I just wanted to add that I should have worded my title better… I had meant to separate out the two thoughts more completely. 1) I saw some stupid motorcycle stuff today. 2) What stupid things have you seen lately? (i.e. not necessarily motorcycle related)
It seems to me that the stupidity difference in various types of motorcycle behavior is pretty subjective. Just riding on a motorcycle versus in a car makes you over 20 times as likely to be killed (1989).
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811389.pdf
Table 2 Page 2.
Motorcycle Passenger Cars Light Trucks
Fatalties Per 100 Million
Vehicle Miles Traveled 21.45 0.87 0.92
The actual ratio is 24 times, but motorcycle fatalities dropped in 2010, so I rounded down to 20.
I ride a bike, Stupid un-safe riders are a self correcting problem. I have over 30 years of safe riding, somtimes I weave so its not all that un-safe.
Looks like I’m good for 5 million miles on average though, and I’m not going to get close to that in a lifetime’s riding, so I call the risk acceptable. 
eta: And you realize, of course, that those average figures may conceal a serious skew towards a much higher fatality rate among riders who ride stupidly, and for the rest of us, the figures may be even more acceptable.
Add in grievous/permanent injuries - amputations, paralysis, etc. - and I expect the stats get a little more intimidating. I don’t have numbers, but I’d wager those sorts of injuries far outnumber deaths.
Undoubtedly. Particularly true if “stupid” includes riding without receiving any training or getting a license/endorsement. A great many riders do not bother to develop the skills they need to deal with adverse situations that arise from time to time, or the awareness to avoid high-risk situations (such as tailgating, or lingering in another vehicle’s blind spot); it is these riders, along with the squids (and in fact some of whom are squids), who are grossly overrepresented in motorcycle crash statistics. These are the people who move the motorcycle-to-car death ratio toward 20:1, and make me feel better about my own odds (160,000 miles of riding, all crash-free).
I guess no one bothered to read my link. Injuries while riding a motocycle worked out to one injury per 232,000 miles. (table 1).
Of course, 29% of motorcycle fatalities were legally intoxicated. I’m not sure if that should be counted as an accident or a successful suicide.
Got any data on horses??!?!
Damit, I’m going to make you people discuss horses if its the last thing I do! 
Also, weaving can be a legitimate strategy for increasing visibility. I’ll often weave when I see someone who could potentially pull out or turn left in front of me.
I wasn’t in a hurry to go read it, no, since I already know what the relative risks are and your angle seemed to be “Just riding a motorbike is retarded in the first place, never mind arguing over the details”. Still’n’all, I’ll agree that I know by reputation of several people who have sustained serious hurt on a bike. As for me, I acknowledge the risk and deem it acceptable, while doing all I can to reduce it as far as possible.
In my irresponsible youth, I was known to ride drunk. It was about the only time I would scrupulously stay 1mph below the limit and exercise unusual caution at intersections. But I have mended my ways since then. 
It might not have been a stupid maneuver at all.
I tend to do that intra-lane weaving kind of maneuver, particularly on roads – straight or curved – that have only one lane in either direction. It’s something I learned at MCSF training; it was explained as a way to make one self more visible and/or avoid road hazards. The CHP officer teaching the class also noted that a) it burns forward energy and increases distance between the rider and objects to the front without the need to roll off the throttle or apply the brakes, and b) it signals very strongly to tailgaters that they’re too close and need to back off.
Most drivers, when seeing odd behavior from the vehicle ahead (regardless of the vehicle type) will back off (which was the instructor’s point). I would suspect you did so when you saw the weaving. If you then returned to following at a distance the rider(s) felt was less-than-ideal, they may have felt more drastically strange behavior was necessary to get you to back off. [Note that I’m not accusing anyone of actual tailgating; I’m suggesting the motorcycle operator may have felt he was being followed too closely for his/her comfort. :eek:]
One of my bigger irritations when commuting or fun-riding is that cage-operators seem to feel they can drive very close to my tail light simply because they can see over or past me due to the narrowness of my vehicle and body. Not only is such an assumption untrue, but it’s illegal and puts me in unnecessary danger.:mad: On a multi-lane road, you’re welcome and encouraged to go around me – particularly because that means your vehicle will be moving faster than mine and therefore be more likely to catch the patrolman’s eye.
If you’re tailgating me, I’ll do what it takes to increase my safety (and your safety will happen to increase as well).
–G!
“Get yer motor runnin’
Head out on the highway!”
. --Steppenwolf
. Born to be Wild
We were riding in a group of 4 on a one lane each way 55 MPH state road. The first person was hanging towards the middle of the road and we all followed in the usual staggered positions.
A motorcylce from outside our group, going the same way, was passing in the other lane. There was no oncoming traffic. All of a sudden he cuts in slightly ahead of our second rider and passes our first rider ON THE RIGHT.
We were speechless. Lucky for everyone our lead rider didn’t feel the need to use his whole lane right then. He had no idea the guy was there until he was next to him.
Young dude in a short-sleeved cotton shirt and shorts, on a crotch rocket, trying to lane-split (which is neither legal nor common here) on the freakin’ interstate, between two cars going at least 80.
I think it’s a reference to the fact that Christopher Reeve was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse.
I live in Colorado, which only requires eye protection when riding. A common sight in warmer months are motorcyclists wearing eye protection, a tank top, shorts, and flipflops.
I saw that sort of thing surprisingly often while in PA. I mean, do these guys simply not value their lives at all? I did most of my biking in an area where lane-splitting is common (SE England) and dubiously legal, but man.
On the other hand, I do recall having a car attempt to split my lane for me. Leaned in for a sharp 50mph bend, I made the mistake of being too far to the left of my lane. Shoulder check, as I did often on the bike, and some lunatic car had pulled alongside me. That wasn’t a SMIDSY, it was a SMIDGAF. I glared at the driver and he backed off. Fucker quite intentionally left me no escape route at all.
I was too far to the left, and I know that was a mistake. But there’s no way he didn’t see me.
Let’s see… living in SE Asia I see a lot of stupid things done on bikes pretty much everyday but I think the top one would be the two guys carrying a 4 meter long or so ladder on their shoulders, with their heads poking out through the steps on an expressway with cars moving at well over 100km/h. Perhaps the worst from the mental image of the two heads being shaven off cleanly.
I see regularly families (as in two parents and two or three children) on a highway without a single helmet between them, kids on shorts and flip flops racing on the small, tight side roads, guys carrying unbelievable heavy and/or large loads on their bikes, half a dozen cooking gas cylinders, twenty chicken cages, that sort of thing.
Then there’s the driving (shudder), I remember Vietnam being particularly hair rising; at Da Nang I saw bikes zipping across an intersection, all four directions at the same time, I stood watching there and said to myself “there’s going to be an accident”; sure enough about a minute later I see a man falling of his bike and bumping along the intersection.
So as you see motorbike safety standards are pretty low around here.
I tend to agree that young people have the right to take stupid risks, but once a person has dependents, they give up the right to do that. A soldier, fireman or policeman can argue that their risks are for the public good and the the public should take care of their family if they go down in the line of duty. A motorcycle rider has no such argument in their favor.
No lately but the dumbest ever was a dude on a sport bike, no helmet, shorts, t-shirt, flipflops, smoking and talking on a cell phone while driving over the West End Bridge. I pulled in basically beside him from the Ohio Blvd ramp and when we got to the red light at the end of the bridge I asked (politely) if I could have his liver when he was done with it. He just sort of looked blank.
Dumbest lately had to be me and a friend trail-riding our Sportsters. OK - we both grew up riding when a hawg without a windshield was considered a dirt bike but its still kinda dumb. But by way of excuse we are experts and we did tell the couple people we saw not to try this at home.
Can’t say I’ve witnessed anything memorable lately. But I firmly believe that stupid activities are immenently subject to self correction.
I didn’t witness it, but this video is one of the most memorable I’ve seen.
About a month ago I saw two people on a 50cc scooter. They are not made for passengers. There isn’t a place for a second person to even place their feet. The driver was rather large and the girl behind him had her legs straight out, and half of her butt hanging from the back of the seat. There simply is no room for a passenger! On top of that, they were on a road where traffic routinely moves anywhere from 35mph (for those actually doing the speed limit- very few) to 50 mph. A 50cc can barely do 40mph with someone my size (119lb). I know, I own one. So they were just barely moving along. I was behind them and inching along doing 25 mph with a line of drivers behind me wondering, “WTF?” Dumb …really dumb. Oh, I estimated that the weight between them had to be at least 340lbs…it’s a wonder that poor little scooter was even moving at all. :smack:
One I see a lot around Pittsburgh; one that makes me want to chase down the offender and beat them about the head and shoulders -------- riding some little kid on a motorcycle by sitting them in front of them on the gas tank. Look moron, the kid still can easily fall from between your arms and for the heck of it lets slap your genitalia unsupported on some steel plates and run you over some curbs and potholes.