Google risk taking and you will find a plethora of articles written by psychologists the world over who have tried to define exactly why someone would do something risky.

Thrill seekers are labelled as “Type T Behaviour” with associated words about “perception of today’s world as too predictable and safe” or “seeking an outlet in the form of extreme sports such as parachuting off cliffs or snowboarding on avalanche-prone mountainsides” A self renowned a research scientist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health stated that “In our modern world, we’ve eliminated a lot of risks and threats that our ancestors faced”

They go on to ask why, despite the well-publicized lethality of such recreational risk-taking, do people continue to engage in such behaviors? Is there perhaps some need to flirt with death in order to feel "alive"? Scholars have discerned a blend of physiological, psychological, social psychological, and cultural causes. Experts have found that risk-taking, can be linked to two types of mutant genes. Other theorists say that thrill-seeking is related to a person's quest for immortality.

Why is it so complicated?

I guess I would place myself in the “risk takers” category. Motorcycle’s are inherently dangerous. That’s part of the fun isn’t it? Or have I missed something in my lifetimes two wheeled journey? I detest the health and safety movement. The latest of which is a reported plot by 3 police forces to stop bikers to issue them with a hi-viz pack… “For your own safety”…

For your own safety?
There is the crux of the matter for me. I do not need any organization from any government department to decide what is safe for me. I do not want to be preached to about risk or compensation or danger.. Life is dangerous, has been since the dawn of human kind when surviving ice age winters, attack by sabre tooth tiger or murderous enemy tribes was a fact of life. While it’s true we have evolved as a species, we have also over populated the world we live in to a point where self destruction will be the inevitable end in millennia to come.

So there is the valid reason to take risks. Us risk takers are saving the human race from its self!

Just make sure that the risk is a calculated one that doesn’t actually cause you any harm !!

In the meantime back on planet TrackdayRiders and despite the apparent lack of an off season as we rattle towards the end of February with increasing speed, the more sane amongst us who couldn’t afford a Spanish trackday trip are looking forwards to the long hot summer of 2010.

Bike rider + Trackday + Risk takers attitude = someone who celebrates life and revels in the joy of living.

And in the end, nothing else matters.