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The Need for Speed? – #2


yamaha.JPGI like motorcycles. Fast ones. Always have. I owned a few in my younger days. And even now, if I had the dough, I’d be making my morning commute into the office on a Honda CBR1000RR. But these days I’d be sure to adhere to the posted speed limit. And if I got the urge to crack the throttle, I’d hit Pueblo Motorsports Park and keep it all legal like.

Have you ever heard of Randy George Scott of British Colombia? I hadn’t either, until I recently read an article about this fellow uploading a “from the rider’s perspective” video on the Internet of himself doing a whopping 186 mph on his cycle (a Yamaha, like the one pictured here). What’s more, Randy was doing this out on the highway as he was weaving in and out of traffic and changing lanes like he was in a race.

See, you don’t have to be Justin Bieber in a silver spaceship (a chrome-bodied Fisker Karma) to draw the attention of local authorities!

But really, my point here isn’t so much about maniac drivers or fast motorcycles as it is about the influence that a guy you’ve never heard of halfway around the globe can have on your kid. Or on you. Maybe Randy failed to realize that there are millions of very impressionable teens out there that may see his viral video and decide that they too would like to have a crack at speed infamy.

I guess another point to this could also be that if you do something illegal and post it on a social networking site you could end up in handcuffs—just like Randy. After the video went viral, the motorcyclist turned himself in, perhaps figuring it was just a matter of time before the police came knocking on his door anyway. Randy is facing some pretty serious charges, the least of which is the loss of his privilege to drive.

In this age of capturing video and sharing it with the world it seems as though some people are determined to give it a bad name. My wife has learned a great deal about cooking, sewing, gardening and parenting a toddler by way of constructive videos online. So here’s a new slogan for you: Please upload responsibly! Oh, and drive safe out there, because the life you save might be your own.