DanF9 | Aug 8, 2025 — When I was just a shaky-legged noob grappling with the fear of handling a motorcycle, this was my instructor Pete's idea of a pep talk:
You're gonna crash. The harder you ride away from it, the quicker it chases you down.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Plenty of riders out there are practically saints, claiming they’ve ridden decades without so much as tipping over a parked scooter. They'll happily tell you this every chance they get, usually at every single bike meetup.
But good ol’ Pete's twisted wisdom was hitting at something deeper (or he was secretly plotting to keep business booming at the crash helmet factory). Riding a motorcycle, or any "dangerous" powersports vehicle, comes with a risk you accept as soon as you set yourself in motion (heck, even before you take off), nothing new.
But here's the kicker:
Do we truly accept these risks, or do we just nod along politely, like at grandma’s overly detailed medical updates?
When I ride, I am fully aware of danger lurking somewhere down the line, but that doesn't mean that I've accepted the mortal outcome as a reality. It's somewhere off in the future, as a possibility that could be avoided by acting like Mr. Safetypants.
If I ride as safely as I can, who's to say that the reality of the crash will ever smack me in the face? It can happen, but I've done all I can to push it away.
There's a flaw in this mindset that Pete is trying to criticize. Displacing the reality of the crash as a future event works to push the reality away from my mind in the present.
If I ride as if there's nothing to worry about now, I ride as if I am immortal. Or, to borrow and butcher a classic Latin phrase:
Carpe diem... collisionis
Seize the day... of collision. Return it to the now from the murky if of the future, and you'll ride humble, decreasing the odds of actual road carnage.
Hmm, it can sound pretty weird to start the day off chanting "Today, I shall crash!" like some dystopian pep rally cheer. Talk about a buzzkill. But the point here isn't paranoia, it’s kicking arrogance right in the shin before it gets you in trouble while casually doing 140 km/h on the freeway.
Acknowledging the crash as a "clear and present danger" (also known as: Harrison Ford's last good action role) punctures your ego bubble, which, let's face it, is the primary culprit in most "Oh crap!" moments.
OK hold your horses. We're not endorsing constant panic: "Is that SUV gonna flatten me like a pancake? Will I meet my maker around that innocent-looking turn?" Wrong approach.
Getting your head straight happens before the ride, sticking with you calmly throughout it. That way, when a close call happens, you react coolly, not frantically, and significantly reduce your odds of starring in an action scene you never auditioned for.
All this to say: riding "away from it" means avoiding the crash, it means thinking the danger is far away. This creates dissonance, it creates a you of the present that is maybe more preoccupied with the destination, or getting to work on time, or looking cool, rather than with safety.
It's a spicy (?) thought, but a sobering one too. It's served me well, and all I can do is pass it on until someone wiser than Pete dismantles my entire argument in an exposé titled DanF9: The Moron Who Told Me to Crash It.
Also, I started a Reddit thread on the topic, sue me (please don't).
Spoiler: someone already thinks this is AI slop. To be continued... sloppily or not.
Signed: DanF9
P.S. If you'd like to receive this kind of stuff by email, we just launched a weekly newsletter called The Break-In. Think of it as Plato's Symposium, minus the togas... Where grease meets inner peace, I guess.
Ta-ta!
