As many of you may know Jimmy ("Diesel") and I trailored our bikes up together from Tampa. We've been riding together when time permitted for almost the past two years. After telling my wife about the accident you can imagine she was upset, but not frantic...not only for Jimmy and his family, but also because she feels it could have happened to me.
We had a long talk about it and we both expressed our concerns and in the end I told her I was not giving up the bike but that I will be more cautious about who I ride with in any group capacity and stress safety before any ride regardless of how elementry it may seem to others and if I'm not comfortable I will ride solo. I've actually considered selling the Busa and getting more of a track bike (750-1000) which would allow me to go faster in a controlled environment instead of finding abandoned housing developments occassionally patrolled by LEO.
WHAT THE WIFE DIDN'T NEED TO HEAR:
Well as we are in the driveway yesterday evening a neighbor who I introduced to Jimmy while loading up our bikes last week for the Bash saw Jimmy's totalled bike on the trailor in my garage and I subsequently told him what happened. Of course my wife was hearing the story AGAIN!
Then another neighbor, who's husband and herself ride motorcycles together, was walking her dog, hears this and then goes on to tell us her husband's sister was killed in the Carolinas last weekend while riding pillion on a motorcycle involving a truck and he has decided to get rid of both their motorcycles. As I'm hearing this I'm looking right at my wife knowing what she is thinking.
I tried to defend myself indirectly by stating that the motorcycle season is just beginning for a lot of riders up north (FL is year round riding) and that riding safely is about ALWAYS anticipating a worst case scenario happening around you and having the coordination, skill and quick judgement to put yourself in a situation to avoid these possibilities. Aniticpating THAT car will pull out in front of you, or THAT driver doesn't see you or THAT vehicle could be in your lane around that blind corner, etc.
I've been riding since I was 10 years old (26 years) and although I understand you can only anticipate so much I do believe that some people just shouldn't be on motorcycles. Prior to the Bash I rode with two such individuals I thought should not be on the motorcycles they were riding...one ended up dead (CBR-1000, 44 years old) and another went off the road twice, crashing once, during our last ride (GSXR-1000, ~30 years old) but he did ride home.
The whole incident has really made me look at not soo much HOW I ride, because I'm a firm believer in my knowledge and ability, but who I ride with and to stress safety talks prior to any ride. If some jack-ass starts giving me sh!t about it, like "Yeah, yeah, I know", then he'll get some sh!t of his own and/or I'll head out and ride solo.
