Open letter to the young GSX rider who hit the Jeep on the 401 this morning | GTAMotorcycle.com

Open letter to the young GSX rider who hit the Jeep on the 401 this morning

D

ddv

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Sir,-

I am one of the emergency workers who responded expecting to pick up your pieces at 1:30 am this morning, and as a fellow rider, what I saw has been bugging me ever since. You may have heard that "new riders start with a bucketful of luck and an empty bucket of experience"? The trick being to fill the bucket of experience before emptying the bucket of luck? You pretty much emptied your luck bucket this morning. I've been riding almost 40 years and average more miles per year than showed on your odometer. I've scraped up the remains of too many other riders over my career and I've bumped into a few objects along the way myself. I'd like to share a bit of that experience with you.

First of all, you could have stopped before hitting that jeep. Your bike can pretty much out-brake anything with four wheels IF you leave enough reaction space between you and IF you are paying attention. Forget any nonsense you may have heard about "slide for life". In general, if you have enough room to slide, then you have enough room to stop, and even if you don't have room for a complete stop, the coefficient of friction of rubber against pavement is much higher than that of metal against pavement, so the impact will be at a significantly lower speed. Please, PLEASE, learn how to use those brakes. Take a course, read a book, get some practice in.

Then start paying close attention to your following distance AND the following distance of the car behind you (because he CAN'T stop as fast as you). Keep your head on a swivel, making sure you are aware of ALL traffic at ALL times, and actively plan at least 2 escape routes at all times so you don't have to think about it when things go pear-shaped.

Next, get some proper riding gear. T-shirt, shorts, running shoes and a silly plastic chest protector just don't count. Modern riding gear comes with all sorts of nice zippered vents, is tailored to fit properly when seated in a riding position and incorporates all the armour you need, so forget any excuses about metabolic heat buildup. If you had been wearing such a jacket, you wouldn't have those painful scrapes on your arm right now. Riding pants are similarly vented and armoured. Riding boots not only provide impact protection, but also support for fragile ankle bones. Finger bones are also fragile, so gloves are in order. Maybe you have some of this stuff in the closet at home already, but good gear is only useful if it is worn, and that means wearing it at all times.

I sincerely wish you many years of happy riding and hope that the next time we meet, it will be with a friendly wave or nod and not a trauma kit.
 
Accidents happen. Life goes on. Thanks for picking up the pieces.
 
"Your bike can pretty much out-brake anything with four wheels"

That's actually not true. These days, all cars/pickups have ABS and even an F150 can stop in ~130 feet.
ABS is an option on some bikes, but the motorcycle industry has no ethical problem with selling >100 hp bikes with 3 pot calipers that can easily lockup in a panic.

~10% of accidents on bikes is bikes running into the back of vehicles.

As for gear, people think when they crash they will only hit their head, their back, their hands in some kind of gymnastic move.
But Carboncat is right on, squids rule in the GTA.
 
Spend enough time on here and you'll quickly realize that you cannot give advice to young people, they know better and they know everything.
 
And just one more example of why we pay such high insurance rates.

Carry on
 
Kudos to ddv for making this open letter his #1 post count. Good start.
 
CafeRay said:
"Your bike can pretty much out-brake anything with four wheels"

That's actually not true. These days, all cars/pickups have ABS and even an F150 can stop in ~130 feet.
ABS is an option on some bikes, but the motorcycle industry has no ethical problem with selling >100 hp bikes with 3 pot calipers that can easily lockup in a panic.

~10% of accidents on bikes is bikes running into the back of vehicles.

As for gear, people think when they crash they will only hit their head, their back, their hands in some kind of gymnastic move.
But Carboncat is right on, squids rule in the GTA.
Click to expand...

Even when I see people with gear they usually don't have gloves. If I were going to skimp on gear, gloves would be one of the few things I would chose to wear. I don't even like riding a bicycle without gloves on. Too much gravel in my palms as a kid.
 
unL33T said:
Even when I see people with gear they usually don't have gloves. If I were going to skimp on gear, gloves would be one of the few things I would chose to wear. I don't even like riding a bicycle without gloves on. Too much gravel in my palms as a kid.
Click to expand...

The squids I see typically have >$800 helmets, $200 track racing gloves and >$150 back protectors and nothing else. So, it's not money, it's fashion.

And it gets much worse in the "deep" south...

motorcycle-squid-on-cruiser.jpg
 
What CafeRay said. I'm not sure where the idea that bikes can outbrake cars originated, but it's the exact opposite. Bikes suck at braking compared to modern cars.
 
Matt Rain said:
What CafeRay said. I'm not sure where the idea that bikes can outbrake cars originated, but it's the exact opposite. Bikes suck at braking compared to modern cars.
Click to expand...

While I agree with what CafeRay said, I think you are both taking what he said out of context.

"Your bike can pretty much out-brake anything with four wheels IF you leave enough reaction space between you and IF you are paying attention." I interpreted that as "Leave enough space". So you can have enough distance to emergency brake without smashing into the car/truck in front of you.
 
CafeRay said:
The squids I see typically have >$800 helmets, $200 track racing gloves and >$150 back protectors and nothing else. So, it's not money, it's fashion.

And it gets much worse in the "deep" south...

motorcycle-squid-on-cruiser.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't care what anyone says, that dude is livin' the life. No ****s given.
 
Matt Rain said:
I'm not sure where the idea that bikes can outbrake cars originated, but it's the exact opposite. Bikes suck at braking compared to modern cars.
Click to expand...

At some point in the past, bikes were better for controlled panic stops than cars because typical cars used to be much heavier with pretty over-powered brakes.
ABS just means jump on the pedal and you're better than Nico Rosberg.

Real world crash numbers have really been plummeting since ABS was standard and now most of the car fleet is ABS.
 
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