Post by mauiboy on Apr 5, 2012 21:55:44 GMT -6
The following questions (my answers are inline) were posted on another forum but quickly turned into a debate about would Jefferson force you to wear helmets 
Figured it may be interesting for here, great to hear your answers!
(1) Do you wear ATGATT ( all the gear all the time )?
(2) Do you consider high visibility equipment worth the money.?
(3) Do you drive defensively or just hope for the best.?
(4) Do you think helmet laws are a restriction of your freedom.?
(5) Are Motorcycle Safety Courses compulsory where you live?
(6) What safety advise would you give to a new rider?
(7) Do you regularly do a pre ride safety check? (lights/brakes etc)
1- Do you wear ATGATT ( all the gear all the time )?
No but close. Helmet, jacket, gloves and boots everytime. If folks don't want to wear helmets etc, thats their choice, I do vaguely understand the arguments about better dead than a cabbage, I just don't agree. I do hate riders without eye protection, not only is it the law but then your choice hurts others. A new trousers and jacket are on the list for this year.
2- Do you consider high visibility equipment worth the money.?
Hella yeah! Worth every last cent. It doesn't even have to be expensive, I got a snell rated scorpion exo 1000 helmet (decent ventilation, integrated droppable sun visor) for $200 because it was last years model. Often you can pick up last years jackets etc for 30-50% off. When you have seen friends come off a bike at over 70, stand up and walk away without more than a bit of bruising you will have a new found appreciation of the virtues of cow ass. I would rather pay more to have the cows skin on the road then have to have gravel picked out of my hip bone.
3- Do you drive defensively or just hope for the best.?
Defensively. Most of the time. I should all the time but I, like many, am not perfect and sometimes when the road is quiet, fun occurs.
4- Do you think helmet laws are a restriction of your freedom.?
We don't have them here on Maui but we did in England. I don't view them as a restriction on my liberty. Otherwise aren't all laws a restriction on our liberty? I always viewed part of living in a society as agreeing to live by that societies norms. It isn't a pick and choose thing, some laws are to protect us from each other, some to protect us from ourselves. Some folks make bad decisions. I don't see the huge outcry about it being compulsory to wear seatbelts. Looking at it from the other side, I can see that some people brought up without it being compulsory would find it uncomfortable etc wearing a helmet, personally I don't. I don't believe helmets should be compulsory over age 25. Honestly, if you want to take that risk then so be it.
5- Are Motorcycle Safety Courses compulsory where you live?
No, I took my test in a hurry (and the test was pitifully easy) but I will be going back to take the MSF course and retake it every 5-10 years. It is great experience, you are never too old or too experienced to learn. It is also a great chance to have your bad habits highlighted. For the low cost it is a great service.
6- What safety advise would you give to a new rider?
A) ride like you are invisble, odds are the other person hasn't seen you. You make a poor hood ornament.
B) assume everyone else on the road is drunk, on their cellphone, getting roadtreats, exhausted, insane and/or wants to kill you. Not all are, but you don't really know which is which until it's too late.
C) You do not know what is round the corner. It is great fun throwing a bike into an apex, just remember to do so in a manner that means when you find an obstacle on the exit you can survive and not find yourself kissing truck in the other lane.
D) I'm going to steal this from elsewhere, but 'watch your 6'. When you pull up at a junction do so towards the inside of the lane. Watch that vehicles behind you have noticed you are stopped. Do not be afraid to drive off to the right either into the other road or the hard shoulder if you think they haven't seen you. A guy (amusingly named lucky) in my test class got hit by a truck and dragged a couple of hundred years because the driver didn't see him stopped at the red lights (yup drunk driver). 5 years later he was able to walk and get back on a bike, he was lucky.
E) Practice riding whilst covering your brakes, that additional time saved could be a few mph extra lost, a few less g's to the head in an impact etc. Versus cage's, bikes are more dangerous. You do not have a protective, airbag filled cage around you. The onus is on you to keep you alive. Cagers don't care. They aren't thinking about you, they're thinking about work, or their wife / kids / gf / taxes, whatever.
F) Fit the loudest biggest horn you legally can. Now fit a second, lower tone for a nice two tone freight train effect. On a similar vain, do not buy black bikes. Tarmac coloured bikes are not a good idea! You want to be seen, you need to be noticeable.
G) Leave the ego at home. It will get you killed. I know macho men like to ride like loons with no safety gear. I know 2 died last week alone here. One turned in front of a truck, the other decided to overtake the pack of riders he was in (across a double solid line no less), met the front end of a truck, he died, his bike went on the kill another fellow rider and injure several more. I feel extremely sorry for their families and for the innocent rider, however for the guy who overtook, I hope he spends eternity boiling in a vat of snot. His actions killed another person and left others in hospital.
H) Please, please, take a first aid course, not a CPR only type course, you want a trauma care course. Most CPR instructors offer additional courses for hikers etc speak with them. You want to know what to do when a truck takes someone's leg off at the groin. That knowledge could be the difference, for the 2-10 minutes before the EMT gets there, between a fellow rider getting home to see their kids again or not. Your co-riders knowing it could save you. It really is that important. It can take a minute or two to bleed out, knowing how to apply a torniquet and how to improvise one could literally save someones life. Do it as a club, if you aren't in one, see if your work will pay for it, you can be the mandated elf safety dude. The difference between panic and helping is simply being comfortable in knowing what to do.
F) If you are going to commute, learn the roads in your own time, without the stress of going to work, learn where debris is likely etc, ride with due car on roads you don't know.
7- Do you regularly do a pre ride safety check? (lights/brakes etc)
I tend to do a post ride safety check, I often have to jump on and run, before longer rides I will do a full check. Better to find issues before fate or the police find them for you. I had a chinese scooter for a while, whilst it was pretty reliable (compared to say a 1960's British bike
) it taught me its easier to check then pay the fine (I remember one 5am ride using a torch as a headlight).
(1) Do you wear ATGATT ( all the gear all the time )?
(2) Do you consider high visibility equipment worth the money.?
(3) Do you drive defensively or just hope for the best.?
(4) Do you think helmet laws are a restriction of your freedom.?
(5) Are Motorcycle Safety Courses compulsory where you live?
(6) What safety advise would you give to a new rider?
(7) Do you regularly do a pre ride safety check? (lights/brakes etc)
1- Do you wear ATGATT ( all the gear all the time )?
No but close. Helmet, jacket, gloves and boots everytime. If folks don't want to wear helmets etc, thats their choice, I do vaguely understand the arguments about better dead than a cabbage, I just don't agree. I do hate riders without eye protection, not only is it the law but then your choice hurts others. A new trousers and jacket are on the list for this year.
2- Do you consider high visibility equipment worth the money.?
Hella yeah! Worth every last cent. It doesn't even have to be expensive, I got a snell rated scorpion exo 1000 helmet (decent ventilation, integrated droppable sun visor) for $200 because it was last years model. Often you can pick up last years jackets etc for 30-50% off. When you have seen friends come off a bike at over 70, stand up and walk away without more than a bit of bruising you will have a new found appreciation of the virtues of cow ass. I would rather pay more to have the cows skin on the road then have to have gravel picked out of my hip bone.
3- Do you drive defensively or just hope for the best.?
Defensively. Most of the time. I should all the time but I, like many, am not perfect and sometimes when the road is quiet, fun occurs.
4- Do you think helmet laws are a restriction of your freedom.?
We don't have them here on Maui but we did in England. I don't view them as a restriction on my liberty. Otherwise aren't all laws a restriction on our liberty? I always viewed part of living in a society as agreeing to live by that societies norms. It isn't a pick and choose thing, some laws are to protect us from each other, some to protect us from ourselves. Some folks make bad decisions. I don't see the huge outcry about it being compulsory to wear seatbelts. Looking at it from the other side, I can see that some people brought up without it being compulsory would find it uncomfortable etc wearing a helmet, personally I don't. I don't believe helmets should be compulsory over age 25. Honestly, if you want to take that risk then so be it.
5- Are Motorcycle Safety Courses compulsory where you live?
No, I took my test in a hurry (and the test was pitifully easy) but I will be going back to take the MSF course and retake it every 5-10 years. It is great experience, you are never too old or too experienced to learn. It is also a great chance to have your bad habits highlighted. For the low cost it is a great service.
6- What safety advise would you give to a new rider?
A) ride like you are invisble, odds are the other person hasn't seen you. You make a poor hood ornament.
B) assume everyone else on the road is drunk, on their cellphone, getting roadtreats, exhausted, insane and/or wants to kill you. Not all are, but you don't really know which is which until it's too late.
C) You do not know what is round the corner. It is great fun throwing a bike into an apex, just remember to do so in a manner that means when you find an obstacle on the exit you can survive and not find yourself kissing truck in the other lane.
D) I'm going to steal this from elsewhere, but 'watch your 6'. When you pull up at a junction do so towards the inside of the lane. Watch that vehicles behind you have noticed you are stopped. Do not be afraid to drive off to the right either into the other road or the hard shoulder if you think they haven't seen you. A guy (amusingly named lucky) in my test class got hit by a truck and dragged a couple of hundred years because the driver didn't see him stopped at the red lights (yup drunk driver). 5 years later he was able to walk and get back on a bike, he was lucky.
E) Practice riding whilst covering your brakes, that additional time saved could be a few mph extra lost, a few less g's to the head in an impact etc. Versus cage's, bikes are more dangerous. You do not have a protective, airbag filled cage around you. The onus is on you to keep you alive. Cagers don't care. They aren't thinking about you, they're thinking about work, or their wife / kids / gf / taxes, whatever.
F) Fit the loudest biggest horn you legally can. Now fit a second, lower tone for a nice two tone freight train effect. On a similar vain, do not buy black bikes. Tarmac coloured bikes are not a good idea! You want to be seen, you need to be noticeable.
G) Leave the ego at home. It will get you killed. I know macho men like to ride like loons with no safety gear. I know 2 died last week alone here. One turned in front of a truck, the other decided to overtake the pack of riders he was in (across a double solid line no less), met the front end of a truck, he died, his bike went on the kill another fellow rider and injure several more. I feel extremely sorry for their families and for the innocent rider, however for the guy who overtook, I hope he spends eternity boiling in a vat of snot. His actions killed another person and left others in hospital.
H) Please, please, take a first aid course, not a CPR only type course, you want a trauma care course. Most CPR instructors offer additional courses for hikers etc speak with them. You want to know what to do when a truck takes someone's leg off at the groin. That knowledge could be the difference, for the 2-10 minutes before the EMT gets there, between a fellow rider getting home to see their kids again or not. Your co-riders knowing it could save you. It really is that important. It can take a minute or two to bleed out, knowing how to apply a torniquet and how to improvise one could literally save someones life. Do it as a club, if you aren't in one, see if your work will pay for it, you can be the mandated elf safety dude. The difference between panic and helping is simply being comfortable in knowing what to do.
F) If you are going to commute, learn the roads in your own time, without the stress of going to work, learn where debris is likely etc, ride with due car on roads you don't know.
7- Do you regularly do a pre ride safety check? (lights/brakes etc)
I tend to do a post ride safety check, I often have to jump on and run, before longer rides I will do a full check. Better to find issues before fate or the police find them for you. I had a chinese scooter for a while, whilst it was pretty reliable (compared to say a 1960's British bike
