Actually... i dont, but i've met alot of people who do for various reasons. "they come from no where!", "who do they think they are!?", "it's just dangerous!, buy a car you twat!" we've all heard them at one point or another but why?
I have been a lover of bikes since i was about 12 years old and i'm proud to say i am i biker, I've been on the road and on the track for over yen years and i've seen and experienced quite a bit i recon, but i don't understand where the overall hatred of the whole biker scene comes from?
I had what ended up being quite a heated discussion about biking with a work collegue today, and even though their was over 15 years experience (between 2 bikers) and the other having no experience with bikes at all, he still believes that all bikers are scum!? It must have been at least an hour long discussion/sticking up for biking in general terms that it ended with myself just walking off to cool down and process all the info as quick as i could just to almost 'save face' and not (myself) look like a 'madmax' death wish stylie biker, even though while goin through this thought process I had done nothing wrong?
When i first got my fun road licence i did in under 24 hours already know what my bikes top speed was capable of, but even at the tender age of 19, i still did it on the motorway at 1am on a wednesday evening. That doesn't sound like much but at least it wasn't rush hour during a school run, using 30mph city roads, which denotes to me that even back then i had common sense with my riding. Over the years as my confidence grew into over confidence, i was politely reminded of the general dangers as a road user aswell as a motorcyclist. This i believe gave me the want to be as safe as i could in any situation but as i said i deffo am not and haven't been a saint, where's the fun in that!!
It was only when i was 24 that i decided to hang up my road 'miled' boots and venture into track racing to get my kicks instead. Which didn't feel safer, quite the opposite and a hell of a lot more expensive! The reason i decided to come off the road was due to the speeds that i was reaching on a daily basis partly due to me but also due to the bike i was riding. I am not proud of this fact but it need to be said as i'm alway going to be honest on this blog but my decision was planted one lovely afternoon i went for a ride, and on my way home i reached a speed of 176mph on the speedo during a straight piece of road and it just felt...normal! How could this be? almost three times the legal limit and it felt normal? As i passed cars i was indicating, checking blind spots, thanking drivers that pulled to one side, all the proper things i should have done while riding legally but with a stupidly huge speed difference. I was even calmly thinking to myself"blimey, are those road lamps new?"... this cannot be normal! There were a few other occasions like this that followed over the next few weeks, and the faster and more confident i became, the less my speed and the dangers actually mattered!
Believe it or not, after 4 years off the road i'm preparing to get back in the saddle on the roads! Now don't panic i'm not actually doing it just yet, theirs a few months of saving ahead, and yes the police have already been informed but i believe my choice of bike and overall mindset change will be the best for riding on the roads again. It's now all about enjoying the ride, not getting from A to B asap.
Now as long winded as this is (you now see why my lady gets lost in my convo's sometimes) I completely understand why bikers can get a bad name, but i haven't ever had a run-in with i biker while driving, I always look for them, but at the same time i (due to my biking experience) look for everything else aswell. Many car drivers i believe feel safer in the 'Cage' of a car so sometimes certain risks are taken by the driver because hay... the car will save us right? I've done it myself, and everytime i do it i give myself a real hard time as i don't want to be a contradictive person in general at the best of times.
Each to their own i suppose, but can you knock everything until you've at least tried it??... i think thats a question for another blog.
JTP
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