Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From e-mails commenting on “Words Of Advice From A CHP Motorcycle Officer,” posted 08/12/2002:

Thank you for sharing officer Gramm’s e-mail about the accident he responded to. Perhaps because of a late interest in riding motorcycles I may be a bit more conscious of the dangers. I wish that e-mail could be made mandatory
reading for all applicants for motorcycle licenses. While I seldom ride on the public roads, I have become unusually sensitive to its dangers and the obvious risks I see others take out there.

The one thing I have learned in this short experience of motorcycle riding is that racetracks are about as safe a place for riding as you will find. Without much research there are lots of clubs, schools, and open track days
where we can go out and ride as fast as we are capable. Everyone is going in the same direction, everyone generally doing things you would expect. There is no cross traffic, no stop lights, just clear safe track and a gang of
people keeping it that way.

What I would add to the comments of officer Gramm, if you want to go fast, do it on a race track. It’s fun and as safe as it gets.

Keith Giglio
WSMC #583



I am writing in response to the letter of the CHP officer regarding the fatality on Glendora Ridge Road. A few years ago my first real street crash occurred on this road. I worked at a local motorcycle shop and would go up there every Sunday morning before work. I was using both lanes on my CBR600 F2 and I hit the brakes way too hard while on the yellow lines. I was new to both Southern California and to hardcore street riding and had just started to ride too hard. It was that morning while at the hospital in Glendora (which I rode to with a broken wrist and no coolant in my bike) that I decided to start road racing. Six months later I was in the CMRRA racing YSR50s at local go-kart tracks, a year after that I started racing 125s with the WSMC and GPRA and I still do to this moment with the USGPRU.

I ride quite a bit on the street and I enjoy it very much, but like most racers who head up the Angeles Crest Highway on off weekends I try to use plenty of reserve, never cross the yellow lines, and try to keep a pace for conditions. Yes, the bulk of us including me end up going too fast and endangering ourselves on the street, fortunately I have an outlet for that in road racing.

It is like a war zone up on these highways, and I hate to overreact to the issue but we lose lots of good riders and good people for no other reason than for senseless bravado and machismo. I am not saying that the racetrack is a place for such B.S., it is an equalizer and a humbling experience for most “fast” street riders. It gives us all perspective and makes us better street riders every time we make a loop around a roadrace course. It is unfortunate that we have this poor soul to use as an example of Natural Selection but if he had been at Thunderhill with me on Sunday I assure you he would have had to do something very stupid to end up in a Head On Collision.

Quentin Wilson
USGPRU/CCS/FUSA #808
WSMC #818