First we need to acknowledge that if a real thief wants your stuff, there’s little you can do about it. But most thefts are crimes of opportunity — someone sees your stuff, sees an opportunity, and takes it. That’s the kind of thing I want to prevent. So here are five things I’ve done to reduce my chances of losing my stuff.

We’ll start with the most obvious. I use an enclosed trailer to tow my bikes and gear. That’s a pricey step that many people don’t want to take, but I use the trailer for hauling street bikes, as well as occasionally hauling other stuff that needs to be kept out of the weather. So the $3k I spent for my 6×12 v-nose enclosed trailer was worth it to me.

Anonymity is good, so I left the exterior of my trailer blank, unadorned with stickers of any kind. There’s no indication of what’s inside. Crimes of opportunity are risk/reward evaluations by the thief. If there’s doubt about what’s inside, the reward part of the equation becomes difficult to assess and maybe they’ll go somewhere else. But if they decide to tackle my trailer I’ve put a few other obstacles in their way.

I use good-quality hitch locks and locking pins. When the trailer is hitched to the truck there are hardened locking pins to keep the hitch closed and keep the hitch in the receiver. Oh, and the ball itself is welded to the hitch (actually, it’s galled so bad you can’t break it loose with a vise and 2-foot length of pipe) so you can’t unbolt anything and get it off the truck.

When the trailer is unhitched I use a good blocking lock that prevents putting the trailer on a ball. None of these things will stop a dedicated thief, but they will slow him down. Total cost for these items was under $50.

Next I purchased a good wheel lock from Trailer Keeper. I really like this unit, as it not only locks the wheel, but covers the lug nut to make it much harder to remove. You can’t just quickly pull the wheel to disable the lock. I use this whenever the trailer is parked. Cost was about $75. So even if the thief disables the hitch locks, towing the trailer away is still a problem.

The final item I added was a security system. Again, this is a pricey item that many people may feel is too expensive. I spent about $650 to have an auto-style theft alarm installed, with it’s own battery and a pager with a 1/2-mile range. Considering I often have $10k+ of stuff in my trailer, $650 seemed a fair investment. The trailer alarm works in conjunction with my existing anti-theft system in the truck, which disables the ignition so driving the whole combination away becomes problematic.

The alarm has magnetic triggers in both the rear and side doors, as well as a motion detector. If the wires are cut, the door(s) opened, or the trailer shaken significantly the alarm goes off, and so does my pager. This is particularly helpful in hotel parking lots.

The alarm was installed by a local stereo shop that does car alarms, and they did a nice job. Again, anonymity is good, so there are no visible signs that a theft-alarm is installed. The idea here is that if a thief does get into the trailer, they won’t be expecting an alarm and will be spooked before they get too far along. And with the pager, I should be able to get there in many cases.

In total, I spent about $800 on security measures, to protect $10k+ of merchandise and give me piece of mind both at home and on the road. None of this guarantees I will never have my bikes, gear, or trailer stolen, but it does raise the odds in my favor and I sleep a lot better at night knowing I’ve done what I can to protect what’s mine.

With luck, anyone looking to hijack my stuff will see the obstacles and simply move on to something that presents an easier opportunity — maybe like your trailer???

The useless dickheads who robbed the house were captured on security cameras. Please see the security cam videos here and help the Coombs family put these douchebags in jail.

I came across this GPS and Dirt Bikes post over at the Dirt Bike Blogger. There’s a lot of good info, but the most interesting thing to me was this part about geocaching:

A GPS unit will also allow you to participate in geocaching – a great addition to trail riding. Geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunt. Caches are hidden and listed on the Internet (try Geocaching.com) with only their coordinates and sometimes additional clues. The caches generally include a logbook and pencil to record visitors, and tokens or prizes that can be traded.

The author also discusses using the GPS and some additional software to map your own trails, and build your own maps. If you’re interested in such things have a look at the whole article.

I don’t believe the pointy-heads give a damn about climate change or gas mileage, much less about whether I survive a head-on with one of their tax-sucking mass-transit projects. All they want to is to make me hate my car. How proud and handsome would Bucephalas look, or Traveler or Rachel Alexandra, with seat and shoulder belts, air bags, 5-mph bumpers and a maze of pollution-control equipment under the tail?

And there’s the end of the American automobile industry. When it comes to dull, practical, ugly things that bore and annoy me, Japanese things cost less and the cup holders are more conveniently located.

We are witnessing an end to American idealism and individualism — and perversely this is all in the name of diversity. Even Pravda laments the loss of American freedoms in the face of this bureaucratic socialist onslaught that is taking our land, our cars, and our motorcycles:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

Never before have we seen the level of government meddling we witness now on a daily basis. No pursuit is too small to be regulated for our own good — see this article on Federal regulation of garage sales. Yes, our love of the automobile is dead, and there are millions of people in this country — people who lack imagination, guts, character, honesty, and integrity — who are glad to see it go.

But I am not one of those people. I am not one who is happy to see honest Americans barred from our own public lands. I am not one who is happy to see an overgrown toy regulation agency given total control over motorcycles. I am not one who wants to see a President who has never held an honest job now guiding an entire industry with the help of a cadre of unelected buffoons.

But that is what we have. As O’Rourke says, it’s time to put a bullet in the V-8.

(3) Why did the [Glen Helen] race last into the evening? If I was a conspiracy theorist I’d say that the sanctioning body, which really wants to go to a one-moto format, was sabotaging the race program to make it look like the only way they could get through the day was if they went to one moto. However, not being a conspiracy theorist, I don’t believe that this is what they are doing. They have just bit off more than they can chew. The schedule needs to be streamlined. Everyone knew that it was too long and too prone to delays — almost everyone that is. I’d estimate that by the start of the second round of motos that half the crowd headed for the gates. That is not a rousing approval rating of your entertainment package or race schedule.

There are only a handful of people in the world who know whether or not the sanctioning body wants to go to a one-moto format. Jody Weisel may or may not be one of those. The man has ridden a dirt bike most working days for more than 30 years, and has raced nearly every weekend. He’s been a pain in the side of the AMA for decades. He’s a promoter, a racer, a tenured motojournalist. Motocross Action has been a bible for motoheads since the ’70s. But Weisel is also a gonzo muckraker. So what does Weisel’s statement mean?

It might be a slam at the internet moto-boards, where lots of people with limited wattage and even smaller vocubularies hurl insults and conspiracy theories at each other instead of getting jobs.

It might be true. Weisel may know someone within the AMA Pro Racing/MX Sports organization who actually wants, really, one-moto MX Nationals. There could even be an interview or article buried in the Motocross Action archives that supports this, but I haven’t seen it.

The people at Daytona Motorsports/AMA Pro Racing don’t know anything about motocross, never have, so they could want all kinds of things that make no sense. But that’s why they put MX Sports in charge of the Nationals.

Davey Coombs of MX Sports has previously made public statements which indicate he has not completely ruled out the possibility of a one-moto format if it were necessary to get live TV or a better TV deal. But that does not equal “really wants to go to a one-moto format.”

It seems to me that, in either case, it’s much ado about nothing. The most popular road racing series in the world, World Superbike (WSBK), has a two-race format. They don’t seem to have trouble getting fans to understand the race, or getting good TV time.

The current (new) TV deal for the MX Nationals is outstanding. Getting highlights of the first moto and coverage (either live or same day) of the second moto is damned good. Can’t imagine that going to a 1-moto format is going to enhance the show in any way that’s going to get more viewers. Seriously, anyone too stupid to understand a two-race format is highly unlikely to become a viewer anyway.

If anything, the scoring system needs to be rethought. AMA Pro Racing issued a competition bulletin last week to clarify how overall event scores are calculated, and MXA posted  another article on why the current system is wrong.

WSBK has a point system almost identical to MX and it seems to work for them. I don’t think anyone argues with the points system. It’s the overall event “winner” that is at issue. I don’t know how, or if, WSBK deals with this overall winner concept, but it’s a tradition in MX that needs to be more straightforward.

So instead of 1-moto Nationals, just create one-winner Nationals. Separate chanpionship points from event scores. Have one podium ceremony at the end of the day. Award the event trophy to the guys with the lowest scores on the day, based on moto positions.

Leave the college algebra for the post-race analysis and give the fans a simple, clear winner. Better yet, add some bonus points for winning a national. NASCAR adds bonus points for all kinds of things (like being the wealthiest team owner, having the biggest sponsor, etc.) Make winning the overall matter in the Championship chase. Not a lot, but some — say 5 points for the win, 3 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd.

I know that is counter to the “both races are equal” ideal, but not by much. And it would really help clarify and enhance the event winner. Make winning a National matter. Motocross is a participant sport and the National Championships should, as much as possible, mirror the races in which we all participate.

Is this a prelude to putting the 2-stroke back into the MX Nationals in 2010? The announcement at Racer X is the latest in a string of small things that all add up to growing momentum for a 2-stroke resurgence on the Pro scene.

It’s just my speculation at this point, but MX Sports has announced the 2-Stroke Invitational to run at select rounds of the 2009 National series, including:

• July 4 RedBud Buchanan, Mich.
• July 18 Spring Creek Millville, Minn.
• Aug. 15 Unadilla New Berlin, N.Y.
• Aug. 22 Budds Creek Mechanicsville, Md.

There is a lot of speculation about whether or not we will see 2-strokes put back on an equal footing for professional racing in 2010. The renaming of the racing classes to 250 and 450, various favorable comments by MX Sports and AMA Nationals guy Davey Coombs, the resurgence of 2-stroke events in Europe, and now a 2-stroke exhibition class at select MX Nationals. Can this be a way to gauge fan and rider interest and build a case for going against the wishes of the Big Four in 2010? We’ll see…

• No longer need to create an account to post a comment
• When you post a comment you can subscribe to it (and nothing else) via email, so you can see when someone responds
• URLs that show the post title. Old links will still work. We’ve put redirects in place to make sure the old URLs don’t get 404 messages.
• Type that should be easier on the eyes for folks like me whose eyesight doesn’t like the small fonts so much.
• More “what’s new” summary stuff in the sidebar. (This might just matter to me, but I like to see it on other sites.)

My webmaster and I have been working for a while on getting everything ready. Moving a site to a new platform and a new host without breaking things is tough, but I think we’ve managed it.

Try it out. Post a comment here and let me know what else you’d like to see or if you find any glitches. We’ll be cleaning things up for a few days yet.

I have been wondering if we were going to have to suffer through another season of Ralph “Monster Truck” Sheheen — bless his heart. I know he tries, and maybe he’s a good choice for Supercross. Maybe the average viewer for SX doesn’t know a whoop from tailwhip and needs the sort of hyperbole and overdramatization that Sheheen is so good at. But it just rubs me the wrong way. I can’t help it.

Bailey is the best MX color man ever, hands down. Despain/Bailey may have been the best on-air team ever. Emig is good, and has gotten better with experience. But Bailey is Numero Uno and it’s terrific to see him get another shot at a full-time TV gig.

Weigandt? The kid is terrific. He loves this stuff. He knows it inside and out. He knows when there is real drama on the track, and when there isn’t. He doesn’t have to make it up. It’s like having the world’s biggest fan doing the play-by-play. And that is a good thing. Plus, he’s a helluva play-by-play guy. His SX webcasts are first rate. He’s real talent and I am so happy to see him get a shot at big network (well, bigger than Versus) TV. It will make everything about the broadcasts better.

I am “super pumped” about the Nationals. DC, MX Sports — you guys are the best. Way to go!

I met Richie face-to-face on several occasions and chatted with him frequently via vintage racing message boards. He was one of those rare people that you just know right away is a really good guy and you like him.

Richie had a history of heart problems, but he insisted on living life to the fullest. He was an example for all of us, and I will miss him. My condolences to his son Garret and wife Teresa. Godspeed Richie.