As NSW Motorcycle Awareness Week approaches this Monday, October 20, Eden rider Terry Gates and daughter Vanessa gave an insight into the average Australian’s drive for motorcycles - and it’s not all tattoos and bikie gangs as some would have you believe.

So why motorcycles?

“I’ve always had this thing with physics,” Mr Gates, an ambulance paramedic, said.

“Motorcycles are just a more physical type of vehicle to operate... when I’m riding it’s almost like a physical ballet.”

So Mr Gates has been proverbially ‘dancing’ for 35 years, since riding dirt bikes around large tracks of land in Reevesby, near Sydney, as a young man.

“Protective gear has advanced considerably since then,” he observed.

After leaving motorcycles behind to grow with his young family for about 15 years, Mr Gates began riding again around 1999, in the ‘Born-Again Phenomenon’ of riders in their 40s, 50s and 60s returning to the two-wheel travel option.

At 16 years of age, Mr Gates’ daughter Vanessa is moving into her HSC year at Lumen Christi Catholic College, aiming to study pharmacy at university.

She is an avid motorcycle lover - but only from a passenger stance.

“Being a pillion [passenger], you’re protected from the rain and the bugs. I like it back there,” she said.

“I used to be scared cars wouldn’t see us on the road when I first started riding on bikes, but the more I’m on the back with Dad, the more confident I become,” she said.

Father and daughter both revel in the social and leisure activities the hobby opens up, and have forged many friendships with like-minded motorcyclists, both riders and passengers, through attending weekend and holiday trips.

“Under every helmet is a normal person - just like behind every car windshield there’s a normal person,” Mr Gates said.

As Motorcycle Awareness Week approaches, the pair stressed the importance of taking that second look and paying that extra bit of attention on the road.

“You so often hear people say ‘oh, sorry mate, I didn’t see you’,” Mr Gates said.

“The fact is they probably did see, but they weren’t paying full attention.

“That inattention is such a large factor in all motorvehicle accidents, and motorcyclists would greatly benefit if people just took that second look,” he said.

NSW Motorcycle Awareness Week runs October 20 - November 1. For further information, visit www.mccofnsw.org.au.