Was riding last week, and going past the off ramp to a roadside rest. There's a sort of wide "Y" there to the right with the cross hatched yellow paint. I see a flicker to my right, as a new maroon Camaro blasts through those cross hatches on my right. I'm on a 4 lane doing 60 with traffic on my left, and no place to go. Obviously, he missed me, or I wouldn't be writing about it. There's got to be a special place in hell for people like that.

It's great to read about the newbie experiences. Maybe I should rephrase that... It's eye opening to see other people are having the same growing pains, and that I'm not the only one. The first few times I rode it was an absolute miserable experience. You have all your appendages doing something they've never done before, and all at the same time you're vulnerable. When I went out my third time, my wife says "Nice evening for a ride, you ought to go". To me, it was almost like she was saying "you ought to go ahead an climb up the face of that cliff with no gear, that you've always had your eye on". I figured that after that evening, I was either going to get passed the fear of riding, or the Boulevard was going back on Ebay! I rode 86 miles that afternoon, and by the time I got back, I had gotten past the primal fear, and actually had a certain amount of automatic dexterity. Right now, I still plan out every curve, and I really don't like curve riding cause it scares me. I make myself do it, because I have to get passed it, and make the whole sequence of events getting in and out of them, a natural thoughtless process. I have also made myself go into towns, where I know I'll have stop and go traffic, so I have to practice stops and starts, and making them smoothly. The thing I'm the worst at doing smoothly, is slow 90 degree turns onto a side road, or actually taking off, and making the turn. That seems to take more effort and skill, then all of the rest of the maneuvers I do combined, especially the short radius right hand turns.

O.K. ...so you really want to know eh?
It was in 1982. I was lying on my back with an ER nurse cheek to cheek as she was telling me not to fall asleep and over and over was saying "you'll be fine". I felt calm until she yelled to the doctor " hurry, he has no blood pressure". That is the last time my heart jumped out of my chest. She was right because here I am but I'd had a ruptured spleen removed and had broken my right ankle, pelvic, 3 ribs, right shoulder, torn my kidney and collapsed my right lung. Other then that I was doing pretty good
You asked. Stupid motorcycles

On a daaark & Raaaainy night, be caaaareful! Ohh be caaareful.

bambi mite be on the phone & run right into ya!

Serowbot wrote on 10/29/10 at 23:25:05:

No romance or even sleaze for that matter. I did learn I'm not as tough as I would like to think I am and I really love motorcycling regardless of the risk  
I think someone once said " it's better to have ridden and crashed then to have never ridden at all".

The ( OMG how funny is THAT?) HURT REport, IIRC, explains the best & worst places to be in traffic. Following a long line of cars is dangerous, cuz people get impatient & GO at the end of the CARS. Being in front? Not much better. I Weave & flash my light when I see someone who looks dangerous.

Weaving forces their eye to move to see the light. I think it helps.

Two weeks ago at 5:00 AM on a four lane freeway in the left lane doing 70 mph and everything goes dark and the engine quits. Traffic is just heavy enough to keep me from getting to the right shoulder.  As I pull into the narrow left shoulder everything lights back up. I hit the starter and took off before anyone catches up to me. I get back into my lane and ride to work without a repeat event. Later I found a loose wire connector. I then went over the whole bike looking for more loose wires (and bolts).

danDmen wrote on 11/04/10 at 11:49:18:


Please don't do that. I have seen people swerve at a motorcyclist who did that. I have also seen them swerve at the next motorcyclist (me) that came along just to prove their point.