I used to 'street-race' as a young teenager, and used to do it on a bike of similar engine size to that Lets.YaTingPom wrote:As a young teen you never did anything risky, stupid, selfish?
No. Of course you didn't.
I wasn't one for weaving through traffic in town though, or for chopping lanes. It was just about moving 'quickly'.
Looking back, I realise I had no idea about pretty much anything other than how to twist a throttle and how to lean/flick/brake the bike. At the time, I thought I was shit-hot because I could go fast. Other kids doing the same also thought they were dog's bllks.
I knew nothing of safety and didn't enquire, but I didn't know that then. I'd read the Highway Code and thought that was the end of it.
It was warm or it was cold; It was dry or it was wet, and I quickly learned to think with the controls and enjoyed the experience.
The roads were a lot quieter then and I lived on the edge of a city and had access to 'country lanes' directly on leaving the house.
I made the same mistakes we all did, and have no idea of the number of times I dropped/skidded/clipped/slid on manhole covers and whitelines and frost and puddles and fresh rain and /etc - it was all a part of the learning experience. I got banged up a little occasionally, but there was nothing so severe that it hampered me for more than a month or so.
Looking back now, there were things that I did have and that probably saved my ass from my own stupidity and lack of experience - and that was I had the input of watching grandfather and father drive and the unconscious impression made by having grown up amongst a vastly more organised and responsible driving public, and, although I was a typical stupid kid of that time on a bike, there was an underlying knowledge of what was truly a stupid antic.
Kids here don't have a single one of the influences that I can now see steadied me. These kids learn while balanced on their father's gas tank that it's normal and OK to pull some of the most ridiculous maneuvers, they see others driving exactly as they please and with no regard for the rules/laws that are, in fact, in place and they learn that nobody is going to catch them if they don't stop.Joon wrote:I agree with YTP. Some comments are harsh and insensitive, which just reflect on their authors.
Still wishing that nobody here will lose a close one in such a way.
I'm wondering though whether this accident was due to ignorance or recklessness?
There's no training, dad had no training, the backdrop is one of total chaos, and there are no consequences to face for anything if you can ride away from the scene afterwards.
I understand the speed thing, that's just a huge buzz - but I don't understand the in-town speed and the highly risky slalom games through traffic, that's a bizarre risking of other peoples' safety.
So both for me.
Ignorance in that there is absolutely no good model available at any stage of their learning to drive experience.
Recklessness in that they MUST know that if they get it wrong, they'll most likely hurt others when they hit them.
An experienced rider would not have made the list of mistakes that he made.Joon wrote:I ask this because a complete noob on a bike is different from an experienced rider who was too confident in himself.
99.999% he was a noob acting with all the confidence of someone who has no clue that there's so much more to learn/know about what he's doing.