2Wheeltips

I was at a motorcycle class recently and one of the sponsors asked me to blog about a topic that he felt does not get enough attention; knowing when to hang up the helmet when you do not have the physical skills to manage a bike.

Why did this come up? Well... during the class, one of the students kept dropping his bike. During every exercise, we kept hearing a loud crash followed by cursing and a racing engine. This happened more than once. Of course the student blamed it on the bike. He complained there was something wrong with the throttle and that's why he could not maintain the speed needed to complete the exercises.

To see if the throttle was the problem, one of the class sponsors checked it out. He didn't find any problems. He was able to maintain a constant engine speed at various rpms.  He then asked the student to do it and he could not. Why? He seemed to have some nerve disorder that caused his hands to move back and forth! Because of this, he could not control the throttle.

For obvious reasons, he wasn't able to finish the class and left early. What was not obvious to him was he should not be on a bike. He is not only a danger to himself but to others as well. We all know the day is coming when we will have to hang up the helmet and move on to other hobbies. For me, it will be one of the saddest days of my life. Hopefully I will have enough sense when that day comes to think of the dangers I pose to others and myself by riding around unable to operate the controls.

Share your thoughts.....