A highly capable rider is clinging to life after his second major street crash in 15 months, hopefully on his way to a full recovery. Last year another skilled rider nearly bought it at high speed in his second life-threatening street crash. And before that a similarly gifted and respected rider did lose his life when he wheelied into a parked car (as it turns out, while riding with a .26 BAC on a suspended license from a previous DUI conviction). But this isn't a thread for bashing injured riders; it's a cautionary one.
Some would suggest that the lesson in these tragic crashes is that "it can happen to anyone, anytime." You know: it's fate, and when your time is up, there's nothing you can do about it. I suggest a much different lesson: Skill is overrated as a way to prevent crashes. Instead, sometimes it increases the severity of the crash and the risk of death.
To oversimplify, a single-vehicle motorcycle crash occurs when the rider attempts something he's unable to execute. He doesn't know he can't execute it of course. But the unknown and random factors that enter into every event in real life add up against him. And without enough margin for error, his skill is overwhelmed. The mismatch between ability and the demands placed on it can happen regardless of skill level. Just as a n00b can get into trouble, so can a riding god. And likewise, riding gods and n00bs can both avoid crashing. It depends not on skill as an absolute, but on accurate perception of task and ability, and on the risks the rider feels comfortable with.
When you improve your skills with training, reading, and practice, you can do what you want with them. If you'd like to be safer, you can use your new skills to reduce risk. If you're not real concerned about crashing--after all, "Bones heal, chicks dig scars, and the United States of America has the best doctor-to-daredevil ratio in the world"--you can apply your new skills to going faster with the same risk. Or, if you overestimate the skills you've acquired, you'll actually increase risk without knowing it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a big supporter (and consumer) of motorcycle training and other means of developing skill. You can boost your confidence, thus empowering you to ride more miles, more challenging roads, and--if you want--at higher speeds. But after you've acquired the fundamentals of vision, braking, turning, throttle control, etc., additional skills will make you safer only if that's what you want.
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