My last post raised questions about the wisdom and folly of riding home in the snow. Adverse conditions pose technical challenges for a rider but I want to focus more closely on risk assessment and the personal responsibility I assume when I get onto the scooter.
Many assume riding is inherently dangerous and I won’t disagree. I’m never sure how to respond when someone tells me they would never ride a motorcycle because it is too dangerous. Even a brief look at Ride2Die.com is a sober reminder of how things can go terribly wrong. But what’s missing from these cautions is the consideration a rider brings to the ride. In this case my assessment of circumstances and the skills and expertise I bring to the decision making process. An accident or other dangerous encounter is not a certainty and the risk of one can be greatly mitigated by careful and deliberate choices. And this brings me to my choice to ride home in the snow.
When I began riding again less than two years ago I read a lot of motorcycle training books. I remember one warned against riding at night and in the rain. Ever. And it provided strong arguments in support of that position. Riding in the snow was at best a fool’s errand. So how have I arrived at a place where I ride in rain, at night, and in the snow?
I am not indifferent to the risks posed by these conditions and have considered them carefully while sitting in the comfort of my living room, while standing in the doorway making a decision about riding, and while on the back of the scooter. I ask myself if I am up to the ride technically, physically, and mentally. I run through the potential pitfalls. And finally I ask if I am ready to accept the consequences of my decisions.
I don’t want to talk about legal responsibility or the bad habits or missteps of other drivers. I can’t control whitetail deer or objects on the road. I can’t control potholes or gravel. They are part of the roadway landscape and I can either accept them or not ride. So I choose to focus on what I can do as a rider and find there is a wide range of actions at my disposal.
Back to the ride in the snow. Several ideas have been raised about my decision. One is that it was a bad decision. I agree, sort of. For me it was the wrong decision based on my general desire to not have to ride in snow. I don’t like riding in snow and had I known what was ahead I would not have ridden. I don’t accept the idea however that any riding in snow is crazy or ill fated. It all depends.
Another point raised was I should have known better than to get on the scooter and ridden off when snow was already falling. Guilty. In hindsight I should have ridden the bus.
The most interesting comments were when things got bad I should have parked the scooter and gotten home another way. The risk to life and limb being too great. I agree and this is the one I struggle with. I could have parked the scooter almost anywhere along the way home yet I didn’t. It’s not like it didn’t occur to me as an option. I considered the situation and determined I would be able to continue on. I was constantly testing the road surface, minding the traffic levels, mediating my speed to match the limits of the scooter in the snow and my own ability to manage slipping and sliding. I even factored a fall into the equation. Considering these things I determined the risk to be manageable.
I’ve been looking at Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival where he identifies the mind as the most important tool to survival. And in order to keep the mind functioning smoothly one must have a positive attitude. I suggest the same applies to riding, especially in adverse conditions.
For riders who don’t have experience in foul weather this kind of ride may appear foolhardy. Others may consider I a personal challenge to master, a chance to test skill and mettle and stretch the limits of experience. While I don’t seek out these kinds of situations I know they will present themselves and coping with them have meaning and importance.
The bottom line – as long as I carefully consider what I am doing and make honest evaluations I am comfortable accepting the risk and outcome. I did this last year when I dropped my LX150 in the snow on the way to work, when I destroyed the LX150 while attempting to change the drive belt, and most recently making the ride home in the snow.
I’ll close with a recollection of sailing one morning out of Provincetown, Massachusetts north to Portland, Maine in high winds and a rough sea. As the weather worsened a sudden, strong gust of wind almost knocked the boat down while I was setting a reef in the mainsail. I remember a flash of disaster in my mind but immediately began an assessment of what to do next. My skill and experience was equal to the situation and my friends and I sailed on to our destination. While not an experience for every sailor it was not an unreasonable level of risk for me. And so it was for the Vespa and I in the recent snow.
It struck me as funny; while you were coping with your epic snowstorm I was riding home that morning through one of the worst rainstorms I’ve been out in all winter. It was great! The GTS is rock steady and though visibility was zero I was entirely certain I was going to be okay on my ride.
I arrived home full of piss and vinegar.
And then i read all those worry-wart comments. I guess they’ve never sailed in the rough stuff either. I’m glad you enjoyed the challenge. And relieved you aren’t regretting it either.
Conchscooter
Key West
I spent a winter riding a Yamaha XS750 as my only means of transportation. Since we have virtually no public transportation system, that was a committment.
It was a bad winter as winter goes in south central Texas.Riding in snow is not difficult, you just plant your feet, give it a bit of gas to bring the rear around and corner with your feet down. I enjoyed it. I would not do it today, but then I am retired, so I don’t have to.
I have a couple things that I wanted to mention.
First and foremost, I think its human tendancy to gain confidence as one does something more frequently without mishap. I think this is particularly applicable to scooter/motorcycle riding. We go so long without a bad mishap that we get a bit overconfident in our abilities – it takes a crash or bad mishap for us to gain our original perspective. For me – I just have to look at your picture for me to gain that perspective. Look at it from an objective perspective – its snowing and there is visible ice/snow on the road. I could understand if conditions were good when you left and snow/rain hit you in the middle of the ride – but conditions were bad from the getgo and you still decided to ride (would you suggest a person ride in the middle of a torrential downpour in the middle of the night?). To me, that decision is alarming. While i am glad you went without mishap – I believe your level of risk averseness has dropped to a dangerously low level. If a policeman had seen you, I can guarantee they would have pulled you over – to protect YOU (yes, I have been pulled over and told to wait out weather before).
Second, your statement regarding not wanting to consider the “legal responsibility or the bad habits or missteps of other drivers”. As motorcycle riders we already have a higher number of risks then the average driver and we try to reduce/minimize all risks that we can control by wearing proper equipment, gaining experience, checking bike, etc. Yes, you can’t control deer/bears crossing the road – but we make up for this by not driving 100 miles an hour around a corner and scanning our peripheral vision right?? Deciding to ride in situations that increase the chances of other drivers making “mistakes” seems dangerous and irresponsible to me. A large % of accidents is due to the other driver making a mistake. How can you not take this into account when you take a ride?
Also, have you thought about how your decisions affects OTHER drivers? Is it safe to ride in conditions where YOU are a danger to other people? From your story, it seems like other drivers weren’t thrilled to see you on the road (honking, you having to pull over to let traffic by). Their honking at you was probably not along the lines of “you’re the man!!”, rather “wth are you doing out here, get off the road!”.
I don’t buy into the whole – lifes a journey, you never learn from making mistakes, etc. You don’t learn by knowingly jumping off bridges, hoping you’ll live to see another day.
Take care of yourself, I hope spring comes soon because I know you have difficulty when it comes to making the decision “to scoot or not to scoot”.
-CC
Steve! Guess what my husband bought today??? Thanks to your guidance and my pleading to stop riding MY Vespa he is now the proud owner of a “Vintage Red” GTS 250! Yay! We went on our first ride together today and it was great! I’m sorry to admit, given that it is still snowing there, that is was a gorgeous, sunny day here in California. He’s a photog too and was pointing out your Leica (which he spotted from across the room) yesterday…now if I can just get him blogging!
Steve,
Your last two posts have been fascinating!
You have always impressed me with your commitment to riding year round. Most of us northerners pack it in once it hits the forties, but you have soldiered through the winters for years. Frankly I consider you somewhat nuts but I do admire you. You rack up more miles than most of us, and you have the confidence to that comes from that.
I can also relate to making that ride that common sense and hind sight tells us not to. It is a combination of pride, over-optimism, and the thrill that make us go on. Before you know it, you are up to neck and wondering how you’ll get out of it, and when you do, you can afford to be chastened, relieved and proud all at once.
But one factor you have is your Vespa itself, when you describe using your feet as stabilizers, this cannot be done practically on heavier bikes or riders who cannot “flat foot” from the seat. I have used that technique on my +500 lbs Silverwing and I am sure I would not be able to hold up that bike on a slop surface if it came to it.
Vespa should have you on the payroll, because you must be selling their product better than they are.
Glad you are safe, happy for the conversations you have started.
But don’t scare your family that way. And don’t drop that new bike!
Good grief. Anon1, do you even ride a motorcycle? I think you should sell it because sand can be an issue at TWO miles an hour. It happened to me once, over twenty years ago pulling into my parents’ driveway. A patch of sand not larger than a square foot washed the rear tire out from under me. I was barely rolling when it happened and still went down. My best riding buddy White took just about the same tumble on a sunny day while waiting for a car to pass before crossing the interstection from a dead stop. Stupid mistakes? Since you like to judge, and it bothers you so much that people people do as they wish in spite of your dire warnings, I suppose you will.
In fact I have a hard time believing you even ride a motorcycle.
Steve, be who you are. Ride the way you want to and live the life you were given as you see fit. Its no one elses but yours.
Harv
I wanted to thank you for writing up your adventure in the snow. We are a “mature” couple who will be getting our first scooters soon.
It was so helpful to read about the consequences of choosing to ride under iffy conditions. Until we are experienced riders, we hope to give that sort of experience a pass.
I see a pensive individual, sitting, by waters’ edge, looking not too sure
as to his future destiny.
Maybe I read this wrong however perchance you’ve not told us/me some statistics” such your height, weight
and so forth. Bulk on a scooter does make a difference. Moreso in the snow, however also when rolling along acting as a barn door.
I have often thought a scooter would be a viable alternative to
four-wheeling round the city. Think is, most two -wheeled devices including scooters, full dress motorcycles of domestic and foreign
manufacture a re too small. I suspect my 375 dry pounds would
exceed the sugested load limit of any machine.
I sat on the Honda Silver Wing
moped (it’s a moped?) at the local
Honda motorcycle dealer the other
day.
My knee caps were higher than the
handlebars, hence straight line operation only; and the suspension still grounded out when i just sat
there.
Yep scooters are nice, practical
to most people yet for some of us
totally out of reach. Either because of our massive size and weight or because of practical matters. Oh my car? A Honda Civic,
with the front seat removed and the
rear seat moved up aways…
Ya got your hands full with this one, friend!
I liked the post very much, as it explained your reasoning. But it wasn’t until I jumped to the comments section that I saw the mixed bag of reactions to the past two offerings. This is great stuff!
I’m with Harv, you know You better than anyone.
Have fun,
Bill
Well if you’re like I am, you don’t leave your scooter away from home overnight. It’s just not done. I’m almost an all weather rider (both to work and back home) and have been riding about 4 years. When it’s bad out you just have to be really cautious, ride more slowly when you need to, slow down ahead of time and certainly before the turns. I don’t have to tell you that. You da man. Oh and don’t ride at night? They have to be kidding. Do they drive at night? Probably 25% of my riding is in the dark. If I go into work very early, it’s dark. In the winter if I stay 30 minutes late at work, it’s dark. When we leave a scooter club “Scoot In Theater”, it’s late and dark.
Hi Steve.
Very interesting topic.
Here are a few more thoughts.
Skill level: I’m not a rider but from reading your posts you appear to me to be an experienced rider at this point. And with every ride you are both expanding and deepening your skill level through those experiences. You have now the best of both types of experiences: mile deep and foot deep, and mile wide and many more than a foot deep.
Positive attitude: Tom Brown, Jr., makes for great reading doesn’t he? Yes, the mind is a very powerful “place” and positive attitude is one of the most important components in survival. Not the only one, but certainly one of the top contenders.
Chance: Most people don’t like to admit it, I suspect, but luck is one of those imponderables which determines significant outcomes. We try to control as many of the variables as we can but the roll of the dice has a hand here also, and it’s not just a probabilistic function, although that is one of the factors.
So, to the extent that you’re open to input on your personal reflection on wisdom and folly, here’s mine: the risk factor was heavily over-loaded on that ride.
You had the skill level, but it sounds like it was at the edges of your ability – but that became increasingly apparent as you continued on. Your mind was unsettled the further you went so the easy application of skills – for example – after the sudden shock of nearly being knocked down on the seas only to be followed but a skillful application of your abilities under arduous circumstances – was not there.
And finally, the part that really leaps out at me about that ride was the unpredictablilty of the other cars. That is always a factor when riding, but it was tremendously increased that day.
Chance was with you that day. And with that roll of chance you were given the opportunity to reflect on the whole event.
I am glad you are well.
Tim
Steve-O. I would have to concur with others – I think you might have pushed the envelope a bit too much on this one. You do have to think about other people on the road. That is a very real danger not only to you, but to others as well. I don’t quite follow your logic on that. Think about other people on the road, not only yourself!!
Yes, you learn from your mistakes but you could have learned your lesson by stopping 10 feet after you started and leaving your scooter next to a country store or something. “Learning” means recognizing a mistake, not recognizing and deciding to continue making that mistake for 2 hours. My 2 cents.
Wow, great insights. The bottom line is that only you can make the decision on whether or not it is too dangerous to ride. That is a very subjective and personal feeling. This is also much easier to do in hindsight than during the moment. It is good that you are reflecting on this. It will be interesting to see how it influences your decisions in the future.
Keep up the good posts!
james
Steve;
First, I would like to disagree with Harv. It is not “live the life you were given as you see fit. Its no one elses but yours.”
Rather, as I see it, your life also belongs to your wife and your children as well. You know what I mean.
However, to look at this a bit differently, I come from an aviation career, a good part of which has been spent investigating the events leading to to catastrophic accidents and loss of life.
In many cases, “poor judgement” and “poor decision making” on the part of the pilot proved to be lethal. I am tempted to assign the same blame to you.
However, there is another factor. In many aviation accidents, the pilot didn’t realize how much trouble he/she was in until it was too late. I think in your case, you knew from the “gitgo” that you were “in trouble”.
All of which goes to say that this caused you to ride home with an extremely high sense of awareness. Your senses were tuned to the maximum level, and your reactions were quick and without delay. I think that is what saved you from what at the least would have been a wrecked scooter…and probably worse.
It seems to me that fatal motorcycle accidents usually occur when the rider is in a complacent state, i.e. not really all that attentive, and then from out of nowhere…it comes.
Your blog is awesome. Please carry on.
Jef
Jeff, I kinda thought that was implied in my comment. Sorry for the confusion.
Harv
Steve, I wasn’t gonna comment on this, but since you haven’t posted in a few days, I figured you could use some encouragement.
A)You assessed your skill level, and the risk level.
B)The risk level grew to greater than your original assessment.
C)You constantly reassessed the skill/risk equation.
D)It got hairy, but you arrived home with scoot and self in one piece.
E)Like any ride that gets hairy, after the adreniline wears off, there is a part of you that wonders “What in the name of Buddha was I thinking?”
F)At no point did you imply that your skill/risk calculations apply to anyone else.
My concluscion: A right fine post using extreme riding conditions to illustrate dilemmas every rider faces every time they thumb or kick the ignition. There is a reason you won that “best blog” my friend, and this post was a great illustration of that.
My hat is off to you, sir.
I’ve been reading the comments on this subject with great interest and want to thank everyone for the thoughtful responses to my decision to ride in the snow that day. Sentiment is just about split evenly on the wisdom or folly of riding in the snow.
Anonymous (CC) raises some important ideas I didn’t consider—not just the danger to myself but the danger I posed to other drivers by being on the road as a very slow moving object. Without talking to a police officer it is hard to know if I still have the priveledge to be on the road in those conditions or if I present myself as a hazard.
As I think about this I have to agree that as drivers scramble to keep moving and take chances passing me in places they shouldn’t I could possibly cause an accident. Ragardless of whether I am within my rights on the road I would hate feel responsible for that. And even though I routinely pulled over to let people by there was always someone waiting to go.
SimplyTim got me thinking about chance. Bad things can happen on a dry sunny day but the chances of bad things happening on a snowing day are worse. No way around that. The risk factor was heavily overloaded for me and while I managed it this time odds are that eventually I will meet a mishap—my own or anothers.
I tried hard to consider the pride aspect of the ride and if I was pushing the envelop for reasons of ego or just to have something to write here. The answer to that one is no. I was on the road for no other reason that bad judgement. A lack of careful attention to the weather and despite mounting a snow covered scooter I held to the irrational belief that things were going to get better rather than worse. I’ve seen it before when driving home but I wasn’t driving, I was riding. Just a bad decision.
Last, I want to thank the anonymous poster for the reminder of what this ride could do to my family. Especially this ride.
My feeling about all of this is that it was wrong for me to ride home in these conditions. I should have left the scooter parked. Once on the road I should have parked it in any number of places on the way home and while I did manage this trip sucessfully it was too big a risk for me to take especially in end of the day traffic. And it wasn’t as if I was riding on a trip and got caught in a storm and needed to make my way to shelter.
Just a bad decision that I need to put in the lesson learned category.
Warm weather is here now and I suspect I won’t see much if any snow now. Make sure when next winter arrives that you all remind me of this ride and your comments.
No more snow storm riding for me.
One other thing. To those of you who supported me in this ride I want to thank you. Some of you ride in conditions like this and appreciate the situation and challenge and have thoughts on your own ability and risk limits that make a ride like this acceptable. As Honky-Tonk Dragon points out each of us has to make our own decisions.
And even though for me it was the wrong decision to ride it was a good experience, a challenge, and I felt good to have been able to manage it. I feel as if I am a smarter rider now even if that means I won’t do it again.
Steve,
One further comment about your comment.
Chance plays a part and you make reference to bad things can happen on sunny days and on snowy/slushy days.
But Chance also plays a part with good things happening also. It’s an equal opportunity scatterer of chances – good and bad.
I look at it in the way I was originally indoctrinated to the word “gift” … something which is given with no strings attached. It’s up to you / me to recognize it, and to either pick it up or not.
Tim