I watched a telephone man fall from a ladder in the town where our business is at. Right next to my plant.
He drove a 2X4 through his body just to the left of his spine and up into his right arm pit.
I held him down as paramedics were 25 minutes away. Prayed for him as he laid there in the hot
sun and tried to get up not knowing he had been impaled.
When I look at some of those photos I think of him.
He lived, no organs were damaged by the accident and he walked out of the hospital. Seems he was accident prone all his life.
He came in my shop one day and thanked me for praying for him while he was laying on the hot concrete.
I was just glad he lived and recovered.
Bottom line is this is more than whether or not to wear a helmet. It has more to do with mental preparedness and knowing your equipment. Practice, practice and more practice and then using all of the fundemental skills you learn in MSF and other studies.
I have come to respect motorcyclists, not bikers, but motorcyclists. Anyone can be a biker.
My Dad rode back in the early 50's and on two lane highways from Champaign, Illinois to Groton, Conneticut where he was stationed in the Navy. Keep in mind he quit riding because he said that back in 1955 there were too many crazy car drivers on the roads!!!
He had a leather helmet (if you call it that) and a kidney belt. A 1950 Harley 74 with springs in the seat for "suspension".
I didn't find it out until I began riding that my Dad was considered to be a very good rider, but an agressive one. He really enjoyed the ride. I think without knowing it at the time I found that I was just like him.
With cell phones, distractions and other things like DEER, animals, and such to deal with we are not riding in the same conditions as my Dad did 50 plus years ago. I consider it much worse. We therefore need to be all the more so on the guard.
I wish we could make all the cars and trucks stay home and let us ride our bikes without the CAGED idiots we share the road with. In fact we don't share the road, we take what we can get of the road and let the selfish distracted idiot cage drivers take the rest. Sorry, just venting there.
See the damage to skin after it drags on the highway pavement? See the dismemberment in the photos?
What I want is the full story behind each picture. To be honest I want to rule in or out was it drugs, alcohol, speed, cell phones or bad roads, animals, or what that led to this occurance.
I am still haunted by the lifeless white sheet thrown over the body of a fellow motorcyclist that I saw in the ditch along route 150 in Ogden, Illinois just two months ago. Now all that remains are two crosses and a lone skid mark that reminds me the motorist who killed those two men had no idea what he was doing when he drove across the other lane.
If those men had been bicycling, walking or standing there they would be still be dead. It wasn't the presence of a motorcycle that killed them. Nor was it the absence of helmets as they both had them on. It was the presence of an idiot behind the wheel of a 3,000 pound bullet, (sledge hammer more like it).
I do believe that speed assists in the death. Speed alone in the right place isn't the culprit but speed in general can led to it. So, let's all slow down.
I do believe that simple injuries can be avoided by wearing gear. The best gear too. So let's all do that.
As I met a man in a wheel chair in the ICU one day last summer I asked him what buzz saw he had tackled. He said, no buzz saw, just pavement. I said, motorcycle, he said yes as he rolled away from me adding nothing to the story.
Those diamond shaped patches all over his face, head, arms and legs were obvious that he was not wearing gear.
Watch riding in packs. I care less and less for that every day.
Usually I ride with one friend and he's a County Deputy and has many years of driving and motorcycling under his belt.
He is very safe in his riding and I know I can trust his decisions, for the most part!
Actually I don't trust anyone when I'm on that bike and have all my soft body parts out there in the wind.
There is only one I trust and His name is Jesus. Not religious, just know Him personally. It was His idea that I receive a motorcycle not mine. I wasn't even seeking to own one.
So at age 45 I take my MSF course, ride a bike the first time since I was a teen when I was sneaking off to ride old junks my friends had for a minute or two without my former Harley riding Dad finding out.
I passed the MSF 100% and went and picked out my first bike ever. Can you believe that?
A gift from my wife of 25 years.
Motorcycling is relaxing to me. I enjoy the ride. But I enjoy doing it right.
I hope all of you will have a wonderful riding season this year. Take it easy on the Raider as it is a very fast, powerful and somewhat hot bike to poke around on.
For those of you who are like me, 45 plus, let's make sure we don't add to those often misleading statistics this season.
More of us "Wild Hogs" are getting bikes and sometimes there the first ones we have ever owned. We learn well and have better sense than we did at 18 perhaps but we still need to recognise we need to learn the basics and not just worry about looking hot on that bike.
Ride YOUR ride not your brothers.
Best to all,
Ken
WOW!!!!! 
