Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Reminder: Be Safe on Your Scooter or Motorcycle

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Accepting Risk While Riding a Scooter or Motorcycle

I’ve posted this video titled “Morning Fall” by Edward McGinty before as a reminder as the spring riding season (pandemic allowing) gets underway. It’s always seemed prudent to me to be honest about the realities of the road and the risk I’m willing to assume. What made sense last month, last year or decades ago may have no bearing on reality today. What matters now is to be safe on your scooter or motorcycle.

Every time I watch this video I’m reminder of aspects of riding I hold important — helmets and protective clothing, boots, gloves, and the haunting specter of deer on the highway. And I’m also reminded of the strategies I employ to make the most of the risks I take on.

As a video, this piece is well-produced and delivers an unexpected turn at the end. I hope you find some utility in watching.

https://vimeo.com/bossboyd/morningfall
“Morning Fall”
Cast: Zia Harris
Written & Directed by: Edward McGinty
Produced by: Suzi Yoonessi & Ben Odell
Director of Photography: Adam Silver

Be smart and be safe as you embark on your spring rides. If you’re like me you’re itching to take advantage of the restorative powers riding can bring to the table.

And if you have parked your machines until stay-at-home orders expire or you just feel comfortable on the road again during this COVID-19 pandemic, let’s all hope we can ride again soon, safe from a virus, and with the best skills and strategies to return home in one piece.

Riding Risk: Something Every Rider Should Consider

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Morning Fall from Boss Boyd on Vimeo.
Morning Fall
by Edward McGinty

Reminders on Riding Risk

Every so often, I post this video as a reminder, not just that riding brings with it risk, but more importantly, that risk is something every rider should, from time to time, think about.

A clear understanding of the risk involved when you head out on the road can help inform the skills developed and applied to a ride that will improve the odds that you’ll return safely. And if your family or significant other has concerns about your scooter or motorcycle you’ll be better equipped to discuss those concerns beyond, “I’m safe.”Continue Reading

Riding Risk for a Scooter or Motorcycle

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Harley and helmet-less rider on Interstate 80Riding Risk

A few years ago on my way to New York City a Harley rider raced past me.  I was going about 75 mph.  He was wearing a T-shirt, no gloves, and no helmet.  Caused me to ponder risk a bit.

Riding to work today, the first really warm day this year and my marking of the start of spring, I was seeing a lot of gravel on the road at intersections.  Would have thought it would be gone by now.  The desire to carve through turns, even at intersections, is a siren calling to a rider.  A dangerous call at best.  A racetrack can provide a predictable road surface.  Not many other places can.

“I could have dumped the scooter there.” I though to myself on one ubiquitous turn.  And hot on the heals of that thought has a recognition of risk.  It’s something the raises its hand from time to time.

Reflect on Risk

Every couple years I repost the Morning Fall video by Edward McGinty.

Morning Fall from Boss Boyd on Vimeo.
by Edward McGinty (a video exploring the meaning of riding risk)

I watched it again today and it holds up well with many reminders of the risks on the road to machine and man (and woman). As the riding season starts again for many riders I think it’s always good to spend a few moments in silent meditation on the amount of risk you’re willing to assume, how your riding skills (or lack thereof) influence the risk you face, and what, if anything, you’re willing to do to mitigate risk.

What Can You Do About Your Own Riding Risk?

There’s no way around it — riding a scooter or motorcycle is dangerous. According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, your chances of dying on a motorcycle are 35 times higher than in a car, calculated on a per-mile basis.  Reading that statistic reminds me that I should look for ways to mitigate some of the risk — at least the things in my control.

Things like:

  • Don’t drink and ride — alcohol is involved in a big percentage of fatal motorcycle crashes.
  • Don’t ride beyond your skills — a lot of riding accidents don’t involve another vehicle but instead are caused by a rider getting into a situation they can’t handle.  Most cases that means going too fast.
  • Ride defensively — a motorcycle or scooter isn’t a car.  Don’t pretend it is.  Assume you’re invisible, you never have the right of way, and are not entitled to road rage when on two wheels.
  • Wear a helmet.  (Unless your helmet-less head is an important expression of your individuality and trumps health or survival concerns)

I won’t go on about training or maintenance of the machine.  That stuff is obvious.

So have a look at the film.  If you’ve seen it already it’s worth watching again.  If only for the reminder of the unexpected.

How do you think about your own risk on the road?

Morning Fall: a video reminder of the risk of riding

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https://vimeo.com/bossboyd/morningfall


Morning Fall
by Edward McGinty

The riding season approaches and with it a kind of tradition I’ve been building of presenting the Morning Fall video as part of a reminder to myself and other riders, beginners and experienced, of the risks we face and accept when we take to the road.  I don’t believe we can ever afford to be complacent or deny what it means to ride.

So like the annual appearance of the Wizard of Oz or It’s the Great Pumplin Charlie Brown, have a look at Morning Fall.

Does anyone else think about risk or has it drifted into the background?