Oklahoma Biker - The Riders Ragazine November - December 2018 | Page 22
a rider could possess, was to have
common sense and the ability to drive
defensively. Well as I’m pretty sure most
people know by now, common sense
isn’t all that common anymore and as
for driving defensively, I don’t feel that
is even close to being enough anymore!
Over what I considered to be, or called
“the 10 days of the 4th of July” this year,
I lost 9 people in my life due to injuries
sustained during motorcycle wrecks. It
was a brutal weekend in my life. Along
with 9 dead, there were 7 injured.
Here’s a rough breakdown of the ones
I lost: 2 were due to alcohol impaired
drivers, 1 was due to the riders inability
to properly negotiate a curve caused
by an improper rate of speed entering
the corner and 6 (yes, SIX) were killed
by people in cars, operated while being
distracted by a damn phone. I don’t
know if they were texting or talking (the
It has reached the time of year again
reports didn’t make that clear). You
that some call the end of the riding
know, it was bad enough out there when
season. Time to get that bike winterized we just had to look out for bad drivers
(I’m not really sure what that curtails)
but if you look around today, it seems
and hook up the battery tender and zip like everyone everywhere is either
up the climate controlled bike capsule
talking or texting. You are honestly in
(Yes, they sell it on Amazon for $300
the cross hairs of every single vehicle
(www.amazon.com/CarCapsule-
on the road. It’s like no one gives a shit
Indoor-Inflatable-Motorcycle-Storage/
or that the law doesn’t apply to them.
dp/B004646F5U)). We will see you
Let’s not fool ourselves here. Most, if
seasonal folks next year at the spring
not all of us reading this are guilty of
rallies, but by all means, keep up
doing this. Do you think that text or call
your attire presence buy wearing the
latest trendy Harley Davidson fashions is really that important? Probably not.
If it is, pull over. I used to be guilty of
everywhere you go, to make sure
this too, I now have hands free tech
everyone within eye shot knows you
in my truck and I use it. It only takes a
are the proud owner of a finely crafted
second for things to go bad. Don’t drive
American made piece of history.
distracted, you could be next.
Enough on that.
When I started riding many, many
TANK
years ago, one of the greatest things
TANK’S RANT
oklahoma biker the riders ragazine
22