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"Risk is NOT a Freakin' Toggle Switch" -R.E.

By Tusk

This is one of my favorite quotes. Risk is something on my mind more than usual of late, in the wake of the passing of Indian Larry from our plane of existence. This time I'd like to share a few thoughts on it.

Now, as a side note, if you don't know who Indian Larry was ("is" for those of us who insist on immortalizing him), you owe it to yourself to look into it. Use Google, back issues of Iron Horse or The Horse magazine, Discovery Channel reruns of The Bike Buildoff - whatever.

But I digress. This diatribe is not about one man, yet he is held up as a literary subject if only to drive my point home better. After all, if I were here to preach to you, gentle reader, in general about the risks and benefits of motorcycling, it would be rather akin to preaching to the choir. Others have already done a great body of work on that.

Hell, this ain't even about risk, per se. It's about fear.

People fear what they don't understand, and risk is no exception. Note how so few of the write-ups you read about Larry mention his actual passing, what was happening, why it happened. Not pertinent to celebrating his life, you say? Balderdash, I say. How a person dies, and the risks they took to arrive at such a death, is one of the many things that precisely defines their life if they are lucky. Larry proves my point. Did he die from congestive heart failure or drowning or choking on a fish bone? No, he was stunt riding, something he loved and worked at for many years - it was integral with who he was. We should all be so fortunate to go out doing something we are truly passionate about.

But wait, here's the anti-motorcycle people, raving about the dangers of motorcycling and pointing to Larry as a study in why it's wrong to take such risks. By what right do they say this? Was he harming anyone else, endangering your children? No. Just because he wasn't living at other people's acceptable level of risk doesn't mean it's wrong. And don't even start on the "what about the people he left behind" thing - if they truly loved and respected him, they would not curse him for leaving us earlier than we'd like.

Fine, have an opinion, but when fear mongers like that use it as an excuse to pass legislation that limits my freedoms, I take issue. My bet is you do too. But this is nothing new - people have been trying to outlaw motorcycles for generations, and they keep failing and hopefully will continue to fail, because motorcycling has a power and a sense of freedom that doesn't just represent the concept - for many of us, defines the concept. The key is getting people (even alleged motorcycle enthusiasts) to understand the relationship of risk to motorcycling on a more cognizant level, and motorcycling in the context of risk is no different than any other thing in life (the greater the risk, the greater the reward).

Here we arrive at what this is really about. Acceptable risk levels vs. fear. One is reasoned and thought out, the other is unreasoned and irrational when it gets hold of a person. At the most granular level as example, fear is what elevates the risk of motorcycling - anyone who knows much at all about riding knows when you are fearful you tense up, and when you tense up you can't control the bike adequately. Try getting scared halfway through a turn at high speed and you'll see exactly what I mean. This analogy applies to the entire concept of fear and risk.

But like that fear of the curve, we can mitigate our fear of the risk involved. Primarily, accepting that risk is not a toggle switch, but a variable each of us can control in more situations than not. Getting educated via formalized motorcycling instruction like the courses MSF offers is paramount to identifying what factors of the risk you can and cannot control. Removing this mystery removes the fear, and allows us all to ride more safely than before. Are there unseen pitfalls and dangers out there? Of course! Are they as prevalent as we are led to believe? Doubtful. But then if we are interested in living in a bubble to make sure we are free from risk of harm, we sure as hell wouldn't be riding motorcycles, or taking showers, or riding the train, or walking down the street, or pretty much anything else that LIVING requires of us.

So when all is said and done, we arrive right back where we should - and the real point to this missive: talking about living. Larry lived his life his way, and his death reflects that. The narrow-minded think he was asking for it, given the risks he took. Well here's a news flash folks: life has one truth about it that's absolute - no one gets out alive. It's always a question of when you go and what you experienced and contributed, and from my perspective the risk of my experience and achievement being too mundane is a lot more frightening than how long or short the time might be. One risk of which I simply won't accept more than a very low level.

There's just one more thing that needs mentioning here, and that is the role listening plays in controlling our fears and mitigating risk. Yes, listening in the usual sense (the machine and the weather and surrounding traffic noise and so on), but I am talking about something a little more mystical.

Haven't we all had these days when we have no excuse for leaving the bike at home, but we just feel like we should drive? Sure, sometimes it's just wussing out or whatever, but more times than not it's something else. Riding motorcycles, like many other highly focused and rewarding activities, develop one's intuition - 6th sense if you will. Listening to that "little voice" goes a long way to averting disaster, anyone out there know what I mean? Could it be that Larry had been adamant about listening to that little voice in years past, but for some reason on that day he chose not to? It would go a long way to explaining the tragedy that followed, and I am not talking strictly in a mystical way here. You see, that little voice plants a little seed of doubt that can quickly become fear. As we've already established, this shoots the risk right through the roof in a split second.

So my advice to you is, live it your way, risk or not, but live it well, and listen to your intuition. be assured, it is there and it is for real.

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