EDITORIAL
Aftermath
Author: K3 Chris Onwiler
Fight or Flight?
Crashing sucks. This saying may be seriously overused in our sport but how would you put it better? Every crash brings with it some measure of pain, embarrassment and financial loss. The question isn’t so much whether crashing sucks as it is how much a given crash has sucked and what will be required to recover from it. If you stop to think about it though, crashing serves another purpose in the motorcycle world. It is our great Litmus test.
The first crash usually comes very early in any new rider’s career. Most beginners approach motorcycles in far too casual a manner. Heck, how hard could one really be to ride? After all, it’s just a bicycle with a motor attached, right? Then the machine tries to kill its hapless rider, at which point normal, rational people get as far away from that two-wheeled death rocket as possible and vow never to ride one again. Damn suicycle! They’ll sanctimoniously preach about the dangers of motorcycling forever more, simply because they didn’t have the guts to climb back aboard the first time they screwed up and were thrown off. In the Old West, people like these rode wagons because they couldn’t handle a horse. Those of us who will actually become motorcyclists pick ourselves up, wipe away the mud and the blood, then try it again. We know better than to blame a machine that hurt us simply because we mishandled it. With practice, we learn how to synchronize throttle and clutch so that the engine doesn’t stall on takeoff. We learn not to lock up the front brake, because skidding deprives a motorcycle of balance. Unlike a car, each control on a motorcycle must be respected and handled with care lest it upset the machine and hurl you to the ground. Each new facet of motorcycle control is learned in an adrenaline-soaked burst of fear that may or may not include a ration of pain as well. Not everyone is willing to endure such risk and sacrifice simply to straddle an engine and pull the trigger.
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