I drove someone to quit the Rebel Forum the other day. They left with some rather strong parting words, names omitted to protect the guilty innocent:
What a horrible thing to say. YOu are not supportive and basically you are stating that I am going to DIE because I decided to drive around my street at 15mph with my husband and his bike. I have been on this bike in parking lots getting used to it for 3 weeks and I have read every book I was told to read. I am taking the class but the earliest I could get in was next month.
I am a safe person and best of all, I am a nice person. Shame on you for what you said there… you are assuming that I am unsafe and just some blowhard when you dont know me at all.
Ouch! I’ve been called many things, but “blowhard” is a new one. Here’s my offending post:
I’m very supportive of riders having the best chance of surviving out on the road.
Let’s back up a little and take a look at the original post that started it all:
So I have been riding in parking lots for like um… 3 weeks and today I finally went into 3rd gear, downshifted back into 2nd and then back up into 3rd. I am working on cones, stopping, starting etc.
I take the MSF course in 4 weeks.
Am I going too slow? Question
I mean I see all these people on this forum and others who are on the road in a week and I wonder if I am working myself too slowly and building up all this anxiety for nothing. Should I be moving faster? Should I try the road like early in the morning or something?
If you didnt have your MSF course for another 4 weeks and had your permit already (in NH my only restrictions are 1-up only and no after sunset or before snrise riding) would you be waiting and working in the parkinglot? or would you be working on the road for the 3 weeks you have lefton your permit?
Suffice to say, most of the responses she got were one of the following:
- go at your own pace
- don’t ride until you take the MSF course, due to the ease at which bad habits can be learned (and how difficult they are to unlearn)
While I love “new rider excitement” as much as the next person, as a new rider myself, I suggested that she wait for the MSF course. But clearly, this wasn’t the response she was fishing for. And when I pointed out that she was going to find her answer at her upcoming MSF course regardless, the “blowhard” comment is what I got for it.
Well then, I’m a blowhard and proud of it. Why? Because I don’t want to see this happen to anyone:
I have a Korean mother, and one of her favorite sayings is “This is not hee hee hee, ha ha ha”. Translated: this is not a laughing matter.
Riding a motorcycle is a beautiful thing. It’s fun. FUN. It brings a smile to my face (except when I’m stuck in traffic) and joy to my heart and it’s beautiful and wonderful and look at me, look at us, oh isn’t this FUN and then something happens like the picture you see above and then it isn’t fun and it certainly isn’t a game and there’s pain and there are calls to frantic family members and an ambulance ride and a tow truck.
So, going back to what I originally said to set things off:
I’m very supportive of riders having the best chance of surviving out on the road. Stay safe out there, folks.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So you stepped into it with both feet huh? Way to go, Grasshopper. Like you say, motorcycles are fun but too serious to be taken lightly. Did this woman want her ego stroked or good advice? You gave the advice. Now it’s up to her how she receives it and what she does with it. Kind of like a professional instructor, huh?
For what it’s worth, in the Hurt study, 90% of the accident-involved riders were self taught.
She should have waited for the class. I don’t know her husband’s credentials. The class would have taken her along the right steps in the right order. It’s too easy for someone to go to step 6 from step 2. If steps 3,4, and 5 aren’t properly cemented, things can crumble easily when things happen unexpectedly.
For example, she’s shifting from 2nd to 3rd to 2nd. Fine. How’s the clutch and throttle control? Did she practice good, smooth, clutch releases? Did she practice applying the brakes such that smooth application is now a good habit? Third gear takes her up fast enough to hurt herself if she doesn’t have the other steps down.
Anyway, sorry. As you know, it’s dangerous to give me an opening because my passion for motorcycle training explodes through it!
Don’t sweat it, Gal. She was a bit off kilter to begin with, I’m afraid. You wouldn’t believe how many PMs I get along those same lines, and they generally end the same way.
Better to be mad and alive than supported and dead, I think.