Cape Town – It was standing room only at the Bikers Church in Brackenfell, north of Cape Town, but for all the wrong reasons.
The occasion was the annual Memorial Run in honour of motorcyclists who had died on the roads of the Western Cape in the past year – and there were far too many names on the list, far too many friends, family members and fellow riders crowded into the former warehouse, far too many bikes glinting quietly in the early summer sun outside.
Pastor George Lehman opened the service with a recording of "One Pair of Hands” , a moving call to faith and commitment that’s often ascribed to Elvis Presley but was in fact sung by the author, gospel singer Carroll Roberson.
Lehman took as his text Ecclesiastes 12:6, “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken”. The opening verse of that chapter begins “Remember now thy creator”, and Lehman made the point that it is the living who should be praying and praising the Lord - praying in times of sorrow and praising in times of joy.
“So many people know about God, even believe in God, but don’t take that one step further and place their faith in that one pair of hands,” he said.
Stanley Paton read out the names of the riders whose lives we were there to celebrate, as a representative of each one (friends, family, riding buddies - no biker is ever truly alone) came forward to stand in their place, keeping their memory alive.
After the haunting notes of the Last Post faded away, Motorcyclists’ Association of the Western Cape vice-president Paul du Bruyn took the mike to remind us that this is what we chose. We recognise that riding is dangerous, that we can never know what is around the next bend, but we choose to live life to the full, as did those were there to honour.
‘POINTING FINGERS IS THE EASY WAY OUT’
“Don’t blame others; pointing fingers is the easy way out; the truth is we chose the lifestyle.”
David Frost, deputy director of road safety management for the Western Cape department of transport, took Lehman’s text a step further.
“There’s another ‘one pair of hands’ in play here,” he said, “the pair holding the handlebars.”
He said that of the 62 motorcyclists who had died on Western Cape roads so far this year, almost half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and, most telling of all, 43 were killed on weekends and 38 during the hours of daylight.
Yes, he said, raiding in heavy traffic is dangerous, riding at night is scary - but we know that and we adjust our attitudes accordingly. It’s when we’re out riding for pleasure at weekends, that we don’t anticipate danger and that’s when most fatal crashes happen.
Of a focus group Frost assembled earlier this year, comprising riding instructors, traffic officials, senior club members and motorcycle media representatives, one in four put ‘attitude and awareness’ at the top of their list of motorcycling issues – not only the attitude of other road users towards riders, but bikers’ attitudes towards safe riding and their machinery.
Today’s sports bikes, he reminded us, have performance comparable to a factory Grand Prix of 20 years ago – which is when most of those 30 to 50-year-olds learned to ride.
But how to change those attitudes? Quoting Bob Dylan, he said, “The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind. Don’t let it still be blowing in the wind this time next year.”