February 18, 2010 11:55 AM PST
I'm a cruiser type myself, I think going that fast is a bit irresponsible to begin with. That being said, I know that there's plenty of sport riders out there, and if the kid was running in a group that wanted to fly, he knew what he signed up for and he twisted the throttle, and he paid the price. Doesn't make it any less tragic, and human nature is to try to place blame or at least explanation... you may well feel some guilt deep down, or you wouldn't be thinking about it all the time. That's perfectly fine, and I'm glad that you're not cold and carefree that one of your brothers went down.
I also have to say that in a different group, if I was riding in a group and the leader(s) took off like that, I'd (1) watch them go, and (2) be REALLY pissed when I caught up to them, not as much for leaving me behind, but more for endangering their own lives. Skill level is only part of the game when you want to ride that fast. You have so many things that you couldn't possibly predict, from traffic to debris on the road, to possible mechanical failure. No matter how careful you are to check your bike and everyone else's, no matter how experienced you are at that style of riding, no matter how experienced the rest of your group is, you can never count on a car not popping out into your lane, crossing in front of you, or a little bit of loose gravel or heck, at those speeds, a nut or bolt dropped off a car on a curve. it wouldn't take anything to spill a bike at those speeds. As the leader of the pack, I might not place BLAME on you; as your friend, riding with you, I would be furious with you for being that careless about your own life. (Same would go for ANYONE who throttled up to keep up with you.) I know running fast is a rush, but I've been fortunate enough to learn from other people's mistakes and I've decided that my life is too valuable to endanger for a rush. IMHO.
