2Wheeltips

At sometime in your life you’ve probably have had some fire safety training.  Do you recall the combustion triangle?  A big triangle with a fire in the center and fuel, heat, and oxygen making up the three sides – do you remember now?  Good, then you’ll also remember if you remove any one of the three sides of the triangle (fuel, heat, oxygen), the fire goes out; it dies. 

Well, I look at my life as a motorcyclist just like that fire.  I need three components to keep me alive and well while riding:

            Attitude – A positive attitude toward safety.           

            Knowledge – Knowing what can hurt me or worse! 

            Proficiency – The skill and ability to competently operate the motorcycle. 

By being accomplished at all three of the above, you significantly improve your chances of leading a long and prosperous life, and reduce risk.  By doing otherwise, you put yourself at a tremendous disadvantage, increase risk, and chance snuffing out your “fire,” i.e. your life.

The articles I intend to write for 2Wheeltips will support this concept, so I thought it important to lay out how all of this fits together right upfront:

“Attitude,” meaning you embrace and believe that following safe practices like “wearing all the gear all the time” doing a pre-ride checklist, and avoiding alcohol before and during a ride are examples of smart things to do.

“Knowledge,” meaning you have taken a sanctioned safe riding course, and you have supplemented that with reading books and/or watching videos to increase your knowledge of the “do’s and don’ts” of motorcycling.  Most of us have quickly learned that a motorcycle is not a car minus two wheels. It is an entirely different animal and has a completely different set of behaviors and operational requirements.

“Proficiency,” meaning you have taken the time to learn to operate the bike and can ride competently.  You are able to use the friction zone and coordinate clutch and throttle.  You can select between which combination of front/rear brakes based on situations and conditions to obtain the right result.  You understand how to counter-steer and can choose the correct lean angle based on speed and what type of corner you are engaging.  You continue to practice to improve weak areas and learn new skills.

From my point of view, “Attitude” is truly the foundation for everything else.  If you don’t believe wearing a helmet is important, having a few beers before or during a ride can’t hurt anything, or never bothered to learn slow speed maneuvers, etc., I guess you might as well stop reading now because you’re really wasting your time.

I recently wrote blogs on “100% responsibility” and an unforgettable safety video called, “Remember Charlie.”  The message is, “it’s all about attitude!”  Your attitude will ultimately determine if cycling will be a consistently positive experience in your life or a tragedy.  You must believe that accidents are preventable.  You must believe that you and you alone are responsible for your safety.  Seriously, who the hell else cares if you come home in one piece and can actually do something to help you with that?  Not your loved ones sitting home dutifully waiting for your return, not your doctor or the mortician (they are there for after-the-fact support depending on the severity of the incident), not the “cagers” in their SUVs playing with their cell phones, and not the police who are more worried about how loud your pipes are than if you’re even wearing a helmet.

My friends, it’s only you and what you can do to make yourself the safest, smartest, most skilled rider you can be.  You can control your attitude; you can control your knowledge; and you can control your proficiency.  You can choose to ride sober, defensively, and skillfully.  This is one time it is truly all about you!!

This is my message, my heartfelt belief, and I am passionate about it.  It makes perfect sense to me and I hope it makes sense to you.

PS- Now you know why this column is called “Reggie’s Rants”.