Re: [ST] re: Mobile Phone flame war - TORCH ON!

["Philip Guy" <bike@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think Biker Dad has missed my point here somewhat, did he not read my
first paragraph on multi-tasking and the acceptance that if a situation
arises
then the pillion / passenger / mobile phone person will be ignored.  I
explain to people that I am riding my bike, as the peculiar thing about
mobile phone conversation is that most people ask at the outset, where are
you now?   If a situation arose, I
wouldn't bother explaining that "oh Dear a pink elephant has just walked out
in front of me, I won't be able to talk for a while", the person on the
opposite end can just go and whistle until I'm ready to speak again, I
believe the same applies in racing as Driver's frequently ignore pit crew
communication when they want to until it's appropriate for them to carry on
communicating.  To infer that racers don't have the same level of tasks or
commitments to deal with is I believe naive as to have people jostling for
your position from behind and to have to harry the guy in front whilst being
on the edge is no easy feat.

What about the emergency services or more specifically, biker, traffic cops
who have communication going on all the time and occasionally have to give
detailed blow by blow accounts of the action as it's taking place are they
all dangerous.  I repeat that I do not continue communication when a
situation or point of extra care is needed.

And just to make things even more clear, I normally only choose to have the
phone connected when I am touring and not on normal blasts out with my mates
or on my own for a few hours.  The main reason for the phone in the first
place is that I have a very young family one of which has a medical
condition and being contactable in an emergency was a condition for peace of
mind which my wife insisted on if I were to get a bike.  The phone is always
there in front of me for me to see the call register but in the main not
connected through my Autocom.

As to getting by without a cell phone for thousands of years is a fair point
but I suppose by that view we should also have to give up the internal
combustion engine and for that matter my trusty metal steed.

Black Dawg