Don’t Be The Dumb$#% That Gives All Riders a Bad Name! [OPINION]

As the weather begins to warm, certain sounds return. Birds chirping. Children playing outside. And the sound of motorcycles revving their engines and finally hitting the highway after a long winter in storage. If you own a motorcycle in Iowa, you ride whenever the weather allows. Yesterday afternoon, we saw high temperatures reach the 70s, and the bikes were out and about.

I learned how to ride a motorcycle when I was a teen growing up on our family farm. It was a Kawasaki dirt bike. Nothing huge, just something that came in handy for checking fences and chasing cattle if the need arose. When I got old enough to drive, I'll admit I was a bit envious of the 'cool' kids who had bikes in the summer. But I was always fine with my car. I grew up in Anamosa, and it was a town known for motorcycles. J&P Cycles operated there for years. We had a popular yearly hill climb, and eventually the National Motorcycle Museum. You learned how to co-exist with motorcycles.

Sometimes, motorcycle riders get a bad rap. And I know why. It is the small percentage of riders who simply don't obey the rules of the road. They take chances, drive way too fast, and put themselves and others in danger. I encountered one of these riders yesterday.

I was driving west on 1st Ave. in Cedar Rapids, approaching the downtown fire station. I was in the far right lane in moderate traffic going around 25 to 30 mph. I need to make a right turn into my wife's workplace, so I put my turn signal on. That is when a motorcycle flew up from behind me and passed me ON MY RIGHT. Had I turned into the parking lot at the same time he was passing me, I would have hit him directly. Making matters worse, he had a female companion on the back with him. I could have killed them both.

I was angry. I honked my horn as they drove off. As I sat in the parking lot cooling off, I realized that it was bad riders like that who give all motorcycle riders a bad name. I'd like to believe that the majority of riders obey the rules of the road and don't take stupid chances like passing a car ON THE RIGHT. They have a hard enough time being seen by cars the way it is.

So to all you responsible motorcycle riders out there, I see you. I'm watching out for you. I understand the danger that motorists can pose. But could you please tell the other dumbasses that they're ruining it for all of you?

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