You're right. I've seen the light!
OP, riding a motorcycle is fucking stupid. Don't do it. Actually, no one should do it. It's that fucking stupid. I've lost lots of friends to it. Don't do it. Every friend and stranger who's walked up to me and told me stories about how their best friend's cousin's mother's sister's next door neighbor dying is right. I can't believe I didn't listen to them. I've been so blind. Don't do it.
Better?
No? This is just as dumb as the people claiming he should take off for parts unknown with essentially no riding experience.
There are a lot more similarities in the story of Ozymandias and the OP than I'd care to point out. There is a huge skill difference in the quality of a rider at ~3 months and the quality of a rider after a year (backed up by what little stats we have on crash rates over time), and the mental maturity you pick up over the course of that time on when to go fast and when not to go fast. Oxymandias admitted himself that lack of experience and hot-headedness was a primary factor in his accident - he had the wrong reaction because he didn't have the needed experience to handle a new environment.
It's pretty fucking depressing that this place has gotten to the point where people are more motivated to read a ride report than give a shit about the rider doing that report, helping them understand the risks of taking a big trip as a new rider, and gleefully pushing them on to continue despite being the people who should be advising caution.
Some of us are saying "do it" because we've done it!
I rode without a helmet once, it was totally fine, you should do the same. I've done it, what's the big fucking deal?
Like, seriously, this is some of the saddest, most selfish posting I've ever seen on barf. No one offers help to train, teach the guy to ride, just a bunch of people mindlessly banging on about how they did terribly risky things and got away with it and clearly the OP can too, with no self awareness, common sense, or anything else. What a sad reflection on the community.
Christ, quit the hang wringing and grow a pair nancy boys. Lost a lot of friends to motorcycling. 90% of them very experienced riders. Quit kidding yourself fellas. You can die tomorrow doing this shit. Despite your experience, your fancy leather duds, and your "risk management".
With a little more risk management, garyj wouldn't be dead. Riding like he did on the street, regardless of skill, was a bad idea, and why I never joined any of his rides. He was clearly comfortable rolling the dice by aggressively riding a ninja 250 on the street at high speeds, and that's what killed him. A little more "risk management" and a little more "right time and place" and we'd still have him with us. Same with quite a few other riders out there who are no longer with us.
So yeah, just because you've gotten away with russian roulette for years doesn't mean other people aren't going to call you on it when you tell them to sit down at the table and pick up the gun. Especially when you realize that with enough time, riding a motorcycle doesn't have to be russian roulette at all. Moderate risks, mitigated by skill and judgement, and your chances of being in an accident drop significantly. "Risk management" is how you understand the difference between what is actually dangerous, and what just appears to be dangerous, and poo-pooing that is the first sign of someone who has no fucking clue what they're doing on a bike and has relied on luck rather than skill to get through dangerous situations. Risk management is what you're doing every time you put on a helmet, and yet I don't think anyone here would advise a new rider to take off his helmet and revel in the freedom of the experience, but the second things get even slightly more intangible than that, everyone forgets the lesson in search of a new ride report.
