Four Rules

So this past weekend I was able to participate in my first NAIT motorcycle course and it was certainly an interesting experience, one which I very much enjoyed. While there were a great many things to take away from the experience I'm going to relate two of them and I hope you enjoy them.

The Four Rules of Motorcycling

1) Always look good
2) Where you look is where you go
3) If you look down you go down
4) No one looks good under a motorcycle, so being there puts you in violation of Rule 1

The Story

It was the first day of class and we were performing a braking exercise with the students, basically you would ride at the instructor who would then put a hand up indicating to you to stop and you would do so in a controlled fashion.

Ideally.

One of the fellows in class was a little enthusiasic and got a hold of too much front brake. On some bikes this wouldn't matter but he happened to be on a CBR 125 and while the bikes are small they're very agile. . . and the brakes work very well. As a result this fellow ended up coming in on his front wheel with the back wheel well up in the air. Now, had he followed Rule 2 and kept his eyes up he might well have ridden in in safety. . . if not control. However he looked down and this put him at the mercy of Rule 3 and it chose to make him it's bitch.

As a result he went down and the motorcycle not only came down on top of him but chose to whack him in the face in the process. Fortunately he was relatively uninjured in the whole process and after getting cleaned up was right back on the bike. I have to admit some admiration for a man who, his first time on a motorcycle, not only crashes but does so in a spectacular manner and gets right back on the bike.

Now I've had to drill those rules into my head as they're something I'm expected to be able to spout off to students and to reference easily and quickly so the time I took to memorize them also got me thinking about them and how they apply to life.

How many people in life actually make an effort to look where they want to go? How many people spend their lives looking down, or in so many cases backwards, rather than ahead to what's coming up?

When you ride a motorcycle the road happens fast and you damn well better be looking nice and far ahead if you want to be able to react to it. I'm thinking life is the same way and at some point I need to stop looking down (at the present) and start getting a better view of where I'd like to be and what I'd like to be doing.

Well there's my thoughts for the day.

Till next we meet. . .

Ride on

Well another riding season is upon us, if we ignore today's snowfall,
and that of course means that it's spring. With spring comes rebirth,
regrowth, and change and I appear to be a part if that.

What's happening?

Well it appears that this summer I'm going to be teaching motorcycling
for NAIT which will be a fun filled adventure. I like teaching and I
like motorcycling so I can really only see those going well together.
Plus of course I'm sure I'll find myself with a plethora of funny new
stories to tell you.

I also recently ended a two year relationship to a great girl, seems
to be a recurring thing in my world doesn't it? That has caused me to
start doing some thinking about how I handle the whole relationship
thing. Right now all I have are questions but hopefully one of these
days I'll figure out some answers to go with them.

Perhaps later I'll post some of those questions and see if any of you
can help me out.

Till next we meet...

The Lazarus blog

So it appears that for some reason I've an odd urge to start blogging again. I'm afraid however for my loyal fan that this instalment is not so much a post as it is a notification of my intent to return to this blog in an active manner again.

The next post will do it's best to bring you up to speed on my life, to let you know both where I've been and where I'm planning to go.
So stay tuned

Till next we meet...