Live to ride - ride to die

[masraum]

This site seems to be promoting safety through shock. The farther down the page you get the worse the pictures get.

http://home1.gte.net/res0ak9f/bike.htm

[svandamme]

couple of real beauties in there...

[Porsche virgin]

I drove my bike in grad school in bad weather, bad conditions, doing stupid things. I count my blessings, and now I'm done. It isn't worth it.

[Drago]

I was find until the last one...

[Aerkuld]

That may be a sick, but effective way of teaching people to take more care. But from my experience, nothing beats good training.

I originally passed my bike test in Britain and rode for several years over there before I had to take it again in California, when I moved over here. In Britain my training was very intense and took a long time to complete. They don't just teach you how to ride a bike, but how to pick good safety equipment, how to think ahead and identify risks, how to develop a potential 'escape route' for the worst case scenario, hours of riding on the road with the instructor learning road positioning etc. They even take you to a bike shop. Basically everything you need to prepare you for riding a bike SAFELY and BEFORE taking your test.

For the test itself, the examiner first inspects your safety equipment and makes sure you have a decent helmet, gloves, boots, leather jacket, and preferably leather jeans. The riding test itself involves riding around on the streets, in traffic, with the examiner on a bike behind you, talking to you on a headset. The entire process takes 30 - 45 minutes if I recall correctly. He watches you like a hawk, if you break the speed limit, don't check all around you for hazards before doing anything, fail to signal, or do ANYTHING wrong, then you'd better schedule another appointment next month. Then, back at the test center you get tested on the Highway Code, and again make a mistake and you're coming back next month. I can't remember the exact details of the law, but even then if you take a test on a small capacity bike, that is what you are limited to for a period of time. If you want to ride bigger bikes then you take your test on a bigger bike.

By contrast, the California test seemed like a walk in the park. Start it, stop it, show me where the turn signals are, ride around some cones in the parking lot and off you go and ride whatever you like. My boys are aged 5 and 12. They ride dirt bikes around their property and they could pass the California test I'm sure. Sure there is a Highway Code section too, but given three goes and only having to get 75% of the questions right (or whatever it is) they'd probably give that a bash too.

I'm not saying that Britain is perfect, or that there aren't good riders here, or there aren't bad riders there, but at least in the British test the examiner satisfies himself that you know how to ride safely and that you know what you should wear when riding. Of course what you do after the test is up to you within reason.
So which method do you think prepares a rider better?

I cringe when I see riders in shorts, tee shirts and tennis shoes, or the Harley riders with bare arms and these tiny helmets (we call them piss-pot helmets). I want to ask these guys if they want to get off their bike, run down the road as fast as they can run then throw themselves onto the asphalt. Do you reckon they would?
I see bikes tucked in behind other vehicles where they can't possibly see ahead of the SUV's tailgate, let alone see cars waiting to pull out of side roads - and guess what? The guy in the car waiting to pull out can't see them either. All he see's is an SUV and he's pulling out after that - by the time he see's the bike it's over! Just bad judgment and bad riding and probably because they don't know any better.

All that aside, I choose not to ride bikes over here anymore. It's simply too risky, no matter how careful I am or how much I plan ahead, there's much more traffic, which increases the number of idiots who aren't paying attention. It's bad enough in a car sometimes, but on a bike the consequences are generally much more painful. Do I miss my bikes? Of course, but not as much as I'd miss everything else. I worry that those boys of mine will want to ride bikes on the road, but I'll see what I can do about that when the time comes.

Glad I got that out of my system!

[wcc]

Reading lots of those clippings they read like this,

75mph on a country road = too fast
going twice or three times the legal limit = too fast

Sounds like semi drivers don't like motorcyclists cause they just run 'em over at the stop lights.

That is weird for a experienced biker to run into the back of a big rig.

How many were alcohol related?

How many would've lived if they did wear protective gear?

Stay in your lane.

But with your gear on and within the speedlimit AND WITHIN your own limits I think you have better chances.

All this post aside, motorcycles ARE more dangerous then cars. No doubt about it.

[charleskieffner]

what a great way to start the day! exactly the reason i gave up riding my ATK 605 on the street!

will gladly hurtle myself down a straight at PIR or FIREBIRD raceways and not think twice about it in my p-car! the most dangerous time to ride on the street in arizona is NOW!

reason..........snowbirds have arrived ie. IDIOT DRIVERS w/cell phones surgically implanted in ear!

[wcc]

Here's some more statistics if you want to check 'em out:

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/finalReport.cfm?stateid=0&year=2005&title=Trends&title2=General

Edit: Seems slow to load, so be patient.

[nostatic]

I don't think I'll click on the link, thank you. btdt.

[dagriff]

Originally posted by Aerkuld

I originally passed my bike test in Britain and rode for several years over there before

Me as well & agree with all the rest.
I did all the crazy stuff in my teens & luckily survived, however even an available big bike then (like a Bonnie) was a snail compared to what you can get now).

I went back to a bike for commuting in my 30's. It was only a 250 Suzuki, but WAY faster than any 250 I remembered (B.S.A. Starfire.....). I fully intended to ride here, but the laws make it pointless for in town driving. e.g. you cant drive between lanes in line ups, no bike only parking etc.
In many U.K. cities there is a space marked at traffic lights so bikes can drive between the cars to the front of the line.
If the powers that be want to reduce the number of cars in town they should try making the city bike friendly, I'd even get a scooter......My kids would be so embarrassed, it might be worth it...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've seen some gruesome pictures of people hit by cars crossing the street too. . . Does that mean we should all stop crossing streets?

[Aerkuld]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
I've seen some gruesome pictures of people hit by cars crossing the street too. . . Does that mean we should all stop crossing streets?

I thought that most people over here have. Don't they drive there?

[Jeff Higgins]

Makes yours look pretty mild, Todd. Some of these "survivors" (if one can really call them that) are pretty darn messed up. Lack of protective gear for the most part; a lesson it seems we all learn the hard way, to varying degrees.

Although no one could have convinced me at the time, I was rather "fortunate" very early in my riding career. I earned myself a bit of road rash that I never would have gotten if I had been wearing as much as even a jacket. I have since had two rather serious wrecks and walked awy from both. Knocked into the center guardrail by a pickup on the freeway at 70+, doing a belly-flop onto the asphalt. Low-siding it on an off-ramp covered with "kitty litter" (sand from the winter sanding)at about 60-ish, getting trapped under the bike and sliding accross four lanes of traffic. Totally destroyed good sets of leathers both times, and my full-face Bell Star II the first time. My Harley buddies still tease me about the full-face and full leathers (even mid-summer) all the time. Oh well. I try to tell them their day will come, and they cannot choose that day...

[RKC]

I drove my bike in grad school in bad weather, bad conditions, doing stupid things. I count my blessings, and now I'm done. It isn't worth it.

Ditto.

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by nostatic
I don't think I'll click on the link, thank you. btdt.

Uh...you are among the lucky ex bike riders...I visited an elderly father of a friend in a nursing home not too long ago. One of his roomates was an ex biker who had suffered severe brain damage despite having worn a helmet,,,mid 20's, a very healthy body, and forever trapped with the brain of a 2 year old. A very sad sight...

[masraum]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
I've seen some gruesome pictures of people hit by cars crossing the street too. . . Does that mean we should all stop crossing streets?

Definitely!!!

[pmajka]

3/4 of page down has a place holder
"Your Picture here."

[on2wheels52]

I ride 350 days/year.
No death wish.
The learning curve can be steep. You learn a lot the first 1000 miles. By 5k you form some theories on survival.
I get cranky after a few day of not riding.
re MC crash statistics, disregard the inebriated, the non-licensed, the non-helmeted, and the first ride on a borrowed bike and it's not quite so gloomy a picture.
Jim

[svandamme]

911 Carrera 0 - 1 Toll booth


links removed on outside chance this was a pelican - ns

DO NOT CLICK THE NEXT LINK IF "RIDE TO DIE" WAS HEAVY ON YOUR EYES

closeup pics from above 911 accident
links removed on outside chance this was a pelican - ns

maybe this will make some parents think twice before giving a 911 Carrera to his 16/18 year old son or daughter? probably not

impressive skills to overtake a honda doing 75mph, on the right,while doing 100mph, that close to a tollbooth...

if anything, i guess she never noticed it

[rcecale]

Originally posted by svandamme
DO NOT CLICK THE NEXT LINK IF "RIDE TO DIE" WAS HEAVY ON YOUR EYES

DAYUMMMMM!!!

Randy