Don't Forget

By: Joe Altieri

I went to friends wedding a couple of months ago and shared a table with some other thrill seekers. There was a couple sitting next to my fiancé and I who made their livings as professional skydivers. They live out near Perris, California, and work as skydiving instructors as well as skydivers for hire. They jump to make a living, but more than anything, they jump for their own thrill. They had some incredible video on their iPhone’s of some of their BASE-jumping adventures. Footage taken from helmet mounted GoPro video cameras of them hurling themselves off of some of the most amazing cliff sides and waterfalls. I have never had the stones to jump out of a plane. I flew in helicopters a bit when I was in the military, and that scared the hell out of me. Planes rides are the same way for me…I need to heavily sedate myself before I get on board anything with wings. So the idea of flying, and then jumping out is one that obviously is not built in to someone like me. Just the same it is something I have always wanted to try, but have yet to work up the nerve to do. While we talked we got on the subject of my own adrenal addiction to riding motorcycles. They were quick to point out that my hobby was far more dangerous than theirs will ever be. A lot less margin for error, much less time to react in the event of a problem, and far less incidents or accidents by the numbers. Granted a lot more folks ride motorcycles than jump out of airplanes but there is no denying that this love of ours, riding motorcycles, is inherently dangerous. And while we can always count on ourselves, you can never count on the other drivers on the road, nor can you do anything about life and its sheer twists of fate.

About a month ago a group of my friends were enjoying a spirited ride through the back roads and canyons outside our city limits. It was a good-sized group, perhaps twenty riders. At one point in the ride the group came upon a sharp, actually blind, left turn in the road. As the riders came through the turn they found the highway in front of them blocked off by highway repair personnel and equipment. The riders went hard on the brakes and brought their bikes to a stop as best they could. The riders in front had enough time to react to the sudden obstacles in the road, but going back progressively the other riders had less and less time to react as the bikes in front of them suddenly stacked up. A good friend of mine, an extremely experienced and capable rider, was running about eight to ten bikes back in the group. He came through the turn, and found a slew of bikes stopped in front of him. He swerved his bike toward the middle of the road in order to avoid plowing into the bikes that had comes to a stop in front of him. He glanced off two bikes and riders, and was thrown off of his bike and into oncoming traffic. A pickup truck coming the other way hit him, and he left us there and then. That was it. It was over. A freak occurrence that even a skilled rider couldn’t prepare for. It was sudden and tragic, and it left an indelible mark on a whole lot of people.

I love riding motorcycles. I have no plans to stop anytime soon. I know that this thing that I love to do is dangerous and potentially lethal. I have confidence in my ability to ride, but I know I can’t always count on the other guy. For all of us, I think it’s about being vigilant. It’s about reminding ourselves every time we climb into the saddle that we need to be aware, and cautious. We need to be smart and respectful of the risks we run when we ride. It’s not always about being the fastest, or the quickest, or the first one there. It’s about the ride. There are few words to adequately describe the joys of riding. Not just the adrenaline of dragging a knee, or flying down a long, straight stretch of asphalt, but the simple pleasure of smelling the world around as you cruise, or the sound of your engine purring as you roll along, or, of course, the rush of the wind in your face. There’s nothing like it, and it most certainly gets addictive. Most of us aren’t going to stop riding just because it’s dangerous. It’s just not that simple, and it is certainly not that easy. So, with that in mind, stay safe, always be looking “ten seconds out”, and never forget to give this love that we share the respect it deserves.

Published: Jul 12, 2010

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