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RIDEWELL


Riding with family: The value of communication when touring


By Marven Ewen #150506


I OCCASIONALLY have the pleasure to tour with my two sons. It seems we alternate yearly on which one is avail- able to ride with me. In addition to the


opportunity to have one -on- one bonding time for a week or two, I also get to see the perspective of a younger rider and tend to learn about myself as well. These trips involve some compro-


mises because of our age differences: I like to get up early and they like to sleep in. I don’t mind a tent, but they like hotels. I plot every Starbucks on the route. They don’t care about cof- fee but generously indulge my habit, even if it means standing by in rural North Dakota as I try to brew coffee at a rest stop in the rain. In the early days we relied on hand


signals to communicate. Usually I ride lead, frequently checking on the status of my son in my rearview mir- rors. Did he get around that truck okay? Is he still there? I lost him once for a while in Duluth. I made it through an intersection and merged onto the freeway only to discover he was no longer behind me. I assumed the light changed before he was able to go through. I pulled over and waited and waited and…just when I was about to take the next exit back, I saw him merging onto the freeway. Just as I thought, he had been held up by a traffic light. On another occasion, in western


Montana, my son thought he would like to lead for a while. Unfortunately he turned right when he should have


110 BMW OWNERS NEWS August 2016


gone left. We were headed east instead of west. I tooted my horn and flashed my high beams but he didn’t notice. I followed him for five miles on this busy undivided road before there was a break in the traffic which allowed me to overtake him and pull over. I was starting to think there had to be a bet- ter way to communicate.


things. I enjoyed hearing my son laugh as we pulled away into Northern Ontario, repeating what the Canadian Border guard had just said: “Watch out for those bears, eh!” Bluetooth communication has become


an important component in my “arma- mentarium of risk mitigation.” For my


The following year, we started to use


Bluetooth rider -to -rider communication devices. The judicious use of this technol- ogy to communicate has transformed our experience on these trips. Knowing each other’s status and having the ability to warn each other of potential risks brings peace of mind. It can also be pretty entertaining. On a


recent trip to Canada we had a nice discus- sion with the Canadian Border Guard about wildlife on the road, among other


sons, learning to tour on a motorcycle is a lesson in responsibility. Overall, these trips have been very memorable for us, and my sons are confident, safe riders and drivers. In fact, now my daughter has surprised me by saying she wants to take a motorcycle training course. She has never expressed an interest in riding a motorcycle. Now she lives on her own in the big city and says she wants to be a better driver. The confidence and character building results of our trips have not gone unnoticed.


skills


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