I had a motorcycle only for about ten months. In that time I got sick of fearing sliding out in the sprinkler runoff, which has been in the same spot every night forever, and might have algae growing there, and I got sick of the right arm fatigue. You just cant switch arms back and forth on most bikes, or adjust your posture much. How people go from San Diego to Sturgis on one is kind of beyond me.
Oh, and from what I read, the death rate for road bikes is about 27x that of cars per mile.
With a bigger bike, there’s certainly less margin for leaning when you’re at a standstill and being supported by your legs. A Ninja250 (375 pounds) can probably be picked up from horizontal while straddling the bike, but a Goldwing (933 pounds with a full tank) will feel awfully heavy when it leans more than a few degrees, unless you’ve got tree-trunk thighs.
But if you’ve got a decent sense of balance to begin with, you can learn how to use the engine and the brakes to help you keep the bike upright during tight maneuvers at very low speeds. Police riders are the masters of slow-speed riding like this, and they hold competitions on a regular basis. Here’s what they can do with a 580-pound bike, the BMW R1200RT. Away from obstacles, here’s how slowly they can be ridden. Please note that if you take the MSF course, it will not be this difficult!
Probably true. Riders with limited skill/experience/training are often fearful of getting anywhere near the traction limits of their tires, either through braking or turning. The result is that when things get dicey they can run off the road even when they had all kinds of maneuvering traction available. A classic example is these Harley riders, who got impatient, roared past a minivan, then failed to make the next turn. They had tons of room, and the turn wouldn’t have required much lean angle, but the two lead riders panicked, locked up their rear wheels, and rode their bikes right off the road without even trying to make the turn. Training and practice will go a long way toward preventing this kind of mishap.
I had heard 20X, but who’s counting? 
Certainly a motorcyclist’s inconspicuity and lack of protection makes it more dangerous than driving, but there are a number of factors one can control to mitigate one’s risk. For starters, riders without training/licensing are grossly overrepresented in the stats, as are drunk riders. Get some training, work conscientiously to improve your riding/awareness skills beyond what your training gave you, and fergodsake, don’t drink and ride; these things alone will do wonders to cut your risk down.
I always thought it was kinda neat that when you see parked Goldwings, they’re almost completely vertical. Then it dawned on me that those bikes are probably really heavy and it seems to be the bike of choice for a lot of older people.
That first link was pretty cool. That guy maneuvers the bike like it’s part of his body, I can’t imagine someone doing that much better on roller blades or even on foot. Impressive.
The second link, I remember doing that in class. The figure 8 turn and the going slow thing are hard to do on shitty bikes. I remember on my MSF bike when I had to do the figure 8 turn I pulled the choke out for that part so I only had to worry about working the clutch since the RPMs were so high. This way it wouldn’t buck everytime I turned the throttle. It also didn’t help that there was something wrong with my bike that the engine would die if I turned all the way to the right.
That’s still one of my big fears. I’m constantly worried that when I go around a turn my wheels are going to kick out from under me. I get even more worried when that sharp left turn takes me over paint lines. I know I don’t need to be worried, but I am, it’s in my nature. That was part of the reason I had such a hard time in the MSF class with the 135 degree turn. That and keeping my eyes and head pointed at the end of the turn and constantly being worried that there could be something in front of me that I wouldn’t be able to see.
Yeah, I still am. I’ve had my bike for two years but only logged about 2000 miles so far. I don’t know the traction limit, and I really don’t want to discover it by leaning hard on a turn I took too quickly.
I could probably use one of the more advanced MSF courses as a refresher, honestly.
I’ve ridden for thirty-something years and now own my fourth and probably final cycle.
Long rides or rides in traffic will wear you out some. Wind, temperature and rain are factors as well.
A good rider will attempt to be as alert as possible while on the bike and that, in itself, can add to the exhaustion factor.
I think a lot depends on if you are properly dressed for the kind of ride you are going to have. Gear is important.
I choose my bike mostly for its ease of ride and ease of use. It is extremely comfortable and great for commuting due to its automatic mode for use in heavy traffic. I can spend all day on it with almost no effort and it has a windshield and comfortable rear seat with huge places for your feet. 650 Burgman
That’s not a bike, that’s a freaking awesome touring scooter. 
I like my Vulcan, but I really wish I’d held out on buying something until I could get a Burgman. Awesome things.
Bike size ----- I got my wife a 250 Virago when she signed up for the MSF classes. Once she got over the fear factor of making the jump, she could do as well on my FLH (old touring Harley) or Sportster as she could it. As long as you are on the tires and take it slow until you get used to the controls, most bikes are pretty much equal. If it does fall over and you have to pick it up, that’s another story. But with training that shouldn’t happen much.
I had 12 years off riding because of a stroke so when I decided to get back on again I signed up for the basic course. One thing the instructors I had stressed was visibility. One set of slides they had showed three riders in different conditions and at different distances - one with a black helmet, one silver metalflake and one plain old white. That white helmet stoop out like a frikkin neon sign even at distances and in the dark; where is basically looked like a Q-tip. But that made an impression on me and its been white helmets ever since with few “close calls” for me to report. IE - it looks like it really does help.
Second little “keep my hide alive” thing - I have a black vest I wear during the day with the big HOG patch in the middle and the chapter rocker. The average little old lady in a Caddie doesn’t know the difference between HOG and the Grim Reapers. They see the vest and big patch and figure its someone dangerous ---- and they back off about another 20 feet. I have had people report the same thing to me with the day-glo vests; that cars will often allow an extra following distance if you have one on. Once you get going consider a safety vest or something like a set of “colors”. Edges aren’t bad things to have.
Our riding instructor had a giant yellow mohawk on his helmet. It looks goofy as all hell, but I got to admit, it attracts attention.
My instructor wears a bright orange construction style vest (They’re $10 or so on the MSF site) over his leathers. He said he knew it worked one when someone pulled up next to him at red light in the middle of the night and said “Duuude…too bright”.
That’s pretty cool. It’s like dressage, but with a bike instead of a horse.
Being visible to drivers is something I worry about. I’m a careful driver, I watch for bikers, and I give people on bikes the same space as I give people in cars. But yeah, not everyone does that. How about retroreflective stripes or patches for night riding? Are there typically any restrictions on what you can put on one’s helmet or clothing in order to be more conspicuous?
I would think that short of putting white lights (that look like headlights) on the back of your helmet, it wouldn’t matter what you do. AFAIK there’s no restriction on how reflective anything can be. The MSF class gave us a bunch of stickers when we graduated, a few of them are super reflective and designed to go on your helmet.
I have a little reflective red light on the back of my helmet. It’s naturally reflective so it will catch light from headlights, and there’s also a little switch I can flip on that will start up a bunch of little dancing LEDs to increase visibility.
The wind noise wears me out, if sounds bother you then the wind will. A windshield would probably help. Earplugs work too.
Otherwise it is somewhat physically demanding. Worse if you’re moving the bike around in a hilly parking area or something. To move the bike forward you can use the engine, but if you need to back it uphill it’s all muscle power.
That’s actually one of the things that keeps me wearing a helmet. I’ve ridden probably a total of 5 miles without one and every time I do it my ears are freezing and I get sick of how loud it is. A helmet really cuts down on that.
Some of that can be countered with prior planning. I drove a sidecar for a while with no reverse gear; all I did was make sure the tail was always downhill so I could pull it with the motor. A friend lost his leg and had an artificial on the right. Back then everything was kickstart so he parked on hills or level. His starting process was run about three steps, jump on swinging his leg over the back, dump the clutch catching it in gear.
The big thing with bikes can be thinking ahead three moves - like in chess. And like chess, study and practice help.
Gary Busey (sic?) is what keeps me wearing a helmet. Dude never was that sharp a knife but now? 
Some people put brake light modulators on their bikes; when you hit the brakes, this makes the brake light flash a couple of times before going to solid-on, just to catch people’s eyes.
Some people install headlight modulators to make their highbeams flicker on four times a second. Certainly gets peoples’ attention, but as often as not it seems to annoy them, especially if you’re behind them and it’s flashing in their rearview mirror.
I have an Olympia Airglide mesh jacket in neon yellow for hot weather, and an AST jacket in neon yellow for less-than-hot weather. I’ve also added retroreflective neon-yellow panels to the rear of my bike’s sidecases (image here). I’ve also modified my turn signals to double as full-time running lights.
When all’s said and done, there are some real idiots out there and there’s only so much you can do to try to get their attention. Every little bit helps, but the smart rider doesn’t rely on passive measures like this: instead, you will be best served by developing your situational awareness and riding skills so as to avoid (as much as possible) situations where you’re at the mercy of someone else’s attention (or lack thereof). don’t linger in blind spots, keep the bike in gear at stoplights until you’ve got a few cars stopped behind you (so you can scoot out of the way if someone behind you ain’t stopping), learn to watch for signs that someone might be about to pull into your path, give yourself plenty of following distance, and so on.
Is that what that is? Those drive me up the fucking wall. I always figured either their headlight was loose or it was so focused in one spot that every bump they hit made the bright spot go past my field of vision. I think those make it worse since I end up looking away from the bike. Yes, I know you exist, but now I don’t know exactly where you are since I’m looking away. I could see having a modulator that gave it a quick flick every couple of seconds, but when it’s that often it’s really obnoxious.
What signs? “They don’t see me, they don’t see me, he’s gonna pull out, I know it, shit shit shit there he goes…good thing I knew that was gonna happen” is just as common as “Okay, driver pulling out of a parking lot…he’s stopped…okay, he’s made eye contact with me…shit shit shit he’s pulling out anyways…good thing I knew that was gonna happen”
They drilled it into us in class, and it’s really true. No one see’s a bike. They said a lot of times after an accident the biker will say he made eye contact with the driver and the driver still pulled out into him, then later when talking to the driver he’ll say he didn’t see the biker.
