Do you worry about the dangers or risks ?
 

Sometimes I feel apprehensive about Motorcycle travel. Sometimes just commuting to work makes me think about the dangers associated with riding.

When I first set out on a new overland journey i always have a kind of hesitancy or gut feeling which I cant explain which doesn't disappear until I'm actually moving.

When i was in my early twenty's I thought nothing of jumping about a super bike and disappear at silly speeds down the road on the back wheel. Now iv got some experience, i feel differently.

Maybe its from being involved in a couple of crashes especially one which could of been the end of me and also from losing a a friend to a bike accident and having another friend with a permanent limp and illness.

Does anyone get this same feeling now and again ? Is two wheeled transport as daft as it sounds to those who havnt experienced the thrills and freedom that it can bring ?

Bring that together with strange counties, hairy driving and poor roads and it seems madness !!

Don't get me wrong, i love overlanding and wouldn't trade in my overland bike for a sack of gold but it just makes me wonder !

Am I alone ??

I understand your sentiment ! yes bikes are dangerous and you would be safer in a car. But having toured on bikes through various countries and like yourself done some crazy stuff (when i was younger) I would still say the feeling of just traveling on a bike is second to none and the sense of adventure hightend, and that outweighs the danger. All very grand talk from a guy that aint got a bike at present ! I got a 4x4 ex army truck ! It`s a long story.......
regards....marty

I beleive males tend to not get 'aware' of danger until they in their mid twenties, it is a part of their brain that develops late. It seems as you get older and have less life to lose you become more aware of it and protect it more.. sort of an inverse ratio.. :)
for my part i wont take the wife on my BMW, in case we fall off. never even considered it with my old Triumphs and enfields.. It might be agravated by having the gear/brake pedals reversed, and riding on the wrong side of the road here in France. but even coming to a stop, i putthe ( now) wrong foot down instinctively.
best thing is to be as careful as is practicable, but enjoy life. you have to take some risks and being at home seems to be a major risk. No point is sitting in acorner for 70 years, that is not living.

Off course
 

If you didn't feel apprehensive at times something in your self preservation mechanism would not be functioning properly I guess.

Once on the road I tend to relax though. But then there are those nights you're not so sure about that camping spot and would it be safe, ... . Or the first time you stand there eye in eye with ear flapping trumpetting elephant... .

yes!
 

Sure I think about it sometimes. Especially when I have a "near miss" with some idiot on the road!
I tried to improve my safety by joining the IAM. It's more about road positioning, observation and anticipation. It's made me much more aware of what is going on on the road and look up and see what is happening ahead etc... it's worth it. Similar to doing an advanced riding course.
But in the end it all about luck sometimes. Out of my 9 cat's lives I've probably used quite few of them already ;)

Fear... it's what makes you feel alive
 

I guess we all feel the same way, if we were bold enough to admit it to ourselves...

Personally, after an accident many years ago caused by simply getting on my bike and riding off (without having first re-calibrated my brain to the task of riding), I've developed a sort of ritual that I go through every time I get on the bike. Just takes a few seconds to run through and I'm mentally prepared, and ready to go. Calms the demons, too...

Oh, and I've also found that advanced training, through the IAM, helped me a lot more than I expected.

Bottom-line, as I age, I realise I don't know it all, and probably never will, but that shouldn't stop me trying to!

Paul

Training keeps you alive long enough to get experience.

I have my share of close shaves and mishaps but thats all part of life & adds to the excitement. The alternative is what...vegetating in front of the telly ?

Ted,

reckon you're getting old ;-) But in earnest - it's like Robert says - this mechanism also keeps us alive. I believe it is also a fair amount of what the Germans define as 'reisefieber', which could be nearlest defined as 'aprehension before a big task, in this regard, before the big journey.

Yeah, after travelling Africa for 1/2 year, I believe we need this feeling in the guts to make us more aware of situations that might prove dangerous.

Hey Bob

I thought you'd learned how not to do it watching me bite the sand and gravel.

Season's Greetings

Mick

Hi Mick,

I'm far too nice a person to mention that on HUBB...not to mention the mess I made of my bike that day on Valdez ;-)

How's it going ? You're over here at the moment, right ?