My annual plea to morons out there to be safe on their motorcycles, it's basic safety we are talkin about here.

I have a recurring wish that runs from year to year and the reality is that I have better things to write about, so I really wish I didn't have to keep doing this. But since there appears to be no shortage of morons out there I am forced to go on this, what is now, an annual rant. Sadly what has pushed me over the edge are the people I have observed as recently as today who ignore basic common sense safety rules that relate to the operation of motorcycles, and what is most disturbing is these people are public servants of the police, firefighter and emergency medical types. What is so annoying is that these people have seen firsthand what unsafe operating practices result in.

This reminds me of a story about an old friend of mine who, for his many many faults and a somewhat wild nature as a youth possessed just enough common sense to understand that when taking part is risky behavior one should take at least the minimum of precautions to insure that he would be around another day to raise his special brand of hell wherever he went. He became a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War and from the get go understood the importance of wearing a helmet. Not that it would stop a bullet but it might just save him if he was to be shot down for some reason, and that's precisely what happened, the helmet saved his life. Fast forward ahead about eight months and my friend was back in the good old US of A and was a flight instructor deep in the Heart of Dixie and had a roommate who was a former motorcycle racer. This was good because my friend got an old 750 Norton Atlas and his roommate would not allow him on that or any other bike without a helmet, now this is 1970 mind you and helmets were not the comfortable pieces of head wear that they are today. But having felt the force or rotor blades crashing into his helmet taught my friend the value of head protection, so when his roommate stuffed his head into an old Bell helmet he couldn't object.

I have applied the same sane logic to my own circumstance and that logic has served me well. That's why I can't understand why people who have basically seen it all don't seem to get it, protecting themselves that is. And whats even more irritating is that these s_ it for brains' all have families. A couple of years ago a classmate of my wife, who was a fireman, was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was riding at night, his first mistake, and without a helmet, second mistake, and hit a small animal on the road, was thrown from his bike hitting his head on the pavement rendering him very dead, and might I add unnecessarily. Which brings me back to the original point or two.

Helmets not only save lives they can and do prevent serious head injuries if one crashes. I will ask them the next time I see them on their Harley's why they don't wear helmets and will probably make enemies of them but then I really don't care because they're goof's anyway, small wonder police and firemen hang together.

Thanks for reading,

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out"
Alexander Pope
1688 - 1744

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