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This tear-jerking tale of teen love and traffic tragedy began appearing in our inbox in February 2005. Often titled What is Love? or The Meaning of True Love, it remains unattributed at this point, its author unknown to us. The story appears to be a work of fiction in that we've been unable to find any news stories of such an accident. (Mind you, the lack of details such as the names of the people involved, the approximate date of the accident and so much as a rough idea of which city or even country it happened in make searching for information akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.) Numerous folks who know far more about motorcycles than we do have pointed out that most (if not all) bikes have two braking systems which are independent of one another, so it would hardly be likely for both to fail at the same time. Even if they did, a motorbike that has lost its brakes can be brought to a stop through downshifting (gearing down) or even through turning off the engine (although the fact that a brake-less bike traveling at high speeds can be safely halted doesn't necessarily rule out this account, because panic could cause the driver to think he had no other option but to crash into something). As the narrative has passed from one person to another, it has picked up a coda that has since become part of what now gets forwarded: Another coda, one less often seen, reads thusly: These end notes explain the moral of the tale, that it is important to frequently reassure the folks who are important in your life that you love them. While you won't catch us preaching against the value of constantly repeated expressions of affection in successful relationships, the premise of the story about the helmet-less swain is flawed — failure to utter I love you does not mean you risk your nearest and dearest's not knowing such information if you were to suddenly expire.
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