glojo
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Ade B.... Lok away now 
On a number of occasions I have remarked about the risks involved for bike riders that have young families and I feel this term ‘Organ Donors’ makes it the right time for me to explain myself.
For a number of years I was a volunteer advanced motor cycle instructor. I did this purely out of the love of motor cycling and the need to pass on my skills in the hope that it might save lives.
Riding a motor cycle quickly around a race circuit takes a high degree of skill, coupled to a certain degree of ‘madness’ (I say that very much tongue in cheek and have enormous respect for the exponents of this sport) BUT…… In my personal opinion, the skills required for this occupation do not necessarily stand anyone in good stead when riding a bike on our busy highways and bye-ways.
To avoid becoming an ‘Organ Donor’ a bike rider needs to hone the skills of forward observation, anticipation, planning, positioning and what we term being defensive. I am NOT advocating having a man run in front of the bike with a red flag. I am all in favour of a motor-cyclist ‘making progress’
(that is what makes an advanced riding course so enjoyable) but any biker that goes by a road junction at the same time as a vehicle is pulling out, should seriously consider attending an advanced riding course. Being in the right is no consolation as we knock on that pearly gate.
The most common words a horizontal bike rider will hear is probably, “Sorry, I never saw you” These words will engrave themselves on our brain but they are no consolation.
I spent eighteen (13 + 5) blooming weeks as an in-patient at the Rehab Centre of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore and I can assure everyone that patients are all treated equally, be they biker, trucker, farmer, fighter, black, pink, blue or private patient,
BUT what is very noticeable is the inordinate number of bikers compared to any other cause of injury. During my time the huge, huge majority of patients were bikers, and what sticks in my mind is the waste. The total, total waste (which might be the wrong word) The huge majority of bikers were young men who would never be able to be 100% fit ever again. Most of them had just started out in life, but their careers had ended before they started. I am not going to give examples of injuries as we can all imagine the horrendous examples that often arise from bike accidents, but I will say that a significant proportion of these casualties were the innocent victims and at night we would design trikes that would enable these severely disabled folks to get back some degree of independence.
It is this experience that makes me query whether being married with a young family and bike riding are conjusive?
Of course we can get run over when we cross the road, a plank might fall on our heads, BUT and this is a fact.; There is a disproportionate percentage of bike riding casualties, a high number of riders will inevitably become a statistic compared to any other road user.
Should we take this gamble when we have a beautiful young family to support?
Are we being selfish by taking this gamble? Or is there no other option? Are we convinced it will never happen to us?
I love biking and I consider our National Health staff to be extremely dedicated and they do not give a flying fig about anyone’s occupation or what form of transport they might have. The ‘Organ donor’ remark probably relates to the high occupancy rate at the local morgue by the biking fraternity.
Sorry for the long post .
and please take care out there
Yours very sincerely
John
On a number of occasions I have remarked about the risks involved for bike riders that have young families and I feel this term ‘Organ Donors’ makes it the right time for me to explain myself.
For a number of years I was a volunteer advanced motor cycle instructor. I did this purely out of the love of motor cycling and the need to pass on my skills in the hope that it might save lives.
Riding a motor cycle quickly around a race circuit takes a high degree of skill, coupled to a certain degree of ‘madness’
(I say that very much tongue in cheek and have enormous respect for the exponents of this sport) BUT…… In my personal opinion, the skills required for this occupation do not necessarily stand anyone in good stead when riding a bike on our busy highways and bye-ways. To avoid becoming an ‘Organ Donor’ a bike rider needs to hone the skills of forward observation, anticipation, planning, positioning and what we term being defensive. I am NOT advocating having a man run in front of the bike with a red flag. I am all in favour of a motor-cyclist ‘making progress’
(that is what makes an advanced riding course so enjoyable) but any biker that goes by a road junction at the same time as a vehicle is pulling out, should seriously consider attending an advanced riding course. Being in the right is no consolation as we knock on that pearly gate.The most common words a horizontal bike rider will hear is probably, “Sorry, I never saw you” These words will engrave themselves on our brain but they are no consolation.
I spent eighteen (13 + 5) blooming weeks as an in-patient at the Rehab Centre of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore and I can assure everyone that patients are all treated equally, be they biker, trucker, farmer, fighter, black, pink, blue or private patient,
BUT what is very noticeable is the inordinate number of bikers compared to any other cause of injury. During my time the huge, huge majority of patients were bikers, and what sticks in my mind is the waste. The total, total waste (which might be the wrong word) The huge majority of bikers were young men who would never be able to be 100% fit ever again. Most of them had just started out in life, but their careers had ended before they started. I am not going to give examples of injuries as we can all imagine the horrendous examples that often arise from bike accidents, but I will say that a significant proportion of these casualties were the innocent victims and at night we would design trikes that would enable these severely disabled folks to get back some degree of independence.
It is this experience that makes me query whether being married with a young family and bike riding are conjusive?
Of course we can get run over when we cross the road, a plank might fall on our heads, BUT and this is a fact.; There is a disproportionate percentage of bike riding casualties, a high number of riders will inevitably become a statistic compared to any other road user.
Should we take this gamble when we have a beautiful young family to support?
Are we being selfish by taking this gamble? Or is there no other option? Are we convinced it will never happen to us?
I love biking and I consider our National Health staff to be extremely dedicated and they do not give a flying fig about anyone’s occupation or what form of transport they might have. The ‘Organ donor’ remark probably relates to the high occupancy rate at the local morgue by the biking fraternity.
Sorry for the long post .
and please take care out there
Yours very sincerely
John
The ballerina had food. We had something else 
