I worked unskilled manual labor jobs (ranching/landscaping/construction/roughnecking/etc.) in the southern US starting age 14 during high school, then through university to pay for tuition (sometimes working two jobs), and after university in the oilfields until I finally found a white collar job utilizing my degree. It is back breaking work, sometimes in 100°+ heat/12 hr days, typically with zero health benefits. Many times employers are happy to use people up. The chance of injury is high, and even in skilled trades the longterm career sustainability is tough and hard on the body. It is also sometimes a culturally abrasive/toxic work environment, with hazing and poor leadership. I quickly decided that was not the life I wanted, and leveraged my degree into something else. I think that in the US some of the primary reasons people leave or avoid blue collar/hard hat industries is due to the risk of injury and poor quality/nonexistent or unaffordable healthcare.
I was lucky to learn how to ride from someone with decades of experience. Was taught early on to always prepare for the worst to happen, and one of the best ways to avoid an accident was to avoid it altogether (i.e. taking the longer/safer route around a congested city, don’t ride after dark (avoid wildlife), etc.). Its important recognize “normalization of risk” bias. Because the natural consequences of failure on a motorcycle can be so severe, its not adequate to use personal failure as a metric for riding behavior. You can always push the limits a bit further…until you cant anymore. I only crashed once…lowsided on a routine evening ride where road construction crew had left a 3” tall 90° angle curb between 2 uneven lanes. Didn’t see it in time while switching lanes. Should have been easily avoidable. A rider is fully responsible for their ride profile, no matter the conditions. Just a few lessons learned from years of riding over thousands of miles across North America. I now live in a city that I consider to be too dangerous to ride in (high speeds and driving culture has a reckless disregard for traffic laws). Thinking of picking up off-road riding again, since it fits better with my current lifestyle and hobbies.
