Should You Ride a Motorcycle

Motorists tool kit roll of 1912

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Should You Ride a Motorcycle

There’s no doubt about it, riding a motorcycle is an invigorating experience. It’s great fun, in fact, it’s a pretty unique way to get around. This doesn’t mean that we’re all equipped to be able to ride a motorcycle safely, after all, it’s a completely different experience to driving a car, and you don’t have the added safety of 4 wheels to balance on and the protection of the car body in case you have a mishap. Whenever you are riding a motorcycle and you have a mishap, no matter how minor, it can soon become a major disaster. You need to have keen judgment and a firm grasp of risk management – after all, you are the one who is most at risk.

Should You Ride a Motorcycle

You need to ask yourself a few in-depth questions if you are thinking about buying a motorcycle – and a few truthful answers are also vitally important.

  • Are you a bit of an adrenalin junkie? If you’re the sort of person who likes to push things to the limit to get your thrills, then not only will you be putting yourself at risk if you’re let loose on a motorcycle, but everybody else as well. It’s no good thinking that accidents only happen to other people – that’s what they all say until it happens to them.
  • How are you on a bicycle? They say that once you’ve mastered the art of riding a bicycle then you’ll be able to call upon that skill any time throughout your life. Think back though, how were you on a bicycle, were you one of those kids who always managed to stay on two wheels, or were your knees constantly covered in band-aids after your latest scrape. If you were good at maneuvering a bicycle, then the chances are you’ll be able to transfer those skills to a motorcycle, and if not . . . well, what do you think?
  • How about your car driving skills? Do you drive a car with a stick shift? Now then, although going through the gears on a motorcycle are very different to in a car, most motorcycles do operate with manual transmission, so it’s something you’ll have to get used to. If you’re strictly an “automatic” type of person, then maybe you should consider a motor scooter, they are often automatic yet available in many different engine sizes. Just sit and screw – that’s what you need to do on a scooter.
  • What about the old eyesight, is it up to scratch? You need to have eyesight of a certain standard before you can even have any drivers license, but when you are riding a motorcycle you do need to have your wits about you and see what’s going on up ahead. Maybe you should book an eye-test before you make your first down payment.
  • Are you a bit of a “Mr Fix-it” or do you need to get a man in for even the most simple repairs. Whilst we’re not for one minute suggesting that you should do any major heart surgery on your motorcycle – leave that for the professionals – simply because motorcycles have the majority of their working parts out in the open, in all weathers, it is handy if you know one end of a socket wrench from the other. Tightening up the nuts and bolts can be a very important factor in life with a motorcycle. You’ll find loads of instructions in the motorcycle manual – so read it and see whether you’re up to the job.
  • Is safety a top priority for you? If you’re one of these people who don’t always pay enough attention when you’re doing even odd jobs around the house, if you’re more likely to hit your thumb with a hammer than a nail, you get my drift, then maybe riding a motorcycle isn’t something which you should even consider. Riding a motorcycle is potentially very dangerous, and although millions of people manage to ride their motorcycles safely every day, they’re the kind of people who take safety seriously. Is that you?
  • Do you have a good attention span?  Riding a motorcycle takes focus, and letting your mind slip, for even just a second, can have disastrous consequences.  When you’re in the middle of the rush hour traffic from work, you can’t afford to daydream, not for one second. You need to be able to keep your mind on the job at hand – riding your motorcycle safely.
  • Do you have good reactions? How do you manage to handle the car in case of emergency? Well, motorcycles get into emergency situations too, and you may need to call on these lightening reactions even more often if you’re riding a motorcycle, because all too often car drivers don’t even know that you are there.
  • Do you take good care of things? Well, some of us are naturally better at that than others, but it is important that you keep your motorcycle in good repair. Safety isn’t down to luck you know, it’s down to minimizing risks, and riding a motorcycle which isn’t in a good state of repair is very risky indeed.

 

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