Category: Lifestyle

The Hunnert Car Pileup

For the last few years, the Chrome Czars have organized the best hot-rod show around, the Hunnert Car Pileup. Each year it’s roughly doubled in size, and this Saturday, it will likely double again. Scooters are welcome, though only vintage scooters can enter the show area (at the discretion of the judges). The local scooter crowd usually turns out in force, and as usual, there’s a group ride planned down to the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, IL, meeting at the Krispy Kreme at Archer and Harlem (in Summit, IL) at 9am and leaving at 9:30 sharp. Weather is unpredictable this time of year, dress in layers. When you get there, look for the Galewood Cookshack (the RV with flames) for some chili (red or verde) made with their already-famous smoked pork. The show goes all day with bands, food, vendors, cars, and a Ring of Fire, and wraps up with more bands and drink at Fool’s Bar and Grill in Morris.

News Briefs

I’m falling behind again, it must be the beginning of hockey season (and the launch of the Galewood Cookshack, more on that later).

NTSB reports troubling M/C stats

At a recent Public Forum on Motorcycle Safety, National Transportation Safety Board member Deborah Hersman reported that an increase in motorcycle fatalities is outpacing the growth of motorcycling. The NTSB reports that:

  • In the past ten years, there’s been a 230% increase in fatalities of riders over 40.
  • In the past ten years, there’s been a 540% rise in fatalities of riders over 50 riding bikes with 1,001-1,500 cc displacement.
  • Larger engine displacement, riders taking up cycling later in life, and fewer riders wearing helmets contribute to these trends.
  • in 2004, 41% of those killed in a solo motorcycle crash were legally drunk.

Bikers interviewed by AP, predictably, demanded “more data” and invoked Vietnam, rather than taking action to promote safe riding or sharing any sort of responsibility.

Segways recalled, still pointless

After a recall of all Segways sold to date, the BBC wonders why they never “caught on”. Their conclusion: the government banned them on sidewalks. 2sb’s conclusion: they’re pretentious, ridiculously expensive, comically slow, overengineered, and amazingly overhyped. Other than that, they’re great. I love the punters arguing in the comments that Segway was the answer to congestion problems, as if everybody driving overpriced wobbly giant chariots on the sidewalk wouldn’t be twice the nightmare of current city traffic.