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.
To further pick your brain a bit – do you think the style of bike affects how safe it is?
Also, how do you not die of heat stroke while wearing gear? o_o
The style of bike affects safety mainly on a very individual level, I think. If you try to ride a body style that doesn’t suit you, obviously it’s not going to go as well. I did my Rider Safety Course on a Honda Rebel 250 (a cruiser) and a Nighthawk 250 (a standard), and I got along with the Nighthawk much better. I found the more upright position to be more maneuverable and easier for me to control, whereas
more than once
I tipped over the Rebel, whose low center of gravity made it slow to respond and behave as if it were heavier than it was. (GORGEOUS bike, otherwise, it’s a shame we didn’t get along.) But many other riders find the exact opposite. I ended up swapping the Rebel to another woman for the Nighthawk she was using and she was just as thrilled with the change as I was. She had found the Nighthawk too wobbly and insecure-feeling.
(The Basic Rider Course is offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation in partnership with local bike shops. The shop offers bikes for the riders to borrow, so you don’t even need to own your own, and it gives you a discount on motorcycle insurance and has been shown to reduce crash rates for new riders by as much as 90%. I will plug it every time I get a chance to.)
Cruisers are the bikes that are most often extensively ‘chopped’ (customized), hence the slang term ‘chopper.’ A ‘chopper’ is technically a cruiser that has been customized in a way that exaggerates its body type–usually by sweeping back the handlebars even further, dropping the seat, and making other changes so that the rider is siting in an even more reclined position. This can make the bike look awesome and be more comfortable for long-distance rides, but I feel that it’s sometimes taken to an unsafe extreme that can impact the rider’s ability to control the bike. But then I’m not the one driving it, so.
I don’t find gear all that hot? It’s not like you wear it a lot when you’re not on the road, and a 40+ mph wind chill with air flow ripping through your clothes does absolute wonders for cooling you down on a hot day. You can also get gear that is meant for warm weather vs. cool weather (vs. ‘are you insane there’s snow on the ground’ weather, but hey, everybody’s got their own ways). I mean there are days when the minute I stop the bike, I’m stripping off as much as I can remove. But then I just wear, like, tank tops and stuff underneath it all, so I can cool down pretty quick. You can also develop a real knack for layering with experience.
Oh, wait, one other thing DOES help, when all else fails: contemplating the hotness of a woman in a tank top and biker boots with wind-tossed hair and a helmet under her arm.
Whether you’re into the ladies or the men, believe me, you will turn heads. Actually if you’re into women then it’s a fucking FANTASTIC way to find lesbians, because they’re the ones who literally wobble in their tracks when they catch sight of you.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2mUGK7n