Pain And Expense Decisions
PAIN AND EXPENSE DECISIONS
IGNITION
RIDE CRAFT
Promise and commit
Nick Ienatsch
Insanely good riding skills are the normal push of these Ride Craft articles because a three-star Marine Corps general once told me that the secret to Marine pilot safety was making their pilots so proficient and skillful that safety followed. That insight has affected everything I write and teach regarding excellent motorcycle riding. Well-trained pilots and riders are safer.
But this article is meant to slot into the time before the ride. The opinion promoted in the next few paragraphs can be adhered to right now, next week, or in the pre-ride moments while you’re rolling your bike out of the garage. It isn’t a bike mod or a fitness tip; it’s a mental step that can make as big a difference in your life as repeatedly practicing your riding skills.
It’s about the decisions you make now, while you’re out of the saddle, and your unrelenting commitment to these decisions. You will need unrelenting commitment to stick with your decisions because external factors will pull you away from the decisions I’m asking you to make for the rest of your riding career.
Wear your gear every ride: Weather, peer pressure, and confidence will continually assault this decision. Your experience of healthy, crash-free riding will mislead you into thinking you don’t need your gear. “I’m just riding down to the lake.” Find a rider who has crashed and ask him if he planned to crash. Accidents happen in the blink of an eye, and the proper riding gear does an amazing job of protecting our bodies.
Maybe try this: Take your bare hand and smack your knuckles against a truck bumper. Drag your bare knee or your jean-clad knee along a cement wall. Gently tap your head against the A-pillar of a car. In a relatively painless five minutes you can learn what every one of your veteran-riding friends knows: Wear your gear every ride.
What will help in the heat: Use the cooling powers of evaporation by wetting down your hair under your helmet and your shirt under your jacket. Buy those scarves and cooling vests you can wet down. And remember, most people pay big money for gym memberships, but you get to sweat the weight off for free. Enjoy the ride and stick with your decision!
Never drink and ride: I have a friend who was pulled over for rolling a stop sign and then arrested for “inebriated driving.” His blood-alcohol level was well below the state’s 0.08 minimum for drunk driving, but he went to jail, paid $8,500 in fines, and had to jump through hoops that were an unbelievable hassle.
A magazine drunk-riding test I took part in back in the ’80s proved that our skills became impaired—but well after our judgment flew out the window.
We did stupid things with no regard to risk. Between my friend’s “inebriated” arrest and the magazine test where I crashed twice in a parking lot, I proved to myself that drinking and riding cannot ever mix.
Please join me in this decision:
Become the leader in your group who has water or lemonade or root beer. Distance yourself from riders who drink alcohol because they will decide to pull a wheelie behind you and clip your ankle as you slow for a yellow light.
Reflection: Imagine getting pulled off your bike and stuck in the back of a cop car, the tow truck driver doing his best to tie a bike down on his flatbed for the first time. Imagine getting marched into the station, put in jail, getting a lawyer, raising the bail and fine money, and arranging a ride to work because you can’t drive for six months. Impound wants money to get your bike back and so does the insurance company who is raising your rates. Promise yourself right now to never drink and ride.
Regarding speeding: Were you reading magazines back in the ’80s when I wrote that I only speed for two reasons? 1) If I’m late for something drastically important; and 2) If I’m having a great time. That opinion still works for me. In other words, decide to choose the places you enjoy the throttle. Tickets garnered while you’re blasting mindlessly along the freeway 25 mph above the limit or breakneck through town are tough to defend. Wasted money!
Realistically: Many of us believe speed limits are too low and are designed for “lesser human beings.” I understand. Unfortunately, the law does not. Decide right now to not get those stupid straight-line tickets. Limit your radar risk to rushing for something significantly important or truly enjoying an amazing road. Riders who push the speed everywhere get a lot of tickets and eventually run out of room or time.
Limits: Discomfort is our body’s warning of impending disaster. Pay attention to it. Personally, every time my speed is more than 83 mph on curvy roads, my comfort alarm goes off. Yes, that’s over the speed limit, and I accept the consequences, but my point is that you feel and respect this comfort alarm in your own riding. I also encourage groups to discuss maximum speeds and adhere to them, as I described in “The Pace” and “The Pace 2.0” (August 2013).
Pre-ride decisions are huge in my life and in the lives of my veteran-rider friends. These off-bike promises to yourself, these commitments to yourself, will save you pain and expense. Promise and commit forever.
