BY TAMARA BELKOV
Danielle Brosseau is a road captain with the Harley Owners
Group, or HOG.  She says everyone has to be more safety
cautious while on the road during the summer months. Vehicle
drivers and motorcycle riders alike will all be safer if they
remember to shoulder check and signal before changing lanes,
turning at an intersection or pulling into traffic.
"Be courteous and give good direction," Brosseau advises.
"Signal. If you follow the rules of the road and are courteous,
people will be courteous back."
If you don't count the number of times she dropped her "hog"
in her first year of rider training, Brosseau has 24
accident-free years under her Harley belt. In the past two
years she has put 56,000 kilometre on her bike. Last year, on
just one road trip, she logged 8,000 km in 12 days, riding to a
motorcycle rally in South Dakota.
"I'm a road captain. I ride at the front of the group and when I move (in traffic), I'm moving the whole group of us. I find when I'm riding, I signal with my hands and my machine and I look.
You have to drive safely and be aware of what is going on.
People want to see you. We have to be looking around all the
time, we are all just as responsible. When you are on a bike,
you have to make sure everyone knows where you are going next.
So you try and make eye contact, especially at an intersection.
I'll sit at an intersection until I see if (oncoming traffic)
is going to move or not. Especially at this time of year, by
May everyone has their machine out on the road and drivers of
cars and trucks have not been used to seeing us out there. They
have to start to look for us at intersections."
Long-time dirt bike enthusiasts, Tony and Ellen Pagnutti, nod
in agreement from astride their bikes.
"Intersections are the worst for accidents," Ellen Pagnutti
says. "I don't pull out as fast as a car does. I was nearly
rear ended at an intersection the other day. It can be
dangerous."
Pagnutti's white Harley with matching sidecar is both
unusual to look at and wider than most motorcycles. She adds
that sometimes on the highway truck and car drivers take too
long a look and will start to drift into her lane without
realizing how close they have come.
"The same thing happened when I had my trike. Drivers do have to be careful and give us the room we need to work."
Her husband Tony, preferring a 1960s retro red Hog adds,
"Riding a bike has made me a better car driver. Now, I look
over my shoulder more often."
Last week, the members of the same recreational riding associations gathered at Canadian Blood Services and donated over 50 units of blood during the Bikers for Life campaign.