I have been a member of a good many forums online throughout my years on the net (all the way back to BBS) and have noticed a number of things.

Some of the private forums where it is on an Invite Only basis run far more smoothly than those which are deemed Open Forums.  After much observation, I have come to the conclusion that a large majority of the internet users believe that just because they have an opinion and have rudimentary abilities in typing somehow equates in their brains to the right to post whatever they want, whenever they want.  For more specific examples of this, all you have to do is go to some of your local news websites that report national, international and local news, then take the time to peruse the comments of people at the end of the articles.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head.

How does that correlate to motorcycles?  Well – all a person has to do is watch a group ride or organized ride.  There are people who do nothing to maintain their skills or their bikes as motorcyclists throughout the year, then on that one day when there is a large charitable gathering of bikes, (example: Sturgis, Charitable rides) they haul out their ride, slap some insurance on it and take part in the event.  For most seasoned riders, those one-event-riders are pretty self apparent the moment they start to move.  If you are watching a big pack of bikes (50 – 100+) you might notice big gaps around certain riders in the pack.  These are usually the riders the rest of the pack stay away from because when the mayhem of wreckage happens, the rest of the pack doesn’t want to be dragged in with it.  I once took part in a 60km ride of over 1000 bikes, and the bike in front of me lost its headlight before it even left the parking lot. Long before the ride had started, I had engaged the rider in a conversation about his one-of-a-kind machine and the fellow announced he had just finished assembling it and was using the event as it’s inaugural ride to “test it” out.  I left that fellow lots of room after that.  I continued on the ride, as I was in ranked order at the marshalling point, then when the ride was complete I heard tales of a rider doing a smoke show then dumping the bike in a crowd on the sidewalk.  From what I understand it was that particular bike.  The throttle got stuck during the ride.

Again – just because a rider has a license to ride, doesn’t mean they know how.  With so many riders going back to riding after a break of many years, it doesn’t mean they remember how to ride safely. It just means they know how to ride in a straight line for a long period of time.  Throw a corner at them and steer clear – ’cause things get really interesting really fast!

‘Nuff said