Surviving it

Motorcycling is not always easy. Specially, if you get tired, the roads are bad and it is raining.

While all outside conditions can be managed by the use of the right gear like a simple rainsuit, slow riding or just stopping and waiting, the own failure is the far more dangerous to oneself. Keeping up the concetration is one point to take care about, secondly knowing the own limits of endurance and staying better comfortable inside these limits instead of thrilling the edges too much. Once a while everybody comes in situations where one can not do different but pushing on. No hotel in sight, for exmple, and the traffic in the town gets more and more densed, even the sun is already setting. But even here, it might be considerable to stop and wait.

With the tiredness, the bad habbits encrease: technical unprecision in the gear-shifting, breaking and instead of looking far out to the front, the eyes are only able to see what is happening a few meters in front of the bike. Just one of these mistakes doesnt necessarily lead to a fatal accident, but already just two at the same time can add up and trigger another misjudgement or wrong reaction. And that is where its happening: wrong gear-shifting, the machine is bucking, no view front, the next curve is misjudged, breaking in the wrong moment, ... .

And these are only the own mistakes, without that someone interferes. According to some research, more then the half of all accidents of motorcycles are based on mistakes of the rider, without that someone from the outside is involved.

Of cause it can always happen like it did to me a couple of times, that a driver in a car just simply doesnt see you and takes YOUR right of way. It seems to be the art of surviving aways to calculate what COULD happen around oneself and already having present what the proper reaction would be. In some situations the reduced speed saved me from a crash. I simply could navigat around the car, and luckily there was an escape way. But too high speed and no escape way next to the road would have left me without a chance.

The best is to stay out of the traffic as much as possible, not to ride in the dark, never drink and ride, slowing down at EACH intersection and only speed carefully where is NO other car and the road is in good condition.

"When YOU are ready", Tom said, when I picked up my first bike in his shop. That was all, and that was it.

Contact: thomaslehmen@thomaslehmen.de                                                                              © Thomas Lehmen 2013