View full sizeTeam Oregon Instructor Jeff Earls evaluates students at a basic rider course held at Portland Community College Sylvania campus on Sept. 12. Trainers focus on bike dynamics and rider alertness.On the first Saturday in March, six motorcyclists who'd met on the Internet left Eugene for a leisurely ride. They were a random group with no rules and only the roughest endpoint: lunch in Yoncalla, maybe Drain.
But when they stopped, one rider was missing. Retracing their route, south of Cottage Grove, they spotted a skid mark across both lanes of rural highway that disappeared over the embankment.
They found the motorcycle 40 feet down a steep ravine. Nearby, Tony Dean, 54, a married father, outdoorsman and construction superintendent, was dead.
An hour later, on a curvy road about 100 miles away, two friends who'd spent the day riding to the highest point in the Coast Range headed home. After one rider arrived at a rendezvous alone, he found Riley West, 61, in a ditch, trapped under his bike, but conscious. By the time help arrived, West, a married father and founder of a Eugene furniture store, had died.
Jerry Pulliam, 76, died after he veered off a Forest Service road on a curve during a group ride May 15. William "Mick" Kleiman, 64, died after he drifted on a curve on a "Grand Cafe tour" on May 29. Glen Joyce, 58, died after he missed a curve on Highway 395 on June 10. Dyrl Spencer, 64, died after he went off the road on a ride from Yakima on June 11. Raymond McMahon, 49, died when he missed a corner riding with his brother east of Myrtle Point on June 26.
Twice as many motorcycle riders over age 40 -- 22 -- have died on Oregon roads since January than riders under 40. More riders 60 and older have died than riders of any other age. The average age of Oregonians killed motorcycling has marched upward since 1995, and is up to a decade older than the national average.
New rules are expected to make riding in Oregon safer.
On Jan. 1, all new riders under age 31 must take a basic riding course to get a motorcycle endorsement. Next year, all riders under 41 must enroll, and so on, until 2015, when all new riders must undergo training.
All regular Oregon drivers now see two new motorcycle questions on the driver's exam.
Insurance companies offer discounts to riders who take training.
The fine for riding without a motorcycle endorsement has doubled to $720.
But the new rules may not reach the riders most likely to crash and die: older guys on powerful bikes, who ride with friends, love the thrill of cornering and live in one of the most distractingly beautiful states.
The state's trainers met last week at their annual retreat to ask: what do to about them?
"That population," says Bob Reichenberg, communication manager for the motorcycle safety program
"is the hardest to reach."
Deaths rise
From a motorcycle seat, Oregon looks like hog heaven.
The state has a dazzling variety of scenic routes -- and the high percentage of baby boomers who in the last decade turned to riding them. Since the first boomers hit 50 in 1996, motorcycle registrations in Oregon doubled. Motorcycles were, for many, a midlife thrill after the kids left home or the career calmed down.
But the bikes they climb onto are bigger and more powerful, says Steve Garets, director of Team Oregon, based at Oregon State University. Thirty years ago, bikes were so unstable they transmitted fear to riders, forcing them to take more care.
"Bikes today are so sophisticated and so competent that you can really find yourself in trouble because they don't transmit that same sense of handling characteristics and feedback," Garets says.
As ridership took off, so did the number of fatal crashes, shooting from 29 in 2002 to 51 last year. Crashes spiked from 337 in 2002 to 842. Up to a third were not licensed to drive a motorcycle. But in nearly half, no other vehicle was involved, says Michele O'Leary, ODOT's motorcycle safety program manager. The rider just made a mistake.
The Oregonian examined the crash reports and interviewed the investigating officers of the 33 deaths so far this year, and found a startling number could have been avoided. Running red lights, rear-ending and colliding with cars claimed several lives.
But more than half of the riders died after they left the roadway or missed a curve on a clear, dry road. Several suffered horrifying injuries usually after striking a tree, roadside sign, utility pole or boulder.
And they left behind devastated families and friend who were often riding just behind or ahead.
The training edge
In many ways, Steve Walker typifies the Oregon rider.
The Eugene web developer began riding again in 2001 after his grown son got a motorcycle. Walker was 51.
With just the skills he'd learned as a kid ("how to brake and shift"), he took a basic rider course through Team Oregon. In the last 25 years, the OSU/Oregon Department of Transportation program has trained nearly 100,000 riders in its popular weekend courses.
But it wasn't until Walker had several close calls, that he became a believer.
"I survived because my Team Oregon training was kicking in automatically," he says. That got him thinking that training should be required for all new riders. They hadn't learned the dynamics of riding and the science behind motorcycling. "I knew it would save a life."
Walker knew just the legislator to approach with his idea: his wife, then-state Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene. She'd ridden on the back of her husband's bike for years ("He was always afraid I'd fall off because I'd fall asleep," she says) and she eventually took the basic rider class and began riding herself.
Steve Walker took his ideas to the
and to readers of his popular website,
, where he found wide support.
Vicki Walker took them to the 2009 Legislature, which passed the new safety rules. Mandatory training is phased in over five years so Team Oregon, with180 part-time instructors, can handle the 14,000 students expected, up from 10,000 a year currently.
But the new rules won't reach most riders already on the road. Just since Sept. 7, seven Oregon motorcyclists have died, including three riding out of state. Two others were critically injured. Most were over age 50.
Go where you look
At a recent training course in on a drizzly Sunday, instructor Jeff Earls faces a dozen riders on Team Oregon motorcycles and scooters like a steroidal traffic cop. He waves, leaps, stomps his encouragement.
"Look ahead, look ahead," he says, "you go where you look."
Teaching riders to scan constantly for hazards and to look where they want to steer -- as opposed to looking at the pothole they want to avoid, for instance -- is key to riding safely, especially on curves.
Every police officer and instructor interviewed said they constantly tweaked their habits to stay sharp. Many never ride with groups, which they consider a distraction. They stay home on holidays and wear the most reflective gear, not black. And increasingly they talk about driving impaired -- not by drugs and alcohol -- but by fatigue and exposure.
"You spend all day on a motorcycle and it dulls your senses. You have look for clues in your own body and how to interpret them. If you're having mental lapses in John Day, you won't make it to Portland," says Team Oregon's Garets. Aging affects reflexes, stamina, flexibility and the ability to see in a low light.
Walker says his riding didn't change with time until two years ago when he went off the road on a curve. He didn't crash, but he slowed down -- permanently.
"It dawned on me that I don't always have to be on the edge. pushing the limit of my skills or the capability of the motorcycle. And the dynamics of the bike are still there, the lean, the wind, the feel of the road, all are still there.
"I've become a more cautious and slower rider, but I'm enjoying it more."
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