Quite a few of you are considering renting or buying a scooter or motorbike during your time here in Barcelona. There is a hardly a more liberating feeling than cruising around on two wheels and it is definitely a passion of mine, although I don’t currently ride a motorbike here (yet). However not many are very familiar with riding motorbikes and think that it is as easy as riding a bike, which definitely not true.
I peronally have reasonable experience in riding motorbikes and therefore I would like to just quick remind you of the key issues when riding a motorbike, which the majority of students and friends are disregarding as I can see everyday:
- The most difficult driving is driving in walking pace and not full speed. Practice it!
- Secondly knowing how to breaking is key! It requires a lot of training for the wheels not to lock up.
- Keep the front tyre straight when breaking because the main braking force is on the front tyre. When you front wheel is not straight it will twist and when it twists it will bring you to a “grinding” stillstand, on the ground!!
- When you drive fast and then fall the first thing that touches ground is your chin!!!! Open-face helmets, like the MOMO-Design helmets, might look cool but losing the face from the nose downwards and scraping off the bottom jaw is not cool. I got to see accident photos of that and it is awful to be disfigured for the rest of your life because you wanted to look cool. Buy a helmet with chin protection!
- When you are “lucky” the second body part that touches the ground are your hands! One of our classmates learnt about this the hard way! Wear leather gloves, ALWAYS!
- The third body part touching ground usually are your feet and you will be amazed how easily those toes are ripped off! Wear proper shoes!
- On the road the positioning in the lane is very important and make sure that you always drive in either tyre track and not in the middle. The middle collects dust and dirt. Secondly you have to defend your lane in order not being pushed off your lane by cars. When you are not determined you can easily follow steps 2 – 6 if you are not careful.
- Never break on road markings because they are extremely slippery otherwise you will follow steps 2 – 6 if you are not careful.
Enjoy Barcelona on a two-wheeler but don’t be stupid and dress properly! You wonder what this has to do with a MBA? How do you think most people drive to the school?
