Iowa Chapter E Couple of the Year Gary & Milia Boatman FROM YOUR CHAPTER DIRECTOR:

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1 VOLUME 18, ISSUE 8 August 2018 The Soaring Eagle Gold Wing Road Riders Association Iowa Chapter E CHAPTER E TEAM Chapter Director Kevin & Cheryle Miller goldwinging@mediacombb.n et Assistant Chapter Director Connie & Boomer Franklin Winghavn@adams.net Ride Coordinator John & Sue Olenick johnridered@gmail.com Chapter Treasurer Leslie & Jim Rainbolt jhdrlfr@gmail.com Member Enhancement Public Relations Bill & Carol Cook iowacooks@aol.com Fund Raiser Coordinator s for Ronald McDonald House Gary & Val Duckstein Cell Garyvalduck@mediacombb.net Newsletter Editor Gwyn Jones gwynjones@ mediacombb.net Couple of the Year Gary & Milia Boatman FROM YOUR CHAPTER DIRECTOR: Hello Wingers Well July has come and gone, where is this summer going? It s been a very busy summer up to this point. Chapter E has enjoyed a few rallies and parties and I am looking forward to the ones we have coming up. We encourage your feedback on things that you would like to see your Chapter do. So please voice your opinion. I promise good or bad it will not hurt my feelings, as this is your Chapter and I want everyone to be as happy with the Chapter as I am. We had another good turnout for our July gathering and it was GREAT to see some brand-new faces. If you were not there I m sorry. You missed out meeting these 4 new people. We are looking forward to them coming back next month and the following months to be part of our Iowa Chapter E group. We had a good turnout for our Family Picnic, the weather was really nice, especially since the Thursday before we had a pretty bad storm the ripped through Warsaw and took down a lot of trees and nocked the power out in town. But the City did a wonderful job of getting the town back in shape and we were thankful for that. (Continued on page 7) GWRRA Gathering, Aug 11, 2018 Fort Colony Family Diner 5102 Ave O. Fort Madison, IA p.m. 6:30 p.m. Host: Jim & Leslie Rainbolt

2 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 2 RONALD MCDONALD CORNER The Ronald McDonald house funds are at $ Plus, an estimated amount of $ we should be receiving from Pizza Ranch. This would put us at $981.85, but don t hold me to that. With that being said, I need to send out a BIG THANK YOU to Linda Huppenbaur and her crew for making 50 tent notes for the tables at Pizza Ranch, so everyone knew why GWRRA was waiting tables and what we were collecting for. Next is a Thank you to Linda, her daughter Summer, Ed Gillis, Duane, Emily Peel and myself for waiting tables. A Thank you to Pint and Ruth Henry and Mike Huppenbaur for coming out to eat with us and making a donation. August 12th is the day we head to Iowa City. We will leave from the Phillip 66 Station (West Burlington), at 9.00 a.m. If you don t want to haul you tabs and other donations, then get them to me. I still have some room left. Update on Tony. Around the 25 th of July they will be moving Tony to the Nursing Home to help with physical therapy. Hopefully he will be able to go home in the near future. He has had the second surgery on his hip. Still having drainage issues and a vacuum pump on him to help with that. Their home address is th. Street, Port Byron, IL Until Next time Gary & Val Coordinator s for Ronald McDonald House fund raiser Ph Cell Garyvalduck@mediacombb.net

3 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 3 Pizza Ranch Waiters for Ronald McDonald Fund Raiser June 27 ************ CHAPTER E FAMILY PICNIC JULY 21

4 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 4 District Educator for the Iowa District This is the fourth in a series of articles I am writing about the MSF 100 Motorcyclists Naturalistic Study conducted by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and commissioned by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). My last two articles included a summary of each of the previous articles but I am going to keep my summary this time real short. The study included 100 motorcycles for an average of 1 year and used cameras and other devices on the motorcycles to record for analysis both crashes and near crashes. This technique has been used on other vehicles in the past, but this was quite different than what was used in previous motorcycle crash studies which relied on observations from crash scenes, such as police reports, and from participant memories. The ability to record near crashes added a lot of data to the study. In my first article I wrote about the most common incident for motorcycles, which was the low-speed drop. The second wrote about how common it was for motorcycles to run into the back of other vehicles. The third article noted that motorcyclists are more likely to have incidents in less populated areas that on busier highways or urban areas. I found all three of these findings from the study surprising, including that the low-speed drop was the most common incident by a large margin. Of course, this is not common on a trike, but all of the other findings are probably as true for 3-wheel motorcycles as 2-wheel motorcycles. Now, there was a lot of other findings from the study that were not surprising at all but are noteworthy in reinforcing what other motorcycle crash studies have found. Here are some of those findings: Curves are dangerous. It is pretty common knowledge that the most likely place for a motorcycle accident that does not involve any other vehicle is in curves. Intersections are also dangerous. This is true for all vehicles. It is also common knowledge that intersections are the most likely place for motorcycles to have an incident with another vehicle. It is significant, though, that intersections where the motorcyclist did not have a traffic control device was more dangerous that when the motorcyclist had a stop sign or signal. I believe the lesson is that we cannot assume other vehicles will not enter into our right-of-way just because they had a stop sign and we did not. We should also be thinking about every driveway and every entrance to a parking lot off the street we are riding on is an intersection. Not a big surprise that aggressive driving and excessive speed are perilous. Aggressive driving and a lack of skill is a really bad combination. When we ride with a passenger we are reducing our risk by nearly two-thirds according to the statistics. Some road characteristics are more dangerous than others. Sloped surfaces and gravel or dirt roads are both factors in some of the incidents. Uphill starts and riding downhill can also be factors. Inattention, a lack of knowledge, and weak control skills increase risk by a factor of 9. We need to watch out for animals, pedestrians and bicyclists. Beware of side swipes, particularly by other drivers traveling in the same direction as you are. I assume these are typically other drivers that fail to do a proper head check before changing lanes. However, it is likely many of these are where the motorcyclist is in the other vehicle s blind spot. It is not the motorcyclist s fault if the other vehicle changes lanes but we need to be aware of when we are in the blind spot, trying to change positions to get out of the blind spot and constantly watching the other vehicle for signs of changing lanes. Then there are those drivers that will cut in front of you even if there is no room for them to do so, expecting you to make room for them. It is not surprising at all to me that side swipes

5 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 5 (Continued from page 4) are fairly common. One conclusion that came from the study that I was surprised to hear was that braking is better than swerving in crash avoidance. I believe this is because we are not prepared to use swerving. For many people it is less instinctual to swerve. Also, if we end up braking and swerving at the same time we are likely to lose traction and can slide out. If we wanted to use both we can brake first, get off the brakes, then swerve. Or we can swerve first then brake after straightening. However, when the situation arises where I might want to use both braking and swerving it is likely going to require a split second decision. Without sufficient practice at swerving we are probably going to be more successful to just brake. The study was pretty limited in scope, though they used a variety of motorcycles (all 2 wheeled), ages and both men and women motorcyclists. Percentages of how each factor studied affected risk could be skewed by having only 100 motorcycles. However, the benefits of this study over how other previous studies gathered data provides us with more realistic information. The final take-away from this study is that our best safety strategy is the same that it always has been. There are both mental and physical skills required in motorcycling. The mental skills we need include using good judgment, staying attentive while driving and using the SAA approach, which is to Scan for hazards and look for escape paths, Analyze the potential hazards and possible avoidances of those hazards, and Act at the right time. The physical skills require practice of the proper skills, proper hand/eye/foot coordination, and for us to be in good physical and mental condition. We need to be honest about ourselves, what are abilities are, and what might be some of our behaviors that increase our risk. We need to first identify what those risks are so that we can work to modify our risky behaviors. I know there are things of which I need to constantly remind myself. These strategies work if we put them into action. Until next month, safe riding and hope to see you on the road. Greg Hayes Iowa District Educator, GWRRA

6 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 6 COFFEE S Aug 1 Gator s Burlington, IA Aug 8 Open Aug 15 DQ Hamilton, IL Aug 22 Open Aug 29 Rondavoo Burlington, IA Sept 5 Culver s Burlington, IA Sept 12 Open Sept 19 Sub Arena Ft. Madison, IA Sept 26 Open Monthly Get Together Everyone Welcome! 2 nd Saturday of each month (except February, November and December). Fort Colony Family Diner 5102 Ave O Fort Madison, IA. Eat at 5:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. Weekly Coffees on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m., at various locations, see the Coffee s for each month in this newsletter BIRTHDAYS Donna Johnson Aug 7 DelbertStephens Aug 9 Bill Herring Aug 18 Cassandra Mahan Aug 22 Skip Gillis Aug 28 Sally Lindgren Aug 28 Kevin Ryner Aug 31 WE ARE ON THE WEB weebly.com GWRRA ANNIVERSARY DATES Ed Gillis Aug John & Sue Olenick Aug Kevin & Debbie Ryner Aug Curt Gattett Aug WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES Richard & Sally Lindgren Aug 2 Gary & Val Duckstein Aug 24 Ed & Skip Gillis Aug UPCOMING EVENTS (All subject to change) Aug 2 4 th IL District Rally Litchfield, IL Aug 11 th Monthly Gathering Ft. Madison, IA Aug 12 th Ronald McDonald Ride, Iowa City, IA Aug 25 Breakfast/Brunch/Campout Ride Oakland Mills, IA Aug 28 th Sept 1 st Wing Ding 40 Knoxville, TN Sept th Iowa District Rally Fort Dodge, IA Nov 10 Thanksgiving Dinner Burlington, IA Dec 1 st Christmas on Main St Osage Beach, MO Dec 8 th Toys for 5:30 p.m. Keokuk, IA Dec 9 th Dirty 11:30 a.m. Burlington, IA Please double check the event dates listed above each month, as they may change from time to time.

7 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 7 FROM YOUR CHAPTER DIRECTOR: (Continued from page 1) Our Diner ride to London Mills was GREAT! We had a wonderful turn out and the bike ride was fantastic. I am sorry if you missed it. But you will have another opportunity August 25 th for another fun ride. I hope you can make it. Ralph Swank Award. Need to turn in your nominations by September 1 st. Here is what we have in store for our Chapter during the Month of August. August 2-4 Illinois District Rally Litchfield, IL August 11 th Iowa Chapter E Monthly Gathering Ft. Madison, IA August 12 th Iowa Ronald McDonald House Ride to Iowa City, IA August 25 th Breakfast / Brunch Ride / Campout Oakland Mills, IA August 28 th to September 1 st Wing Ding 40 Knoxville, TN Then there are the coffee s every Wednesday - Check the online Calendar or the newsletter for the location of the week. As you can see there is a lot going on for the Month of August. I hope to see you at some of these and as always ride and be safe out there. Sincerely your Iowa E Director Kevin Kevin Miller - Iowa E Chapter Director goldwinging@hotmail.com

8 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 8 For sale: Condor Aluminum bike stand combination trailer mount or free stand. New $ selling for $ Call

9 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 9 CHERYL S CORNER

10 SOARING EAGLE PAGE 10 RIDE TO LONDON MILLS SPOONIES BAR & GRILL JULY 28

11 THE SOARING EAGLE PAGE 11 TEAM GWRRA 2018 NAME TITLE PHONE Anita & JR Alkire President & Wingman Tim & Anna Grimes Director of Rider Education Larry & Penny Anthony Director of Membership Enhancement Clara & Fred Boldt Director of GWRRA University Randall & Janet Drake Director of Finance Mike & Barri Critzman Director of Motorist Awareness Dan & Rachel Sanderovich Executive Director Overseas SPONSORS