My only fear is bad drivers on the road.

 

in the perfect world all of that would be true. However we dont live in the perfect world, therefore I came to the conclusion that motorcycles are not safe, but they are a load of fun, and that is what matters.:riding

 

:thumbup

 

compared to driving a car, motorcycles are NOT safe, no matter what statistics you pull. a friend of mine who was in his late 40's/early 50's was a constant preacher of full gear and safe riding practices. someone did the infamous no-warning-left-turn-in-front-of-him, and he died on the spot. no matter how much you plan and how safe you ride, motorcycling IS dangerous, and our friends and family have a legit reason to worry.

 

...maybe what he meant was that motorcycles are not as unsafe as people think? Agree, it is safer in a car, but maybe we are interpreting this a bit differently...:dunno

 

safe is a relative term. They use the term in skydiving all the time. "ok folks, safety first. Walk do not run to the aircraft, once inside sit down and buckle your seat belt. blah blah blah..."

You are about to jump out of a moving airplane 5 thousand feet off the ground and with in 20 seconds reach terminal velocity and they are concerned you will fall and scrape your knee on the tarmac. :chair:

Anyway, the point is everything has levels of safety. Untrained cagers are not much safer than untrained riders. Look at the statistics for teenagers in high powered cars.

 

crazy stats about how wearing a helmet would increase your chances of living in a motorcycle wreck

Next thing they'll be saying is that kids that watch assloads of TV and play video games all the time are more likely to be fat

 

crazy stats about how wearing a helmet would increase your chances of living in a motorcycle wreck

Next thing they'll be saying is that kids that watch assloads of TV and play video games all the time are more likely to be fat

:hammer: :hammer: :ncont: :ncont: :sing:

 

Being smart and wearing gear will reduce your chance but will not eliminate the chance of injury, it isn't safe but hell you can die any minute from any number of things so you might as well enjoy yourself and ride.

 

I'm tired of hearing how cars are safer than motorcycles. I don't think so. You can avoid a lot more accidents on a motorcycle than in a car. I have not personally known one person to be fatally injured in a motorcycle. I have personally known two people that have died in a car accident, and another person that was just short of dying and broke bones all over his body and had all his teeth knocked out. Sometimes getting thrown from a motorcycle is better than getting crushed in a metal coffin. Actually, the accident where the guy damn near died, his wife was ejected from the vehicle and faired a lot better than he did. From the looks of the wreck, she probably would not have survived if she remained in the vehicle. She wasn't even hospitalized. I've have seen a woman walking on a side walk get hit by a drunk driver, and thrown about 15 feet in the air, came down and landed in the bed of the pick up, and bounced out onto the concrete. There was nothing I could do to help her because her mouth kept filling with blood and her head was mush.

If you are going to die, you are going to die. I don't think motorcycles inherently increase your chances. If you crash doing 150+, that's your own fault, not the motorcycles. That same idiot would probably do 150+ in a car if he could, and it's a lot harder to control a car at that speed.

 

Now this is a safe Bike!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mullingitover/200610361/

 

Now this is a safe Bike!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mullingitover/200610361/

Now I can say... LMFAO!!!

 

Statistics can prove anything! 87 percent of the population knows that.

 

I agree that motorcycles are not inherently less safe when ridden properly. The problem occurs when riders get reckless or not paying attention to their surroundings. The part where a car becomes safer is when an accident occurs, the car offers a lot more protection than a motorcycle. The whole reason for wearing leathers and a helmet is not to prevent accidents but to be less injured in them.
The argument that a motorcycle is less visible than a car is true but it definitely doesn't account for most of the motorcycle accidents. I was at the scene of an accident where a car t-boned a bright red 40 foot bus and the driver of the car said he didn't see the bus. Things like that happen all the time because drivers are not paying attention and are often distracted with other activities. Motorcycles are victims of this carelessness as are other cars but the motorcyclist just gets hurt more usually due to the inherent lack of protection.

 

Motorcycles are as just as safe as cars. Its the driver or rider that makes the the car or motorcycle, or any other vehicle that has to operated by a person. While operating a car alot of people pay less attention to what there doing or what others are doing around them, because they fell that they are safe being surrounded by metal. On a motorcycle you do not have that leisure. If you are a poser or trying to look pretty on a motorcycle, then the bike is unsafe, because an unsafe rider is operating the motorcycle. Typically motorcycle rider do not have the distractions like an automobile like, AC,putting on make up, messing with he radio, TALKING ON CELL PHONE, etc. Use all of these distractions that you do not have on a motorcycle and pay attention whats going on around at all times. If a rider can do this they will be in pretty good shape.

PERIOD

 

I've been riding since I was 16 and I'm 56 now. I have put about 250,000 miles on 17 different bikes and have had NO accidents. I have more close calls when I'm driving my Chevy half ton truck. It's harder for me to see out of and a lot less agile. So I ride the R1 everyday it's not raining. And by all rights this bike can get you in trouble faster than you can say oh s--t. It can also get you out. So leave your cell phone and Ipod off, keep your head out of your ass and you might live. I don't think motorcycles are inherently dangerous any more than light aircraft are. Just not forgiving of fools. Ride to work people and change the statistics.

 

Just not forgiving of fools.

That pretty much sums it all up... the consequences of every mistake are magnified severely, and no one puts stories on the news about the guy who went out on a sunny day and had a completely uneventful ride. Everyone and their dog has a story about a friend of a friend who died while riding a motorcycle, so basically the only impression most people have is 100% negative from the start...

 

Motorcycling is not, of itself, inherently dangerous. It is, however, extremely unforgiving of inattention, ignorance, incompetence, or stupidity

 

I prefer to ride the bike over a car to work or for fun. I also know first hand what can happen when a truck turns in fornt of you and gets t boned by the bike. My rod, plates, screws, and bolt in my bones will remind me everyday. A car/truck is much safer to be in during an accident thats for sure. No protection at all on a bike excpet what you can wear and not even the best jacket, pants, or boots can stop damage like a full metal cage of a car.

 

its idiotic to say a motorcycle is as "safe" as a car.

what is the point of this thread, everyone with eyeballs is aware of the inherent dangers of a motorcycle compared to a car.