I blew a chance to educate a young rider.

[James Burleigh]

Coming out of my bank this afternoon with a boatload of cash for my trip tomorrow to NAFO, I saw a young man in his early 20s getting off his Japanese litre bike. He was wearing topsiders, shorts, and a golf shirt. And oh yeah, a helmet.

As I passed him in my gear, I grinned and commented, "Not planning to crash today, are you?" He said something back and went in the bank.

Then as I got on my bike I realized how stupid that was. I should have stopped to chat with the guy, connected at the motorcycle level, and then asked him how come no better gear....or whatever the conversation intro might be.

For someone who likes to help young riders become better and safer, I blew that big time. Next time I'll strike up a conversation.

Jb

 

[keithaba]

Nah, just push him over so he falls on the concrete and skins his knee. Then say, "You think that hurt, try it at 70 mph!"

 

[FJRONAMISSION]

Hans,

at least you recognize the opportunity ... I just walk by OH! and you could

always shove him to the ground...... B)

 

[rnees]

but would the chat actually do anything to change him?

I think not.

 

[Old Michael]

Hans, it's posts like this from you that make me appreciate knowing you.

Thoughtful stuff.

The smartass thing gets the better of many of us at times.

 

[user 6393]

Most of the young and invincible wouldn't heed your advice anyway.

We are in the midst of a sportbike crackdown on Vancouver Island this season (due to a 300% increase in fatalities last year), and there is nothing but whining, bitching and moaning amongst riders. I was out a couple weekends ago on a hot summer Sunday and my riding buddy and I were the ONLY ones we saw ATGATT. Sportie, cruises, sporttour, dual sport combined. We were out for 6 hours and passed TONS of bikes. Was the 1st thing each of us commented about when we stopped for lunch.

Shorts and wifebeaters everywhere, not a jacket even to be seen.

 

[rnees]

...I was out by Mt. Rushmore earlier this week. There must be a BMW get together somewhere close. Never seen so many Bimmers at once. Them, and lots of Harley riders. My GFs first comment (new, and this is her first roadtrip ever...) 'why are the Harley riders all in shorts, tanktops and flipflops, and all the bikers on bikes like yours (forgive her, she knows not) dressed in all that stuff?'

It was over 90 degrees F, and the difference was striking...

 

[James Burleigh]

And BTW, it was about 90 degrees out. Me, I was suffering, no doubt about it, and I'm sure he thought I was the dope for being so hot. But using that word "suffering" just now, makes me think--how does that compare with having your muscles separated from the bone...?

And I probably shouldn't have been surprised when he left the bank and rode through traffic blipping the throttle like an ape pounding his chest. (How did any of us survive being young men?)

 

[noob]

JB very kewl on yer part m8. We never know the lasting effect we can have. Handling things appropriately, instead of being some dictating ass, can and does eventually get home.

Do we ever know our efforts are worth anything? sometimes no, sadly. but then you hear someone tell a story about how some stranger said something that made them think...

If anyone is expecting immediate results, never gonna happen. But to make a connection, we never know if it helps, but it very well might.

 

[Art FJR]

Coming out of my bank this afternoon with a boatload of cash for my trip tomorrow to NAFO, I saw a young man in his early 20s getting off his Japanese litre bike. He was wearing topsiders, shorts, and a golf shirt. And oh yeah, a helmet.
As I passed him in my gear, I grinned and commented, "Not planning to crash today, are you?" He said something back and went in the bank.

Then as I got on my bike I realized how stupid that was. I should have stopped to chat with the guy, connected at the motorcycle level, and then asked him how come no better gear....or whatever the conversation intro might be.

For someone who likes to help young riders become better and safer, I blew that big time. Next time I'll strike up a conversation.

Jb

It is easy to strike up a comversation with a biker especially one with a litre bike. Compliment the bike. Soon the conversation will turn to your bike. The FJR is a beautiful thing and sells itself. As best I can tell, they are generally owned by older more experienced riders and only an idiot wouldn't want to hear what you have to say.

I would say as a rule that a sarcastic remark will generally be acknowledged by an equally sarcastic remark or a defensive remark. At best, it begins a pissing contest in which each contestant gets piss on their shoes.

However, your remark (although somewhat sarcastic) is very true. You should have hung around for an exchange. It would be nice to have some statistics about the number of accidents that are the fault of the motorcyclist and those that aren't the fault of the motorcyclist. And then the medical consequences of no gear, etc. If you want to educate, you need some good material.

And I find my mesh jacket (Tourmaster Intake II) to actually be cooler then nothing on. It keeps the sun off and I feel cooler. Gear doesn't necessarily make you hot.

You spoke the truth but failed to win the war.

Art

 

[cougar8000]

Hans,

Chat probably would not have made a difference. So, don't beat your self up.

Some comments here were made about young and restless that do not want to listen. I am stock in the middle and get it from both sides. Those that are young and restless think I am too old and the other side thinks that I still have mothers milk on my lips. Try that for a size.

While we see more young and restless doing crazy stuff, we fail to notice and even talk about those on the other side who ride in the same basic atire and do just as many stupid things.We notice first more often due to them riding those flashy bike, while the later just look like an American icon.

 

[Knifemaker]

I had not commented in your somewhat related post "To ATGATT or Not To ATGATT" ...The question on what boils down to choice really , something us Americans seem to take kinda seriously.

So I will make my comment here.

There is nothing wrong with being a ATGATT type person, it does make alot of sense , the logic kinda hard to miss. But as much as someone chooses this course , the option to "Not" is there, and some folks simply feel comfortable doing that, and ....can even get pissed off hearing someone else question their actions.

Think of the whole silly helmet law debate...there are folks that although they wear a helmet all the time still feel "that the government has no right telling us to wear one, it should be a matter of personal choice.."

But then it seems that it becomes their bussiness to make fun of those that do wear a helmet, but do not wear armored or protective clothing....and come right out and tell them what they should be wearing or not wearing.

I'm sure if the government passed a law stating that you have to wear certified protective gear it would cause some bit of an uproar and many here might even say that there should be no such law ....that it is a matter of personal choice.

But then we sit around our computers and write about how stupid these folks are for making the choice not to wear "proper" protective gear.

Let it be known that I myself always wear a full face helmet, and do suit up with armor before I swing a leg over my bike. That is my choice, and if you do not wish to make the choices I do, I am not going to tell you that you are being stupid or whatever and that your choice is wrong. If the government shouldn't be making choices for all of us neither should I.

What is it to you if I lose some skin if I dump my bike in a turn? Who elected you my protector?

Skin heals , bones can break even through the best leather. Helmets make sense because if you hit your head hard enough you will die...If your leg hits the ground hard enough to vaporize the bone , it ain't going to kill you. Even if you loose both of your legs and an arm, you can still live.

So if someone wishes to risk some skin ...over cooking inside an armored suit, that is their call.

Alot of cruisers on the road here with the drivers wearing jeans, a sleeveless shirt , and their bitch on back wearing shorts with a tank top , and I see this and wince......

Not because I see all that skin showing, but because I wonder if they remembered.....

to use sunscreen.

KM

 

[pegdragger]

...I was out by Mt. Rushmore earlier this week. There must be a BMW get together somewhere close. Never seen so many Bimmers at once. Them, and lots of Harley riders. My GFs first comment (new, and this is her first roadtrip ever...) 'why are the Harley riders all in shorts, tanktops and flipflops, and all the bikers on bikes like yours (forgive her, she knows not) dressed in all that stuff?'It was over 90 degrees F, and the difference was striking...

Rose (Dozenroses13) and I did a group ride here in Albany the other night. There were about 43 bikes and out of them 4 (including us) were wearing jackets. It was a cool 93 degrees, but we ride ATGATT. We had on full face helmets, gloves, boots, and jackets with armor. Yes, I was sweating my arse off, but if we had gone down, we would have been much better off than the ones in T's and shorts. Oh, and those silly non-DOT helmets they wear.

I actually saw a few people in te Poconos a few weeks ago wearing no helmets and shorts with flip flops. Yikes!!

The only thing I felt bad about was riding a Yamaha in Harley gear. I can deal with the sweat to save some road rash.....

 

[Thug]

KM

Your argument is with the greatest respect frankly rubbish. A free country you say with free laws and rights etc....Yeah we hear it used every time when one believes their rights are being impinged upon. But at the end of the day this bloke does affect me (well not me personally here in god’s country Oz) but it has the same affect here and where you live paradoxically.

**** em let them wear what they like....and when the fall off think about the fuksquillians spent of tools exercising their right when riding and how that affects me and your back pocket time and time again!!!

Less tools spending my hard earned taxes on their stupidity the happier I am because the less tax I have to pay which directly affects my family and friends and that’s a fucking good reason to pull every flea bitten imbecile up and ask them why they are being so dumb and selfish as to ride unprotected?

Any argument that supports wearing what they like is shear bloody ignorance of the bigger picture in my humble opinion....

And I am very glad you my brother are an ATGATT kinda guy....And JB good work keep it up...

Cheers

 

[odot]

um...all deleted......I'm still drunk.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Woulda, shoulda, coulda........ hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I honestly believe that there are many folks out there who just don't know. Plain and simple. They don't get it. A while back, I talked with a non-rider at work. This person truly believed that black leather was a bad-ass fashion thing. Motorcyclists favor black leather for the image it provides. I did a little education there and got the incredulous look.

Another person asked if I was hot while riding (watching me gear up for the ride home). Sometimes, but I'm allergic to black top. It brings me out in a rash. The questioner told me that her husband doesn't plan to crash when they ride together (obviously). 'Do you guys ride anywhere that there is other traffic on the road?' (You're not the only one with a sarcastic streak, JB).

Perhaps it's the power of denial that makes it OK to ride without gear. If you convince yourself hard enough that you wont crash, then you wont. My preference is to do every darned thing I can do, to prevent a crash and also to minimize the seriousness of the injury to me, should a crash occur.

Jill

 

[Checkswrecks]

JB -

Having teens and 20s kids around, I am willing to bet your simple remark will be remembered more than diluting it in a conversation with some old fart. I'll bet you a buck that little barb is something that he'll reflect on.

One of the neighborhood kids just did a low speed slide with his R6 a few nights ago and thanked me for not being overbearing but keeping on message with him. Of course, he was also wearing my hand-me-down DragginJeans too. (They worked - no skin loss.)

Bob

 

[ShawnKing]

...I was out by Mt. Rushmore earlier this week. There must be a BMW get together somewhere close.

Is Mt Rushmore anywhere near Hougton, WI or Gillette, WY? WI had a rally last week and WY is having one this week.

 

[7xray]

I think about risk management a lot and view it as a four part process. First is the probability that an event will occur, the second is the consequences of the event, third is what mitigation one can do to reduce the probability or the consequences, and finally what is the cost of the mitigation. To properly deal with risk one has to consider all four elements. For example, while the probably of getting hit on the head by a lightning bolt while on the golf course is pretty low, the consequences are bad enough that we choose to reduce the probability by the low cost mitigation of not going out when there are thunderstorms about. On the other hand, the consequences of getting hit on the head by a meteor is the same as getting hit by lightning but the probability of the occurrence is so low and the mitigation cost so high we do nothing about it. Faulty risk management occurs, I believe, when all four elements are not taken into account, but we each have our own trigger points, which of course, change as we mature. While the young man in question probably didn't explicitly consider the four elements in managing his risk, no doubt one of them dominated and led him to his choice of not wearing gear. My guess that the cost (of the gear and the hit his image would take by wearing gear) outweighed his evaluation of the probability and consequences of his going down. To change peoples behavior we have to change their view of the probabilities, consequences, mitigations and cost.

Cheers,

7X