As our generation ages off this mortal coil there seems to be a strong conservative trend among motorcyclists. By conservative I don’t mean politically, although most of my rowdy friends have settled on the putative conservative party. I mean in their actions and words.
Post a video of kids popping wheelies or burning up motorcycles and the comment section rapidly fills with sour, tsk-tsk and rote complaints about using proper riding gear, safe riding practices or endangering others. Quite a few commenters will wish death upon anyone not head-to-toe in safety gear. Organ Donors, an insult once used by straight citizens to describe motorcyclists in general, has been co-opted by ourselves and liberally used to describe riders not wearing hi-vis green, stifling gloves, helmets, boots and one of those silver blood-type/medication allergy bracelets sold in high schools throughout the mid-1970’s.
Realizing that the depressing safety-crats were doing the exact same wheelies when they were under 100 years old you have to wonder what changed. Responsibility to the group, to all road users or the prospect of injuring an innocent bystander is regularly trotted out by safety mongers. They sound like lower case communists instead of riders living free like it says on their belt buckles and t-shirts.
So is it fear or wisdom? With death imminent, I suspect fear. Our motorcycles are becoming sodden with anti-lock braking systems, rev limiters (God forbid we blow an engine!), traction control and power management systems. The price we are willing to pay for a motorcycle less inclined to kill us is in the tens of thousands of dollars. If we are so concerned about staying alive to drag down future economies with our failing bodies why not forgo motorcycles and drive a truck?
Our generation believes, as have previous generations, that we know best for the next guys. A do-as-I-say, not-as-I-did type of thing that must drive the young ones insane. We think a motorcycle with less than 100 horsepower is unrideable yet we expect others tap into maybe 50% of that power. If they actually twist the throttle then they become the irresponsible ones.
We are, in a nutshell, full of baloney. We rode without helmets, we rode in shorts and t-shirts, we popped wheelies on public roads, we drank and took drugs and then got on our motorcycles and crashed. We died and we were injured. We cost society money way beyond our true dollar value. And now like bit players in the song “Cats in the Cradle,” we sit behind our screens scolding others for being just like we were.
Truth…as always from Mr Joe Gresh. Both of my kids wanted to ride, as do many of their friends. My kids while living under my roof wear all the gear, all the time. Some of their friends ride in shorts and a helmet, and I have no control over their attire. Sometimes I go ride with my kids occasionally wearing jeans, boots and sunglasses 🙂 I don’t make any excuses for it…Do as I say, and not as I do sometimes.
Once they are older and out from under the parental wing, so to speak, they can choose to do as they please. Until then …Dad’s rules are the rules 🙂
Also…one of my favorite pic’s I have saved somewhere is some old moto journalist riding a Hog in his bathrobe and slippers :)-
I’d love to see that photo…
I mostly wear the gear but when it’s 100 degrees out and you’ve had a few too many beers the highway is no place for shoes…
My perspective is that I applaud the new gear available these days. The only reason I shook in the 70’s was nothing to do with fear, it was because I froze my butt riding about with apehangers, open face helmet, a cloth as a scarf and thin pitiful gloves. We couldn’t afford leathers so wore army surplus gear and have lived to tell the tale. The new gear is awesome, much warmer and means I can ride long distances and stay warm and dry, love my Gearne boots. I do wear a white helmet as I think it is the highest point of my motorcycle/rider blob coming down the road that can be seen from all angles, unlike Hi-Viz which has limited vision until it is too late, IMO a white helmet over black dress is more Hi-Viz than any orange or yellow, it has nothing to do with fear, it is just my choice of safety gear in the main for comfort.
I think I’ve ridden maybe a half mile without a helmet in my life. I’ve never owned a bike that would wheelie. I’m a pretty conservative rider.
Most riders that pop wheelies, or whose safety gear consists of a bandana on their head, or who do any number of stupid things will survive or even avoid crashes or injury altogether. Just like people who smoke probably won’t get lung cancer, and people who jog on mountain trails probably won’t get eaten by a mountain lion.
It’s probability at work.
But if you don’t ride, there’s a 100% probability you won’t have any fun riding.
Amen, brother!
There is no debate that wearing gear is safer than not wearing gear. It is.
Obviously, have less sense than a mule. Ride an older scoot because it runs great, is reliable, and, does not have all the newfangled junk. We’ve (scoot and i) been across the country multiple times and don’t plan on stopping in the near future. While i wear a helmet on the highway, it stays at home for local runs. Let the kids play. Let them learn, just as we did.
I have ridden since I was very young – that was on a borrowed honda mini trail – the ONLY bike I ever rode I could not stand on the back wheel. still wheel stand my bike – fun , a bit of risk and an exercise in power management. never had, needed, wanted traction control and always considered antilock brakes defective. yes I have had injuries of my own making and injuries caused by others. my 2 cents let the pocket books of the riders be the limiting factors of speed and function. If the bike ihad at 35 were available to me at 20 I would not have made 35
how ever—- gutted – loud exhaust note is damaging to us as riders in both our hearing and our reputation/acceptance – it is NOT safer as the sound projects behind you. cars and trucks still can not hear you until you are along side, then it is just plain annoying.
I drive a pickup on the job w traction control – consider it defective.