Long Distance Motorcycling Without Too Much Pain

By The Lost Motorcyclist, February 2011

I had started to write about long distance riding comfort, but then I realized the topic was too big for a single blog. So I'm going to deal with just one aspect of comfort, which is avoidance of body pain. So I'm not dealing with staying dry and warm, which is a huge topic all by itself.

I am actually writing about normal motorcycles, although the picture is of a special home built recumbent, which may or may not be comfortable, since I never tried it. Offhand, I would bet it is not as comfortable as a well set up regular bike for 1000 km days. Also you should wear a helmet.

There are many forms of pain, some of which only affect certain people. For example I found out that riding with certain types of bladder stones can cause severe pain every time you go over a bump. And different people have various aches and pains that can be made worse by some types of motorcycles. Obviously I can't deal with all the individual problems, so I am going to hit the most common forms of motorcycling pain. Butt burn being the most well known.

Butt burn, as the name suggests, is a burning sensation in the butt that you get from sitting on most motorcycle seats. The best stock seat I ever had was my '92 BMW K1100LT. I could sometimes go 1000 km before it started to hurt. Other bike seats might go only about 200. But I have no idea why it worked so well. It wasn't particularly big, or soft or anything. It just felt comfortable for a long time. One idea I had was that maybe because my knees were pressed tight against the fairing, my rear end didn't try to move forward or back over bumps in the road, but I never was able to confirm the "zero butt shear force" hypothesis.

You can prolong the comfort of any seat by moving around to different positions. It's better if you start doing this before it hurts, because moving around doesn't seem to cure butt burn once it starts.

I don't have a lot of scientific data on this, it is more of "seat of the pants" idea, but wearing leather motorcycle pants seems to help a lot in prolonging rear end comfort. They may be worth up to an additional 200 km over whatever seat comfort range you normally have.

Aftermarket seats cost a lot of money and I don't know how good they work, but an Airhawk air-filled seat pad can help too. I would rate mine as an additional 300 km. over the bare seat. That works out to about $0.50 per kilometer, on your first long day. (They cost about $150)

If butt-burn is under control, the next item for me is wind noise. A lot of people don't care about this too much, but if you do ride long distances on motorcycles, without earplugs, sooner or later your ears are going to start getting sensitive to loud noises. That is a permanent condition, unlike butt-burn. So to avoid it, you might want to try some good foam ear plugs. These days they are available all over the place. In Canada, Mark's Work Wearhouse has them quite cheap. Just be aware that you will tend to ride faster with ear plugs, because they make you feel like you are going slow when you first start wearing them. Watch the speedometer.

I guess this next one is not exactly pain, it's kind of the opposite. Vibration in the handlebar can make your hand go numb. This is very hard to predict, I didn't know from one ride to the next if it was going to happen. But the BMW four cylinder motor did not have a counterbalancer or rubber mounting, and that bike made my hand go to sleep more than any other bike. By comparison, it has only happened two times on my Vulcan 900, which is a twin but has a front rubber engine mount, and a counterbalancer. By counterbalancer I mean counterweights on a shaft that rotates in the opposite direction to the crank. Apparently this is the only way to cancel primary and secondary vibrations, short of building a straight six engine. These counterbalancers, if the bike has them, are always mentioned in the brochures under features.

If you already have a tingling handlebar and a numb hand, you can try taking one hand off the bar and shake it out. Or you can try shaking it out while holding the bar. Both remedies are equally dangerous as far as I'm concerned. Manufacturers try to smooth the bars with bar-end weights. These are fixed weights and only work at specific frequencies. You may want to try changing the weight (either a bit heavier or a bit lighter to see if it helps your particular situation. Even my 6 cylinder CBX had bar end weights, although the engine itself was very smooth.

Now for back pain. This is usually for older people, but who knows? Back rests are not such a great idea because motorcycles pitch forward and back like a rocking horse, and if you didn't know that already, you will once you install a backrest. On a smooth road they are OK, though. Another solution is a kidney belt. I'm not sure why they are called kidney belts, unless they stop you from drinking beer. But usually they provide some lumbar support, and that really helps the lower back, without the disadvantage of slamming you in the kidneys over a rough road, like a backrest would. Anyway, on a rough road, you should be able to lean forward and avoid contact with the backrest.

If you have neck and shoulder pain, it could be because your helmet is too heavy or poorly balanced on your neck. Or it could mean you have a windshield which is directing a reverse current of air onto your helmet (also called back pressure), forcing you to use a small group of muscles on the back of your neck and shoulders. I had this pain for years, and now it's gone. I cured it by getting a windshield that I could retract until I had wind in my face again. Now I have a different bike with a non-retractable windshield, but for some reason the pain has not returned.

I know other people who have pain in their wrists, and pain in their knees. I can't say much about that, because I seem to be OK there so far. But I imagine the solution there might also be moving around a bit, if you can. I generally like to find at least three comfortable and safe alternate seating positions that I can take occasionally to give the standard position a break. And usually I will do this with no traffic around on straight roads.

I wear a full face helmet with a visor, which prevents the pain of bugs, rocks and raindrops on my face at 100 kph. Goggles may also work if you don't hit the bee right on your nose. By the way, I also have been hit by rocks on the foot and leg and knuckles, and had a bee go up my sleeve and sting me. There is also the pain of going down and sliding on the road, but I don't call that "long distance motorcycle riding".

You may have a motorcycle that is simply not designed for comfort. I would be concerned about extremely low handlebars and high footpegs on some sport bikes, for example. Although I see some people with bikes like this that do ride long distances. It just goes to show that comfort is an individual thing.

Finally, your clothing, boots or helmet may cause pain. If they do, you have bought some bad clothing, because they are not supposed to hurt. Get rid of them, or fix them. What's that you say? You can't, because comfortable clothes are not stylish enough? If that's what you think, you are probably not the type of person who rides motorcycles long distances. And I mean that in the nice way.

Picture: recumbent motorcycle, AKA Feet Forward or FF from http://members.core.com/~flyboy/index.html

America is Rich: So Simple a Caveman Could Understand It

I have found a right wing forwarded email explaining why America is rich. I thought it was worth examining, because so many people have wrong ideas about wealth inequality. It is titled "So Simple a Caveman Could Understand it."

Since the Caveman version is really kind of long and rambling, I will try to edit it down to a manageable size, and then explain it so that a Teabagger can understand why it does not work.

Basically, this is a forwarded email explanation of why America is great and rich, in a way that it is easily understood by the conservatives or libertarians that have not taken a degree in economics. This explanation is not so easily understood by liberals, especially those who have travelled abroad and/or have some further education in how a country's economy works.

By and large, the answer given in the email is that America is capitalistic. Every other economic system is doomed to failure. And anything but pure unadulterated capitalism is also doomed to collapse. To quote from the forward:

"So we're off on a little all-American road trip, this time to figure out why our economy, when sick, is stronger than anyone else's, when healthy. To see if we can figure out how 300 million strangers, all the troublemakers and upstarts from every nation in the world, can come to one vast continent, be given more freedom than any people before or since, and manage to become the most prosperous, powerful, tightly-knit nation in history. And how come we invent everything, too? Must be something in the water out there."

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I have to take issue with two things here: One is that some of those strangers were brought over unwillingly to the USA and forced to work under the lash, for no pay, to make the white slave owners rich. Two: is that the land the slave owners forced the slaves to work on was stolen from the Indians. And please, Americans did not invent everything, there were also trains, guns, and sailing ships. Invented by non-Americans. But that last point is not that important, so go on.

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"I believe that there are three elements -- just three -- that we mix in just the right ratio to perform our national alchemy. Look around you at the rest of the world. Those who use none of these ingredients are disasters, basket cases, failed states where misery and poverty crush the life out of what is almost an indomitable human drive to create, to nurture, and to prosper."

"Stop guessing. Sorry, but it's not God, Guts and Guns. The Arabs have God, the Russians have Guts and the Colombians have Guns -- you want to live there?"

The first of these three pillars has several names: private property, the free market, enlightened self-interest. But the first essential element of the American Trinity, and the hardest to come to grips with, is Capitalism.

"Where you stand on the political spectrum, what you think of rich and poor people, and what you think about rich and poor nations and how they should act in the world, comes down, in my mind, to one single issue, and one only: Can wealth be created, or can it only be redistributed?"

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So this is an interesting question, I suppose. What is wealth? Is wealth gold, or paper money? Or is wealth land, or is wealth natural resources such as oil, water, buildings, tools, weapons ????
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If you believe, as I do, that wealth can be manufactured out of thin air, then there is no limit to the amount of wealth you can amass. And since you are creating it out of thin air, there is no moral onus on making money -- you work hard to create it and have stolen from no one. There is an expression for this: you earned it.

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OK I got that one wrong. I found in Wikipedia that

"wealth is is context-dependent and there is no universally agreed upon definition. Generally, economists define wealth as "anything of value" which captures both the subjective nature of the idea and the idea that it is not a fixed or static concept."

Now obviously there are different ways to define value. For one thing, anything that is a necessity of life has value. Its exact value is determined roughly by how important it is to life, and by how scarce it is. Next, a more loose definition of value is "whatever people are willing to pay you for what you have". Obviously this is harder to pin down. Just try to auction off Justin Bieber's hair on eBay, and you'll see what I mean.

I am not that keen on things that only have value because of what other people are willing to pay (Bieber's hairs, diamonds, gold bars, paper money, GM Stock) and I have a lot more faith in things that have more inherent value (farmland, real estate, a house, tools, an education). Mind you, even for things that have inherent value, we often determine that value simply by what others are willing to pay. But if the entire economy was to collapse, which would you rather have? Survival skills, or Bieber's hair? Real Estate, or shares of Bank of America?

I suspect that most wealth that can be generated out of thin air has little or no real inherent value. Even if it is a really good idea like the wheel, or fire, or sliced bread, the idea itself is unlikely to reward the inventor. For sure any wealth generated out of thin air is not going to be stuff like tools, land, or shelter. So now lets continue with the right wing economics lesson for cavemen.

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"Wealth can be created from thin air by human ingenuity and hard work."

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I guess this was written before the 2008 global economic meltdown that debunked derivatives, and mortgage back securities. They were classical examples of wealth being created out of thin air. Unfortunately when wealth is created out of thin air it sometimes goes poof back into thin air. This happens so frequently in economics that there's even an economic term for it. It's called a "Bubble". Apparently every generation has to relearn this lesson again. Returning to the other lesson>>>
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[The anger of Anti-imperialist protesters can be attributed to].. having chosen to believe that there is only so much wealth in the world, and that rich people and rich nations gain and maintain wealth by stealing prosperity from the weak.

This is so idiotic, so demonstrably false, that you really have to wonder why we are having this discussion.

The idea that the United States can steal 10 trillion dollars a year from dirt-poor nations that don't produce anything of value is absolutely insane, and yet, and yet, we hear it again and again and again from the professionally outraged who must be obtuse beyond human understanding to keep making such an absurd lie the basis of their entire philosophy.

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Wait a minute, did I read "dirt poor nations don't produce anything of value"??? Isn't oil valuable? What about diamonds, gold, bauxite (aluminum ore), iron ore, rare metals, cocoa, coffee (second largest world trade item after oil), bananas, beans, hardwood trees, fish, and many others. All of these things are produced in dirt poor nations, and wind up in rich nations without the common people in the dirt poor nations seeing much benefit from it. It even seems like the more valuable resources that are found in dirt poor nations, the more the poor people actually suffer (environmental degradation, wars for the resources, toxic air). Then what about the sweat shops producing Nike running shoes. You may consider their work to also be of no value, just like you ignored the work of the slaves, but it has value in a way. It is human effort being expended into an enterprise where there is no reward, just work for survival. There are so many questions that can be raised about this inequality of pay between rich and poor countries. But the lesson is not over yet, so for the sake of argument let's go on with "wealth is produced out of thin air":

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If we can prove that our core tenet is correct, that wealth is limited only by imagination and the desire to work hard, then not only does the left's economic theory come crashing down like a Statue of Lenin, but their entire view of US power has to be fatally flawed, as well.

Get this through your heads, you socialist ninnies! There is not a big, limited pot of wealth that is filled with the Magic Sweat of Authentic Third World Laborers, that America uses its military to steal from when we run out of wealth here at home.

Here's something even the dimmest hippy protester / poet should be able to wrap his mind around:

You buy a legal pad: $1.29
You steal a Bic pen from the counter at Kinko's: free.
You write the script for Weekend at Bernies 3: Bernie's Revenge!: free.
You hire someone to type it: $30.00
You have Kinko's print 5 copies: $62.20
You mail the 5 copies: $7.82
5 idiots in Hollywood love the idea: free
They enter a bidding war: free
You get a check for: one... million... dollars!

So let's see... that's $1,000,000, minus the $101.30 in expenses... uh... that means... You, the village idiot, have just raised the Gross Domestic Product by, uh, one million freaking dollars, and have made a personal profit of $999,898 dollars and 69 cents.

Where did the $999,898.69 come from? It came from thin air! You created it, out of nothing. You added value to the stock of paper and ink you started with. From the monumental talent you possess, the gift of intellect, the pen that made Shakespeare weep with envy, you have created WB3. You've given millions of people two hours of side-splitting hilarity, for which they will part with $8.00... and you have created wealth. What's more, when you go and blow it all on the pointless material crap that makes life so much fun, you'll be bringing in a little extra for the Sea-Doo distributor, the BMW dealer, the girls at Cheetahs in Las Vegas, and all the others. Not to mention putting -- I dunno -- maybe half a million freaking dollars into welfare, Social Security, Medicare, the National Endowment for the Arts and the world's first fusion-powered, laser-armed, flying stealth submarine, the USS George W. Bush.

You did not have to steal $999,898.69 from a farmer in Angola.

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OK Here's where the lesson starts to get a little heavy handed. I don't know about you, but this is not the tone that my teachers took with me when I was in school. And I hope that I do not take that tone to others.

So to go over the business case that proves wealth is unlimited: I write a script to a movie, and it sells for one million dollars. Forget the price of copies at Kinko's, obviously these costs are so small we can just forget them. However there may be some costs that are substantial, that we have neglected to mention. What are they? An education, where you learn to write properly. And the leisure time to absorb all kinds of interesting ideas, that you can then translate into a clever script. (Do not expect a kid who has worked in a sweat shop all his life to write a movie script. OK maybe if it was a movie about sweat shops???) The education, and the leisure lifestyle, do they have a value? OK, more. What about a legal system that protects your copyright, and forces the big studios to pay you what the script is worth. Any value there? And what about the luck of being born in a country where millions of people can pay $8 each for a movie, and have the time to go and see it.

I suspect that first of all, the movie script is not something with real inherent value, it is more of a "Bieber hair" type of thing, the type of thing you cannot base a real economy on. It's a sideline, a quirk, an amusement. I'm not saying some people don't get rich through this kind of luck, just that it is in fact a zero sum game. Money comes out of other people's pockets (the ones who pay to see the movie), and into yours. This type of transaction also happens when you win the lottery, but I would not base my national economy on it. Because this type of transaction is the very definition of "redistributed wealth". Voluntary redistribution, to be sure, but still redistribution of the same total amount wealth. Yes, it may count toward increasing the Gross National Product, but if it does (I'm not sure about that), it is only because of the way that the GNP is calculated. Your million dollars has in fact made the movie goers a million dollars poorer (all together).

So, core tenet remains unproven. Time to stop, and we have not even found out what the other two pillars of wealth are yet.

By the way, writing a script for "Weekend at Bernie's III" for $1,000,000 does not count as working hard. I just wrote 600 blogs in three years for a total sum of $0.00. Per dollar, I bet I worked a lot harder at writing, but no riches.

Picture: 1982 Far Side panel by Gary Larsen from this blog about cavemen:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7093

A Right Wing Email Repository

I recently came across a blog that answers a need on the internet. I know of no other website that attempts to gather together all the right wing forwarded emails in one place. (Although it also has a few left wing forwards!).

Myrightwingdad

The header on the site says

"Welcome to the Right-Wing Forward Museum

MyRightWingDad.net is a museum dedicated to following the course of American history through a unique lens -- the emails "Red-America" forwards worldwide. Take a look around the archive using the keywords below, and leave a comment or two.

This museum displays unedited, often offensive and untrue material with no endorsement intended by curators or contributors."

Scanning through all these forwards I learned a few things. First is that there are currently about 1575 (minus about 4 left wing forwards = 1571). That averages out to more than one right wing forward a day being archived, and from the steady rate, I assume that at least one right-wing forward is being generated every day. Apparently, so far only a very small sampling of the total body of work has been forwarded to me. I don't know whether I should be relieved, insulted, or scared. Second, I have not been getting the most racist themed emails. I also saw one email that gave me hope for the future, headed "If you only forward one email today, this has to be it!!!". So apparently some right wing dads are getting tired of hitting the forward button on the emails, and are limiting themselves to only one a day.

I have often used Snopes to debunk right wing emails, but lately it seems I am getting more right wing forwards in the form of "jokes". Snopes does not address the issue of "Tasteless Jokes" that incidentally insult/poke fun at liberals, environmentalists, educated people, "the government" etc. However, this blog also includes all the right wing humour, and lets readers make any comments that they like. (Often funnier than the original joke)

As a father and grandfather myself, I don't like the idea of this blog blaming Dads for the emails, but I can understand where they are coming from. I think us Dads tend to be more conservative than younger people, and many of us are fond of giving advice to our kids. For Dads who have discovered the "Forward" button, but have no interest in, or ability, to fact check, it's a very addictive combination.

Pictures: Copied from the right wing blogs.

Let's Do Something About Winter, For Next Time

In my opinion, the world is not perfect. I know, I may be accused of being a "cup half empty" kind of guy, but I can't help it. I have this habit of looking for ways to make things better. That means motorcycles, of course, and in this way I'm like a lot of other bikers. But it also includes toasters, garages, lawns, clothing, and, yes the entire universe.

It's fun for me to "improve" things. Recently I added a backrest to my motorcycle, and now I think I have a better bike. But I realize that with more money, time, skill, I could do even better. Ultimately I could create the perfect motorcycle. Well, maybe not me, but someone could.

But now I'm getting carried away, I need to stop and consider. I have added a backrest, but is that really what a motorcycle is all about? What exactly do I want from a motorcycle? If I proceeded logically, one improvement after another all for comfort, the final product may end up being a car. If so, why waste all that time when I could just get in the car, instead of riding the bike?

Let's look at something else that needs improvement even more than my motorcycle does. Yes, I'm talking about the weather. Instead of buying cold weather gear, heaters and windshields, I would much rather improve the weather, in other words no more rain, cold, or ice. Here are some ideas:

The weather changes from day to day, so if you want good weather, simply go out when the weather is good, stay in when it's bad. Although this works in three of our seasons, it still leaves a long gap in the winter with no riding. And it also makes pre-planned group rides more difficult at any time of year.

Second cure for the weather, move to some place with better weather. I did that, too. I moved from Baie Comeau (Latitude 49 Deg. North) to Kitchener (Latitude 43 Degrees North), which is almost as far south as you can get in Canada. This has resulted in much shorter winters, and winters which generally have warm spells from time to time. But still uncomfortable to ride in. The Pacific coast may have been a better choice, it's farther north, but has warmer weather. Unfortunately it also rains a lot there.

Third cure is to drive somewhere south. But then I have to deal with border crossings, health insurance, a big lake blocking my way, and still some cold weather right near my home. I suppose a truck with room for a motorcycle solves some of that, but there we are again, coming full circle.

Fourth cure, get a snowmobile, or cross country skis or whatever, and get out in the beautiful winter wonderland that does exist somewhere. This is easier to do as you get further north, and away from population centres. This appeals to some people. But I happen to know by now, it does not appeal as much to me as warmer weather. But it does have the advantage of no mosquitoes or black flies (or people) - always look on the bright side I say.

But the best way of all to deal with winter, is to eliminate the tilt of the Earth, which is what causes the seasonal pattern in the first place.

Pictures: Mary Ann sitting on the beach in winter, taken near Sept Iles in February 2007, on the Gulf of St Lawrence. This is a nice view of winter because there is no slush here.

Picture 2: Slush This is what we see a lot of of winter. Slush is cold, wet, heavy, dirty, and salty. Cars and trucks spray you with it. It's hard to walk in. And it may freeze solid when the temperature drops. It usually occurs on roads and sidewalks.

The Port Dover Chronicles

By The Lost Motorcyclist March 2011

I have been going down to Friday 13th in Port Dover for many years now, and one question keeps popping into my head. Why did all these other people decide to come here? I know why I did. Because of all the other crazy people. But it's actually quite easy for me, I live just 90 km away. In Port Dover I see licence plates from all over, even California! So today I came across a story on the Internet written in French by someone who lives in Quebec, which I will relate in English here. (the Google translation is too silly to get the actual meaning) The link to the original version is here

http://www.hdbikerz.com/forums/post.aspx?sid=714

He rides a Harley, no big surprise there.

"Thursday, October 12 a day like many others in my life. I get up as usual. That sounds like a song. I take my coffee as usual, I walk my dogs as usual, I read my emails as usual and the rest of the day goes on as usual. Chantal goes to work as usual, I am left alone as usual! Night falls as usual, anxiety grips me as usual, At one A.M., I am preparing to go to bed as usual, I turn on my computer to see if I have friend(s) as usual. There the usual stops!!!!!

On a biker site I rarely visit is an article that'll change my usual routine. What happens every Friday 13? A mega gathering of bikers in Port Dover. I never heard that name in my life. Where is it? How many km.? These are the first questions that crossed my mind, a simple mouse click here I am on the site. In two minutes and 30 seconds my decision is taken: I am going for sure, I have to see this! ! From a look at Map-Quest I am now informed that I have to knock off more than 800 km to Port Dover, That's nothing, I say to myself with an air of assurance. We are in autumn, nights are cool, but properly dressed it'll be alright, why worry. Here I go checking my stock. A quick inventory of what I need: camera, gum, chocolate bars, cloth to clean the bike, and a map. All this is already in my saddlebags. More importantly what am I going to wear to be comfortable? Voila: I'm dressed and ready. All that is left is to inform Chantal of my plan for this weekend. A phone call and I am knocked flat on my ass! "Where are you going? Are you crazy? Leaving in the middle of the night with this cold weather?" Queries fly at me, but my answer is clear and determined: Well yes I'm going, I just decided that about 45 minutes ago and nobody will make me change my mind!! Ok she says,, but at least wait until I get home from work. Of course, I will finished preparing and when you arrive I'll take off. I was completing my preparations, 2:30 Chantal arrives, I put on my suit, my balaclava, helmet and a big kiss and vroummmm the engine starts. We're off. A strange feeling comes over me, I'm alone with my bike on the road and I feel FREE. After a few stops for petrol and pee, and coffee to keep me warm, and having already encountered wind, rain and snow, I finally arrive in Port Dover and another strange feeling of satisfaction and inner peace, yes I did it. I did it, sometimes under the bewildered looks of people wondering who is this crazy guy wandering around by motorcycle when they are all wrapped up in their cars with the heater in the carpet! I get a certain pleasure from it of course. I love the bike, it is what keeps me going, what makes me push myself ahead, and sometimes nothing else. I met some wonderful people there. I lived full, beautiful emotions. I charged myself up with energy transmitted from these people I never would have met without this decision. A little crazy for sure. But I experienced this weekend some very special things that I have not the words to express. I had to do it, to live it in person, in order to know what I could feel on this trip! I cannot wait for the next one. Do it at least once in your life, you will surely not regret it."

OK so there is one answer. Now I wonder why the other 99,999 bikers went to Port Dover.

Picture: My own picture of Aug 13th, 2010 in Port Dover.

Finally, Going for a Motorcycle Ride

This morning, I found a good rider backrest pad for my luggage roll. It was at Wal-Mart for $15. I normally avoid Wal-Mart to spare Mary Ann's feelings, but this morning I wanted to take a walk for the exercise, and Wal-Mart was the right distance for me.

After walking home, I chopped the ice away from the garage door and fit the backrest on the bike. Soon after I decided to test out my new backrest, and for that I had to take the Vulcan out for the first ride of 2011. Although there is still a lot of snow, during my morning walk I noticed that the streets were mostly bare and dry, and the sun was out with a temperature of 0c. I usually try to go out for about an hour, on these early springtime rides, to recharge the battery and to get the engine hot.

I forgot to put in my earplugs. That's because my last ride was back in November 2010, and I got out of the habit. I stopped at a mall parking lot, put in some spares (I always have spare earplugs), and I continued on to Stratford, using a route that had a minimum of wet roads. I did go through a bit of water at a roundabout, so I slowed down quite a lot for that. Roundabouts are very slippery at this time of year. The rest of the road to Stratford was dry.

A one hour ride at this temperature, and in the sun, does not require an electric vest. When I got back home, I was only starting to feel a bit cool. The main problem is that on a bike you are sitting still, which lets your metabolism slow down after about 40 minutes. When skiing, you are moving your body enough to generate some heat. Even when snowmobiling, you generate more heat than on a motorcycle, as steering the skis and leaning the snowmobile needs a lot of muscle activity compared to motorcycling.

So first ride over, lots of good riding days still left in 2011.

Picture: Just before the ride, with the backrest mounted on the luggage roll. Almost looks like it cost more than $15.

Bird Designs and Intelligent Designs

Last night I was at the monthly meeting of the Kitchener Waterloo Field Naturalists Club (KWFN). I am a member of the club mostly because of Mary Ann's interest in bird watching and nature. But I have to admit that I am not as highly interested in birding as she is. However last night three people from "Wild Ontario" did a presentation at the monthly meeting that even got my attention.

http://www.kwfn.ca/meetings.html
http://www.ourwildontario.ca/

They brought four live birds to the meeting, a Kestrel, a Broad Winged Hawk, a Great Horned Owl, and a Turkey Vulture. These birds had been rescued, but because of permanent injuries it was not possible to release them back into the wild. So the group has a public education program that uses the birds to teach people about nature. I certainly learned a few things from their talk, which seemed to be geared to hold the interest of anyone from five years old up, and I'm thinking even the most avid birders at the club meeting must have learned a few things too.

Some of the things I learned?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon
http://earthsky.org/biodiversity/fastest-bird

I was especially interested in the adaptations that give the birds advantages in finding food. For example, the Peregrine Falcon is the world's fastest living thing at 349 kilometers per hour.

Peregrines use their dive speed to catch flying birds. And no it is not considered "cheating" to achieve this speed in a 45 degree dive. In nature there is no cheating, there is only catching food or not being caught for food.

The Kestrel uses its ultraviolet vision to see vole tracks. I never heard about this before, but apparently this discovery was made in about 1995. The Kestrel can also hover in one place, which not many birds can do.

The Great Horned Owl has three dimensional hearing and binocular (or 3D) vision. Humans also have 3D vision (useful for going to movies like Drive Angry 3D), but many birds have eyes on each side of their head which give a wider field of view, but give up binocular vision to do it.

The Turkey Vulture has quite a few adaptations that allow it to feed on the intestines of dead animals. While the Owl has no sense of smell, and therefore can feed on skunk, the Turkey Vulture can smell ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced when bodies begin to decay. This ability has been used to test gas pipelines for leaks, as vultures will gather if the line leaks and ethyl mercaptan is being pumped through it.

This presentation was an extraordinary opportunity to observe close up some birds I would rarely be able to see in the wild. Staring face to face with a Great Horned Owl, guess who blinked first? I have to admit that standing outside in the cold hoping to see a Spotted Wood Thrush a hundred meters away is not as much fun for me as having these birds inches from me in a warm, well lit room. I am obviously not a natural at birding.

But during the talk, my mind was wandering a bit. I was also thinking about comments I have seen on the Internet about "Intelligent Design". I'm sure many Fundamentalists would consider these birds further proof that it would take God's own intelligence to design all these wondrous abilities. I see it as quite the opposite. If God designed these birds, I would give him an A+. If he produced the bible, that would be about a D-. Unlike studying the bible, when you are studying nature, the more you learn, the more impressed you have to be. And sooner or later, I hope this could result in humans starting to have more respect for the environment than for an old book.

Picture: A Turkey Vulture. This is not Socrates, the one-winged Vulture from the show, it is a picture from this site. Socrates lost a wing in a car accident 23 years ago, and was the original bird in the Ontario Wild program.