Oh, Phuket! How much like we, you are…

Three motorcyclists died in Phuket.
Granted, there have to be better places to die, places with much better names like Springfield or Kalamazoo or Tahatchapee or something like that. I mean, come on, it's probably hard to arrive at the Heavenly Gates and actually get in when you meet up with the Head Angel and he asks, "where and how did you die?" and you have to say "a motorcycle and I ran off the road in, uh, Phuket," 'cause you sure as hell aren't going to get in.

But, as I was saying, three people died in Phuket during the Sangkong, Singsong or Kingkong, some kind of celebration. They died the same way we do; one was drunk, one went off the road in the curve and the other managed to hit a concrete barrier.

Hard ways to go. Unfortunately, that's how we've been doing it ourselves lately. In 2007 -- the last year for which the DMV has complete records -- more Virginia bikers went off the roads to kill themselves than ever before. Big surge upward in us taking ourselves out.

The study was done by the Virginia Rider Training Program, which trains rider coaches and oversees the state's Motorcyce Safety Foundation-approved training sites, like the Riders Edge program at Shenandoah Harley-Davidson, the Albemarle County program at Albemarle High and the Central Virginia Motorcycle School near Orange Powersports Honda.

They found no particular age group, no particular type of bike involved in the fatal off-road excursions. It was all of us.

Here's how to keep alive: Slow way down before going into a turn. The more speed you scrub off, the more speed you can add on as you come out of the turn and slingshot into hyperspeed.

Look all the way through the turn and start on the outside of the turn, heading into the apex and shooting off toward the outside as you exit. That makes the turn more of a straight line and easier to handle.

If you feel like you've got too much speed, keep the bike leaned -- or add more -- and hold the throttle steady.

If you let up on the gas or put on the brake, the bike wants to stand up.

If it stands up, it likes to go straight.

If it goes straight, well, don't tell the Winged One that you died in, oh, Phuket.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2009/article7239.html