Total Motorcycle Community Forums

haven't seen this on here and thought you guys and girls might like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkIM4_O5 ... r_embedded

I liked it. Good message about keeping your skills up. I am writing this a few days after Memorial Day weekend, which over the weekend I did come across a motorcycle accident moments after it happened. A young girl in a Toyota Corolla pulled out in a tough intersection and bumped a guy off his Electra Glide standard. 5:00 o'clock in the evening, I assume the guy was on his way home from work, and this girl. probably sixteen or seventeen pulls out in front of him. It was a slow speed accident (probably less than thirty mile per hour) and I hope the bulk and protection that a Harley dresser affords saved this rider from serious injury. He was lying on the side of the road where he was thrown to, and in obvious pain. But given the circumstances of the accident, that the chief of the fire department from the next town over (I know him and glad he was there) who happaned to be one of the first people there on his way home from work, and given that I couldn't find anything in the paper about it, I am hoping this guy went home with maybe a cast and a month's worth bruising and will be up and riding again in two or three months. Why I didn't stop is because I am not an EMT, there was already qualified people responding, and I am not going to muddle the situation up by being a spectator.
The point is, is that Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of summer, and also has one of highest motorcycle accident rates of all season. The motorists are not used to watching for us, and many of us just don't have our 'biker's butt' in gear (my acronym for 'sea legs'). The best advice I got years ago was that on your first trip of the season, is to one is to a do a pre-trip. Tires, fluids, belt/chain etc. Look the bike over from sitting all winter. Once running, do a low speed ride to feel out any problems that may have developed from sitting. Once the bike is up to snuff, on your first real ride, do some hard braking and play with some low speed flicking the bike around for handling. Give yourself a quick brushup in the basics and get used the bike again. Remember, you have been 'hibernating' all winter.
One last drawback to us not being diligent about our own riding is that the Memorial Day weekend statistics (a little golden egg dropped in their lap every year) gets our 'know absolutely nothing but now have to do something to justify their job' politicians involved right at the beginning of the riding season. Do we really need that B.S.?

Hmmm, first post and he necromances it *lol* welcome to the forum.