Editorial: Learn to ride a motorcycle

A while back, I shared my thoughts on why I ride a motorcycle. For me, it is a part of my life that I embrace and enjoy. Getting to this point meant a lot of lessons learned and I wanted to share some of those lessons to help others who are interested in getting into motorcycling. Keep in mind that I am certainly no professional rider, just an enthusiast who loves to ride, but I hope some of the lessons I learned along the way can help others avoid making the same mistakes.

Lots of people have different ideas about how to approach learning to ride a motorcycle. Some people believe in the "throw you in the deep end" philosophy, which pretty much entails hopping onto a bike and figuring things out. Others feel like the "baby steps" approach is right and take forever to graduate from riding around in parking lots to actually hitting the streets. While no single approach is going to be best for every new rider, there are a few basic things that every person who is interested in learning to ride a motorcycle should think about when they are first starting out.

Crazy of the Week: Post #2 - Motorcyclist rescues mug

This week, we bring you a bit of crazy with a happy ending. Riding a motorcycle takes a fair bit of skill and concentration and is already pretty mentally taxing for some folks. The rider in this video, however, is clearly very skilled and completely unaffected by the rigors of motorcycle riding and is extremely observant to boot.

Upon seeing a mug resting on the bumper of a pick-up trunk, the courageous rider races to catch up to the truck and then, with some precision riding skills, swoops in and rescues the helpless mug before it shattered into a million pieces on the asphalt. And, as if that weren't enough on its own, the rider proceeds to chase after the owner of the mug and kindly returns the still coffee filled container. This impressive feat of riding is truly praiseworthy for its demonstration of motorcycle handling skills, close proximity riding, and mental focus.

Now if the rider could only be bothered to add a little protective gear to the mix, they could be the poster boy for the motorcycle community. Watch the video and tell us what you think about this rider's actions.