Do you ride with fear?

Originally Posted by agy

What do the drivers do??

Just very erratic and unpredicatble. Need to be careful mid-late afternoon onwards, especially in the countryside as many will have been drinking.

I'm OK with riding in Portugal, you just need to have eyes in the back of your head, and be prepared to change what you do to compensate for other peoples mistakes/inattention/lack of care.

Mexico City and Queretaro City are much much worse!

Even some of the rural towns where there are drug dealers in massive blacked out 4x4, that literally do own the road, and literally don't care if they kill you, is just as dangerous as the big cities, but in a different way.

[anna]

Ralph is 100% right.

We live in the North, most of which is cobbles rather then real tarmac. By cobbles I mean the loose stones pushing into the ground and held there by sand.

This means that the sand in summer comes loose and becomes an ice rink, and when it rains it becomes an oil slick as there is no drainage systems for the water.

Drivers here believe braking distances are spaces you are leaving for them to overtake you, roundabouts dont have rules on.

Im sure that I should just grow a set and get on with it but really I ride a bike for the enjoyment, now thats gone here, no point in riding a bike.

At least in the summer you see the cloud of dust and the speed that cloud is travelling at, long before you see the vehicle itself.

Whereabouts are you Anna? My best friend comes from a village close to Covilha. I've been a few times now and borrowed bikes over there, but last year I rode down from Santander, via Salamanca and Guarda.

This was my choice of bike and tyres!

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by rictus01

I don't drink Vodka

(ingest spirit of choice)

i had a big off about 2 months ago, damaged me more than the bike, friend picked the bike up and pushed it to the side of the road while i started crawling to the curb(not a single car driver offered help) knocked my confidence the most though, luckily my family and friends all ride so im fine ish now, shouldnt ride if your scared though, you'll be all rigid and could fall

Granty, what happened?
The is also, if you don't get back on, you won't get over the fear. I make myself get on after the skid. Just ride slow and extra careful.

[anna]

Ralph we are a little north of Porto.

Covilha actually is very pretty and has some great mountain roads, I think the further down you come the more boring the roads become. The journey you take through Spain I take it you go through Gerês is very very beautiful and has amazing twisties.

Looks like you made a good bike choice for the roads too. I love the SV but really it doesnt suit the roads over here.

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Seriously, I've had my share of offs, I even think I ave had some of some other peoples shares, but each one taught me something, and none of them scared me off of bikes, and if I had been a bit scared after the last one, using public transport would have gotten me over it VERY quickly

This...

Originally Posted by Bri w

I love my bike. My "fear," if it is fear, is breaking my lovely bike by getting it wrong.

...and this. My motorbike was the sole saviour of my hellish life on buses, I have an awful lot to be grateful for where its concerned, I don't like breaking it

Originally Posted by agy

I'm cautious of filtering now cos the middle of the road scares the crap out of me sometimes... you know not only the white line but also the fact that the middle is sort of pointy and very uneven.. :/
if there's nothing coming on the opposite side I take the other side of the road but do not like riding right in the middle...

From a lot of your posts it seems you have a real "fear" of road surface. I had 3 offs on my 125 and one on the SV, each one was down to road surface be it gravel, diesel, divots in the road, whatever. Each time I got back on being way more cautious but without being put off.

Since these offs my SV has been ridden up and over kerbs, grass, rickety bridges, farmyard tracks, roads that were more pothole and gravel than road...basically more offroading than should be allowed and certainly far more than I thought I'd ever be comfortable with. And yet when I see a challenging bit of road I just put faith that the bike will cope, and it certainly seems to, I'm amazed with just how well it does. Yes it's taken a good few miles to get that confidence built in but I tell ya, riding on as many different roads and surfaces that you can (while leaving the brakes well alone in most cases) can only serve you in good stead. I know every person is different and everyone copes with such differently but only you can instill confidence in your own riding, it's what it's all about.

As for a personal fear of riding? Well I guess there's always a niggle in there, oh crap what's going to be round that corner, but it's like constantly looking over your shoulder in normal day to day life, you just can't spend your time doing it. As folk have said, it's not healthy. Know your limits.

Edit: Ooo and very interesting thread btw

Fear no, just an appreciation of the risks involved, and take appropriate action, mostly ;0) sometimes, you just got to give it stick to feel alive.

[Sid Squid]

Is it just me that thinks anyone who decides not to ride again after experiencing a misfortune clearly didn't fully appreciated the situation prior to that? I also don't appreciate the commonly new found disparagement of my enjoyment of biking because they've had a knee jerk reaction to their own sudden exposure to reality.

That isn't intended to sound harsh, but a number of people I have spoken to over the years only seem to come to the realisation that there might possibly be a downside to this pastime after it happens to them. It shouldn't be uppermost in your mind when you're riding, that way leads to no enjoyment, but it should be understood and understood well.

If I felt the way that some who have contributed to this thread feel, I just wouldn't do ride.

OP: It's all in your head, every last bit of it. The bike doesn't matter, the tyres don't matter, the traffic on the road doesn't matter, your confidence in your ability to pilot a motorcycle and deal effectively with the situations - good, bad and indifferent - that you will encounter when you're on your bike is the ONLY thing that matters.
Fear is not the problem - the unknown is always un-nerving - the route to gaining confidence is the important bit and equally important is understanding that whatever level of ability you can muster isn't important either, just so long as you can be comfortable with it.

Confidence is king and smoooooooooth is the key.