Assisted Darwinism, part II

[unixronin]

This is why you:

1. never ride a motorcycle without a helmet
2. never learn to ride on an open-class literbike.

IMHO, the husband should be prosecuted for, at the very least, negligent homicide.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

(For the record, when I teach people to shoot, the very first thing I do before they even TOUCH a gun is drill basic firearms-safety rules into them, then they get to learn how to handle, field-strip and reassemble the pistol they'll be shooting before I ever give them a single round of ammunition.)

Me too, actually.

By putting his wife on an R1 without a helmet when she didn't know how to ride, this guy killed her just as dead as if he'd handed her a loaded .45 with the safety off before teaching her how to handle it and she'd accidentally blown her brains out with it.

Y'know, there are still states without helmet laws. Some people go their entire motorcycling careers without wearing one. Personally, I learned to ride on a CB750 4, with a hot cam and jetted carbs. And I didn't wear a helmet. No, it's not an R1, but I still took the responsibility myself to ride that way. (I'm not going to defend it, and, in fact, the reason I always wear a helmet now is because the guy who lent me his bike to learn how to ride can't tie his own laces anymore because he had a bad encounter with cross traffic. I'd dare say CJ's accident is what broke me up quite so hard about yours.) But it was my call. You have to make adults responsible for their own actions, or you end up with, well, America today.

For the record, spsh wants to learn to ride too, and she knows I'd be livid if she were to ever ride without a lid. But she works in an ER, so I don't much worry about her doing that.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Some people go their entire motorcycling careers without wearing one.

Yup, so they do.  But a lot of people who have basically-stupid accidents without helmets die, when they might well have lived with a helmet.  By the sound of the report, this chick'd be alive today -- badly torn up by the fence, maybe, but alive -- if she'd had a helmet on.

Personally, I disagree with helmet laws.  I'm a strong supporter of natural selection.  I still wouldn't ride without one, nor would I willingly let someone I cared about ride without one, because I'd kinda prefer that people I care about not be selected out.

Personally, I learned to ride on a CB750 4, with a hot cam and jetted carbs.

I remember the CB750-Four Supersport.  I remember lusting after one when they were brand new on the market.  Still, even hopped up with a hot cam and oversize jets, that's a long way from an R1 -- and you're a big guy, well over 6', with a lot of physical strength to hang onto the bike if things got squirrelly.  (And to be fair, the 750-Four was probably more likely to get squirrelly than the R1 -- chassis design has come a long way since 1975.)  Statistically speaking, this chick most likely wasn't.  I don't think it's quite comparable.  One of the guys I used to hang out and ride with back in CA, one of the DoD members who'd been riding something like 15 or 20 years, testrode an R1 once and his reaction was something like "My god, it's incredible to ride, but I don't want one.  I'd be terrified of killing myself on it.  That's not a bike, it's a guided missile with wheels."

I'm not saying the guy committed murder by teaching his wife to ride without a helmet.  I'm not saying that, with practice, she couldn't have learned to handle a bike in the R1's class.  And it's probably reasonably safe to put a helmetless beginning rider on a bike to learn, if it's a small, tractable, moderate-powered bike -- say, a 250 Nighthawk or a Buell Blast -- and there's nothing much around to hit.  But I still say that putting her on an R1 without a helmet in order to teach her to ride, especially in a fairly restricted mini-storage parking lot where she probably had very little time to avoid hitting anything once the bike got away from her, was really damn stupid on his part.

You have to make adults responsible for their own actions, or you end up with, well, America today.

Oh, absolutely.  But it's idiots like this failing to apply basic common sense that lead to the events that cause the outcries among the safety nannies that lead us to ... well, America today.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Personally, I disagree with helmet laws. I'm a strong supporter of natural selection. I still wouldn't ride without one, nor would I willingly let someone I cared about ride without one, because I'd kinda prefer that people I care about not be selected out.

Yeah, see, I figure I'm already not going to have kids, so I've been selected out already, so there's no need for me to cement the argument by mashing my head by riding without a helmet. But it took me a bit to figure out that it was, in fact, fantastically stupid. Then again, we are talking about me as a 17 year old, I admit I was pretty sure I was immortal.

I rode an R1, and I've ridden a 996, and I'd love to have either one, if only they were bigger or I was smaller. The Ducati... *sigh* it was like riding a razorblade that was wired to my brain. I thought, it turned. But after half a block I had hip cramps, and after half a mile my shoulders were aching.

And when S. learns to ride, I hope to put her on a Honda Hawk, or something. Even better, if I can arrange it, I want to have a dirt bike I can turn her loose in the soft stuff with. So that way if (when) she falls down, it hurts less. A full height YZ-80 would be perfect.

But I still say that putting her on an R1 without a helmet in order to teach her to ride, especially in a fairly restricted mini-storage parking lot where she probably had very little time to avoid hitting anything once the bike got away from her, was really damn stupid on his part.

Sure. I guess part of it is pity on my part. I mean, the guy's wife just died, from a stupid accident. Putting him in jail for it seems kinda like rubbing salt in the wounds.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Then again, we are talking about me as a 17 year old, I admit I was pretty sure I was immortal.

I think we're all immortal at 17... I probably did some pretty stupid shit myself, I just don't remember it.

The Ducati... *sigh* it was like riding a razorblade that was wired to my brain.

Would you hate me if I told you the 999's supposed to be even better?  I know what you mean, though -- that's what the 929's like, but I wouldn't want to ride it long if I was your height.  (Thought-controlled steering, and when the exhaust crossover valve opens at 7000rpm ... "Warp speed, Mr. Sulu!"

I mean, the guy's wife just died, from a stupid accident.  Putting him in jail for it seems kinda like rubbing salt in the wounds.

You have an excellent point there...