Old Crash Facts

Quite interesting, I wonder how much those figures have changed in the 22 years since they have been released.

Now thats a great study yielding a wealth of information. How about a summary ?

Re: Old Crash Facts - summary squared

Accidents happen, more often to riders who are untrained or drunk, and they get hurt more when not wearing protective gear.

Cagers often don't see you. It may help if you wear a bright dress, but it won't help if you get into a corner too fast. No word about loud pipes.

The report is several hundred pages long. That was the summary.

Wow again. Once I've read and re-read this list, printed it out and read it again, it'll become required reading for #1 son, 18yrs old, owner of his own 2001 CBR600F4i. He has had a motorcycle safety course, taken at the local technical college, and I have taken great pains to show him just how invisible he can be on the bike. Although I consider him an excellent rider and level-headed (I know, he's 18!) I exist to be his broken record on safety issues. Hmmm... bout time for me to take a class myself. Clem.

"Then I suggest you do what your parents did. Get a job, sir!"

So, I've had my Valkyrie for 3 years, and my CBR1100XX for 3 weeks. Not trying to start a firestorm here, but personally, I take issue with #46. I look over my shoulder before changing lanes on either bike or in my car. I was taught "Mirrors can only say, 'No.' " Valky riding position, upright, I can turn my head easily to see over the shoulder; with the forward-leaning position on the XX I have to let go of a handlebar and twist my body to see. No, I don't have a short/immobile neck; yes, when I ride without a helmet my peripheral vision looking over the shoulder is good enough to change lanes with confidence. I advocate helmet use, but let's face it, there is a loss there. The writer of these comments is solely responsible for their content, helmetless riders will go to H-E-double hockey sticks, your mileage may vary, etc.

It was written 22 years ago, sportbikes as we know them today didn't exist. So the twisting action you have to do to see behind wasn't neccessary back then.

Oh, allow me to revise and extend--in the context of the other items here, it was noted that most of the multi-vehicle collisions occured within 45 degrees of straight ahead if the motorcyclist. Yes, helmets don't obstruct that field of vision at all. I get it. Just forgot to include it.

The first point demonstrates the only flaw in this type of report: it only considers accidents that are reported to the police, which is probably much less than half of total motorcycle crashes. In reality, most crashes are single-rider spills that don't get reported.

While I've no statistics to back this up (no one does, which is part of the problem!), I believe this is very true; in my personal anecdotal experience everyone I've known who's gone down solo has not had their accident reported unless they suffered serious injury.

...which may well be why the comments about helmets and protective gear figure so predominantly here. If you go down without gear and a helmet, chances are much greater the accident will be reported when you can't ride away from it without an ambulance, or hit the emergency room after limping the bike home with road rash, a concussion, and bleeding fingers.

The visibility problem with sportbikes is why I consider them poor choices as streetbikes. for me that is.



Sportbikes may be more nimble than cruisers or standards, but the loss of visibility and worse, often greater fatigue inducing factors, are more important, IMHO.



Of course the most important factor of all is simply experience.. and lots of it. Newer riders should avoid sportbikes and big cruisers for at least a year. Fat chance