You cannot lose what you have never had

The is such a thing as a conditioned reflex. If you ride a motorcycle or drive a car relying on them, you are a bloody idiot. I can do that, but I don't. At high speed your brain speeds up, so if you have a moment, everything happens slower. On a race track which is constructed properly, there is always a way to recover if you get into a corner too hot. But if the discs on the front of your bike explode when you are braking at the end of a long straight - you are dead. On public roads, there are many more ways to die.
Proactive is always better than reactive when managing risk.

I am 81. My problem when driving is I get bored shitless, so I do not concentrate. If I went road racing tomorrow, my mind would be on what I was doing. When I race my mind is always slow and what I do is always well considered, even when I am fast. Same when I drive my car on public roads - I don't often sink my boot into it, and if I do, I am always very careful about where I do it. I enjoy speed, however I gave up riding motorcycles on public roads when I was 29 and went road racing where it is safer. My road car has 6 gears close ratio - it is a waste of space.

My wife drives on her reflexes and I prefer to be a passenger. So approaching traffic lights where there are stationary cars is often a thrill. Life is no fun if you do not have a sense of humour. My son has a quick Volkswagen, He took me for a ride in it down our street at about 60 MPH. It ends in a right hand corner. He braked for the corner at max, smoothly and went around. If his brakes had failed, he might have needed good reflexes to avoid the house in front of him. - Risk conscious ?
It is no good getting old, if you do not get smarter. But if you do not get smarter, you might not get old.

I must be getting smarter .......... I'm decades older than I used to be

Way back when I'd ride at 10 / 10ths pace most everywhere but these days more like 7/10ths

Younger and duller / no fear ....... older and wiser / worry over everything

Hey ho I wouldn't change things as I had a Lot of fun back then .... still do nowadays but don't need to keep such a plentifull supply of underpants ... having a washing machine helps too !

With moderate intelligence it's easy to tell when it's time to slow down when familiar brake points are nearly missed and one's vision is not as good as it used to be. I hit the tipping point at 54 years of age. Sad realization when I had to say goodbye to some very nice road toys.

A well-maintained Norton with good brakes and suspension is kind of safe on the road due to the lack of HP, but riding on the road will still kill ya if you are not paying attention.

I did not watch more than a minute of the video. Like the dinosaur I had my time and knew what was going to be said.

As I get older and after 50 years of riding I am still riding the same and know my limits when pushing my bikes to those limits I haven't changed my riding style but a few things I do now more than my youth is I ride smarter, watch out more in what's happening around me and thinking way ahead of me at all times.
I still ride hard in the bush with my dirt bike when I take it out and I am more coruses when riding and know the person you are riding with, any new riders I ride with I sit back and take notice in how they ride or what they do and if they do silly or stupid things I let them know or if they are dangerous in how they ride I give them a wide berth and go my own way or never ride with them again.
I ride my own way and have nothing to prove and know your own limits, as well enjoy the ride whether with mates, or yourself or with the wife on the back and also ride to the conditions no matter what.

One of my mates is currently dying in a nursing home in Melbourne. I am 3 months older than him. About 5 years ago, he bought a Suzuki Bandit. He used to ride it like an idiot. Some guy in a modern supercar had a go at him, and he made that bloke look really stupid. One of the things he has said is 'some of those old guys cannot drive, because they have NEVER been able to dtive'. Most car drivers have never had their vehicle swap ends at high speed. Yet they still believe they know how to drive. The same sort of thing applies to motorcycles. If something has never happened to you, you do not know how to handle it when it does.
One dark rainy night, I was driving down a slippery road and a car pulled out in front of me. My car did a complete 360, then I continued on my way. I did not teach any of my kids to drive - my ex did that.
One of my sons had a ZXR750 Kawasaki. He took me for a ride on the back. When we stopped, he asked 'how was that Dad'. I said 'very good, Geofftrey'.
When he was about 10 years old, he and his brother had watched me crash at about 100 MPH.

"One of the things he has said is 'some of those old guys cannot drive, because they have NEVER been able to dtive'."


Amen.
Very well articulated.