have bike will travel far......

April has been a sad month for the biking fraternity in this neck of wood... From my count there were four fatal bike incidents, either thru crashes or due to spills. And an equal number of incidents happened with riders luckily escaped death. That's a total of eight mishaps in a month! Wayyyyyy too many.... These incidents sort of made the four bike-theft incidents (that I happen to know of) in the fourth month of this year seemed like a no issue. Yupp... there's no match when its between loss of life and loss of belongings.....


3rd April ~ Hayabusa rider from Ipoh crashes with a car

4th April ~ A Singaporean with 20 yrs experience collided with a car jsut before Pagoh exit

5th April ~ Blackzee spilled along the hiway in Melaka

26th Apr ~ A BMW rider perished after a collision along the highway in Bukit Gantang, Perak.

Mere statistics? Not when it involves somebody close to you or somebody you know!

Its disturbing to see so many mishaps.... Where I work, the catch phrase that I learned to embrace is "incident free operations" and "zero incident is possible". Sounds simple. Not! Not without effort and hard work. Learnings from past incidents and losses pointed in the direction of human behaviour as the main contributing factor almost always. People say habits are difficult to change and shape. Almost impossible. Maybe so. But adidas say impossible is nothing..... :)

Having gone through life for close to half a century, I learned that when we put our mind and heart into it, things can be different. Whatever that "things" is, it can always change for the better... So, can we change our riding behaviour?

We all know that we are always exposed to all sorts of danger on the road - reckless drivers (and riders as well), inconsiderate road users, potholes and other similar road barriers etc... My take.... we are actually the number one, top of list, numero uno, most wanted, bla bla... danger to ourselves! Why ourselves?

Behaviour - our behaviour - can only be controlled by us. No other person can control our behaviour. He or she might be able to influence the way we (decide) to behave, but the final action is entirely ours. How we behave on the bike is entirely up to us. The decision to "cilok" or to "push the limit" or whatever watchamacallit behaviour we do on our bike is solely ours. So does the consequences of that decision and action. So, if we decide to go faster than the speed we are able to handle, then that behaviour is (un)controlled by us - not the faster guy on that bike up front! The decision to behave safe is also entirely ours!

Well, if we still think that we are not a danger to our own self, then that is definitely the biggest threat of all! Having a superbike does not mean that we have to be super.... having a superbike does not mean we have to be better than those having less than 'super' bikes.... having the ability to do certain things does not mean we are obliged (or expected) to do it.... Remember what is at stake... not just mere belongings, but our life & death!

When we are a threat to ourselves, more often than not we are also endagering others.... I always reminded myself, riding a superbike does not make me a super rider. Rather, it makes me a super threat to myself...

Ride defensively guys! Our family's counting on us.......