Three things to believe (even though they're not necessarily true)

I don’t take much of anything on faith and if the facts don’t show something is really — literally — true, then I don’t believe it. But there are a few exceptions. When it comes to riding and safety, there are a few cases where I’ve decided to believe certain things, even though my hyper-rational side tells me they’re not literally, always true.

Here are three things you should believe.

Ride like everyone in a car is trying to kill you

This has been said a hundred times in the comments on stories we’ve run on crash stats, safety, riding skills, etc. Of course if it were literally true, the average motorcycle street-riding career would last 30 seconds. As soon as I pulled onto the road, the first car driver who saw me would instantly swerve into me and squash me dead. It’s easy enough to do.

Since that’s never happened, I know, rationally, everyone isn’t trying to kill me, but there’s still value in thinking that way. Consider this: If you’re riding down a two-lane country road, do you flinch in terror every time you see a car coming in the other lane? No. Because about a million times you’ve passed a car going the other direction with no drama. So it’s easy to assume the next time will be the same.

Adding a dose of paranoia shakes you out of that complacency. It may mean doing something as simple as shifting your lane position as a car approaches or as you approach an intersection. At least 999 times out of 1,000 it won’t matter, but the one time a texting driver drifts across the center line, it could make all the difference in how you spend the rest of your life. If you have one.

It’s a tiny cost for a potentially huge benefit. I like that. The paranoid mindset keeps you thinking and looking for escape routes. So go ahead and ride like everyone is trying to kill you, even though they aren’t.

Every crash can be avoided

I first heard this said by the late Lawrence Grodsky, the founder of Stayin’ Safe Motorcycle Training and author of the similarly named column in Rider magazine for many years. The fact that Larry died in a motorcycle crash (after hitting a deer at dusk on a rural Texas highway) disproved his statement, in the coarsest way imaginable.

Larry’s successor, Eric Trow, teaches in the Stayin’ Safe course that 99 percent of crashes can be avoided. Whatever the number, I’m convinced of two things: They’re right, that almost all crashes can be avoided but, even more important, you should ride as if they can all be avoided.

That mindset puts the responsibility on you. When a car pulls out in front of me, I can scream obscenities and rage about “cagers” and consider the risk “unavoidable” or I can analyze what I could have done to improve my odds. Was my attention on the greatest risk, the car waiting to turn left across my path, or was I focused elsewhere? Did I shift my lane position to give myself the biggest possible buffer between me and the greatest threat? Was I thinking ahead about “what if?” scenarios, so I had an escape plan ready? Did I have the brake lever covered because I was entering an intersection, a high-risk zone? Had I checked my mirrors to see if there was a car tailgating me that would hit me if I braked hard?

If a car turns left in front of me, it’s the driver’s fault. But I’m the one likely to pay the highest price. So I ride as if I am responsible for avoiding the crash, not as if I’m just a helpless victim of fate.

Even though you’re in too hot, you can make this curve

It’s happened to most of us. We’re enjoying a winding road and then we get into a curve too fast and suddenly we think we can’t make it.

The most common reaction at that point is to panic, give up, stand up the bike, brake, and run off the road, as seen in the video above, which I wrote about a few years ago. Giving up is not the best choice, however, because it may mean plunging into a ravine (as happened in this video) or smashing into the grill of an SUV (as almost happened).

If you’re on any kind of performance motorcycle, odds are very good it’s capable of making the turn, even if you feel you can’t. Your best option is to look farther ahead to the exit of the corner (look where you want to go), lean the bike over more and try to make the curve. If you’re on a cruiser with limited lean angle, your odds may be a little worse, but if you shift your body weight (you’re going to have to have practiced that before it is needed in a panic situation) you still have a fighting chance of getting through without dragging hard parts badly enough to cause your tires to lose traction.

So believe you can make the curve. It might not be true. Maybe you really did screw the pooch and get into that curve so fast there’s no way your motorcycle can get you out the other side and still on the tires. But you’re better off believing and trying, because you probably can make it.

The thing is, for these three things to save your hide you have to believe, really believe, or you won’t act on them in the moment. For the first two, it means keeping your brain active and maintaining awareness, instead of riding carefree and letting your mind wander. As for the third, when I’m coming to a winding stretch of road, I’ll actually remind myself: If you have a “moment,” don’t panic and give up. Lean more and ride through it.

For your own good, sometimes you have to believe.