Motorcycling is as dangerous as you make it

As noted before, when people hear that I'm getting a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter, the response often is: "But motorcycles are so dangerous!"

(The Burgman is as big and powerful as a mid-sized motorcycle, so I'll refrain from saying scootering in this post and stick with "motorcycling.")

Danger needs to be a consideration in everything we do in life. The risk of motorcycling certainly has to be taken into account by both aspiring riders and those who care about them.

But here's why I believe it's truer to say, "Motorcycling is as dangerous as you make it."

Before deciding to get back into riding, I studied motorcycling accident statistics (didn't come across scooter-specific data, which probably are mixed in with motorcycles).

They can be pretty sobering and scary.

Motorcyclists were 35 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a crash per vehicle mile traveled in 2006 and eight times more likely to be injured, according to NHTSA.

Here's the thing, though. Those figures are on average.

They include motorcyclists driving drunk or stoned, not wearing a helmet, speeding like crazy, lacking protective gear, unlicensed to drive a motorcycle, those who haven't taken a motorcycle safety course, and such.

Nobody wants to be average. Especially when it comes to staying alive and healthy.

So the most informative (and inspiring) web site I came across in my motorcycle accident statistic research was this one: an article by James R. Davis called "Beating the Odds Requires that You Act ABNORMALLY."

Must it be true that your passion for motorcycles requires that you end up dead or injured in a motorcycle related accident sooner or later? Of course not! So, how do you beat the odds?

Statistics are only true if the population behaves 'normally.' Let me explain...

A substantial number of motorcycle accidents involve a rider who has been drinking. So, if on occasion you drink and drive, you are acting 'normally' as to the statistics and they are more closely predicting what will happen to you. A substantial number of accidents occur when 'luck' runs out - you drive through a yellow light and a truck happens to run over you in the intersection. But many, if not most, motorcyclists rely on luck to get them through a ride in just such a scenario. To the extent that you rely on 'luck' you are acting 'normally' relative to the statistics - you are trying to insure that they are self-fulfilling predictors.

What DOES make a difference in statistical outcomes is BEHAVIOR that is at variance with 'normal.'

Davis then explains further what he means. Common sense stuff. And reflective of the idea that almost all motorcycle accidents are avoidable, capable of being prevented by the rider. Davis says:

The fact is that it is more dangerous to ride a motorcycle than it is to ride in a passenger car. The way to beat the odds is to BEHAVE in ways that decrease YOUR odds of being involved in an accident or being injured or killed if you are in one. In other words, you must behave 'abnormally'. (i.e., defensively, intelligently, soberly, with learned (practiced) skills, with protective gear and as if your life depends on it, because it does.)

Relying on luck (odds) is simply stupid.

Excellent advice.

When I was 16, way back in 1965, I got a Honda 55 trail bike. I took it to college and rode it my freshman and sophomore years. So that's about four years of extensive riding in both the country, where I grew up, and the city of San Jose, California, where I went to college.

I never wore a helmet. Nor any sort of protective gear. Had on shorts, t-shirt, and tennis shoes much of the time. The bike was way under-powered, top speed not much over 45 mph, if that. No leeway to get out of trouble quickly.

I laid the bike down a few times. Worst injury I got was cutting my knee when it fell over at low speed in a school driveway. I was lucky.

Now, I'm older and wiser.

I'm re-taking the three day Team Oregon Basic Rider Training course, even though I already have my motorcycle endorsement. I've gotten a great set of protective gear: helmet, textile jacket and pants, footwear, gloves.

And I plan to wear the stuff all of the time.

Motorcycling, and scootering, is tremendous fun. Also, Green, given the lesser environmental impact of two-wheeled motorized transportation (gas mileage, parking needs, and so on).

Don't let the perceived dangerousness stop you, if this is what you want to do. Just realize that while the risks are real, they can be much reduced by riding better than average.

UPDATE: Here's a link to another good article about riding a motorcycle safely, "Discover the Top 10 Motorcycle Safety Tips for Responsible Bikers."

Comments

[Harry Vanderpool]

I remember the Trail 55 very well.
A friend of mine had one and we rode all over Polk County on our bikes.
I had a Honda Scrambler 65 at the time which was my second bike.
Gasoline was $0.25 at the time and these bikes would get over 150 miles on a gallon.
Pretty cheap fun!
Well, cheap until you factor in the $500.00 fines my brothers and I recieved when we emerged from the Olympic National Forest after being lost on our motorcycles for 3 days.
We never would have made it out if it hadn't been for the 65's huge gas tank full of gas and a look-out tower supply shack that had some "extra" white gas. :-O
Came back to Oregon and bought a brand spanking new Suzuki TS-125.
Now THAT was a fun bike!

[Wayne White]

Safety Gear and common sense are good things for a Motorcycle rider to to use, no argument there. Driving Defensively is a good thing too as there are some auto drivers that just seem to dislike bikers to the point of trying to squash them like a bug.
Once, when I was riding my Indian on a busy 4 lane main street in Lakewood,CA I was in the right lane and noticed the car on my left was getting closer. I was near a cross street and as he got even closer I was right up to the curb. There was a gas station on the corner and I drove into it and stopped.

The driver did not turn right, he went on through the intersection. He apparently didn't like bikers and tried to run me down.

[tucson]

Except for my stepfather (who passed due to other causes at the age of 92) I have never personally known any motorcyclist who has not gotten fairly well creamed at one time or another while riding their beloved machine.

I escaped with minor scrapes after laying down my Vespa scooter when a car turned in front of us. The girl with me banged up her elbow. Not bad for a scooter wreck. I may have encountered worse but I only had the thing for a month while I was installing a new engine in a '48 Ford panel truck which we took on many surfing trips.

By the way, surfing is pretty safe. Oh sure you can drown or have your leg amputated by a shark, but in several decades of surfing my worst injury was a blow to the nuts when I went over the falls straddling the rail of my board.

I also have never known anyone deeply involved with horses who has not been hurt seriously by them one way or another. I was only knocked unconscious twice and fractured a vertebrae. Chris Reeve was not so lucky. #1 cause of death for cowboys in the old west?.. horse accidents. #2 was pneumonia.

But we do what we love and we should. After all, this is it.

The motorcyclists advantage? Their unobstructed field of view. Use it.