For Turkish version.

Even if you were sure that the thief would be caught and punished, would you fall asleep with peace of mind without locking your door? Consider that your house is not in the countryside, but in a metropolitan city where you don’t even know your neighbors..

For those who say yes, I’ll stress the example further. Would you let someone attacking you confident that he will be punished? Maybe not killing you but seriously injuring you in the process.

If your answer is still yes to this, I can let you ride with unprotected. If your answer is no, I don’t understand why you chose clothing that doesn’t have protection and doesn’t meet accepted safety standards. I really can’t understand. The subject of gearing is important, but besides the other things I will talk about, it seems simple.

Until 3-4 years ago, we heard the news many times that the vehicle doors were opened at unexpected moments and took the lives of motorcycle riders. Recently, we have seen another method by which we can kill ourselves on TV news many times: Vehicle drivers who maneuver from the leftmost lane to the far right exit “suddenly” while driving on the main road. If there is a motorcycle rider in the right lane, it takes seconds to be involved in a fatal accident..

Can these accidents be prevented? As a motorcycle rider, isn’t it time to lock the door of our house? Why are we so confident that the thief will be caught, and give up our precautions? When we think about the solutions of a problem, we can take a step towards the solution, why do we always get defensive and blame the thief? Is there any point in being right after death?

What should be the correct position of our motorcycle in the flowing traffic? The answer is in the “Blue Book”: Our correct position is the position that is safe, has grip and gives us the maximum view to gather the maximum amount of information we will use in the riding plan.

In summary: 

• Is it safe? 
• Is there a grip? 
• Which gives me maximum visibility without sacrificing the first two.

“The door opening mentioned above” or “coming face to face with death because of the vehicle driven by an uncultured driver at the main road exit” does not obey the first criterion: It is not safe. Isn’t it obvious?

If there is a possibility that the door will open, it is NOT SAFE. Why are you positioning your motorcycle without leaving at least one doorway? It is NOT SAFE to choose the right lanes on the highway connection roads if we are going to continue straight. Why are you waiting there for a vehicle that can mow you, ignoring the possibility that you might die? 

Let’s say we learned our lesson in these two examples, which happened a lot, but what are the other possible dangers, the risks that will kill us? There, too, our abilities that separate us from monkeys come into play. It’s up to us to know how to use it. What are the possible dangers while riding a motorcycle? What are the dangers that we expected or did not foresee? Which hazard poses the most risk to me: the corner waiting us ahead or the vehicle overflowing into my lane heading towards me? It is necessary to see them, plan them and ride by choosing the position, speed and gear that will eliminate the risks. “Unconsciously enough”, that is, even rote driving is dangerous. We must drive with our consciousness open, thinking, in the moment, in the flow. 

Paolo Volpara has started to use OMM’s “Riding is a way of thinking” motto for more than 20 years, which he brought to life in a new way: “Thinking is THE way of Riding“. And it starts by asking ourselves the questions “Why?”. It is necessary to think about it a little.. I think that motorcycle trainers should produce curricula that make riders think, instead of just giving prescription information. Otherwise, why would you want to be a motorcycle instructor? At the point we’ve arrived at, isn’t the thief at all guilty?