Proficient Motorcycling. David L. Hough

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      And that’s really a dilemma for today’s motorcyclists. There’s this image of me on a high-zoot sportbike, passing every other motorcyclist on the road, half Mike Hailwood and half Joey Dunlop. OK, if I were younger, it might be Valentino Rossi and Kenny Roberts Jr. But I don’t ride the track. The dreamy perfect racer image gets pushed aside by the nightmare of a gravel truck making a left turn out of a hidden driveway, a horse that has escaped from a pasture, a splash of spilled diesel oil, or a rusty pickup truck weaving across the line as the driver flings an empty Jack Daniels bottle into my path.

      Sure, I’d like to think of myself as a good rider, but I’d like to stick around for a while longer. I can’t escape the knowledge that public roads are full of hazards that could quickly and permanently end my motorcycling. There are lots of riders who are willing to push the envelope on public roads, but they seem to have very short riding careers. For me, jacking up the risks of a ticket or a crash is unacceptable. I’ve also discovered over the years that what’s important is to enjoy the ride, and only a modest part of that enjoyment relates to speed. There’s tremendous enjoyment in riding a motorcycle at the right speed for the situation, rather than at the maximum speed; getting the motorcycle “in the groove,” and knowing you have more performance in the bank should you need it or choose to use it.

       The Fatality Numbers

      In 2005, more than 4,500 motorcyclists died in motorcycle crashes nationwide. What’s even scarier, motorcycle crashes were typically more fatal than car crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an astounding 80 percent of motorcycle crashes resulted in injury or death, compared with 20 percent of car crashes. The Insurance Information Institute calculates that the fatality rate for motorcyclists in 2004 was 4.8 times the rate for passenger car occupants per registered vehicle. In 2005, motorcycles accounted for only 2.4 percent of registered vehicles but accounted for 10.5 percent of total traffic fatalities.

      The moral should be clear: If you want to survive those entertaining canyon roads—or city streets—you need to not only control your own machine but also control the situation, which includes other drivers and yes, other motorcyclists.

       The Long Road Ahead

      Let’s set out on that long road toward managing the risks of riding, starting with a little deeper look into the statistics and your own riding tactics. Then, let’s move on through the topics that seem to be related directly to motorcycle crashes, including motorcycle steering and braking dynamics, cornering tactics, and surviving urban traffic. I’ll continue the journey with some advice about road hazards I call booby traps, special situations such as riding at night, and sharing the ride with others. You’ll notice that this book focuses on riding public roads, so you’ll see lots of photos of corners, surface hazards, and traffic, rather than glamour shots of motorcycles leaned over into racetrack corners.

How Far Are You Hanging It Out?

      I don’t know how you learned to ride a motorcycle, but I taught myself. Back in the mid-sixties, my old buddy Ricochet Red had started commuting to work on a Honda 90 and quickly graduated to a big Honda 160. I tried Red’s 160 and immediately saw the potential for beating automobile traffic on and off the Seattle ferry. Within a week, I found a clean used Suzuki 150 twin for $300.

      Of course there weren’t many training courses around in the sixties. Red coached me through a half hour of practice on his Honda behind the grade school one Saturday afternoon. Monday morning, I climbed on the Suzuki and zipped off into rush-hour traffic. It rained that very first day, and I remember squish-squishing around the office as I mulled over the implications of motorcycles and weather. That was the start of my motorcycling education.

      Of course, there were people around the office who clucked their tongues at my foolishness. Everyone knew motorcycles were dangerous, and riding a motorcycle to work in heavy traffic had to be high-risk foolishness. There were snide remarks and stupid jokes. One co-worker even approached me, gripped my shoulder with fatherly sincerity, and offered the opinion, “I sure wouldn’t want my son to ride one of those things.” A few days later, when I arrived at the ophthalmologist carrying my helmet, the doctor gave me a twenty-minute lecture on the hazards of riding motorcycles and a five-minute eye exam.

      I wouldn’t admit it to anyone at the time, but that barrage of antimotorcycle flak caused me to have some serious doubts about motorcycling. I had a wife, two young children, and a mortgage. And I sure didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I recall one day toward the end of the second week when I nearly gave it up. After work, I’d strapped my lunchbox to the back of the bike, put on my helmet, and started the engine, but I was a little reluctant to get rolling. Factory traffic is notoriously aggressive at shift change. I sat on the bike for a long time in the corner of the parking lot, watching cars wedge into the stream and trying to control my rising panic. Eventually, I forced myself to get on the bike and ride home. And I’m still riding. Over the next forty-plus years, I gradually learned some important lessons about motorcycling. The first lesson was that my co-workers and my ophthalmologist didn’t know diddly about motorcycling or motorcycle safety.

      Looking back, I have to agree that the basic concern of my colleagues was probably realistic. A lot of people have gotten messed up in motorcycle crashes, and new riders are particularly vulnerable. But what neither my associates nor I understood at the time is that the risks of motorcycling vary significantly from individual to individual. One rider may have a serious crash soon after taking up motorcycling. Another rider may survive years and years without having a single incident.

      Is it just a matter of chance that one rider suffers a crash while another rider avoids crashing? Is swinging a leg over a motorcycle just a two-wheeled form of Russian roulette? I don’t think so. During the years I’ve been riding, writing, and teaching, quite a pile of statistics have been collected. We don’t have nearly as much specific data available as we’d like, but we have a much better idea of the risks now than anyone had back in the sixties.

       Is motorcycling a two-wheeled version of Russian Roulette, or can we really manage the risks?

      Let’s take a short, fast ride through risk territory. We’ll give you a little quiz at the end to help you see how you’re doing.

       Uh-Oh . . . Statistics

      I am frequently asked for “the truth” about motorcycle crashes, as if someone were trying to hide the evidence. The basic problem with statistics is figuring out how to collect and sort the data. It might seem that it would be a simple task to collect motorcycle fatality statistics from all the states, but the real-world situation is extremely complex. To get the big picture, all the states send in their own results to the feds. But different states have different rules for reporting crashes and fatalities. For instance, California reports motorcycle crashes that occur only on public streets and highways, including mopeds and motorized bicycles. By comparison, Missouri reports motorcycle crashes on public streets and highways plus nonpublic property, including off-highway motorcycles, mopeds, motorized bicycles, and three- or four-wheeled ATVs. Each state has different rules, so we have to temper the national results with a bit of common sense. (Source: MSF Motorcycle Crash Statistics, 2001.)

      We do have statistics about motorcyclist fatalities that I believe are reliable. Back in the 1970s, there was a surge in motorcycle fatalities. Then, from 1980 until 1997, the motorcycle fatality totals gradually dropped, just as all other forms of transportation СКАЧАТЬ