PSA: Please Be Safe on Motorcycles

[JPolen01]

I've been thinking about posting this for a few days and was going to hold off. Today I decided I needed to vent/write something. Take it as you will.

Please be safe when riding and ride within your limits. As some of you saw on my facebook, I had a friend go down last week. He had only been riding about a year and was not very experienced. He was riding in some canyons outside of LA on an unfamiliar road on an unfamiliar bike and hit some gravel. From what I know, he let off the throttle and the bike up righted itself which sent him screaming into the canyon wall. Luckily he was with another friend who was able to ride until he got cell phone signal and called for help. He was airlifted to the hospital with multiple injuries and slipped into a coma. Broken collar bone, both lungs collapsed, a fractured skull with severe brain swelling. Day by day he has shown little signs of progress - opening his eyes a bit, moving his fingers. Last night another MRI was performed and his brain injury was upgraded to a traumatic brain injury and diagnosed as Diffuse Axonal Injury - 90% of people with this injury do not wake up and those that do suffer from severe impairments.

Please be safe when you are riding. This is devastating for his family and friends and was 100% preventable. Know your limits, know your bike, know your surroundings. Don't try and show off for your friends. Tell your family you love them before you get on 2 wheels - it sounds cliche, but it could be the last time you talk to them.

[CaptainHenreh]

:like:

I hope your friend pulls through.

[Senor_Taylor]

Best of luck to your friend.

[G.Irish]

Gah, that is heart-wrenching, sorry to hear about your friend. It may be a long shot but I hope your friend pulls through. Nothing punishes mistakes harder than motorcycles.

[SlimKlim]

Jesus, sorry to hear about your friend, hoping he recovers.

First time I took a bike on a legitimately curvy backroad I had to take it down to about 10% of the ferocity I thought I was going to hit it with. Setting up a bike for a proper line through a corner is significantly more difficult than a car, and they're also infinitely more vulnerable to sudden traction changes. I got myself into a couple dicey situations but luckily never got hurt.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Ouch, didn't realize the severity of it. I am sorry to hear about it. Hope he pulls through better.

[WRXtranceformed]

Prayers headed your buddy's way. Makes me nervous because my brother just bought his first bike up in Arlington and plans to start riding it here soon.

[*insertusernamehere*]

I saw the post but didn't think it was that bad. I hope he makes it back soon. All the more reason to push for safety on these cruises we take down here.

[davej]

jeeze man, sorry to hear; hope it turns for the better. You got the message right, although I'd also add to be extra alert for bikes as a car driver. I know too many stories where the bike rider was doing their thing responsibly and someone just wasn't paying attention.

[Jake]

So sorry to hear, Jon... hopefully he can pull through.

I want to learn to ride, just to say I know how, but I have zero interest in riding on a public road at any sort of speed. And every time I think "hmm, yeah, it might not be all bad" I hear of another friend-of-friend with a story similar to this, maybe a bit less severe, but still some injuries.

Wishing him the best for recovery...

[JPolen01]

Thanks for the support everyone. He started rehab yesterday and is making slow progress day by day. He is able to open his eyes every so often and seems to respond to a few commands. My future brother and sister in law flew out there to visit him and have been showing him pictures of our friends and telling stories. They say he is able to move his eyes towards the phone when they tell him there is a picture to see and he is able to smile with half of his face. He may be passed the hardest part, but is going to require years of therapy at minimum.

In other news, another friend just picked up a zx6r. I don't even know what to say to him.

[ScottyB]

i wish i had something better to say. i've heard of many of these kinds of stories and its never any easier to digest. i truly hope your friends fights through this and i'll certainly be keeping him in my thoughts, as well as your family as they try to cope with this.

every once in a while its good to take a step back and re-evaluate when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em when it comes to having fun on the curves. i hate that sometimes it takes an accident to cause that kind of reflection though.

i've taken a couple, good, hard wrecks on my mt. bikes over the years and it was enough to make me turn the knob down from 11. i'd never have the balls to really take a bike out and try to get the most out of it.

[BLINGMW]

Sorry about your friend, sounds like he at least has a chance :|

Please be safe when riding and ride within your limits.

I want to learn to ride, just to say I know how, but I have zero interest in riding on a public road at any sort of speed.

Take the MSF course, get a cheap bike (hey I know a GS500 for sale...) and head directly to the track. I had a lot of fun doing that, and as much as I hear people suggest that you ride within your limits, most riders I meet or have ridden with clearly have no idea what their limits are. When they do fail to negotiate a curve, they don't even understand what happened. And anyone that thinks a 600 sportbike is a good starter bike does not have their head screwed on properly.

A car is a weapon and should be treated as such, or else a lot of people can get hurt. A motorcycle is a weapon that needs at least the same level of respect and training because during normal operation, it's pointed at you.

[G.Irish]

I want to learn to ride, just to say I know how, but I have zero interest in riding on a public road at any sort of speed.

Many people point to the dangers of public roads and cars as the biggest danger with bikes but really the biggest enemy is yourself. Of maybe 20+ street crashes that I know of firsthand, only maybe 2 or 3 were caused by something other than handlebar actuator malfunction. Biggest thing with bikes is that you have to get the training, and make sure your mind is in the right place.

Take the MSF course, get a cheap bike (hey I know a GS500 for sale...) and head directly to the track. I had a lot of fun doing that, and as much as I hear people suggest that you ride within your limits, most riders I meet or have ridden with clearly have no idea what their limits are. When they do fail to negotiate a curve, they don't even understand what happened.

Yep. The tough thing about bikes is that there's a fine line between losing traction and falling. If you make a big enough mistake the first thing you're going to feel is hitting the ground, and not the front tire sliding or the rear spinning up. With cars even if you end up at full opposite lock, most of the time the worst thing that can happen is a spin.

And anyone that thinks a 600 sportbike is a good starter bike does not have their head screwed on properly.

Guilty as charged

A car is a weapon and should be treated as such, or else a lot of people can get hurt. A motorcycle is a weapon that needs at least the same level of respect and training because during normal operation, it's pointed at you.

A bike can kill you from a stand still, I know of two people that died that way. And shit, I almost wrecked going 10 mph behind my house once...

[BLINGMW]

A bike can kill you from a stand still, I know of two people that died that way.

damn really? Like... they fell off the bike and down into a ravine?

[G.Irish]

A bike can kill you from a stand still, I know of two people that died that way.

damn really? Like... they fell off the bike and down into a ravine?

Well technically the bike was moving but the mistake they made was from a standstill. One guy had just bought a bike and was backing it out of his mother's driveway to move it, didn't have his helmet on. Slipped and started to lose his balance, and in his effort to hold on, went wide-fucking-open throttle. I forget what he slammed into but it killed him.

The other guy was taking his bike to tech at a race and was riding around the paddock with no helmet on (as many do). Was at tech, lost his balance, WFO, and some got his skull impaled with a foot peg.

[WRXtranceformed]

Ahhh wow you are not selling me on the virtues of owning a bike. I knew there were plenty of good reasons for me to not own one but impalement by foot peg is not one I had on the list.

[BLINGMW]

...WFO...

Ah. Yeah wow. :vomit:
I guess when Sean launched himself off the deck it could have ended like that too.

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH NOT THAT ANYONE LISTENS TO ME
But the GS500's poor throttle response and lack of horsepower make accidental throttle application a little less extreme. A 250 or air cooled 500 is still a weapon pointed at the operator, it's just loaded with "less lethal" rounds.

[SlimKlim]

Damn Gerald, both of those stories. hock: I got off of my dirt bike as a kid with it still in gear (never did that again) and popped the clutch while i was still half on it. It just knocked me over and went down onto one leg and I hit the kill switch almost immediately, but man, I never thought about how dangerous a situation like that could be on a powerful bike.

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH NOT THAT ANYONE LISTENS TO ME
But the GS500's poor throttle response and lack of horsepower make accidental throttle application a little less extreme. A 250 or air cooled 500 is still a weapon pointed at the operator, it's just loaded with "less lethal" rounds.

Yesyes check that thread and answer my damn questions.

[ScottyB]

I guess when Sean launched himself off the deck it could have ended like that too.

dammit there is a picture of this somewhere that i know i've seen but i've never been able to find it.

one of the great moments in MM history :lol: