From @wantonlywindswept
@prettyarbitrary a bit randomly, have you ever been in a crash? My SIL has always said that she never knew a biker who HADN’T been in one (even minor), so I was wondering if the trend held.
Yep, I have! They’ve all been low-speed crashes: mostly falling over for one reason or another while coming to a stop, although with time I’ve gotten good at slipping out from under before I went over with the bike. It’s not great for the bike to fall over, of course, but it pretty much inevitably happens to them sometimes. And with a light bike, even if you tip over with it, this isn’t much different than falling over on a bicycle. I gave myself a second degree burn on the muffler one time when I fell over with the bike and my pant leg rode up.
The worst crash I’ve been in was still a low-speed one. My dad was riding pillion while I was still learning. He was significantly heavier than me, and one time he tried to lean in a different direction than I was going and it tipped the bike over while I was going about 15 mph. That one did mess up my knee a bit. (Although ironically it’s the other knee that has continued to bother me over the years, and I messed that one up on a bicycle.)
That kind of stuff happens a lot when you’re still learning, and mostly sorts itself out with experience. Also, taking the Basic Rider Course from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation is a really fantastic way to minimize such fuck-ups. They really teach you how to control your bike, minimize your stupid decisions, and be aware of dangers on the road.
Adding my two cents to say, yeah, if you ride a motorcycle then it’s inevitable that at some point something will happen that will make you lay the bike down. Most experienced riders will lay down rather than hit something. But the worst ones are always when you don’t see it coming. The husband rounded a corner once and slid out on loose gravel at about 30mph, busted up his side mirror. He always wore gear, his pants and jacket were shredded but he walked away with some mild bruising.
The fact that you will eventually have to haul your bike up and walk it somewhere is why I tell people not to get a bike they can’t lift.
That’s a lot of why I stick with lighter, lower-powered bikes. It’s good to be able to do full speed up an incline and gun your way out of a tight spot before it closes on you, but I don’t need a 1000cc engine and I sure as hell don’t need the extra 300 lb of weight that comes with it.
And also I mean. I’m not a personal fan of the cruiser body style so good luck being my height and finding a high-powered bike with a low enough seat that I can get my feet on the ground.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nPQjp5