I'm going to say the two main causes (besides any inability to 'relax' yourself while focusing) is exhaust smoke and deydration(in that order).

For some reason, a lot of trail riders have not caught on to the idea of radio communication and its obvious benefits:

1) You need never take your concentration from the trail and only focus on what is in front of you. As a result, you are basically riding by yourself with 'nobody' in front of you.

2) The resulting 'wide' spacing cuts down DRAMATICALLY on the amount of carbon monoxide and dust you injest over the length of the trip.

3) No 'shouting' over engine noise and through thick helmets.

4) Eliminates the 'wait at the turn' and 'turn around and go back to see what's wrong' archaic methods of wasting time by not moving forward.

5) You are guaranteed to see much more along the way with multiple sets of eyes who can communicate.

I'm no doctor; but I can guarantee that if you aren't riding with 'Tim Farr'; WAY ahead of you with no chance of ever catching up on that Predator......................you are constantly threatening to run up somebody's butt and getting a good dose of invisible exhaust/dust every time you do it.

Great topic as I don't think many people realize how STUPID it is to worry about how far the guy in front or behind of you is; if you can always raise him on the radio. Just use some common sense:

Do a 'comm-check' every once in a while and don't get all panicky and 'stop' just because a clear back and forth conversation is not always possible. Assign a 'middle' and 'end' person (or more if needed)and make them RESPONSIBLE for accepting your comm-check and automatically passing it back. NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS! Any link of the chain who has trouble establishing contact with their assigned person behind them(and these are 'short' checks) simply relays back to the front (with all those ahead of him giving the lead man a little time to respond 'first' if possible) to SLOW DOWN (not stop) until communication is again made. Most people make the mistake of assuming that the front and back need to be in 'direct' communique........for what? All the back man ever needs to do is relay messages to the front for any need to stop and the front man only needs an occasional comm-check or shout out an approaching riders warning or approaching turn(both picked up/relayed by the same intermediate and end rider as with the comm-checks). If you don't want to wear a radio and still make the 'turns'; than I guess you have no other choice than to get on somebody's butt and stay there!(cough,'hack')

The next time any of you are behind a two-stroke or slightly rich running four banger; it's not too hard to trace the smoke or dust and see how it just doesn't 'disappear' on anything but a very windy day.

If you want to 'tailgate' fine................................just don't expect 'me' to worry about getting to our destination 10 to 15 seconds behind the person in front of me!

Ride 'safe'...................................but somehow 'smart' has got to be right on up there, also.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

John

 

I've NEVER had a Headache in my entire life (Been the cause of Many), so I can't really speak from experience. But my Wife gets them when we ride all day. For her, I think that it is closely associated with her stress level. She's a better rider than she gives herself credit for, but she just can't seem to not stress out about every hill or technical section. You can see it in her face. I also agree that when riding in a group, unless you are the lead dog, the air leaves a lot to be desired.

Just to keep anyone from waisting a post, Yes, I have been told, "That you have to have a brain in order to get a headache." [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

yeah..when we ride, we usually ride closely in a pack. I mean we're all doing a fair good clip, and spread out fairly far, but when the trail gets slow, we all seem to go togther.

When i ride, if its with certain people, my younger brother for example, i try to put him in front of me where i can keep a good eye on him. But the radio is a good idea.

what kind do you suggest, the small walky talky kinds or the helmet radio's?

 

I just picked up the Chatterbox GMRS X-1 as people seem to swear by their performance. Had the older 900 mhz. Collett Electronics (mainly a 'sled' communicator)units and still feel that their controls are definitely of a more water resistant quality than what I can see on the Chatterbox.

The Chatterbox 'seems' to be the only outfit out there offering automatic radio interruption to music or cell phone use and still operate on the more powerful GMRS frequency. I really wish someone could correct me on this; as I am initially not very impressed with their 'bracket' for mounting the unit on the helmet itself or the unit's overall enclosure when compared with the Collett. If you didn't know, GMRS shares some channels with FRS (1-7); so why not purchase as much power as possible and still retain access to the most popular frequencies.

I have run several Motorola radios with success; but think that most brands are probably O.K. when using a simple push-to-talk microphone. If you run a voice-activated boom mic.; make sure you get a unit with vox-level sensitivity adjustment.

One thing not to forget; TAPE your mic. line firmly to your unit; so as not to introduce 'wiggling' into this connection which will produce noises you don't want to hear (talk about 'headaches'!) and pretty much ruin this feature of your radio.

John

 

Prob pretty expensive though eh?

 

Chatterboxes run 250 (or probably less) American; GMRS radios were almost $100/ea. a while back (I liked the Midland G-15 which you could thread an external antenna on to) but I believe my girlfriend bought two Audiovox GMRS's, w/chargers for, $90 out of Cabellas in their fall catalogue.

It's really hard to assess the value of these things until you use them properly with everybody understanding their simple responsibility. I will say that it is the single most important tool in teaching new riders technique that you can immediately comment on and inspiring/comforting those riders faced with somewhat scary challenges for the first time.

John

 

I like the radio idea. I'll have to look into this more.

As for the headaches.....drop more water. We take 5 or more gallons with us with we ride at a riding park.