Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I read a post on here that referred to the Hurt Report, so I looked it up. Is it right to sum it up as most motorcycle crashes are by bikers with no training, have no insurance, and dont wear helmets?

"The motorcycle riders involved in accidents are essentially without training; 92% were self-taught or learned from family or friends. Motorcycle rider training experience reduces accident involvement and is related to reduced injuries in the event of accidents."

If this is true, it seems like biking is realitivly safe for those of us who take the MSF, wear a helmet, and just bascially think when we ride. It was quite an insightful read.

No, don't fool yourself.


It's safer, but not safe. You could still get plowed into by a yakkity cage going 70 and no matter how many classes you took, you're not gonna come out very well.

+1

Motorcycling is inherently dangerous. There are alot of things that could go wrong that you wouldn't care about in a car but would mess you up while riding.

A helmet, training and a good scanning of your enviroment is a great start though.

Look at the date of the Hurt Report. If I'm not mistaken, it was done in the '70's.

A LOT has changed since then.

Yes, much of what the Hurt Report determined is still true (like taking a formal riding class helps keep you safer), but there are also many BIGGER cages on the road. What might have been 'minor' injuries for a rider to car wreck, and thus not necessarily reported, are now much more serious and even fatal.

P

+1 to what has already been said. I try to eliminate dangers as much as I can when riding. I wear a full face helmet, gloves, jacket and motorcycle specific boots all the time with jeans. I now buying a few pair of motorcycling pants so I'll be covered there too because regular jeans do not offer much protection. Some people say that wearing a helmet is not a guarantee of saving your life in a spill and they're right, but if wearing one has a chance of keeping me from being a vegetable then I'll wear it.

I wish someone would redo it and make it current. It would be interesting to see the trends today.

Aye, you and half the motorcycling community. I read an article that Hurt himself wanted to do another one but they couldn't get funding for it.

Yes, much of what the Hurt Report determined is still true (like taking a formal riding class helps keep you safer), but there are also many BIGGER cages on the road. What might have been 'minor' injuries for a rider to car wreck, and thus not necessarily reported, are now much more serious and even fatal.

True, but also remember that cars back int eh 70s weighed more because of different materials in construction. Cars back then were made to bounce off each other, today's cars are made to crumple upon impact to absorb the forces.

I don't think things have changed much. If anything, things have gotten worse. Roads are more crowded. In general, people are less polite and more self-centered. Many youth and 20-somethings have been brainwashed by their music to have no respect for the lives of other people. There are a LOT more old farts in Cadillacs. There are soccer mom's in minivans, and they are usually out of Prozac.

Education pays, it's learning from the experience of others. Experience plays a significant factor. Familiarity with the bike is also a factor. Experienced riders on a new or strange bike are higer risk than on their old bikes.

Lion_Lady wrote:Look at the date of the Hurt Report. If I'm not mistaken, it was done in the '70's.

A LOT has changed since then.

Yes, much of what the Hurt Report determined is still true (like taking a formal riding class helps keep you safer), but there are also many BIGGER cages on the road. What might have been 'minor' injuries for a rider to car wreck, and thus not necessarily reported, are now much more serious and even fatal.

P

I beg to differ. In one of the many riding safety and strategies books I have, there was an excerpt from an interview with the guys who did the Hurt report that said their findings still held true.

I'd argue most of today's cars are of very comprable sizes to ones in the 70s. I own a "compact" car from the early 70s and it's the size of a full-sized sedan, nowadays. Sure, the average weight of cars have increased, but it's already magnitudes of power greater than a bike and rider, so a 1,000 pound increase of car weight doesn't mean a darn thing.

I think the report's conclusions are still valid. Educated riders with experience are least likely to become road tar. Uneducated riders without experience are most likley to become road tar. Everyone else is somewhere in the middle.

However, with increasingly higher speeds of traffic on open roads, the increasing number of vehicles on any road, the increasing onboard distractions of enclosed vehicles (phones, DVDs, navigation systems, etc.), the increasing number of drivers under the influence of prescribed mind-altering substances, and the trends in lowered senses of social responsibilities evident in North American cultures, motorcycling is significantly more dangerous today than it ever was, and for all riders.