GIVI Magazine - November de 2010 - EN

4 GIVI-USA Text and photographs by Pietro Ambrosioni 15 Hollywood Rider Being an actor is difficult … but not nearly as much as being a motorcyclist in Los Angeles. This is what Gunner Wright, a film and TV series actor, claims, busily trying to elude the contract clauses which attempt to confine him behind the driving wheel of a car. How did we get to know him? He fell in love with our 10.4 Air helmet and pulled out all the stops to get it. Los Angeles owes its global fame to two things: Hollywood and its crippling traffic. Yes, it’s true, it also has Santa Monica beach (remember Bay- watch?), Beverly Hills mansions, Venice Beach hippies and Di- sneyland Park, but the thing that really throws the majority of tourists into a panic is the myriad of freeways and interstates; the gigantic motorways which intersect the second most den- sely populated city of the United States, creating an inextricable tangle. Given the all year round mite temperature and the absence of rain and humidity, one would imagine that L.A. would be the homeland of scooters and motorcycles: what better vehicle for winding through the traffic in the metropolis? Nothing could be further from the truth, for a whole series of va- lid reasons. Above all, the distances involved. The Greater Los Angeles area, sprawling out over five counties, covers a terri- tory of approximately 90 thousand square kilometres and has a population of 18 million (2006 figures). Just as a comparison, Rome, including its districts, covers an area of approximately 1,500 square kilometres and has less than 4 million inhabitants (2004 figures). This means that to get from the “city centre” to the beach in- volves travelling at least 60 km, whilst for a trip from Hollywood to Disneyland you must take into account 130 km. And you are still within the city boundaries... in addition, there’s the issue of the traffic, not just the amount but also the type. Motorcycles here are a rarity which is not surprising considering the way they are treated. For years, the Department of Motor Vehicles has attempted to sensitize car drivers by means of press campaigns and posters, inviting them to look in the rear-view mirror before changing lanes or making turns. And that’s not all, since Cali- fornia is one of the few remaining American states not to have abolished “lane splitting”, there are still a very high number of accidents involving motorcyclists. In addition to these factors, there are also other innate nuisances, like the traffic light sen- sors which cannot “see” motorcyclists and thus stay red until a car arrives, or alternatively the terrible mixture of fine sand, saline and oil which seeps out of the road at the first hint of rain. This incredibly slippery mixture, colloquially called “gunk”, is the result of months and months of sediments, with the result that, after a brief downpour, all the roads in L.A. become as slippery as soap. FROM HONDA P.R. TO ACTOR: THE INTERVIEW This is where the attitude of a figure like Gunner Wright beco- mes significant, as he always rides around his beloved Hollywo-