Lot of great conversation and tips here guys! Learn from them, slow the heck down, and be careful. That's all I can add.

 

Every time I have a close call it is becuase of either:

Taking my eyes off the road
Going too fast into corners I don't know
Not looking ahead and instead staring at the line right in front of me.

As long as I remember those things, and force myself to look ahead, no problems.

Tight corners when you're going fast with a guardrail scare the crap out of me......worst thing you can do is look at the guardrail! Look at the end of the curve and CONCENTRATE.


~Joe

 

I think ya got that right...

 

There is no such thing as a Motorcycle Safety course ..... it's a name dressed up to a series of lessons that should be called Motorcycle Awareness Course because by definition Motorcycle Safety Course implies cocoonville ..... take this and your chances are greatly increased of not having a collision because you have been trained .... Well that dont mean **** because the person that takes you out Ain't ... you can mandate all you want and make it part of the license route .... but i have said this time and time again you can't out school the Reaper or Kismet or the **** that's got their head up their *** while driving ( metaphor used) all you can hope for on any given day is that it's not you turn and try to ride safe .... there ain't no more to it than that period!

 

Sums it up well!

 

Very sad about this accident, it is a constant that people are so damn irresponsible that they drive drunk, don't pay attention and pull in front of bikes. They need to prosecute them to the fullest extent.

That being said; no where in that story does it say that the driver was an illegal immigrant. Does the fact that he has a Hispanic name imply to you that he was illegal? If so, that is so wrong and bigoted. Comment on the facts not your ignorance

 

Not only do you have to be aware of your own limitations, you must know the limits of your bike....

 

face it, ALOT of these " riders " that are killing themselves are also terrible DRIVERS also. i constantly see guys in their cars/trucks pulling out in front of other cars/trucks/semi's & not think anything of it, & these same guys will be in the HOV lane on an interstate & cross 4 lanes to take an exit, the rest of the drivers on the road be damned

 

Just finished reading an article. It stated motorcycle deaths are down--scooter sales are up. My opinion is that most one person motorcycles accidents are caused by people that think they know what they are doing---ego. Wrong choices made by dumb asses. Doesn't matter if you partake in excess of legal or illegal substances, ride too fast, inattention, lack of planning,etc,etc,etc. If you go down you made a mistake or you are stupid. We don't even need a warning label on this ---you can kill or maim yourself riding on motorcycles. I get tired of people calling for requirements of mandatory classes. How about just a handout with the statistics on purchase with resource material and class offerings. If your old enough to buy it --your old enough to make decisions eventually. Quit trying to nanny state everyone else to make up for your lack of intelligence or skills.

 

Right, but in my opinion no amount of experience can replace the value of learning good technical skills, then practicing those skills. "Experience" can include bad habits that one has been fortunate enough to survive. Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Assuming alcohol is not a factor, here is the scenario I envision: an inexperienced, untrained rider goes too hot into a curve, tries to correct with more lean, scrapes his footboards/pegs for the first time in his life, panics, target fixates on the barrier, grabs fistfulls of brake and the bike stands up. It has NOTHING to do with "luck" as some have offered.

I was stunned a while back bya thread in which many riders stated that they have never scraped their floorboards. "Never". How can a rider react to reaching the bike's max lean angle when he doesn't even know where that is?

-Sin'