Motorcycle deaths rise sharply

[scan]

Training and knowing your limits. Not being over-confident and knowing that you can't see everything in the road, over the hill, around the corner. In a car you slam on the brakes and worse case the airbag deploys (OK, so you could die in a car too, but you get the basic point). On your bike - dirt on a corner -deadly. Big animal or stopped car over the crest of a hill -deadly.

Again I refer back to my day riding with that small, somewhat well experience group of riders. When I saw the guy wrecked on the side of the road, I knew I was not a wimp, but a rational rider of a two wheeled vehicle. The thrill can be intoxicating, and untrained riders can forget the danger in the "high" of flying over hills and around corners. But we always recomend not riding intoxicated, and that means not letting thrill over-rule common sense.

[flynrider]

I think Oldnslo's take is right on the money. While there have always been squids, the new crop of middle aged riders buying big bikes looks to be the big reason for the accident boom. I happen to be a middle aged guy who's been riding steadily since I was 18, so a lot of my friends are coming to me for advice on getting a bike. For the most part, these are people who may have ridden for a year or two when they were in college, and their self-assement is that they already know how to ride, so they don't need training. I find this attitude pretty disturbing, but it's fairly prevalent.

In most states (not all) you can get a motorcycle endorsment if you're able to keep the bike from tipping over in the parking lot, so there's not much incentive to get training. On the other hand, mandatory training doesn't always work either. Making someone attend a class that they don't think they need will not necessarily produce a safe rider.

In CA, rider training is virtually mandatory. Their DMV skills test is such that it would be pretty difficult to pass on a big bike (I've tried it) unless you are an experienced trials rider. Even so, a number of my CA friends that are recent bikers have taken the course to bypass the DMV test and are still paddlefooting around and wobbling all over corners. Sticking someone in a class is no guarantee that they'll absorb much more than what's needed to pass. It all hinges on the willingness of the rider to improve their riding skills. Sadly, I don't see that attitude in the general population of riders these days. It's more of a "let's just go have some fun" attitude.

[9000white]

i dont know how it is everywhere else but here it aint the baby boomers in the majority of crashes,most of them have cruisers or old standards.it is the young sport bike crowd they are scraping off the pavement.

[blues2cruise]

i dont know how it is everywhere else but here it aint the baby boomers in the majority of crashes,most of them have cruisers or old standards.it is the young sport bike crowd they are scraping off the pavement.

Same here.

[The549]

I commute around the sacramento area, and two-thirds of all the two wheeled idiots in beaters I see are sport bikes. The cruisers are usually just cruising, mostly with gear on.

Regarding skill level of the riders: I know what you all mean .....I got upset at my friend who wanted to start riding and bypass any training...I don't have lots of money, but I told him I'd pay for it. It's just scary to think how dangerous of a thing motorcycling is for someone to not care about *some* kind of technique/training.

[Nibblet99]

I was reading MCN last night, and discovered that mini-moto (pocket bike) accidents were being added to the motorcycle accident statistics. I know they still have two wheels, but there's a large difference between mini-moto's and road legal motorcycles.

[flynrider]

Oh geez! That ought to make a mess of the statistics. That's like including go-kart accidents in automobile stats

[ZooTech]

I commute around the sacramento area, and two-thirds of all the two wheeled idiots in beaters I see are sport bikes. The cruisers are usually just cruising, mostly with gear on.

Ahhhh...another good example of regional differences! Around here, about 90% of riders (estimate based on personal observation over the last three years) ride without helmets, and most of those are without body gear either. Of the 10% of riders that I observe with helmets, I'd say 90% of those fellas are sport-bike or crotch-rocket pilots, usually sportin' a matching helmet and full body suit. We have no helmet law here in Ohio, and the cruiser owners all seem to take advantage of it and enjoy the wind in their face and what's left of their hair! For the sportbike crowd, however, I think it's the only fashionable thing to do to go out and buy up all the gear that matches your bike and make like you're a professional rider or something.

Incidentally, I'm one of those "idiots" wearing the wife-beater tee and sunglasses...'cept I'm on a cruiser.

[oldnslo]

The baby boomers that have made the obits the last couple years in my neck of the woods [Vancouver, Wa, Portland, Or., plus here on the lovely coast of Washington]are usually just short of fifty or in their mid fifties. They have waited all their lives to buy a Harley [go figure!] and that being done, they go riding. Minimum gear, often only a cheap beanie, and no training of any kind except maybe a brother-in law who can't ride anymore because he crashed once too often and now can't swing a leg over a bike. So off our boomer goes, living the dream, and a learner-level sportbike swooshes by him. Boomer says, "we'll see about that little twit", and away they go. Little sportbike easily negotiates twisties, maybe not even real well, but our boomer on the Road King is outclassed and doesn't know it, succumbing to a corner considered routine by an experienced rider, leaves the road, center-punches a 100-year old oak, and voila, another middle-aged motorcycle fatality. This is a picture painted with a broad brush of what has been going on the past few years, and it keeps getting worse.
Additionally, many new riders who ignore training are of the misguided opinion that the rear brake alone will stop a motorcycle, and the front one will somehow pitch them off. I have seen older, experienced cruiser riders with this philosophy. Never met a sportbike rider thinking that way. I presume them to be dead if that's how they try to stop.
The beat goes on, and fatalities will continue to rise, because people don't take developing riding skills seriously enough.

[isnowbrd]

According to an article in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune, oldnslo hit it right on the mark. Here is a portion of the article entitled "Motorcycle death toll rising fast":

"Traffic safety officials also blame speeding, inattentive driving, following too closely, alcohol and failing to yield the right of way. Another surprising factor is the rising age of motorcycle riders. Far from a bygone image of bikers as young hellions on wheels, the average age of those killed on motorcycles in Minnesota this year is 40. Many victims are middle-aged folks realizing a lifelong dream of straddling a Harley with the wind in their hair. "They spent the last 20 years in a car," said Patrick Hahn, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. "They don't think right away how vulnerable they are.""

I was shocked at the average age of those killed on motorcycles. The entire article can be found here --> http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5556058.html