Crashing! Do you really have to?

By Robert Lombardi for Pure Motorbike Passion

My motorized 2-wheel career started in the mid 80’s on a 1985 RM 125. Wow! I though this is crazy; all this power with the turn of your wrist. Six months later I felt it was time to go racing, so I graduated to a 250cc and had even a brief tour on a 500cc machine. During the many practices and races in motocross I learned that in order to go fast I had to push my limits, and that led to some crashing, a lot of crashing. It became part of the game. But as you may expect, the injuries became to many. As the years went on, racing motocross had been taking its toll on me, and I was looking for another 2-wheel experience to fill the void. I needed something less abusive on my body on a daily basis. In 1994, I bought a CBR 900RR: my first street motorcycle. This bike was the @#$% ultimate machine and this eventually led to track days. I did not want to repeat my experience that I had on the dirt bike so I adopted an “aviation” type attitude. No mistakes, as I were flying a plane. With an aircraft you have no second chances. I felt that, due to potential catastrophic results, riding a bike should be thought in this way. Explanation! Simple no risk; don’t do any thing unless you know that you are going to make it, even if it means to slow down a little bit. Yes, it will take longer to reach your potential but at least you will be around to achieve it, and having fun in the meantime. Now, you may ask: what has it happened to the “push the limits” theory? Well, if you are willing to give it a try, it does work for a while. According to my experience, most of the riders who adopt this method do not last long. They end up plagued with injuries and financial woes that eventually cause them to quit. In the other hand, since 2003 I have managed to accumulate 8 regional and 2 endurance national championships using the “aviation method”. Also, in the last 4 seasons, I finished every race I started, except one (Kansas, broken ribs) and I had only two other crashes, both of them in practice. Believe me, my system does work!
All said I am going to answer the title question. Do you have to crash to improve your riding? No! Will it happen? OH YEAH! You could be doing everything right and still go down: it is the nature of the beast and it is our job to cut down the preventable, adrenalin filled, mistakes and bad decisions that cause what I call “unnecessary crashes”.
For instance, the rider that took out Alessandro at the last NESBA day at Summit Point made an obvious adrenalin filled mistake. (watch the video)
In conclusion, it is important to learn something from every crash and understand the dynamic of why it happened: this will help to avoid future crashes.

Good luck,