Our Mortality (part two)

[erik]

Cheers beyond for your reply.

I was wondering what makes you think he got away with it? He wrecked his bike twice and damn near killed his brother. Hardly getting away with it I reckon.

Because he lived to tell the tale and ride again. He didn't get away scot free, but he got off relatively light by the sounds of things.

[vifferman]

Why does there need to be any message(s)? Read the story, draw your own conclusions.
If someone has to be told something (like, "it's stupid to ride without protective clothing"), they're never going to believe the message or live by it anyway.
Are we so used to the Gubmint/FacelessGreyBureaucrats making rules for us and/or telling us what to think, what to do, that we can no longer be personally responsible/accountable for our own actions?

Oh shit - I'm raving again...
[/rant mode off]
[resumption of normal transmission]

By the way - good story, Paul. It was almost enough to get me out of my apathetic state to write summat myself.

[90s]

Better to lay out the narrative (very good text ... "nearly guillotined off ..." ugh!) and let people draw there own conclusions than start with "today's lesson on safety is NEVER ride fast" with the reader knowing full well that the writer probably dropped and few bikes and did a few stupid things.

[90s]

Hey, 'stories of our own younger foolishness' like this reminds me of a great story a friend told me recently about when she lived in Japan in the 90s. Seems she had some 'bad' musrooms for dinner (wink) and decided to head to the supermarket on her scooter. Loosing control of the brakes coming up to the store she avioded entering through the plate-glass window by riding IN through the door, skidded the bike but held it by the throttle and hung on for grim death. As she stood holding the bike it ran circles around her causing general destruction and toppling two aisles before she let go and it bought down another isle on her. She remembers clearing tins of her face and bemused seeing people looking down at her covered in grocery as the bike still screemed away on the floor.

She assures me the whole incidenet was not a mushroom-fueled fantasy.
Apparently the Japanese were not amused and it cost her a fortune.

[Mr. Peanut]

As a younger rider, I can identify with a lot of the things you said. Many of us younger ones know that we should ride slower, but dont understand why older bikers do, perhaps we think you're just losing your reflexes or sight...

Stories like this make us reflect on our own attitudes and how it could all go very wrong for us. There is no need for us to learn the hard way if we understand the reasons why you have made the decision to slow down and take a more responisble approach to riding.

I do think that I have a responsible attitude, always ride in full leathers, take extra caution around blind corners 50km/h zones and so forth.

Despite the fact that you were irresponsible, you did for a long time get away with it. When you did come to grief, it was due to the actions of other motorists. So, regardless of how invincible I think I am, or how well I know the road/my bike, there are more motorists out there than ever, driving faster, more accessable cars ( much cheaper).

Sorry about the obvious lack of structure, but I think I get my point across

[Motu]

The point of my story is to share my experiences and show that we aren't really invincible but some of us are extremely lucky or have a divinebeing looking out for us.

I have shared some of my early experiances on this site - I don't think they really believe me....''Oh,it's just Motu with his opposing views again''.But I really have survived major get offs with minimal protection...I certainly don't advocate riding with no protection and I have no scars or broken bones to show off.....each day is a gift.

One of the most experianced riders I have ever known was killed in a low speed spill a few years ago,he lowsided his bike to avoid a head on,he should of just been able to pick his bike up and carry on.But a small screwdriver he had in his breast pocket went up under his helmet and behind his ear into the brain.An early life of unbeleivable danger and doing the Pan American Highway from South to North America on a 1961 Bonnie in the late '70's...to lie dead on the road without a mark on him.Do as much as you can in this life so you don't have to come back and do it again....

[Mr. Peanut]

I make a special note of removing nasty metal things from my pocket before I ride... ouch

[vifferman]

I make a special note of removing nasty metal things from my pocket before I ride... ouch

Me too.

No, not really. I usually ADD things, in case I need them.

My pockets when I'm riding typically contain:
- Sundry loose change (if I'm lucky)
- Cellphone
- Three sets of keys
- A tyre-pressure gauge
- An allen key (in case I feel the need to de-spud the Satantune)
- A soft cloth for my visor
- Digital camera
- Spare earploooogs (in plastic case)
- A hanky
- A ballpoint pen (large, so it can be operated with glubs on)
- Wallet

The keychains are interesting (and could make fascinating bruises) - one is a knobbly hard plastic Mickey Mouse; one is a Ducati keyring, with an aluminium LED torch on the same ring; the other is a hard plastic orange label thing.

I used to also have a Merlin gargre-door opener, in my left lower pocket (one of seven (7) pockets), but it's now velcroed inside the fairing somewhere.

[Deviant Esq]

Good read there beyond, have some green
Glad you're still around to recount the events that helped shape you into who you are. Sounds as though those memories are clear as a bell even though they were several years ago.

In a way I'm glad I was past my teenage lunacy when I got into motorbikes. Having saved other motorists from themselves driving my cage, I knew that if they could miss my big ugly green car, then they sure as hell couldn't see me on a motorbike, so I try my best to stay well clear for the most part.

Still, plenty of messages to be taken out of that for younger riders. If you feel invinceable, some plonker's just waiting to pull out in front of you. Oh, and the "oh fuck, he's towing a trailer!"... I've come across that one before and was fairly lucky to keep the bike upright as I swerved around it!

[gijoe1313]

No, not really. I usually ADD things, in case I need them.

My pockets when I'm riding typically contain:
- Sundry loose change (if I'm lucky)
- Cellphone
- Three sets of keys
- A tyre-pressure gauge
- An allen key (in case I feel the need to de-spud the Satantune)
- A soft cloth for my visor
- Digital camera
- Spare earploooogs (in plastic case)
- A hanky
- A ballpoint pen (large, so it can be operated with glubs on)
- Wallet

I know exactly what you are on about ... I worry about the impact they might have ...

-Digital camera
-$20 tucked away (fer emergencies!)
-Multi-tool
-LED blinking gadget
-LED handsfree light
-Digital airpressure gauge
-Swiss army knife
-Ipod
-Spray n'wipe bottle for visor
-Notebook
-Pen
-Sunglasses
-Housekeys
-One hand opening lockblade
-Balaclava
-Kiwibiker patches (which still haven't been sewn on yet!)
-Cellphone
-Disc lock and pouch
-Reminder cable for disc lock

Sheesh, now that I've listed my contents ... I've still got room for others! Whee! Sorry for the threadjack, but it's an important point that was brought up...having sharp, puncturing type items is a no-no I would hate to be explaining myself in a line somewhere ..

"So, I bought it when my microlights wings folded on me..."
"Er, um, yes...I got it 'cause my Visor spray n'clean bottle got rammed up my nose in a minor bin..."

[kiwifruit]

You have a great way of writing Beyond. I still think you should write a book.... "How to have fun and stay alive on a motorcycle in NZ".

Cheers, Allan.

[terbang]

''Oh,it's just Motu with his opposing views again''.But I really have survived major get offs with minimal protection...I certainly don't advocate riding with no protection and I have no scars or broken bones to show off.....each day is a gift.

You subversive old dirt bike rider! However I know what you say about the gear. My worst offs have been in my younger years when I was wearing swandri and jeans. Luck was on my side and thats all. We have real nice gear now readily available so we can be proactive, at a reasonable price, towards mitigating our personal injury. However if I read Beyond right, even a titanium armoured suit is no substitute for using our noggin when it comes down avoiding injury or worse.

[beyond]

However if I read Beyond right, even a titanium armoured suit is no substitute for using our noggin when it comes down avoiding injury or worse.

Yep, there's nothing in this whole wide world that is going to help you when your numbers up. It would be fantastic if you could buy Motorcycle Insurance that would guarantee your survival in any crash, but then I suppose we would all have to win the lotto to keep ourselves in bikes as we would be riding harder and faster than we do now.

The other thing that has changed since my younger days, is the potency of the our bikes. The fastest bike I could buy in my day, was a Yamaha RD350
which topped out at 112mph (180kmh) The biggest bike you could buy was a Honda CB750 which topped out at 105 mph.

Those speeds have my 14 virtually at idle and the same goes for many of todays bikes, big and small. It's just as well the gears got better but our levels of invincibility or lack thereof, remains the same.

[Motu]

I've had far more near misses where I should of been killed or horribly injured.For me what impresses is how much we pull out of nowhere to survive....until you have been to the point where you know you surely are going to die in a bad way,you don't know what you are really capable of,kind of a battlefield thing....the closest us civilians can get.It comes out of thin air,you don't have those skills...but it's the only option and you pull it off like you know what you are doing.Thing is...now you do know what you are doing,because you've done it.

I recomend strongly that you don't learn this way....

[EZAS]

Having lived on Kind Edward Ave for 6 years (in the mid-80's) I honestly think your f*cking stupid for having tried 90k let alont 95kmh around that round about. I'm guessing this was when it was a single lane too, which makes the senario even more stupid. Having ended up near the Dairy, I believe you would have been heading up round Butterworth, which is where the camber on the round about increases (not in a good way).

There is a very fine line between Big Balls and stupidity, as soon as the bike low sides or you crash, your balls shrivel up and your left having to live with the consequences. I hate having to sit on the side of the road with a smashed up bike, its demoralising and having read your post It opened the flood gates of all the crashes where I've been left in the same situation.

I'm really glad to see that your back in the saddle, very glad to read that your brother kept the leg too