I think everything resets because every time we go out the conditions have changed.
True enough. The conditions change every second we ride, as a matter of fact. Avoiding the least favorable conditions might just allow a rider to avoid crashing over an entire lifetime. I rode 14 summers before I went down. I pretty much only rode 60 to 90 minutes a day mostly on weekends and the reason I rode was to go fast. Sometimes I wasn't even exceeding the speed limit. No posted speed change, get that bike leaned over, take that low speed corner at 40 mph. That still could be considered reckless driving even if it's not speeding. I didn't do a lot of high speed staightline riding but there were a few times I pushed the bike near it's top speed.
I guess what's really on my mind here is that for all the 35 or so warning shots that came across the bow over 14 years of riding, only two of those incidents were caused by another motorist. I was not speeding in either of those two incidents. My speeding was responsible for nearly all the others. That includes the five or six traffic stops that happened to me while riding and probably three or four animal strike near misses. I finally crashed hitting a deer. No more warnings, it happened. I've mentioned it numerous times on here and maybe it's getting kind of old. The point is, it would have not happened if I'd been doing the speed limit. I'd like to ride another 14 years and own a few more bikes. I don't want to crash and lose any of them like I did my 08 ZX-14. Most of all, I don't want to be injured or killed doing what I love.
A short time ago, a friend was riding his cruiser and T-boned a drunk driver that made a lefty Loui in front of him. I don't think my buddy would have been speeding, he was carrying his daughter on the back. She amazingly escaped all injury. He got his neck wracked up really bad and road rash. He's been in rehab for three weeks. He wears a neck brace that holds his chin up. I hope that is all he has to recover from. He's hinted that there's more but I did not even want to ask. Neither he nor the passenger were wearing helmets. It was just a ten minute ride, who needs a helmet for a ten minute ride home? He was unable to shave his head as he normally does because of the road rash. Like I said, I hope his neck is all that was seriously injured. I can't tell from his photos on Facebook with his chin squashed into that neck brace.
So definitely do watch out for other motorists. Many of us can do a lot to mitigate the risks just by slowing down. I know, we love these bikes because of the performance. They are very enjoyable to look at and just to own too. I will probably do another wheelie someday. I will probably do a burnout. I really don't know if I'm going to go fast on the road again. I'll have to see how many deer I encounter on less spirited rides. I own two of the fastest bikes on the planet and I expect to ride them slow! There's a lot to love about them aside from going fast. I rode my 08 ZX-14 very slow for the first year or two. The busa was triple digits from day one. It's going to have to wait for a track day or something now. My new 14R, I think that will be ridden as my old one was when I first started riding sportbikes. I don't want to crash.
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