on the cover / By Mark McKenna

Keep Upright!

Gas prices driving you to a two-wheeler? Here’s how to stay alive.

(Sept. 4, 2008)  It was a bright clear sunny morning — “a beautiful day to ride,” recalled Seth Griggs.

The night before, Griggs, the manager of Adrenalin Motorsports in Eureka, received his first shipment of Lance scooters from China. He had been counting the days until their arrival. He put together a red Vintage 150, did an inspection, picked out a helmet and took the back roads home.

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“I could hardly wait until the next morning,” said Griggs. Feeling confident after his ride home, Griggs said took off from his house and was riding in the left lane of I street in Eureka when he came to the intersection with 14th. Griggs said he had a green light. He checked the intersection and his mirrors.

The car on his left was stopped, but as he crossed, he said, a woman in a minivan on his right ran the red light. “I locked up both brakes and bam,” said Griggs. He remembers seeing everything during the wreck. He saw sky. He saw the hood of the minivan. He hit the windshield. “I rolled off the other side and ended up on some guy’s lawn,” said Griggs, “both my knees just killing me.”

Griggs said he had ridden less than five miles on his permit before being in the collision. He was enrolled in a motorcycle safety course but had not taken it. “I almost wish I had taken the course before I ever stepped foot on a bike,” he said. “I might have been able to swerve. Even if I had dumped the bike, dealing with road rash would be better than dealing with these other injuries.” He has since completed a training course and is riding again. “I had to get back on the horse,” said Griggs, adding that he was shaky at first but the class gave him confidence. Now when he finds a new rider in his shop he pushes the safety course and has fliers for those who are interested.

According to the AAA website the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline reached a record high of $4.11 a gallon on July 17 of this year. Those high prices drove Eureka residents JoAnn Hart and Melissa Shaw to buy scooters from Griggs. The couple owns two Chevy Tahoe SUVs that get about 14 miles to the gallon. “It was costing us about $100 a week each just to fill up,” said Hart. “Now it’s like $10 for both of us, and that’s for premium.” Shaw bought a Lance Venice 150 and Hart a Vintage 150. Both scooters are rated at 75 miles a gallon and have a one and a half gallon tank. “Seventy-five miles to the gallon,” Hart said. “How can you beat that?”

But if you’re looking to beat the price at the pump by switching to a two-wheeled vehicle, you need to think about the risks. Motorcycles require more skill and coordination than driving a car. On their jobs, Shaw and Hart see first-hand the risk of injury from riding two-wheeled vehicles. Hart is a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit and Shaw works as a tech in the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Shaw also works as an EMT for City Ambulance in Eureka. Shaw was recently on an ambulance call for a man injured in a motorcycle wreck. According to the patient, it was his second crash in a week. “I thought, this guy needs a new hobby,” said Shaw.

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