Motorbike Safety Information
Before you put on the body armour, leathers,
helmets and boots to protect yourself whilst riding your motorbike,
the first thing you should put on is your common sense head.
We would all love to cruise along on a Harley Davidson wearing
spurs, stetson and cowboy boots, but it just isn't sensible.
Mind you, it has always been a dream of mine to cruise right
across the USA on a Harley with the wind blowing through my
hair and a bottle of Bud in my hand, which reminds me, don't
drink and drive! For that matter, no smoking a spliff or sniffing
a line of the white powder whilst cruising.... ;)
But seriously, motorbike safety is all about
common sense. We all know it isn't cool to wear bright and
reflective materials, but you do need to be highly visible
whilst riding your motorbike. You may well be the best and
safest biker on the road, but the driver pulling out of the
next turning may be half asleep, or the idiot driving too
fast on the other side of the road may be intoxicated with
alcohol or other substances... You are only as safe as the
person you share the road with, so rule one, we need to ensure
other road users can see us clearly even if there are other
ropad users who fancy themselves as Michael Jackson and are
wearing shades on a dull day... That's a thought! That will
probably be the next campaign from all the do-goodies of this
world - there's too many of them I know! - but I can see them
now lining up to sit on the comfy sofas of breakfast TV and
complain bitterly about people wearing sunglasses whilst driving
in dull conditions. Eventually, of course, wearing sunglasses
whilst driving will be banned when the light is below a certain
kelvin degree of colour temperature and the politically correct
police will be armed with light meters and £60 spot
fines for any crazy nutter wearing shades and failing the
light meter test!
But, again to be serious,
wearing those bright lime greens and oranges could possibly
save your life even though you will have died a death in the
world of fashion and cool dudes...
So we are now riding along
on our motorbike, probably a sensible Gold Wing Honda now
we have our common sense heads on - definitely not a cool-dude
Harley as that would fly in the face of common sense - and
we have our bright lime green vest on with those lovely decorative
silver stripes for extra visibility and we are doing a sensible
30 mph... It is a lovely sunny day and the leathers, boots
and full visor helmet feel very hot and sweaty and our girl
friend, or rather, in this politically correct world we now
live in I should, perhaps, say, "our partner", is
pressing more closely aganst us and we get that sexy tickle
that rapidly grows into a need... Now, it is okay for those
drivers in nice safe cars to get a little fore play in before
pulling over and letting loose with our tingly feelings, but
as bikers, we must resist the temptation and pullover and
find some bushes and then get out of the boots, leathers and
helmets, not to mention the lime greens....
Damn! I wish I was driving
a car... Common sense just doesn't suit me!! It's so uncool....
Tim Rees
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