BACKROADS • JANUARY 2022
Page 32
The Law Office of Paul Gargiulo, P.C. presents
Welcome to the Jungle - The Art of Learning to Ride Skillfully A column dedicated to your riding survival
LONG LAP PENALTY If you have ever watched MotoGP then you might be aware of the dreaded Long Lap Penalty. This is when riders in MotoGP must ride an additional loop of asphalt, supplementary to the main circuit route, should they have broken the track limit, race start, or contact rules. If a rider is called for an infraction of the rules… jumping the start or exceeding the track limits more than four times – with warnings first and then the penalty on the 5th. He then has 3 laps to ride through the section of the track, on a slower turn, designed to put him about 3-seconds back. Something that we, as street riders, will never get called on. Or, can we? On a MotoGP track, the limit is plain to see, a large swath of green pavement, along the outer edge of the turns. Still, each turn’s speed and inertia will carry the riders right to the edge, and sometimes onto the green. Oops.
As fast as they are going you have to think that, even though they are pushing to the ultimate limits of themselves and their machines, they have to have an inkling they have ridden out of the track limits and have touched into the green. The entire idea of Welcome to the Jungle was to have a frank and honest look at things we have done wrong, or could be worked on and improved, or simply done better given a second chance. Not too long ago, Shira and I were out for a simple ‘stolen ride’ one beautiful autumn afternoon. Heading north around Swartswood Lake we came up fast to a semi-tight righthand sweeper, with a slight double apex, and I did a less than stellar job braking for this, not scrubbing off nearly as much speed as I wanted. The bike’s inertia carried to the double yellow and then a tad over. “Ugg, c’mon dude,” I thought to myself. For me, at least this day, it was okay… as the road was wide and I could see there was no oncoming traffic; and as my wheels carried just a touch over the double centerline, I quickly corrected and got the Z1 back to where I really wanted the bike to be. Shira was behind me, saw my miscue and she said over the Bluetooth, “Hey, Marquez, do that again and you’ll need to take a Long Lap Penalty!”
Yup, yup, yup. When you exceed the boundaries of the lane you put yourself at unnecessary risk. In the United States, the Interstate Highway standards for the Interstate Highway System use a 12-foot standard lane width, while narrower lanes are used on lower classification roads. I was curious as to what the roads I ride each day offer width-wise, so I walked out to the road in front of the office to see exactly how wide the lane was. It is a Sussex County rural road and it is exactly 10-feet from the inside double yellow line to the edge of the white fog line. So, at any given time, we have just 120 inches of track with which to work. I have written a few times about Bernt Spiegel’s idea of putting a ‘Tally Counter’ on your bike and using it each time you do something you thought you could do better. Thinking about getting a ‘Long Lap Warning’ from my wife made me think I would have clicked twice for this rare (I hope) riding infraction. But what about the rider who does this constantly? Perhaps you know such a rider or, when looking with an honest light upon your riding, know that you are more remiss with your skills and precision in turns or riding tight backroads than you could be. Eventually, the odds will run against these riders and something very bad will happen. That “Long Lap Penalty” might lead right to a hospital or worse.In reallife riding, Long Lap Penalties can be the last lap you will ever ride. ,
