Road Riders

What Tony has written, pretty well echoes my sentiments from my own riding experience. some driver are reckless and don't seem to care when they cut us off or turn in front of us. We love our bikes and riding and many of us belong to organizations like the Lions Club which do a lot of community work and aren't bad-ass "Hell's Angels." Please read Tony's comments below.

Bike Riders
I do want to take a second to say something serious ... This happens almost every time I go out on the bike with friends. A car or truck driver feels they have to get into the middle of a line of bikes and drive. Most people who don't ride bikes, don't ...realize how dangerous it is to cut into the middle of a group of bikes with a car/truck. First we can't in most cases see around you, we need to see the people in front of us, usually one person is leading and has the directions to where ever we are headed. Being the leader of such a group is hard enough without having to try to see around your car looking through the mirror, trying to find the rest of the group.... this is kind of a grown up follow the leader. Second, (and most importantly) bikes stop different than cars, bike riders get killed because of things like this. You slam on the breaks we will hit you in the rear end. Because we stop differently you will run into the back of our bike and more than likely over the top of us. You run over a piece of retread or something in the road (like gravel or a small spot of oil), we didn't have a chance to see it, therefore we have zero reaction time. Even with a helmet something like that can take a bike down and can cause serious injuries or death. Car and truck drivers who do this normally don’t even know they have hurt or killed a motorcycle rider by causing them to not be able to see a hazard. Please don't pull out in front of us thinking you can beat us, we can not stop on a dime, bike brakes and car brakes are two different animals, we have little defense if we come into contact with a car or truck. Over 80% of all accidents that involve a car and a motorcycle are caused by a car turning in front of a motorcycle and over 75% of ALL motorcycle accidents are caused by car and truck drivers, the rider was THE RIDER DID NOTHING WRONG….. 75% …. That makes for a lot of totally innocent bike riders. When this subject is brought up there is always a defensive backlash from car drivers that always amazes me. You hear comments like, “They scare me and they ride like idiots, they deserve to be ran over”. The people who say things like that are more dangerous than the rider acting like the idiot. BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE …. We are not all the same, you can’t tell from looking at the bike or the person on the bike ANYTHING about them. That big ugly Harley Rider with the beard and patches may have come from a children’s charity or a soldiers funeral, that doesn’t mean he is a drunk or a criminal or even a bad ass, it normally means he is a veteran. So, before you go off about ill mannered motorcycle riders, crotch rocket riders, doing stunts and riding at the speed of sound, that occasional rider who you see drinking or doing other things that we all know is wrong, remember 90% of us are just regular people, we don't drink and ride, we don't do things that are dangerous and we just want to make it home in one piece. Don't lump all of us together because you have seen others act inapproachably. Remember car drivers do bad things too. Motorcycle riders devote a tremendous amount of time effort and money to charity, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars per year just from bike riders. Look a couple of times, and share the road with us. It could save our lives or a lifetime of misery and suffering and you a lifetime of regret and guilt. Just like you have things you love to do, we love our bikes, we love the friends we have and do all we can do to be safe, all we ask is a little respect. Watch for us, and if at all possible, stay in front of us or behind us and not in the middle. Thanks Love you all :))
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By: Tony Douglas