Rider education is impotant, but so is common sense and mental maturity. On the day in 1965 that I turned 14, I walked into the local Highway Patrol office, took a 20 minute written exam and walked out with a valid motorcycle operator's license. Its probably a good thing that I did not own a bike at the time. By the end of that year, one of my neighborhood friends had hit and killed a 6-year-old girl on the street with his S-90, and another had crashed and sustained head injuries that left him with slurred speech and using a walker through highschool.
Would rider training have helped? I don't know. It may just be the psycho-social phenomenon that risk-takers are attracted to motorcycles. Add to that the fact that every movie involving motorcycles and virtually every TV ad for any type of vehicle features illegal and/or extremely dagerous driving, and you create a potentially disasterous mind-set in those weened on "Jackass" reruns.
It helps to keep me safer when I think about those old friends before slinging a leg over a bike.
Would rider training have helped? I don't know. It may just be the psycho-social phenomenon that risk-takers are attracted to motorcycles. Add to that the fact that every movie involving motorcycles and virtually every TV ad for any type of vehicle features illegal and/or extremely dagerous driving, and you create a potentially disasterous mind-set in those weened on "Jackass" reruns.
It helps to keep me safer when I think about those old friends before slinging a leg over a bike.
