That’s awful.
And that’s good advice for the original poster.
Top poster:
Motorcycles are dangerous as can be. I say this as a civilian motorcycle rider (part time). There’s a lot of hard core combat veterans on this board riding, who have certainly been in a lot more danger and really don’t even consider it. But motorcycles can kill people.
And those they don’t, end up in pretty miserable shape.
Start small. Ride like you’re invisible and every driver is a raving idiot. Some are.
And be careful until you figure out how to handle things out of the ordinary. Like that friend of hers, and that van. Even a small bike can be surprisingly heavy once it tips unexpectedly beyond a certain point - and very unexpected things can happen very quickly.
IMHO it’s better as a beginner to have less bike than you really want, than more bike than you can control.
Sorry about your friend Salamander. That’s awful.
Powerful post.
I ride like I’m behind enemy lines....ALL the time.
I watch EVERYTHING obsessively.
It used to be that I sat on the back, happily watching the beautiful scenery going by and when we’d stop, I’d ask Himself if he’d seen the amazing [fill in the blank] and he’d always say “Nope. Musta missed it”.
In retrospect, he missed all that wonderous beauty I’d been serenely watching because he was driving for *two*.
Our safety took precedence over mindlessly gawping at grazing cows or florid sunsets...but I’d been indulging myself, blissfully unaware, back there.
He’s been riding for over 50 years and built and drove drag bikes in Florida, back in the “Rat Hole” glory days.
Never did I imagine that he was working so *hard* to get us home at night.
DANGER! was the first thing he drummed into my head...long before I was allowed to ride alone.
My first rides were in my dirt lane, state park parking lots...deserted back roads and then 2 lane county roads.
He is by no stretch of the imagination a “patient guy” but he let me go at my own pace with no complaints.
For the first summer, we didn’t ride on one highway and *rarely* went over 50 mph...and he never griped.
To this day, he rides behind me like a dark guardian angel to protect me from behind...from the things that may be coming at me that I ~can’t~ see.
And, to my eternal wonder, *he* is proud of my bike driving skills....says I’m a “natural”....:)
Start small, slow and easy.
That way, you’ll have the rest of your life to “move up”.
Thanks about the friend.
You’d have loved him as much as we do.
He was one in a million.