As a biker of 40 years, the best thing I can impart to budding bikers, is just....RIDE SENSIBLY. Use your eyesight, use your skills and most of all use COMMONSENSE. Don't trust car drivers! They're mostly snuggled up in the womb of their state-of-the-art mobile, stereophonic lounge, or actually on some sort of prescription drug (which can often be WORSE than being drunk!) Approaching a junction....if there's a car or van....watch the wheelnuts/wheel spokes/wheels as you approach. If THEY begin to move, then that's the first intimation that they're beginning to pull out. Approaching a junction with a vehicle waiting to pull out...pull out to the centre of the road. It a) makes you more visible to them, and b) it gives you a margin to pull further away from them, should they begin to move. At the end of the day, it's quite simple: You're NOT Mad Max! You're NOT some invincible superhero. You are one of the MOST vulnerable people on the road. Do NOT try to emulate your favourite GP rider! Those guys ride on TRACKS, where there are no pedestrians, no stray pets, no kerbs, no trees, no walls...just run-offs, grass and straw bails. Most of them don't even RIDE a bike in real life! So watch whitey, er, I mean the car driver etc. Treat them like they're out to kill you...you won't go wrong! But most of all: DON'T TAKE STUPID CHANCES!!! The time will come, when you can 'go for it'...if you have the least bit of commonsense, you'll know it when you see it. I'm not for one minute, suggesting like you should drive like a little old lady, but just use common sense. I have had some of the finest moments of my life, on motorcycles, and I wouldn't swap them for the world. I've raced,crashed, broken down, gone abroad, driven on the 'wrong' side of the road. I've done things I most CERTAINLY am not proud of. But this is all part of the learning curve. Then again, what I got away with in the 70's and 80's, I would probably not survive nowadays. Simply because of the AMOUNT of vehicles now on the road. At the end of the day, look at what I began this missive with: 'As a biker of FORTY years'. I survived it! I made mistakes....YOU will survive it, too! (If you don't ride like a dick!) It's only to be hoped that you survive those lapses, in these days of motoring overcrowding. So; don't be stupid, respect your skills, respect your bike. Make sure your bike is safe....oil levels and chain tension/condition, tyre condition are top of the list. If it's blowing a hurricane, or it's snowing: LEAVE THE BIKE AT HOME! /Phone in sick....whatever. You'll know no-no riding conditions when you see them. Basically, as with EVERYTHING in life...use COMMON SENSE! Now: go and enjoy the HELL out of life, on a motorbike!!!!
i know this post is old but well said mate . recently i have been getting so paranoid about snuffing it on the road . but if you follow these tips and have jedi awareness levels all will be well .
As a biker of 40 years, the best thing I can impart to budding bikers, is just....RIDE SENSIBLY. Use your eyesight, use your skills and most of all use COMMONSENSE. Don't trust car drivers! They're mostly snuggled up in the womb of their state-of-the-art mobile, stereophonic lounge, or actually on some sort of prescription drug (which can often be WORSE than being drunk!) Approaching a junction....if there's a car or van....watch the wheelnuts/wheel spokes/wheels as you approach. If THEY begin to move, then that's the first intimation that they're beginning to pull out. Approaching a junction with a vehicle waiting to pull out...pull out to the centre of the road. It a) makes you more visible to them, and b) it gives you a margin to pull further away from them, should they begin to move.
At the end of the day, it's quite simple: You're NOT Mad Max! You're NOT some invincible superhero. You are one of the MOST vulnerable people on the road. Do NOT try to emulate your favourite GP rider! Those guys ride on TRACKS, where there are no pedestrians, no stray pets, no kerbs, no trees, no walls...just run-offs, grass and straw bails. Most of them don't even RIDE a bike in real life! So watch whitey, er, I mean the car driver etc. Treat them like they're out to kill you...you won't go wrong! But most of all: DON'T TAKE STUPID CHANCES!!! The time will come, when you can 'go for it'...if you have the least bit of commonsense, you'll know it when you see it. I'm not for one minute, suggesting like you should drive like a little old lady, but just use common sense. I have had some of the finest moments of my life, on motorcycles, and I wouldn't swap them for the world. I've raced,crashed, broken down, gone abroad, driven on the 'wrong' side of the road. I've done things I most CERTAINLY am not proud of. But this is all part of the learning curve. Then again, what I got away with in the 70's and 80's, I would probably not survive nowadays. Simply because of the AMOUNT of vehicles now on the road. At the end of the day, look at what I began this missive with: 'As a biker of FORTY years'.
I survived it! I made mistakes....YOU will survive it, too! (If you don't ride like a dick!) It's only to be hoped that you survive those lapses, in these days of motoring overcrowding.
So; don't be stupid, respect your skills, respect your bike. Make sure your bike is safe....oil levels and chain tension/condition, tyre condition are top of the list. If it's blowing a hurricane, or it's snowing: LEAVE THE BIKE AT HOME! /Phone in sick....whatever. You'll know no-no riding conditions when you see them.
Basically, as with EVERYTHING in life...use COMMON SENSE!
Now: go and enjoy the HELL out of life, on a motorbike!!!!
+theymusthatetesla Excellent,cheers.
i know this post is old but well said mate . recently i have been getting so paranoid about snuffing it on the road . but if you follow these tips and have jedi awareness levels all will be well .
what brand jacket are you wearing?
💗
Looks like bob the builder repaired that road.....