Beware the skid demon

A bit of Japanese motorcycle history. Dave Despain sent this in to HMS, N, Fla's vintage motorcycle club.

How to ride motorcycles: Taken from a 1962 Honda Motorcycle Club Instruction Book. It was translated by Honda for the American Motorcycle Rider.

1. At the rise of the hand by Policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him by or otherwise disrespect him.

2. When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet melodiously at first. If he still obstacles your passage, tootel him with vigor and express by word of mouth, warning Hi, Hi.

3 Beware of the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass him. Do not explode the exhaust box at him. Go smoothingly by.

4. Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in roadway. Avoid entanglement of dog with wheel spokes.

5. Go smoothingly on the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon. Press the brake foot as you roll around the corners, and save the collapse and tie up.

Even with the unintended humorous phrasing , the intent of the instruction is still valid today .... well, except you're not going to run into many horses or real traffic policemen in most cities today .

However, exploding the exhaust box does seem to be a favorite pastime of most Harley rides then and continuing today

"Festive dog"

Know a lot of dog breeds.

This is a new one.

Do have a Foo dog.

I've checked two of those boxes.

1, A festive dog once made sport with my front rim (wasn't spoked though) and I went down.

2, Met the "Skid Demon" years ago after using Armor all on my sidewalls.

Now "exploding" the exhaust box sounds like it was made for FART!

Pat

That's awesome. I'll have to use a couple of those lines...

Ha. In general still valid advise. The Japanese sensibility of courteous behavior in public is very apparent, now a rare to find trait in most larger US cities.

Something was lost in translation though. Exploding the exhaust box sounds like a euphemism for what happens the day after attending a chili cook off!

Even with the unintended humorous phrasing , the intent of the instruction is still valid today .... well, except you're not going to run into many horses or real traffic policemen in most cities today .

 

However, exploding the exhaust box does seem to be a favorite pastime of most Harley rides then and continuing today

I can't speak for other states, but Oregon still has a bit in the driver manual about respecting riders on horseback when they (rider - not the horse) raise a hand. Universally amused my “big city” students and seemed crazy to my rural students that the DMV needed to include such common sense in the manual.

That rule set has been around for years and is comedy gold, but its origin is pretty sketchy. This guy's profession involves translation of technical Japanese documents - in other words, he's very fluent in Japanese. He claims the document features an absence of common "nipponisms" - English phrases and grammatic constructs that would be expected from a native Japanese speaker who is not terribly fluent in English - which casts doubt on the purported origin. He did some more digging, and concluded that it might date as far back as 1921, and is probably a translation that was then deliberately flowered up to make it seem even more ridiculous.

A subsequent commenter on his blog linked to this 1919 journal of the Automobile Club of America, containing the same text. Given its appearance in that publication, it looks like it's not so much about motorcycles as it is about cars.

I've checked two of those boxes.

 

1, A festive dog once made sport with my front rim (wasn't spoked though) and I went down.

2, Met the "Skid Demon" years ago after using Armor all on my sidewalls.

 

Now "exploding" the exhaust box sounds like it was made for FART!

 

Pat

I think I met Skid Demon's cousin, rock hidden under puddle.

I've checked two of those boxes.

 

1, A festive dog once made sport with my front rim (wasn't spoked though) and I went down.

2, Met the "Skid Demon" years ago after using Armor all on my sidewalls.

 

Now "exploding" the exhaust box sounds like it was made for FART!

 

Pat

Also recalling the historing of happy memories a festive dog once introduced the skid demon to me with saving results but a differing time it was of a sticking gas throttle of full opening (causing smackdown and minor skin and clothing deteriorations). After many moons of erroring and slight wisdomry I am to go smoothingly toward the happiness of the fast place.

They forgot about "Antlerd Rats"

Then there is the infamous "some assembly required" which surely

is the punchline to a cosmic joke...

I live near Amish country in southeast PA and not scaring the horses is definitely a thing. I saw the cage in front of me split between two buggies going opposite directions the other day, and one horse reared, good that its driver got it under control quickly. Guess who got to a traffic light 30 seconds later? Guess who was sitting behind him 40 seconds later?

Yes passing buggies on the DY is totally expected.

Way back when I had my Harley the service manual said to tighten the head bolts to "the strength of an average man."

I live near Amish country in southeast PA and not scaring the horses is definitely a thing.

Plenty of Amish in Wisconsin, too, and I've taken a few road trips there. The horses are pretty accustomed to motorized traffic and rarely react, but of course we on bikes are far more vulnerable to a spooked horse than a a car is; I make it a point to slow down when passing a horse-drawn carriage going in either direction.

If you're wearing a modular helmet, it's not a bad idea to flip your helmet up so the horses can see a human face. I've noticed it makes for a better reaction when I ride into a stable.