The Live More Lightly Workshop has been presented in an elementary school and a demo video has been produced. Unfortunately, due to completely justifiable concerns about putting images of children on the internet, I cannot post the demo. However, I do have a supportive testimonial from the teachers here.

The book project has been refined into three versions:

1. The Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide
2. The Live More Lightly Book of Choral Arrangements
3. Study Guide for the Live More Lightly Workshop

The Study Guide is a requirement for ArtStarts in Schools Touring Artists and I have used the video (with permission) in my application to  become part of their booking program. I will have to produce Book #3 (Study Guide) first because there is a need for it to accompany workshops that I am involved in presenting. Book #1 is intended for use by groups who want to do a workshop without me and Book #2 (the choral guide) contains arrangements for organized choral groups who have some musical training and a conductor.

The book has been taking a substantial amount of work, but even more work has gone into the image capture and documentary part of the project. I have ordered the additional parts I need for the Blu-ray video camera and they should be delivered soon. My two Canon still cameras are functioning, but I really feel I need an upgrade so I can take better quality photos.  Shooting in RAW is a requirement and I have found a Ubuntu Linux program that claims to handle RAW formats. I have been studying photography by asking a lot of questions and experimenting with different techniques. Now I am about to begin with video again, not just editing, but shooting. As soon as I get the parts for the video camera I will start recording video from my propane powered van and start to coordinate the streaming concept.

It all keeps me very busy. My next post will contain photos of my Yamaha FJ in storage with the new Renntec crash bars and carry rack installed. Simon worked on my bike before it was parked and it rides like a new machine. Still working on the luggage problem, but now the carry rack should help with the planning.  A future post on the MPEG4 always-on low resolution camera system will be next because several new products have been recently introduced. I will not make a decision until spring as I expect that the latest technology will be the best choice.

A summer tour seems so far away on this solstice afternoon, but I know that there is a massive amount of work to do so that I can be ready for the journey. Sometimes it is hard for me to be strongly motivated to continue to work, but evaluating the progress thus far helps me re-group and continue onwards.

All the best of the holiday season to everyone. Drive carefully and Live More Lightly.

Where the Hell is Matt?”

When my daughter told me about Matt, I didn’t get it. She invited me to come down to the beach and dance with this young man who was traveling all over the world dancing with people. No, he is not a great dancer. I didn’t get it — I didn’t go. That’s my daughter in the red skirt, front left, on the beach in Vancouver.

Where the Hell is Matt 2008

Matt brought the world together with his little dance. There is such joy in the act of Matt doing his dance from the heart that it refreshes my belief in humanity. I believe that behind the power struggles and the greed — we are all one people. When I saw the video — I got the message.

Playing for Change

Here is another group that is doing video of pop songs, like “Stand By Me” (Ben E. King) and “One Love” (Bob Marley) performed by musicians all over the world playing together through the wonders of technology. They all appear in their own country playing their instrument on the same song playing with the musicians that have already been recorded.

They have a great site and the passion to show that music can cross borders that have been created by the power structure to connect us.

Live More Lightly

The completed Live More Lightly song 6 minute video will show me singing, joined by one person, then by another, then by all the workshop participants that want to be in the video. As each workshop will be different, it probably won’t be as smooth in transition as the Playing for Change videos, but if I get some funding I can make better video. The first one will be a do-it -yourself demo, but I hope to have it ready for the start of the tour in 2009.

The documentary movie will be about the journey across the continent in 2009 to bring the diverse age groups, cultures, ethnic backgrounds and others (basically everybody I can get) together to Live More Lightly on the land one small action at a time. I want to show lots of great environmental footage of natural scenes so everyone will know why we should save the planet. I anticipate that 90 minutes of singing, workshop events, beautiful scenery and on-bike motorcycle riding should be about right.

The motorcycle tour is a small portion of this project, but it has been taking a lot to coordinate. I could just go in my van to do the workshops, but the motorcycle is much more environmentally friendly.

I also hope to be able to be the first person to stream live video from a moving motorcycle to a satellite without a truck. The Grand Prix racers have on-bike cameras that stream to a nearby truck that carries a satellite dish, like the one pictured below. This huge dish with signal amplification allows them to send a broadcast quality signal to the satellite. From the satellite the signal can be received at the television station for editing or routed into the broadcast signal as live coverage. A higher quality signal (broadcast television) takes more power, so a larger amplifier and more microwaves, than a low quality signal (webcam).

Due to microwave radiation from this type of dish, it is against Canadian law to mount it lower than 4ft off the ground. This dish, when fully extended is well above the heads of any concert goers and is considered safe. I don’t even like to carry my cell phone in my pocket, but for the sale of art, I plan to innundate myself with microwaves from a portable modem. Basic outline of streaming requirements here.

Many motorcyclists have mounted cameras on their bike and there are a lot of videos on the internet of intense riding. Depending on your area of interest there are many to choose from. One other Vancouver rider, Jeff has captured a lot of scenic footage from his Harley on VRide TV. I love the smoothness of his ride as it makes for great video as I already described here. I am on a more limited budget with my old Yamaha FJ1200, but I hope to be able to get some great nature footage for the documetary. Still working on the streaming aspect. I will keep you posted.

Funded by the Knight Foundation, the contest seeks to assist the development of internet news that serves a constituency of readers.

There are only four rules. Winning entries must:

   1. Use or create digital, open-source technology;
   2. Use news and information to serve the public interest;
   3. Benefit at least one specific geographic community;
   4. Be innovative.

The Live More Lightly Project entered an application last year, but was unsuccessful. This year, I will try to make the case that I [Victoria] am an internet griot or troubador who is delivering the message of personal responsibility for the environment. Changing the world, one personal action at a time.

The project has evolved since last year, but because I have received no funding, my progress has been slower than I hoped. I will post my application here for comment.

Live More Lightly Knight News Challenge Application — You still have time to vote for me.

I only asked for $5,000. because that would be enough to do the tour and really investigate the on-line streaming video concept. Unfortunately, I have been turned down again. I will keep on trying to get the needed funding to complete my project.

Most of the work I have done recently on my blog and the project is administrative tasks that are not too exciting. However, I am excited about the possibility of facilitating a workshop in Powell River soon and having my friend Judy capture the action on a video. Now I have updated WordPress, I can add video and podcasts. It is always a concern of parents when considering allowing their children to be in a video posted to the internet, but I hope that I will be able to form a community of environmental supporters. Everyone seems to be less concerned when there are hundreds of videos — I’ve seen countless children on Youtube.

I will be networking with more environmental education sites and I hope that many people will know “The Live More Lightly Song” by the end of the year.

On one occasion, when Krishna was still a child, he revealed his true god-self to his mother by asking her to look in his mouth. When she complied, she was astonished to see the entire universe inside the mouth of her child. When I looked into that camera, I saw a glimpse of the infinite — I was astonished. The photographer who owned the magic box enthusiastically started informing me of the technical details in a language full of numbers that I did not understand. This machine may be described by numbers, as the universe can be modeled mathematically, but the impact of the revelation I had experienced created a bookmark in my mind that I return to in wonder.

My next reaction was more practical, as the Virgo reasserted her presence. If everyone had a camera like that, my opportunities for employment as a graphic artist would be seriously reduced. There was no noise in the image, it was balanced and in sharp focus. If the capture mechanism was as pristine as the view, the images would reflect a hyper-realism that would need few adjustments. My daughter later comforted me by pointing out that many of these cameras are owned by individuals who can cause them to malfunction and that composition skills are still required. Even the best images can benefit from layout, design and story, so my production skills will still be needed.

The term “multi-media artist” has often been applied to my skill sets in production. I know that if I am not being paid, I do music, music technology and saving the world. Some practical part of me knows that my time will not allow any more addictions. I am already being drawn away from my “Live More Lightly Project” too much by other musical entanglements. I have to complete a book prototype this month. Move on.

Then, I went to Seattle and I used Kyle Cassidy‘s camera to take photos of Kyle, Trillian and my daughter, Jhayne, together. This time, when I looked into the camera, the universe resolved and I saw my friend the computer lived there too. I immediately knew what to do and asked Kyle to set the controls to automatic. I can trust my computer abilities completely and I recognized that this was a computer that knew how to use the camera mechanisms. I could trust my intelligent friend and concentrate on steadiness and composition. I hope to see the results of this experiment [edit:one photo posted on Trillan's blog link here].

Now, I feel myself wanting to experience that clarity again, but another thought intrudes. Am I ready to take the responsibility of being able to capture the hyper-real visual universe? In music recording, I live in hyper-reality because I capture sounds that are usually very fleeting and preserve them so they can be examined, manipulated and controlled. I capture in very high resolution and my mixing and mastering work is essential to reconstruct or engineer the three-dimensional space of the recording. Another dimension of music technology is to edit lower resolution captures and enhance them to contemporary standards. I take the responsibility of revealing moments of time and translating a transient waveform into a repeatable experience. There is always some level of interpretation required and other ears can be consulted on an important project.

Image capture is decided quickly by the one person who has control of the mechanism. I had decided to pursue video because it is a relatively low resolution media and the editor shares the responsibility because there is so much material. Video is very similar to audio recording in that sense. Audio/video footage is a linear record, but photography is a much more selective process. A hyper-real photo will capture the essence of the moment and freeze the light-wave, the way I preserve audio samples. There is some truth to the idea that a photo will capture a piece of the soul of the subject as it is the reality of physical and spiritual presence that reflects the light.

The photos I take start out as relatively low-resolution and I compress them to make them load quickly. Despite my poor equipment, sometimes I capture the spirit of light and I do not post those images to the internet. If I had a camera with a brain, these occurrences would increase.The posts I write with images are more attractive to readers, so I take snapshots, but I am selective about posting ones that qualify as images.

I want to be a musician first and I need to improve my financial picture before I could make such an investment in camera technology. I think the experience of computer-guided image excellence will help me to push what I have and even the poorest new video cameras have superior image resolution to my Canon A80.

The higher resolution specification given for still image capture on a video camera can be misleading. The cameras take interpolated images to raise the resolution specifications, but I hope to find a dual-purpose that will allow me to disable that feature and use the native resolution of the CCD. Camera manufacturers believe that consumers will buy more mega-pixels regardless of how they obtain them. It is true that most individuals do not research a purchase the way I have, but I will live with this device for a long time if I pick the correct unit and my integration with the machine will improve the function.

If I ever have a camera like Kyle’s in my hands again, I will remember that I have my own memory SD card in my pocket. I usually have a memory stick/USB with removable media on my person at all times. Then I would feel free to move into the hyper-real universe because it is my memory media and I will control the results of my journey.

In Canada we are lucky to have non-profit societies that are working hard on the problem of electronics disposal. Electronics Product Stewardship Canada is developing an “industry led solution” to see electronic waste properly managed. Of the four companies I am interested in, only JVC is not a member of this coalition. The organization is nationwide and has influenced policy in British Columbia so that electronics can be recycled here. Unfortunately, there is a large list of items that are not accepted, so I have to keep storing my broken VCRs until the program expands.

As part of the “Live More Lightly Project” I hope to raise awareness of these programs so that more people will utilize them and keep dangerous materials out of landfill sites. There is a fee to re-cycle electronics but there are depots throughout the province and a handy map to locate a depot near you. Other provinces have similar programs and I encourage you to use them.

Re-use of working electronics is always preferred to disposal and organizations such as Free Geek will accept equipment that is not state-of-the-art, refurbish it and donate it to a needy charity or sell it in their computer thrift store.

Some companies are putting more effort into product stewardship and environmental programs and this will influence my purchasing decision. See a short description of each company’s efforts below.

Sony

The top contender right now is Sony. Their camcorders have very competitive features and they are the only manufacturer that offers a sportcase to protect the camera. (see previous research on water-resistant cases at the bottom of this page)

Environmental rating seems quite good as they have an Eco-mini-site that explains they will collect ALL Sony products, including televisions, at no charge for recycling. Sony Canada, in partnership with Global Electric Electronic Processing Inc. (GEEP), accepts surplus electronics at depots throughout Canada or will accept materials shipped to them. The recycler must pay the shipping or drop off at the depot, but all the extraction of materials is done in Canada by specialized machinery. Some electronic “recyclers” merely ship the discarded materials offshore where precious metals are extracted and the rest is dumped in a landfill. With GEEP the disassembly into raw materials is complete and those materials are marketed.

In addition, they have a notebook trade-in program where previously loved Sony notebooks can be traded-in for a discount on new notebook computers in the Sony-Style stores. Other small items can also be dropped off at a nearby store, but larger items must go to a depot.

Sony has also been working to develop greener products and administrative practices. One of the most innovative offerings is the sponsorship of youth education through EcoKids, a fun website for young people that concentrates on environmental education and programs.

Canon

The Clean Earth Campaign is outlined on the Canon Group website and a more detailed document is available for download here. The Environmental Charter is basically a one page pledge by the president of Canon Canada, Joe Adachi, to follow eight general directives to improve environmental performance. This demonstrates an awareness of environmental issues, but is not giving any specifics as one would expect in a.pdf download. Why download a one-page document that could be displayed on the website? I expected a detailed report that explained some of the Canon Group initiatives.

Panasonic

Designing more environmentally friendly products and cleaning up their factories is the focus of the Panasonic environmental webpage. The Green Plan 2010 site gives more details of project sponsorship and other initiatives. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic parent) is a member of Electronics Product Stewardship Canada but like Canon, is not offering any special incentives to recycle products. They are making a conscious effort to live more lightly and create products that are less harmful to produce, use less power in use and are easier to recycle. These efforts are detailed on their global site.

Report Card

The report card on lifecycle management shows that Sony is doing the most to re-cycle and has the slickest promotion package detailing their efforts. Canon and Panasonic are encouraging recycling by being a member of Electronics Product Stewardship Canada, but are placing the cost of recycling on the end user. All three companies are pledging to clean up their factories, develop less wasteful products and encourage their employees to adopt environmentally sound practices. Each one sponsors worthy charitable organizations and has reserved a portion of their website to advertise their initiatives.

Electronics companies are realizing that environmental performance will influence consumer decision making in purchasing products. They have all invested in environmental initiative and have green logos and special pages to inform consumers. In Canada, Sony seems to be making the most effort to recycle existing products and that gives them a bit of an edge. The other two companies may be doing more for the future and possibly have cleaner factories or more environmentally friendly materials sources, but the information is difficult to obtain.

At this point, Sony has a small advantage in re-cycling, but I am happy to learn that all three of these companies are supporting efforts to “Live More Lightly”.

The basic version of the book is almost in manuscript form and ready to start editing and moving forward to the next stage. I really want to spend time now recording the music and preparing a draft of the disk that will be a companion to the book. However, before I do anything else, I have to finish doing my taxes for 2007. This should not be a difficult undertaking as I do not have a lot of money to count, but I am always overwhelmed by book-keeping and even have trouble keeping up with invoicing for my work hours and keeping track of receivables.

This is where “CGA Man” should swoop in through a handy open window and say, “I’ll save you!”, but no. Accountants work in mysterious ways and I have to produce many spreadsheets to get the job done. I have to force myself to do this as the little neat piles of paper all over the studio are driving me mad.

If I can get my taxes done, I have prepared the draft of a business plan so I can get a line of credit to produce “The Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide” and have a financial cushion in case someting unexpected happens on the tour. As a responsible parent, I have to make sure that I can afford to be safe and I am not placed in dodgy situations due to lack of funds..

It would be nice to get sponsorship or a grant, but I can’t count on it. This project is my dedication to do what I can to help the environment and I am using every bit of my skills and some of my non-skills to achieve that goal. Time is not on my side here as July is coming to a close and August is making an entrance. It is foolish to plan to ride too late in the year, so I will not be going completely across Canada. I know the “iron-butt” endurance record is something like 72 hours for a motorcycle ride across Canada, but my purpose is different. I want to show the beauty of the country I know so well and have seen so many times.

As a touring musician, I have travelled over most of Canada, covering the geography week by week, as we moved to a new venue. The bands I was part of rarely played one-nighters, we were road wariors who pulled into town Sunday, set-up and played all week and pulled out Saturday night or Sunday morning. We drove vast distances sometimes to arrive at the next venue, sometimes hundreds of kilometers to play in another town. I would joke we got paid for driving at a dollar a mile plus for hauling gear and then played for free. I feel better when I’m playing for free, but it is usually not possible. I would like to give my music out and share it with everyone, but I have to make money somehow so I can make more music.

It is shocking to me how little I have produced of my own work and what brief hours I actually spend playing. I must remain dedicated to producing this one song as the first completed release. First I have to do my taxes.

Current technology in audio capture is advancing quickly and with any of this technology it is best to wait until the last possible moment to actually lay out the cash. As soon as you make that decision and take the unit home, a leap forward will be made, operating systems will be upgraded and you are on your way to obsolescence.

As I am investing in the Linux operating system now, it is very important that the firewire interface work in this OS. The notebook is dual boot with Vista, so compatibility with that flavour of Windows would be an asset and I want it to work with the studio’s G4 Mac OSX 10.3.9. You may think that every interface would support Windows, but many manufacturers support proprietary systems, such as the Apogee converter system that only works on Apple products. To balance this there are certain other systems that are weighted towards integrating with ProTools software on Windows. There are no dedicated Linux products (July 29, 2008 — in ten years we will see this statement become antiquainted).

I looked at the Free Firewire Audio Drivers site to see which interfaces would work with Linux. I was pleased to see a front page posting “More Experiments: now with the TC Konnect”. The recording studio I work for has a TC Electronics System 6000 effects processing unit that I also use as a mastering device. This is one of the highest quality pieces of gear I have ever worked with and the touch screen interface is intuitive and quick to operate. Could it work with Linux?

A week later, I am returning the TC Konnect24 because it not only is not supported in Linux, but it is not recognized in Mac OSX3.9. The excellent TC Electronic support explained that they have stopped supporting this operating system, even though it is listed as a minimum requirement on the box. They expect that it will work, but if it doesn’t there’s nothing they can do. This is with an Apple operating system — the only way I would be able to get it to work in Linux would be to create settings in Windows, reboot the computer into Linux and and use the converters only when plugged in to Linux. This is a major setback, as part of the reason to pay a premium for the TC Electronics unit is to obtain some of the great reverbs and other software goodies packed into the box. Although the converters are pristine, I would want to use the outstanding mixing and DSP effects. I did not try the unit in Windows Vista, but I’m sure it would work and with a good Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), I would have a powerful recording tool.

I will now be looking at Focusrite and Echo firewire interfaces because they are supported in Linux and should work with the Mac. The reasons for this decision:

1. I do not want to have to buy any more operating systems. I have bought every Windows version from DOS to Vista and every Apple from Basic to OSX10.3.9. Surely I should get one free upgrade?
2. Time=Money. If I work to get money, then I have no time to use the gear that I can afford because I have to work.
3. The current commercial software sales method means I have to buy equipment and troubleshoot to get it to work on an OS using software I paid money for. In Linux, I still have to do the work, but we are sharing the burden of development. I don’t have to pay for software that has been given freely and that gives me time to help develop it as a high level user. I can own the tools of my trade rather than having to work for someone who owns them.
4. No piracy. I cannot justify using someone else’s work to create my own without paying for their tools that I use. The fact that the huge software companies may not be ethical does not change my ethics.
5. Linux is the future of multi-media.

It is raining in Vancouver today, so it is a good day to take the interface back to the store and continue with my plan to get my truck into the body shop. My trusty old truck needs some attention before I store it for the rest of the motorcycle season, so that is why it still has a plate on it. In 2010, I hope to have it registered as a collector vehicle. I try to keep it in good shape and imagine driving it years from now, if I can still get propane. Work today for a future image of the many people who will see it and smile to think about the Ford Econoline they once owned. A preserved memory in a city that is tearing down and disposing of the memories of Vancouverites and replacing them with shiny condos.

Low Resolution Camera

The low-resolution camera and recording system can be integrated into the motorcycle electrical grid, so it can operate as any electrical accessory, in the background. The image is highly compressed, so not as much memory is required to store hours of video. The downside of this is that the video will not be high enough quality to fill a large screen, but the benefit is that I won’t miss some great moment because I didn’t have the camera turned on. I do intend to artistically re-purpose this footage, not just present a travel diary; so split screens and vignettes can integrate lower resolution material, particularly if I catch something interesting.

Equipment Sources

The On-Bike TV site is now OnBoard TV and they carry the Bullet DVR recorder and the ubiquitous 560 line Sony camera. The camera has been improved since December and now has interchangeable lenses. HelmetCamera.com has a similar package and a Canadian company, Micro Video Products has equipped other motorcyclists.

The proven advantages of these systems are many, as they can be wired directly into the bike’s electrical system, the equipment is very small and easy to install and the flash memory is inexpensive and commonly available. It can be mounted on the motorcycle, more or less permanently, so that it is a very easy task to record constantly. The disadvantages are in the video quality and the difficulties I have had in editing compressed file formats. I find .avi to be the most widely accepted by editors and MEPG4 to be difficult to edit without converting the file. As soon as the file is converted, there is usually a degradation in quality. I will have to now look at available editing tools to see if editing technology has caught up with MPEG4 as this is an essential factor in choosing a system.

High Resolution Camera

The high-resolution camera is requiring a lot of research. There are a lot of options on the horizon right now and the introduction of High Definition (HD) video as a viable, affordable option has changed the “pro-sumer” marketplace. There are many independent video producers who are driving the demand for broadcast quality recording and with recent advances in technology, some are achieving big screen release with low budget gear.

My research last year pointed me towards cameras that had 3 charge-coupled devices (CCD) in Standard Definition (SD) cameras as having the best quality recording, and three CCD cameras still do capture the best quality colour because they use a different sensor chip for each colour — red, green and blue (RGB). Reds in particular are hard to capture and true black is always elusive, although PAL format is supposed to be better than NTSC. PAL format is mainly used in Europe and NTSC in North America and the formats are not interchangeable, although they can be converted.
Now High Definition (HD) cameras have become more available, the 3 CCD models are very expensive, packed with professional features and quite large in size. It has been argued that HD with a single, larger CCD chip recording more lines of resolution can offer comparable results to an SD with three smaller size chips, even though the colour might be a little more washed out. There are a lot of “D”‘s for definition in this alphabet soup because it is the operative word in video quality.

I decided to research as if money was no object. This is always fun as it can uncover previously unimagined possibilities. In this case I found the Iconix HD-RH, the world’s smallest HD, 3 CCD camera. The Vancouver dealer was listed as Miller Camera at 1055 Granville, and I thought I would ask their advice, so I rode downtown. The address turned out to be Leo’s Cameras, so, despite the ambiguity, I went in to look at the latest in High Definition cameras. A very knowledgeable young man named David, helped me look at video capture in my price range and he explained many of the available options. He also confirmed my suspicions that the audio quality on these cameras, even the expensive ones, is not a high priority and compact disk (CD) quality (16 bit 44.1kHz) is not standard even though it is considered the lowest acceptable quality in a music studio. I plan to do another page on high resolution camera options as there are so many variables and this page is an overview.

Camera Protection

These video cameras are all fragile and will have to be protected from the elements because I am mounting in front of the fairing. This mounting position gives the most realistic effect of actually riding as can be seen on Virtual Riding TV and the $5 camera mount demonstration. I looked at scuba diving camera enclosures to see what kind of protection I could get and how much it limited my camera choice. Jeff, from Virtual Riding TV, uses a SONY SPK-HCB Sports Pack, but there are many other enclosures, some to fit specific cameras and some more generic models.

SCUBA Diving

What do motorcycling and scuba diving have in common? A large investment in equipment. Upon investigation of this underwater world, I found scuba divers to be very serious about camera equipment vs the elements. Although I am not planning to be submerged on my Yamaha anytime soon, I have ridden through cloudbursts that have simulated this effect.

The amount of choice available ranges from a simple plastic bag cover to professional models costing thousands that are ready for the challenges of deep ocean video. This is an amazing world and the videos are incredible. I have assembled a short list of options, but I feel that I am just scratching the surface.

Aquacam – a universal housing at a reasonable cost. Controls for a specific camera can be added for approx. $300. USD

Ikelite – model specific housings with controls – a list of available models here. This system features a wide-angle lens mount on the case itself (lens approx $350 USD).

Seatool – machined from solid blocks of aluminum to fit your camera. Technology from Japan comes to USA and impresses.

Light&Motion – very compact Sony-centric housing.

Equinox Housings – model specific and custom built. Cost as much as the camera.

Camera Mounting

All of these enclosures are meant to be hand held underwater. I will have to find some I can look at or contact the dealer to find out how I can mount them to the steel bar I have on my bike. If I can get a camera with a remote, then a less expensive, generic housing could work well.

This will require more research, but my goal is to get a working system operating by mid-August 2008.

After falling down, I took the FJ 1200 to Simon to check the brakes and to try to help me understand what happened. We returned to the scene of the first left-hand slider on the third day after the accident. The pavement at 16th and Cambie is very uneven due to Skytrain construction. The place I fell has a split pavement with each side of the lane a different height. The scraped ridge followed a manhole cover pavement mound, bulging from the road right after the bumpy intersection. The deep scratch, where I bent the foot of my centre stand on the pavement and the patch of gas where I had landed, were mute evidence to how much ground I covered on my side while I fell. I was going slowly and braking lightly, not stressed and hauling in the brake.

It felt like the bike had bounced up in the air, then lay down, and originally, I had thought that the bike had rebounded off of a neglected side-stand. Simon and I agreed that I had come too far from where I last parked to have left the side-stand down unscraped. So what could cause this effect? It was succinctly explained to me that if the front wheel locks up the rider can no longer steer the bike as the front wheel is not turning. The bike will slide in the direction it chooses based on tilt of pavement, direction of travel and other factors. Suddenly, I was really scared.

For some reason, I had never really pictured sliding on my FJ with the front wheel locked and not being able to steer.

Why did my wheel lock up? If I couldn’t figure this out I could never be sure that this wouldn’t happen again with much worse outcome.

I got back on the red and white FJ and drove back to Simon’s. It has a completely different front brake profile than mine as it has an anti-dive mechanism. I have to use all my strength to stop the bike as there is more fluid in the system and the brake does not immediately engage. I took that newly-rebuilt FJ1100 with 1200 top end, through the Night of Broken Bikes and I was more than a little nervous riding that bike around the traffic near the Art Gallery with the clutch disappearing. Then, I got on my FJ1200 after my volunteer shift, drove one block of rough pavement and fell, on the right side this time.

Same symptoms, the brake seemed very soft and as I pumped it, no slowing seemed to occur, then I fell. What am I doing to cause this behavior? I didn’t have a theory at the time, but this week I carried some passengers. The bike sat down on the suspension and hugged the road like a long lost child. When the passenger got off, that bike suspension did not have to work at all to carry me, it remained rigid and the bike bounced a lot more.

My mind goes back to a long ago summer when I tried my first big jump on a Yamaha 250 DT street-legal enduro. I panicked in the air and put on the brakes — without thinking that air produces very little friction — so the bike did not stop until my wheels touched the ground in full lock. Then they stopped immediately. It was an instant, memorable crash.

The uneven nature of the pavement and the inflexibility of the suspension without the designed weight load had bounced the front wheel off the ground. I had not noticed my front wheel was in the air. I was applying the brakes to a wheel that was not touching the ground so it did not slow the bike and offered little resistance. When the front wheel touched down the front break was on enough to lock up the front wheel and the momentum of the rest of the bike caused the crash. This is my current theory anyway.

The pick-up truck in front of me did not notice my fall, but two strong, young men rushed out to help me get the bike up and to the side of the road. I am forever grateful to these strangers who have stepped in to help me when I am in need. Not just this once, but each time I have dropped the bike, at least one person and usually two, have come to my assistance. I have promised myself that if there was ever anything I could do to help another motorcyclist in distress I would make the effort. So far, on the Night of Broken Bikes, I was able to co-ordinate something, but I’ve still dropped my bike way more then I’ve had an opportunity to help others.

After a professional inspection, I found that my brakes are in excellent condition. Then Simon showed me demonstrations of locking up the front wheel. The thought of locking up the front wheel and sliding on that huge piece of metal caused me some mental stress. However, I felt a lot safer trying it out in Simon’s back alley where he could keep an eye on me, than when I am riding on the street alone. It seemed easy and repeatable when I saw it demonstrated — I prepared to stay calm and concentrate on learning something, not on the fear. I started down the alley and tried to lock up the front brake and I was almost relieved when I could not do it. More practice is needed before I can overcome the fear and actually be going fast enough to succeed. I think the lack of weight might also be a factor too.

Simon pointed out to me that the brake was squeaking, as I had tried to apply it to lock status. I had heard it often, but had never realized the significance. He told me to make it stop the noise by braking harder, on or off. IF I lock the front brake, it should stop sliding when I release the brake. After this reassurance, I took the bike and have been riding daily, remembering to squeeze harder when I hear a squeak. I feel my right hand becoming re-trained.

I was terrified the first time it rained, but I rode very slowly. This is very bad in Vancouver because it will start to rain and I must be able to handle it.

I have been paying more attention to when I am in the air and I try to ride slower on rough pavement and stand on the pegs more to force the weight down. I plan to buy some panniers that will add weight and keep the bike higher off the ground when it falls. This should minimize the gas leakage and allow me to get some leverage to use the technique Skert showed me on the video.

I have also received a very earnest lecture from an experienced road rider on the importance of keeping the correct tire pressure maintained. Simon has told me about this before but not in such graphic life and death terms. He tries, but there is so much information for me and I think he doesn’t want me to be too scared to ride. I need to buy a low pressure gauge that reads my tires more accurately as Simon told me the automotive one I bought, after his instruction last year, is not accurate enough. He keeps helping me though, putting air in my tires and checking over my bike.

That’s probably how I have managed to survive this far …