Safety Most important saftey Item

[scotto-]

It all starts with you!

In one letter...U, in one word...you. Safety starts with YOU. Ride safe and wear appropriate protection...use your head, not your texting skills on the road...please!

 

[AussieSteve]

BRAIN w/ HELMET

(Sorry to yell.)

Hey, scotto-, same age. What birthdate? Mine's 15 May.

 

[motorbikemike45]

In order of importance to me;
1. The stuff between the rider's ears, you know, that gray matter you could spill all over the road by doing stupid things. No amount of safety gear will overcome you doing something idiotic.
2. Brakes. High quality front and rear brakes are essential.
3. A good helmet.
4. Strong, high quality wheels, especially on the back where the weight is.
5. Good tires, where the rubber meets the road.
6. A mirror on the traffic (left here) side.
7. Lights and reflectors.
8. A horn or bell of some sort.
9. A well maintained bike. Loose fasteners could kill you.
There are situations where you are going to have an accident, no matter how good your equipment, awareness, and safe thinking are. Most motored bike accidents are cause by inattentive, stupid cagers who have no clue how dangerous a 2 ton chunk of metal can be. If you ride defensively, safely, and continuously aware of traffic and conditions you can reduce the number of unavoidable accidents, but being exposed and vulnerable is part of the experience.

 

[TerraPilot]

Attitude Attitude Attitude Attitude Attitude. I know its been mentioned before but Attitude even beats out grey matter as #1. I was and still am an Airplane nut. Fighter Pilots as a kid growing up were my greatest heroes. Turns out that most fighter pilots had an attitude. Conceited, cocky, arrogant, devil-may-care, aggressive with a real killer instincts. Probably pretty obnoxious to boot. The pressures of air combat were such that every single pilot up there knew that he was ultimately as vulnerable as anyone else and anytime his number could come up for even the best of them. Teddy Roosevelt never recovered from the grief of loosing one of his sons to the meat grinder Air war of WWI If the Truth were known, both World Air Wars were meat grinders of an awful lot of good men and great pilots from all sides. Those who survived knew the truth that they were simply lucky. Not heroes. So that Fighter pilot ego thing was just an attitude defense for most. Sure there were a few who actually believed they were immortal.

But imagine my surprise to find out that the highest scoring ace of any War was the exact opposite in attitude from all those other fighter pilots. Reading his life story forever changed the way I drive any vehicle for the rest of my life. He was not conceited and never touted his killing score at all. Indeed he said consistently over and over that his proudest accomplishment was that he never lost a Wing Man. Extremely cautious in combat. He cited many many times that he held back to observe the conditions and positions and to construct an attack then he would wait even a little longer before moving in for the kill. He emphasized that a precautionary wait saved him many many times. So my point of attitude is simply that you must be a superior situational observer and patient and courteous and considerate of every one around you. That lays the ground work that will yield the proper priorities for making your bike as safe as possible. So including all the others I plan to have the loudest horn I can lay my hands on (airzound), The brightest brake lite that 4 AAA cells can produce (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N4YGMQ/ref=oss_product) but I'm still working on the head light thingy. I have 2 not 1 rear view mirrors.(situational awareness). In my car I even overlap the all three rear view mirrors for the widest rear view as possible. Remember situational awareness at all times. Excuse me I just remembered I have to go tighten and check a few nuts and bolts on my bike. PS I use a torque wrench on most all the nuts.

 

[WhizBangAndy]

Helmet Good Brakes Common Sense and an overly acute sense for cagers and anyone else on the road that doesent care about you as much as you..lol

 

[RedBaronX]

GOGGLES. I wear glasses, and I am still going to get goggles because the glasses aren't enough to properly protect my eyes.

While I ride with a helmet and always will, you only "need" a helmet if you fall... you need goggles to help KEEP you upright.

 

[adb140275]

COMMON SENSE
helmet
brakes
properly inflated tires
mirror
a good light
tail light

 

[Sgt. Howard]

add to the aforementioned- REAR VEIW MIRRORS!!! Well worth your while to know what's behind you as it is probably faster than you are...

 

[patriciayoung]

Get a good eye protection, then brakes and a rare mirror as well. Most importantly, wear a helmet.

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

http://motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?t=19071&highlight=death&page=5

It happened so unexpectedly to one of ours.