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A couple of post this week got me to thinking about when I first started riding. It was 1973 and I was 17yrs old at that time, all you needed in Indiana was a drivers license to ride a bike, nobody had ever heard of safety riding classes, the only requirements other than a drivers licence was that you had to wear a helmet and you had to ride with your headlight on at all times and the headlight law was new. My dad had a Honda chopper (everybody rode choppers in the 70's) I asked him if I could start riding it, he gave me a few very basic instructions such as ride left or right of center of the lane so as not to travel where the cars oil was dripping, assume that the cars at a stop or intersection would take the right of way, even if I did have the right of way I would be the one that got killed. Here is the clutch, these are the brakes, its one down and four up with neutral between 1st and 2nd and then I was off to ride on a bike with no turn signals (it was a chopper) so I had to use hand signals for turns. Like any red blooded American 17yr old boy whats the use of riding a bike if not to impress the girls, so after a little time riding around I find myself at the house of a female friend asking if she wants to go for a ride. So my first experience riding 2-up was with in about my first hour of ever riding at all.
My first experience with riding in the rain was that same year and my main thoughts were "ouch" that rain stings the face, which probably caused me to slow down a little bit.
I am sometimes glad that I learned to ride when I was young enough not to be uncomfortable with the things that we sometimes stress out about when we are older, but I am also glad that my lack of fear didn't result in disaster from not having proper lessons and experience.
I truly think the sport of motorcycle riding has benefited from some of the regulaions and the MSF courses are really a great idea.
I also know that some will never be comfortable riding 2-up or riding in the rain but neither one is as unnerving as you might assume. But then again I learned how to do them while I was still young enough to know everything.
There really is no point to this post other than idle rambling from an old guy remembering his past.
Hope all have a great day!
My first experience with riding in the rain was that same year and my main thoughts were "ouch" that rain stings the face, which probably caused me to slow down a little bit.
I am sometimes glad that I learned to ride when I was young enough not to be uncomfortable with the things that we sometimes stress out about when we are older, but I am also glad that my lack of fear didn't result in disaster from not having proper lessons and experience.
I truly think the sport of motorcycle riding has benefited from some of the regulaions and the MSF courses are really a great idea.
I also know that some will never be comfortable riding 2-up or riding in the rain but neither one is as unnerving as you might assume. But then again I learned how to do them while I was still young enough to know everything.
There really is no point to this post other than idle rambling from an old guy remembering his past.
Hope all have a great day!
