When I ride (either bicycle or motorcycle) I just pretend I am invisible. I do not trust drivers of other vehicles to see me, I assume they will pull out in front of me or blow through a yield sign or whatever. (And frequently, they do!) I don’t ride like an asshole, I am super cautious. I always wear a jacket and helmet, even if the temperature is in the 90s. And the only time I have ever dropped a bike was in my driveway, when my wife got her foot caught trying to get off the bike and pulled the whole thing down.
My father was a pediatrician, but worked a few shifts in an emergency room during his training. From that experience he had two rules for his children. 1) never mow the lawn in bare feet, and 2) never ride a motorcycle. I’m sure both can be done relatively safely, but I would not judge a person who declined a ride.
I hadn’t even considered this, but you may have a point.
I was going to ascribe the same thing to her comment about “I prefer to stay alive” - perhaps a bit of hyperbole out of nervousness, rather than a genuine belief any ride is a death sentence.
I don’t think it was inappropriate of the guy to offer the option, as long as it wasn’t an integral part of the date (e.g. he was expecting this to be the means of transport to a restaurant or whatever). And as long as he didn’t argue the point once it was clearly declined. For all he knew, the OP’s neighbour could have loved bikes and been waiting to be asked.
Um… you’re supposed to lean into curves. How much were you leaning?
Very little. But that’s how one of them explained why the bike fell. Granted, both were trying to impress me and may have been driving nervously.
Life-long rider here, raced for many years as well. I would never get on the back of someone else’s bike. And I really, really don’t want to ever give anybody else a ride, either.
Yeah, they are pretty dangerous to operate due to the massive and increasing stupidity of everybody else on the road.
Oddly enough, the same applies for RVs (other than being invisible). People don’t seem to understand how difficult it is to brake those things to a stop. All they want to do is not be behind you. I used to have nightmares about trying to brake to avoid a collision. It takes defensive driving to a whole new level.
I know just about four people who ride motorbikes regularly. Out of those four, one died, another almost died, and another had a bad, sick-leave-for-weeks spill, all on a bike.
The guy who died lost traction when a truck in front of him dropped dry grain onto the road, and the biker hit his open helmeted head into a roadside post, leaving him brain-dead.
The guy who almost died hit a reindeer that jumped onto the highway. He had very expensive riiding armor and helmet, but still spent considerable time in a hospital with multiple fractures and soft tissue damage, and stated afterwards that had he had lesser gear on, he would’ve died.
The guy who only missed work for several weeks, plus got ongoing aches for the foreseeable future, was hit by a car who “didn’t see him”.
Sample size etc., but personal relations have a big impact. I’m not hopping on a motor bike any time soon.
I have a sister in law who is one of those people who thinks that if you ride a motorcycle, it’s just a matter of time before you wind up in a morgue. What’s hilarious about that is that she is one of the most frighteningly aggressive drivers I know. Stomp on the gas, slam on the brakes, swerve in and out of lanes, just so you can be ahead of everyone else. I feel safer on my motorcycle than I do in a vehicle that she’s driving.
I had a friend who was a cop in London. He passed top of the class at Hendon motorbike school. He spent two weeks in hospital after being knocked off his own bike on his way to work.
There is a practical difference.
Your sister is encased in several thousand pounds of metal armor and collision-mitigation safety devices. You on your bike? A few pounds of leather and plastic, at best.
A car occupant has the better opportunity to survive with less severe injuries, even if more likely to get into an accident, even if by creating the accident.
Totally reasonable for her to turn down the offer. I might be a bit sensitive, but I think the wording of the reply is kinda douchey. Like “no thanks, I’m not a fucking idiot like you apparently are.”
There have been a few times in my life when I came close to buying a motorcycle. But then I remember all the people I’ve known who survived a wreck on one, many of whom still carry the scars, and some who walk with a limp or cane. And I talk myself out of it.
About 40% of motorcycle accidents are single vehicle. Still completely possible for another vehicle to cause a motorcycle crash without ever touching it, but it’s very easy to have bad accident on a motorcycle due to nothing other than the rider’s poor judgement or mistake.
This is why you ask your date to ride on the back of the bike.
That would be my biggest concern getting on a bike with a stranger. Is that person going to do something stupid to try and impress or scare you? Once you know the person, then you can judge if they will at least try to behave safely.
No way would I ride on the back of motorcycle of a person I just met, particularly if I thought that person was motivated to try and impress me.
Here is a nice infographic that shows various activities in “micromorts” to make the comparable. A micromort represents a 1 in a million chance of dying due to participating in the activity.
It shows that the chance of death for riding a motorcycle 60 miles is about the same as going under general anesthetic, or skydiving once. Swimming, using heroin or MDMA are all more dangerous than riding a motorcycle, according to this data.
I’ve been told I’m a good passenger on a bike precisely because I do lean as the rider does–probably because I learned to ride a horse as a young kid and know how to balance and hang on with my knees. That being said I won’t get on a bike any more, not as rider or passenger because I know too many people who’ve wrecked their bikes and I lost a good friend who hit some gravel as she was merging onto the freeway, laid it down and got smashed by a truck. A very promising young friend had a car turn right into him, hit it head on, launched over the entire vehicle and ended up with brain trauma that ensured he wouldn’t be going to medical school–he was wearing a full coverage Shoei helmet with the soft collar and the doctors said that probably saved his life twice, if the soft collar hadn’t been there it would likely have broken both collarbones and some ribs and driven them into his heart. My cousin was on the back of her boyfriend’s bike, wearing a halter top (that’s a whole 'nother level of stupid) and he slid on gravel, she launched off the bike and landed and rolled in a barbed wire fence. Took EMS quite a while to get her cut out of the wire and had scars over most of her back and sides, it’s a wonder she didn’t die. My daughter was taking a dirt bike lesson taught by an incompetent, wrecked the bike and had to be driven over a hundred miles with a badly broken femur–had to have surgery, still has scars all over her leg.
Motorcycles are all kinds of fun but I wouldn’t ride anywhere but offroad and probably not there either. Some kinds of fun are simply not worth the risk.
I don’t/didn’t know a lot of motorcyclists. Three out of four died in bike accidents.
My sister knew a resident (i.e. doctor in training) who rode a motorcyclist and survived a bad accident while not wearing a helmet. Continued to ride without one. Had a second accident and died.
First date with Ms. P was giving her a ride on my bike (it was her idea; she asked right after we met and we went the next day).
You’ve all missed the key part of the OP that casts extreme doubt on the date’s being “seemingly responsible”.
Bzzzzt! Major red flag.
Back in the day, I was working in news and doing a DJ shift at a radio station in a small market. On my day off I got a call from the Big Boss, informing me that two of my colleagues who’d been out for a motorcycle ride crashed, suffering serious injuries requiring extended hospitalization.
That began a hellish period of working 80-hour weeks while the motorcycle nimrods recuperated.
It’s unwise to even accept a car ride from someone who works in radio. 
True.
Also true: Shoeless’s sister has a better opportunity to kill or maim pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and the occupants of other cars than she would if on a motorcycle.
Great find.
Taking it at face value we see that 60 miles (= roughly 1 hour of highway) motorcycle riding is as dangerous as getting out of bed twice at age 45 or living in NYC or Boston for 20 days. Lots and lots of people live in Boston for more than 20 days and are terrified of riding a motorcycle.
Of course if you’re 45 you don’t have much choice about getting out of bed each day, so the motorcycle risk is additive to that. But damn few 45 yos wake up worrying that today’s the day the Big One will get them. Maybe they ought not worry that a relaxing ride on the weekend will get them either.
My creds: motocross racer in HS & early college, street rider from age 16 through age about 35. One serious dirt racing crash w broken leg healed fine, one freeway bailout at ~75mph w no injuries.
Can you bust your ass on a bike all by yourself with no help from others? You bet. Can you get unavoidably whacked by an idiot in a car / truck? You bet. Is every risk you take in your life additive to the risks of just hiding in bed? You bet. It’s all a bet. Motorcycle riding has benefits too, not just risks. The risks are not zero.
They’re also not overwhelming versus other risks people take with nary a thought or care. As the stats show.