OLD BLASTARD: Riding is a risky business

I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome, swoopin' down from the heavens to carry me home -- Richard Thompson

You yank the cord on the lawnmower and you risk cutting off your foot.

You yank the cord on the chainsaw and you risk cutting off your legs, your arm and anything else that gets in the way.

You twist too much wick on the motor and you risk being broken, battered, maimed and killed.

Risk is the way of it. You grab a big, heapin’ helpin’ when you climb on two wheels and roll on and the decisions you make before and while you ride decide how much risk you eat.

You want the pass-around plate? Take off in a tank top, shorts, flip-flops and no helmet on a high-power sportbike with under-inflated tires and few beers in the belly for a high-speed night ride at a rate far exceeding the distance  your headlights will let you see.

You can pare down your serving by not drinking, slowing down, checking the tires, adding jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes and a half-helmet. Try the senior plate with jeans, long-sleeve shirt, boots and three-quarter helmet or go for the diet menu and wear protective pants with knee armor, over-the-ankle boots, full-face helmet and crash jacket with padding at the joints.

Riding a bike takes skill, skill learned through riding. Pot holes, gravel, uneven road surfaces, slick road kill can toss you to the ground hard. There are no promises that a simple commute to work won’t end up in the intersection of Rio Road or a trip to a buddies won’t wind up in the guard rail.

Poppin’ wheelies is a risk. Stuntin’ is a risk. Riding the ton up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway is a risk.

Check the archives of this site and you’ll see people eating a lot of risk. We’ve had deadly crashes that cost lives, crashes with a factors involved, including alcohol, and a lot of choices that were made that may not have been the wisest.

Crashes, in other words, that didn’t have to happen and people -- friends, brothers, lovers -- who did not have to die.

There’s not much reason for a ride to end off a curve. That’s operator error and not something induced by a somatic snit in a Chevy. It can be resolved by simple technique, slowing down before the curve and speeding up through it.

Slowing down, riding within your limits will help reduce risk. Knowing when your limits have changed will also help reduce risk. Just ‘cause you ripped 90+ down the city street at noon doesn’t mean you’re good to go at midnight after visiting Jack and Jim at the Dew Drop Inn.

Listen to yourself. Protect yourself. Question yourself. You are your first line of defense and you are your brother- or sister-in-bikes second line of defense against bad judgment.

There are a lot of ways to get hurt on the open road. Don’t be one of them.