I’ve been riding for 30 years, other than one incident due to my own stupidity 20 years ago, I have had no problems. I put at least 6,000 miles on my bikes this summer and about the same last year too.
I come from riders on both sides of my family and no serious issues to report.
I do know people that have had serious accidents, but I don’t know how they were riding at the time.
I try anticipate any problems and every once in a while practice avoidance and quick stop maneuvers. I also try to avoid situations that may get out of control e.g. riding up into a blind spot, not exceeding speeds limits (well not greatly exceeding), avoiding heavy traffic, etc.
Usually my wife rides with me. She would kill me if I have an accident with her on the back.
I think the key points to not getting yourself killed are:
Don’t ride like a dumbass
Know your limits
Practice safety manuevers
Anticipate potential problems including trying to figure out how that next car can kill you and how your are going to avoid being killed.
People turning left in front of me or pulling out into an intersection front of me are my biggest concerns.
Now that being said, I have always live in small-medium cities. I have ridden in high-traffic areas like Chicago or Denver, but they do tend to scare me a little or at the very least, put me on high alert! I’m not sure I would ride as much if I had to ride in a lot of traffic all the time, think L.A. or cities on the east coast.
The closest I came to getting killed this summer was when I was riding my Goldwing down a Jeep trail in the Rockies. My wife threatened me with death if I did that again! She didn’t think GW’s were meant to go off-road, especially with her on the back.
I was injured pretty badly almost immediately after I started riding (details upon request, otherwise I won’t bore folks with my “war story”), but “climbed back up on that horse” as soon as I physically could (Doctor’s permission), even if all I did was putt-putt around the neighborhood ~20-25 mph until I felt confident enough to try local roads (~35-45 mph), and then back up onto highways.
But I’m very observant to the point of paranoia against cars. Highway riding isn’t so bad, and I definitely give truckers plenty of room (they kick up road debris like crazy), but city drivers do the damndest things.
I also practice emergency stopping and “weaving” (quick, controlled direction changes/obstacle avoidance) in deserted sections of shopping center parking lots. I’ve even had cops come by and ask me what I was doing, and they were satisfied enough with my answer to say, “Stay upright,” and leave me to my practice.
Thanks for all the feedback guys, even if the dead ones aren’t contributing. (Just like all the kids that didn’t make it out of the 60’s with their lawn-darts)
My bike was my main source of transportation for the years I lived in New England. I only laid it down once doing thirty mph on a wet road. Only had a minor bruise on my elbow. It did not deter me.
When I moved back to Minnesota I got tired of freezing my ass off, so I sold it. I’ve never had a desire to buy another one because I feel like I really did cheat death. I’ve always been a risk-taker and I kinda marvel at the fact I never did any real damage to myself.
I rode for a number of years in Florida along the east coast and enjoyed it and never had an accident. I was also single and care-free and if something happened to me the only people who would have to get over it would be my parents.
Then moving to Minneapolis with the increased metro traffic and the auto drivers who aren’t used to seeing motorcylces half the year, it just took too much concentration to drive safely while keeping an eye on all the other cars around me. It wasn’t much fun anymore. Not to mention I acquired a wife and kid who I wouldn’t really want to leave behind because of someone elses carelessness.
Rode for years; basic transport, distance touring, a few track days, recreational. Couple of getoffs that might have been bad but lead to becoming a better rider instead, I’ve fallen out of it the last couple of years, but no regrets.
I chose riding for years no injury. It occurs to me that I do have a burn mark on my right calf from the one time I ever rode in shorts and managed to bump into the exhaust but I won’t count that for the purposes of this poll.
There is truth to the saying about there being two types of riders (those who have crashed and those who haven’t crashed YET), but if you ride smart, you’ll be able to walk away from it when the bike does go down under you. I’ve only been tossed by a bike twice, once as a kid in the dirt, and once a few years ago because of an oily road. Neither gave me more than scrapes or bruises.
Don’t let the fear of injury keep you from getting a bike. Take the safety class, wear your protective gear, and enjoy the road. It’s the best way to get around.
Fell off for no good reason except it was a murky night seven years ago now. The elbow I landed on was sore for weeks, and the arm was spectacularly coloured from shoulder to wrist pretty much, but I had the use of the arm even if the point of the elbow was sore enough to persuade me I might have just cracked the bone a little. Other than that, nothing worse than a scratch, ever, even the time I went over the front of a car.
I used to feel that way. Hampshire makes good points about driving around Minneapolis, these people are largely clueless, then you add fiddling with cell phones and ipods into the mix, no thanks.
Before I bought a bike about two years ago, I researched the safety statistics pretty carefully. I seem to recall concluding that you were 18 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than in a car traveling the same distance.
This finding deterred me initially, but then I started to pay attention to the motorcyclists I saw on the road. The majority of them were riding around with no helmets, no protective gear, and generally giving the impression that they didn’t care about safety. I assumed that these people contributed to 75% of the accident statistics. I decided that if I always wore protective gear and avoided riding in built-up areas, in bad weather, or at night, then that would lower the risk down to approximately 4x more likely to die than in a car. And that I could live with.
Just a few months after I bought the bike (after spending all this time agonizing over safety, and whether it was too dangerous), I broke my leg pretty badly. How? By slipping on an icy stairwell as I was walking to my car.
Life is dangerous. Unless you sit on your couch and at a desk all day, you’re going to get hurt doing something. Buy the bike, buy the gear, don’t ride it like an idiot, and you’ll be fine.
The take-away I determined was that, yeah, it might be 20 times more dangerous, but that’s 4500 fatalities out of FOUR MILLION REGISTERED Motorcycles. Statistics are easy to bend to your will. twenty times worse is still point 1 percent of the machines out there.
Rode for 20 years, one injury where I was on crutches for a week, taxi turned in front of me, various other near misses. One dead friend, another with paralysed arm and leg and an eye lost. Gave up because a truck backed over my parked bike and wrecked it a few years back and decided it was time to let it go.
The biggest danger is the first 5 years in my view. The problem is generally the rider, but unfortunately noone ever thinks they are ‘that rider’.
This aspect bothers me a little. I’m 6’6, 270 lbs and was looking at a Honda 1300 VTX, not a particularly hot cruiser, it is, however, 750 lbs all by itself. I rode the pants off a Honda 110 trailbike as a teen, and have had a couple of REALLY fast cars for more than a decade. I put about a thousand miles a year on a mountainbike.
But this thing won’t be a trail 110, a mountainbike, or a Vette…and it’s a bit more than everybody normally recommends as a first bike…everybody that isn’t selling motorcycles, that is.
I’ve been riding for 10 years and have laid down bikes 3 times, the last one seriously. Lucky for me I was wearing all my gear, even my under-armor. After I got the release from the EMTs since I told them I didn’t want a ride in the ambulance to the hospital, I picked up my bike and rode it home… then drove to the hospital because I had a serious headache. A few hours later, the attending doctor gave me a Moltrin and big bandaid for my knee but I still wasn’t feeling well a few days later. I then went to my personal doctor, who referred me to a neurologist, who then referred me to a orthopadic surgeon. He advised me that the headaches were caused by a cracked spine and bulging disc and I could either make the situation worst by doing nothing or have surgery. A month later, I was recovering with a permanent plate in my neck, and to date, have had no problems. Looking forward to riding again. :smack: Once you have it in your blood, it’s hard to let go.
