By the Staff of Clutch and Chrome

It starts somewhere for every rider, the first thoughts of sitting in the saddle, eyeing up new motorcycles and even dreaming of the open road. But for some, family, friends and significant others don't share in the dream. Clutch and Chrome has brought together facts, figures and some tips to help convince everyone you haven't gone crazy and why buying a motorcycle is really a good idea.

Every rider faces countless difficult decisions during their time on two-wheels. Many are made without a moment for thought, and while some decisions are preventative to avoid potentially dangerous situations, others are thrust upon us in a life-threatening instant.

Ironically, the most difficult decision is faced before a rider comes anywhere near their first motorcycle. How to tell family and the significant other about your growing need to ride?

Although not a formidable decision in itself, it could be considered one of the most momentous to make and the hardest of all to carry out.

Becoming a biker isn’t really a decision, but more a calling. For many riding a motorcycle is enjoying a freedom they’ve always been looking for, experiencing a passion missing from their life or uncovering an addiction they never knew they had.

The challenge of turning to two-wheels is when it comes time to tell friends, family and that special person in your life. Unless they happen to ride as well, a would-be biker can easily find themselves being questioned, begged and called suicidal or even crazy.

How does a new biker help those nearest to them understand and appreciate the decision to ride a motorcycle?

For the sake of this article, we’ll consider addressing the concerns of three groups of people typically in most rider’s lives, family, friends and the wife or girlfriend. If you’re a female biker who needs help convincing the man in your life why you should ride, maybe you don’t need advice but a new beau.

Why they do it
Regardless who is questioning your decision to start riding, understanding the heart of their concerns only helps the discussion. The objections aren’t necessarily from facts but more from a heartfelt fear out of genuine love for you. The reasoning may not be sound and their facts mistaken, but the emotions of what could happen while you’re riding are as real to them as your motorcycle passion is to you.

The most important advice in successfully telling those nearest you about your new life as a biker is to keep the conversation unemotional and factual but remain empathetic to their fears. By appreciating how objecting friends and family feel doesn’t make their argument stronger, it just makes you more understanding and that’s never a bad thing.

“Because we love you,” will be a statement thrown out to either preface a view or used as period to end a thought and although it’s certainly said with sincerity, the phrase could quickly become annoying.

However, on the flip side it has as much effect and carries similar weight as your potential argument of “but I want to!” Not a great tactic considering the discussion is about becoming a hardened, independent biker looking for an empty road and not acting like a whining eight-year old verbally stamping your feet.

Even though you may drink out of the milk carton, leave socks lying around and spend too much time watching sports, believe it or not your loved ones are actually emotionally attached to you. Probably more than you are to the idea of buying a motorcycle.

All this emotion can lead to things being said that doesn't necessarily move the conversation forward. Since you're the one looking for the concession, their buy-in so to speak, it falls to you to keep the discussion calm and focused.

Motorcycles are dangerous
Always the immediate response from non-riders, it’s a generic statement that would have anyone believe we live in the world of Mad Max with roads full of roaming bandits. Admittedly, every person climbing into the saddle carries the burden of the bad-boy biker image constantly reinforced in the media and is tasked with living down every terrible rider on the roads. New riders should get used to fighting both images, it’s an ongoing battle that seasoned bikers will tell you is only beaten with one courteous act after another to convince one non-rider at a time.

Interestingly enough, overcoming the concern of motorcycles being dangerous is considerably easier than it sounds.

But successfully convincing your family that motorcycles are safer than they imagined involves taking on some personal responsibilities such as wearing proper safety riding gear and completing a motorcycle safety course. By taking these measures a rider removes themselves from many of the high-risk categories concerning motorcycle fatalities. It also gives you the opportunity to use many of the statistics included in this article, allowing for facts to be brought into an otherwise emotional discussion, which is nearly impossible to win.

While some see taking on these responsibilities as a problem or hardship, all of them are truly needed to keep you safe, especially in the early days of riding. A favored biker saying is every new rider starts with two bags, one full of luck and the other nearly empty with just a few skills and experiences. A biker needs to hope one fills up before the other empties.

Besides, if you truly believe all the facts and figures included in this article they clearly outline the need for safety courses and the appropriate riding gear.

It’s all in the delivery
Successful attorneys know the best case in the world can be lost if it’s not presented properly. So before Clutch and Chrome gives you the evidence to win over judge and jury, let’s look at how it should be presented.

If there’s the slightest inkling your close family or significant other are going to be upset at the thought of you riding a motorcycle, the very first rule of convincing them otherwise is quite simple.

Don’t suddenly turn up riding a brand new motorcycle.

This move will negatively affect the very people that have some influence over your decision-making such as a significant other or parents for those still living at home. At best, they’ll see it as being snubbed for not being included in the decision and at worst you’ll give the impression of going behind their backs, neither of which lends itself to an open discussion.

Riding a motorcycle certainly stirs the passions and it’s easy for emotion to escalate a conversation into an argument, each trying to add validity to their point of view with volume. Throughout the article we use the word discussion in place of argument simply because different points of view can be made clearer by presenting your facts in a calmer manner.

As you discuss these facts, figures and statistics with the worried and concerned people in your life, deliver them calmly and clearly, but most of all with confidence. A clever trick used by politicians, public speakers and even negotiators is to look into the other person’s eyes and speak slightly lower than the current level of conversation. This forces the listener to focus on what’s being said instead of trying to think of a response. It also slows down what could become an emotional discussion for both your loved ones as well as yourself.

Obviously never interrupt or try to make a point while speaking over someone else, otherwise the effect is totally lost.

Before using any of the information in the article, read them until you understand what the facts mean, not just what they say. Similarly, know ahead of time about the different motorcycle safety courses in your area, how much they cost and the class availability.

You’re essentially cramming for a difficult but needed conversation and preparing with the answers for any possible questions that may come up. As boring as it may sound, the same effort should be spent on all these facts, figure and knowledge that was given to finding your dream motorcycle fueling this new found passion.

Regardless of the statistics used or points given, nothing can guarantee you'll avoid a motorcycle accident. But by relating the facts to the expectations of taking the safety course and wearing the appropriate gear, you can remove yourself from the highest categories of risk.

Simply put, if everyone made the efforts and rode as carefully as you plan to, the fatality numbers would be much lower than current numbers and motorcycles wouldn’t carry the stigma they do. 

Having effectively made your opening speech to the jury and taking queues from your favorite courtroom dramas you can now make the presentation of why you’ll be (relatively) safe on a motorcycle can begin.  

For example, a study completed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in October 2007 found that forty five percent of fatally injured motorcyclists didn’t wear helmets. By promising family, friends and the significant other that you’ll wear a helmet the odds of dying in a motorcycle accident have been greatly reduced. 

An impressive statistic comes from organizations offering motorcycle safety training, claiming 90% of riders that successfully completed a recognized course avoided becoming a motorcycle fatality.

The reason for such a stunning statistic comes from the thorough training motorcycle safety courses offer from companies such as the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and Riders Edge. The courses baby-step riders through the mechanics of operating a motorcycle, slowly building much needed skills and coordination.

Instructors walk participants through road position, handling skills, watching for road hazards as well as maneuvering corners. With these becoming reflexive by nature, it allows the rider the opportunity to focus on watching traffic and other potential problem spots while riding.

If any reckless driving habits are brought up as an objection to riding a motorcycle, although not a scientific fact many riders claim to drive cars as well as their motorcycle in a more cautionary and safe manner having completed a safety course.

Clutch and Chrome's article, 'Motorcycle Safety Course: The must have accessory' not only goes into more depth on the subject, it also gives links to resources and courses.  

Successfully completing most motorcycle safety courses automatically entitles participants to a motorcycle endorsement on their driver license. Interestingly enough, according the above NHTSA study 24% of motorcycle operators involved in fatal crashes were riding without valid licenses at the time of the collision. 

Once again, you've removed yourself from a hazardous category.

The study also found that 45% of motorcyclist killed were involved in single vehicle accidents, meaning no other vehicles were involved. Most experts agree this is due to lack of formal riding training or riding beyond the operator’s abilities, both of which would be taught at a recognized motorcycle safety course.  

Using the motorcycle for commuting brings up the most popular reason for buying a bike, the economy factor. With motorcycles getting forty miles to a gallon of gas, bikes look better every time the price of crude oil moves upward. If the motorcycle is being bought for commuting during the work week, it’s helpful to know twice as many fatalities happen on weekends as opposed to weekdays.  

Finally, making a common sense point potentially eliminates a majority of fatalities from two statistical categories. In overall motorcycle fatalities 27% were riding with blood alcohol levels above the legal limits. Sixty one percent of those killed in single vehicle crashes on weekend nights had blood alcohol levels above the legal limits. 

By removing drinking and riding from the equation, the fatality numbers are theoretically greatly reduced.

In the name of love
The discussion points given in the article so far have mostly applied to family and friends, but the most challenging person to convince is the significant other. While all the statistics can be used, helping the ‘better-half’ appreciate your new found passion requires a few more gentle steps.  

With a significant other, the conversation about buying a motorcycle should happen when the inclination is first starting to grow. Motorcycle blogger, Joker wrote a great post about the conversation with his wife when he realized he wanted to buy a Harley-Davidson. 

As soon as the idea of jumping the saddle starts to form, why not take your wife around the dealerships to look at motorcycles with you? While there, the conversations overcoming any safety concerns can start, taking advantage of fellow bikers surrounding you. Don't worry about looking like any less of a man, it’s a conversation heard a lot at the dealership! 

The advantage of cruising the dealerships together is not only introducing your significant other to the motorcycles, but also the lifestyle that surrounds riding. Between owners groups, organized rides and regular events it gives someone who may not have necessarily been bitten by the biker bug an interest in the two-wheeled social world and lifestyle. 

Also, any stereotypes that your significant other has about bikers will quickly be dispelled as you both visit dealerships and meet riders. 

By including her in this part of the process you’ve essentially created a slow burn buy-in to the idea of you on a motorcycle, but to make the sale complete include your significant other in the safety course. The valid excuse of needing her to know how to handle a motorcycle in case of a non-riding accident while out on a trip not only makes sense but brings her that much closer to a bike of her own.

Following through the curve
If everything goes to plan your friends, family and significant other are happy enough to give the seal of approval for that brand new motorcycle. You noticed we wrote 'happy enough'. Your work isn't over convincing them the motorcycle was a great idea.

Everything that was promised such as taking the safety course, wearing protective gear and most importantly, riding safely needs to be followed through every time you sit on your motorcycle. Giving into peer pressure and riding beyond their limits were two of the items included in Clutch and Chrome's 'Ten things new riders do completely wrong'.

When you bear in mind every biker lays down their motorcycle at some point in time the pressure is on to make that later rather than sooner, if not for the reason of building confidence in your family and significant other. It’s a challenging task since a majority of multi-vehicle accidents involving motorcycles are usually the fault of the car-driver.

Every month of safe riding under the motorcycle belt affirms their faith in you and trust in the decision of letting you ride the roads on that two-wheeled therapy called a bike.

So there you have it, facts figures and a style to argue the case to get you out on the open road before you can say Harley-Davidson. As with all our articles, if you have any suggestions or real life stories to embellish what you've just read, we'd love to hear from you.

As for thanking us, well repayment can come in form of riding safe, staying out of trouble and passing along everything you've learned to the newer kid on the block.

After all, isn't that what riding is all about?