You know. I see bikers on the road every day. Some very careful, almost to the point that they block traffic and cause problems for others. Others totally careless and foolhardy with no regard for their lives or those of others.
Everyday I see this and think there is a real need for mandatory professional riding courses that teach us the intricacies of daily commute and touring. Stuff that can help us all be better riders. You know like the mandatory pro tiding classes in other countries for handling superbikes.
Am I right? What do you guys think?
Btw great post. It was a bloody good, educational read.

There are few things which can be taught.. but the fact is, nothing stays in our heads and there are few things that come from experience.. we learn from our mistakes and I am one of that person who learnt things from experience and mistakes. I used to be a rash rider. I have endangered the lives of many because of rash riding back in college.. i realised my mistakes when the same kind of riding by some other guy put my life in danger. Only then i valued the road users thinking I have done the same to many in the past and that is when I decided to control my right wrist. After becoming an active member of xBhp, i am even more patient now than ever before. Be it in biking life or personal life.

Long Live Riding and Long Live xBhp

Thanks xBhp for making me who I am today..

The wise one said that the art of going fast is to know when to go slow. Wisdom in contradiction. What it implies is that the ultimate safety is neither in the quality of the machine nor in the skills alone but resides first in the attitude. For your daily commute, ride with self-imposed conditions that every need for braking or tooting that horn is a near miss. Every hard braking is a crash. And of course every crash is dying. The margins of safety are like the 10,000 ft ‘hard-deck’ in Top Gun. 10,000ft above the ground is considered the ‘ground’ and anyone flying below that altitude is considered having crashed. Such absurd margins become a nuisance till the situational awareness radar cranks up its act and you begin to see levels ahead. The self-imposed unrealistically high standards of safety demand an ever deeper look into the future of the ride happening in the here and now.

Clairvoyance. Sooth-saying. Crystal-ball gazing. The ride changes from being a mere inventory of available skills to one that reveals the need of what skill, when and in what measure. And best of all, it keeps you engaged in the ride, the mind too busy evaluating the manner of the future affecting the present. Riding is not about the mere fact of possessing a huge range of riding skills but it is about knowing first when which of those are needed. Smoothness just flows out by itself as you realize you already know what needs to be done before you actually need to do it. A perpetual reconnaissance leading you.

Nice article.

only if every biker reads it and understands it.