Farewell to a friend and a lesson learned
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:26 am
We lost one of our FarRiders last week and I will be attending his funeral service on Wednesday. While the rider was not a member of this Forum, and did not ride a BMW, the manner of his passing serves as a salutary reminder of the fragility of life and the risks we take every time we ride. There are cues here for all of us to be careful when we ride, and I post this in the hope that the lessons learned may help to save a life. John was a friend, and a damn fine bloke. He lived in the same city but we mostly only ever met on FarRides, a long way from home. Such is the nature of endurance riding.
John was an experienced rider who had completed numerous FarRides and was a certified IBA member. He knew his way around a bike and was a very competent and careful rider. The ride he was doing was the return leg of another long-distance ride that had been completed. John was riding his Harley Davidson, and was returning to Canberra after a fun-filled few days away. He had plenty of rest on the way home. The Police did not believe that tiredness, fatigue, speed, alcohol, recklessness or other vehicles were factors in his accident. The road was.
Another FarRider, and numerous other motorcyclists, were travelling the same way at the time. I was not amongst them. Upon overtaking some vehicles towing caravans on a wet road in light rain, John’s bike hit an unseen lengthwise depression in the road. We call them potholes, but this was more a shallow trench than a round hole as I understand it. The road veered left at this point. The bike became uncontrollable after impacting the shallow depression and left the road. The details of what happened next are unclear, but John was thrown from the bike and died at the scene.
The FarRider fraternity is in shock and mourning over this accident due to the nature of its occurrence. We all take risks when we ride, but we mitigate those risks by ensuring our bikes are in good condition and our ride gear is as good as we can afford. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst as they say. There is a great deal of anger at the condition of the roads upon which we travel here, and the loss of a friend to inadequate road construction or maintenance is galling. However, many of us are preparing for another endurance ride in a few weeks’ time, so we live with knowledge that what happened to John could happen to any of us.
It has been said that John died doing what he loved. This is an old cliché that carries no sway with me. He did not head off on a journey with the expectation that he would die. I doubt he was fully prepared for what eventuated. Far from it. The possibility may exist, but it should never be an expectation. There is a saying by Henry Van Dyke that goes like this: “Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live”. We all ‘come alive’ when we ride. This is another often clichéd saying, but one which many of us subscribe to. It has its place I suppose.
John has joined the growing number of friends I have lost to a pastime I love. I am deeply saddened by his passing and troubled by the circumstances. The lessons from this tragedy are obvious. The roads we ride can be treacherous and unforgiving. All I ask is that you take care when you ride. Be aware of your surroundings and ride to the conditions in which you find yourselves. My apology if this is seen as preaching. It can never happen to me. Right? Think again. Farewell my friend. You will be missed. RIP John Ainsworth, FarRider and IBA Member.
John was an experienced rider who had completed numerous FarRides and was a certified IBA member. He knew his way around a bike and was a very competent and careful rider. The ride he was doing was the return leg of another long-distance ride that had been completed. John was riding his Harley Davidson, and was returning to Canberra after a fun-filled few days away. He had plenty of rest on the way home. The Police did not believe that tiredness, fatigue, speed, alcohol, recklessness or other vehicles were factors in his accident. The road was.
Another FarRider, and numerous other motorcyclists, were travelling the same way at the time. I was not amongst them. Upon overtaking some vehicles towing caravans on a wet road in light rain, John’s bike hit an unseen lengthwise depression in the road. We call them potholes, but this was more a shallow trench than a round hole as I understand it. The road veered left at this point. The bike became uncontrollable after impacting the shallow depression and left the road. The details of what happened next are unclear, but John was thrown from the bike and died at the scene.
The FarRider fraternity is in shock and mourning over this accident due to the nature of its occurrence. We all take risks when we ride, but we mitigate those risks by ensuring our bikes are in good condition and our ride gear is as good as we can afford. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst as they say. There is a great deal of anger at the condition of the roads upon which we travel here, and the loss of a friend to inadequate road construction or maintenance is galling. However, many of us are preparing for another endurance ride in a few weeks’ time, so we live with knowledge that what happened to John could happen to any of us.
It has been said that John died doing what he loved. This is an old cliché that carries no sway with me. He did not head off on a journey with the expectation that he would die. I doubt he was fully prepared for what eventuated. Far from it. The possibility may exist, but it should never be an expectation. There is a saying by Henry Van Dyke that goes like this: “Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live”. We all ‘come alive’ when we ride. This is another often clichéd saying, but one which many of us subscribe to. It has its place I suppose.
John has joined the growing number of friends I have lost to a pastime I love. I am deeply saddened by his passing and troubled by the circumstances. The lessons from this tragedy are obvious. The roads we ride can be treacherous and unforgiving. All I ask is that you take care when you ride. Be aware of your surroundings and ride to the conditions in which you find yourselves. My apology if this is seen as preaching. It can never happen to me. Right? Think again. Farewell my friend. You will be missed. RIP John Ainsworth, FarRider and IBA Member.
