmail.com. Our next planning meeting will be coming up on April 20 th. I will post as to where we will be going for dinner. I hope you will plan on joining us. Please have a wonderful Easter. Cindy Harris Chapter Director

2 PAGE 2 NORTHWEST HONDA North Freeway West Road) Houston, Texas YOUR ONE STOP TOY SHOP HONDA DUCATI Tuesday thru Friday: 9am to 7 pm Saturday: 9am to 5pm Parts: Service: Sales: Fax: (281) (281) (281) (281)

3 PAGE 3 Emergency Braking Practice Speed 30 MPH is as realistic as is 60 MPH By: James R. Davis A very interesting question was asked by a new rider on my site: How fast should I be going when I practice emergency braking? I suppose that many of you, like me, average speeds in excess of 60 MPH while we are riding and I also suppose that you might believe it is necessary, therefore, to practice emergency braking at a similar speed in order to make it 'realistic'. Absolutely NOT! Despite how fast a motorcycle can theoretically decelerate (very near 1g, or 32 ftpsps), *YOU* and your bike are more likely to be able to stop at a rate no faster than about 29 ftpsps or 20 MPH/Sec. That's about.9g's and beyond the ability of probably 90% of even the most experienced of riders. Why is that important to know? Well, the fundamental risk to you as a motorcyclist when doing emergency braking is that you will lock your brakes and fall down. Locking your brakes, alone, is not particularly dangerous, but doing so almost always results in losing the balance of your bike and shortly thereafter its 'footing' - i.e., you dump the bike. Another thing about the ability of well over 90% of even experienced riders is how short a time they can balance a bike. If your bike is at a dead stop, how long do you think you can keep your feet on the pegs before you must put a foot down to save the bike from falling over? For the vast majority of us it would be about 1 second. If it takes longer than 1 second for you to stop a moving bike, in other words, then you cannot rely on balance alone to keep you from dumping that bike if you make the mistake of too aggressively using your brakes and locking it(them). In fact, when you lock your brakes it takes some time before the bike ceases to be vertical - because of a slide (to the side) of a tire or other steering input. Only then must you try to correct the problem using your sense of balance. So, if you lock

4 PAGE 4 your brakes, perhaps 1/2 second later the bike is no longer vertical and about 1 second later you are on your side. Let's put all of that into a coherent picture. If you are close to maximum efficiency with your brakes, and use both of them, when moving at 20 MPH, you should be able to come to a complete stop in approximately 1 second. If you are too aggressive with your rear brake and lock it, then it will take you slightly longer than 1 second to come to a complete stop. But so long as it does not take you 1 1/2 seconds to come to that stop you will do so while still on your wheels. Any longer and you will likely come to a stop with the bike on its side because it will have fallen over. The objective of emergency braking practice is to find how close you can come to a skid without actually causing a skid - that is, without locking a brake. So, in order of likely outcomes, during practice you will neither brake at the theoretical limits of the bike's ability nor will you lock your brakes, you will lock your rear brake only, you will lock both brakes (a very unlikely event while practicing), you will brake at the bike's limit. If you lock only your rear brake then you are likely to fall over if it takes longer than 1 1/2 seconds to come to a stop. At 20 MPH, in other words, there is almost no chance of falling over before you come to a complete stop (and even if you do you will collide with the pavement going approximately zero MPH.) At 25 MPH you have reached a speed at which making a mistake in your braking (too aggressively using the rear brake and locking it) can result in you ending up falling over before you have come to a complete stop. At 30 MPH you are tempting fate. Meaning, it is now dangerous for you to make a braking mistake.thereafter, meaning at any higher speed, the danger to you increases. So, doing emergency braking practice at speeds up to 25 MPH is essentially without serious risk to you, and doing those practice sessions at 30 MPH is REALIS- TIC in the sense that you are clearly at risk if you do it wrong. But doing those practice sessions at any speeds higher than 30 MPH is both unnecessarily dangerous and no more realistic than if you do them at 30 MPH. Copyright by The Master Strategy Group, all rights reserved.

5 PAGE 5 May, 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Upcoming Events for May 4th Chapter Meeting 18th Planning Meeting 18th-20th-Texas District Rally, Wichita Falls, TX Check our web site calendar for last minute events If you re a rider in Texas, motorcycle insurance from Suzanne Sansom Insurance Services Inc. can protect both you and your bike. At Suzanne Sansom Insurance Services Inc., we believe that good insurance is no accident and our dedicated agents will take the time to find you insurance products that are reliable and affordable. We are an independent agency and we will shop for the top carriers in the country to satisfy all of your personal insurance needs S. Mason Rd., Suite 260 Katy, TX Phone: Fax: suzanne@sansominsurance.com Motorcycle ~ Life ~ Auto ~ Home ~ Commercial

6 PAGE 6 Retired Guys/Gals Ride to The Breakfast Paradise in Hempstead. Our Friends Ed & Kerrie Johnson, now from Phoenix visiting our Chapter meeting. Ride with Chapter M2 to the Lone Star Bar & Grill, Richmond, TX

7 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4 APRIL, 2017 PAGE 7 Our Meeting Place and Time GWRRA Texas Chapter "W" holds its chapter meetings on the first and third Thursdays of the month. The first currently at Rudy s BBQ, Katy Freeway, Katy, TX (I-10 just east of Mason Rd.). The second will move month to month so see our calendar. The first is our regular chapter meeting while the second meeting is an informal planning meeting/social gathering. Meetings are held at 7:00 P.M. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. Come early and enjoy dinner with the chapter. April Birthdays John Bourg, 17th Kathy Wilkening, 25th Steve Wilkening, 26th Anniversaries None we know of

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9 PAGE 9 Cindy Harris has tickets!

10 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4 APRIL, 2017 PAGE 10 FLEXING OUR WINGS A LITTLE TEXAS HISTORY Some April Texas Events April 8th, 1968 On this day in 1968, a crowd of nearly 10,000 watched as Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson, dedicated Padre Island National Seashore. It is the longest seashore in the national park system and encompasses a portion of the largest barrier beach in the United States. The history of the park was long and contentious. Efforts to establish a state park on Padre Island began in 1936, but proved unsuccessful due to a struggle between public and private interests over ownership of the land. In 1958 Texas senator Ralph Yarborough introduced a bill to establish a national park on the island, and the proposal was finally signed into law in The dedication of the park followed five years of condemnation proceedings. Today the park is a popular tourist destination, with attractions including a wide, sandy beach for swimming and fishing; a plethora of shore birds and migratory waterfowl; and a variety of legends involving pirates and hidden treasure. April 17th, 1871 On this day in 1871, the state legislature approved a bill providing for the organization of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University) and appropriating $75,000 for the construction of academic buildings and suitable accommodations. A committee selected a site near Bryan, now known as College Station, following the donation of 2,416 acres by local citizens. The college, the oldest public institution of higher education in the state, opened in October 1876 with 106 students and a faculty of six under President Thomas S. Gathright. By the year 2000, the College Station campus was the fifth-largest university in the nation, with more than 44,000 students, and the Texas A&M University System included nine schools across the state. April 23rd, 1936 On this day in 1936, rock and roll singer Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas. He grew up in Wink, and while attending Wink High School he formed a country music group called the Wink Westerners. Later, while attending North Texas State College, he transformed the Wink Westerners into his first rock and roll band, the Teen Kings. The group played throughout West Texas and recorded "Ooby Dooby," which brought him to the attention of the Sun record label in Memphis. Orbison rerecorded "Ooby Dooby" for Sun, and in 1956 it became his first chart hit. In 1959 Orbison joined the small Monument label in Nashville, for which he recorded a string of international hit records, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Blue Angel" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Blue Bayou" (1963), "It's Over" (1964), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and died the following year.

11 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4 APRIL, 2017 PAGE 11 Katy home of the 2017 Goldwing and the Can-Am Spyder KATY FWY Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon HOURS 9:00 am 6:00 am 9:00 am 6:00 am 9:00 am 6:00 am 9:00 am 6:00 am 9:00 am 6:00 am Closed Closed KATY, TX Phone: Fax: About Us Located in Katy, Texas since Wild West Honda is an authorized dealer for Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, YAMAHA, KTM, Sea-Doo, & Can-Am. Click, Call, or Come on by! Chapter W Officers Position Name Phone Number Chapter Director Cindy Harris (386) Assistant Chapter Director Vern Neal (713) Treasurer Janice Hill (281) Membership Enhancement OPEN Newsletter Editor Steve Wilkening (713) Chapter Educator OPEN Chapter Historian Jim Vardaman Ride Coordinator OPEN Webmaster Steve Wilkening (713)