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Squid Catching
Alex from Adelaide wonders how we can help some riders see the error of their ways
G'day Bear
I have to get something off my chest. What is it with motorcyclists, especially bike riders in South Australia that persist on riding bikes with nothing more than thongs, shorts and a T-shirt.
To the people who ride that like, read my lips ... YOU ARE A DICKHEAD!!!!
It's getting worse. It seems that three out five bike riders here in SA ride that way.
| | Call me an old fart (I’m 48 and been riding since I was 13) if you like but I will let you on a couple of secrets. IT'S NOT COOL (either weather wise or style wise) and it f@#king hurts when you slide along the ground.
More than likely the people who ride like that don't read this great mag because they are fair-weather riders and are too busy drinking their lattes instead of actually taking their bikes for runs longer than it takes to get to their local cafés.
I was taught (and learnt the hard way) from a very young age that at the very least you don’t get on a bike without jeans, boots, jacket and gloves. Even on the hottest days, the only concession I make to that list is I might not wear my jacket and for the most part I ride sidecars but I still wear most of the gear.
Scooters are making things even worse. The other day I noticed (perved on, actually) a beautiful looking girl on a scooter with nothing more than hot pants (those old enough to remember what they were ... woo hoo) thongs, tank top and an open face helmet. Imagine the scarring she would have suffered had she come off.
Alex
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| | Hi, Alex
Thank you for caring, and thank you for taking the trouble to write.
We get quite a lot of letters along these lines and the internet is full of them. Most of the writers call these people squids, for reasons you really, really don’t want to know and almost everyone is outraged by the way they lazily risk injury or worse.
The trouble is – and Alex has already picked up on this in his letter – that all of the writers to us or to websites are preaching to the converted. The people like Alex’s “beautiful looking girl on a scooter” don’t read ARR, they don’t concern themselves with road safety messages on the internet and if they think about crashing at all, they think it can’t happen to them.
Remember? You were almost certainly one of them once upon a time. I was. Those riders, like Alex, who learned early are rare, and it doesn’t even sound as if he escaped completely unscathed anyway.
That is also the reason why I don’t print a lot of letters like Alex’s despite the fact that, as I say, we get quite a few. What’s the point of telling people stuff that they already know, occasionally having learnt the hard way?
So how do Alex and all the rest of you who are concerned actually go about convincing someone to dress safely?
There’s only one way.
You need to talk to them. One to one. Personally. Kindly and politely, but firmly and authoritatively. Your task, should you be prepared to accept it, is to approach just one squid and talk him or her into changing their ways.
If everyone who buys a copy of ARR convinces just one young or ignorant rider to dress properly, that will be more than 22,000 people out there no longer risking gravel rash. Add everyone who receives a copy of Riding On (this item is also being reproduced in the Ulysses Club magazine) and we’re approaching 50,000 lots of skin saved.
What do you reckon, readers? Are you up for that?
Peter ‘The Bear’ Thoeming
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