Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Whenever I wear my openface helmet I get "hope I tightened those wheel nuts properly" pr " what would a blowout on a motorbike be like?" popping into my head when leaning over into corners.

Did 105mph in an open face the other night too, terrifying!

I've ridden miles on loose wheel nuts and had several deflations at illegal speeds. If you loose the bike in a corner or while leaning, you and the bike depart company and hopefully don't reunite until after you've stopped. If you are loosing the bike on a corner you better hope you don't stand it up and go over the top, that's when you will wish you had an abs suit on.

In my experience you should avoid any riding that terrifies you :) When you are sure about the bikes mechanical fitness and the gear you're wearing you can take measured risks with enough confidence to stay safe.

Most bikers accident stories start with "I was doing x miles per hour" where x is 2x the legal speed limit.

Other features of the story are usually :-

Wet drain cover/diesel/pothole/object in road/gravel
Car door opened/car pulled out
Pedestrian/Animal

So make sure you tighten your wheel nuts and worry about the things that help you survive the unexpected.

Having said all that, my first accident I went over the bars when I ran off the road. I was 3 times over the legal limit (alcohol not speed) and my nose still bears the scar (open face helmet). What I didn't notice for 30 years was the damage to the vertebrae in my neck which now stops me from turning my head side to side as it's calcified and scrapes the nerve. If you are unlucky enough to have an impact which involves your head, make sure you get some X-rays afterwards, mine could have been sorted at the time but now I have to live with it.