First, as a 40 year old Buell/Suzuki/Kawasaki/HD/MotoGuzzi owner/rider, I prefer my Buell lightning for most of my local riding. ALL of which is done with my Armored custom fitted Vanson Sport Rider and Arai Signet helmet, TR Gaultlet gloves, and Engineer boots.
A few comments on all of this.
1. I appear to be the exception for riding gear on a sportbike, as most of the "kids" around here (Southwest Missouri area) wear a nice helmet, and shorts/t-shirts/tennis shoes for protection.
2. Most cruiser riders wear good or great leathers, and a stupid "pudding bowl" helmet, or more appropriately, a hair cover, for cosmetic/legal purposes only.
3. The The cruiser bike riders, mostly 40+ are cruising from Hooter's to Bumstead's, to Adobe's, drinking with their buddies between short hops, usually done in city or rural trafic.
4. the "kids" on the sportbikes are out practicing wheelies in church parking lots, or cruising Battlefield road at 25 mph in heavy cruising traffic looking for girls, or sitting in hardee's parking lot talking to their buddies, as they are mostly too young to get into bars around here.
What does this mean?
Everyone needs to wear more protective gear, and I would think that a lot more fatal accidents are the result of drinking and riding/crashing with a hair cover on, (the result of stupidity) than are caused by simple stupidity alone (Wheelies etc.)
Do I know this for a fact? No. But I do know a lot of friends my age crash a lot of Harleys on Wednesday night bike night on the way home from Hooter's after 3 hours of beer with the Bro's, and wind up pretty messed up from hitting whatever without a helmet.
I also know a lot of sportbikes get towed by my friend Rick C. that owns Ricks towing in Ozark, from kids that have pitched them doing wheelies and loosing it.
I don't remember hearing about any fatalities where they had to "Scrape the guy up with a putty knife" because he hit a rock wall at 197 MPH, and was squished like a watermellon.
I DO hear of Jerry R. whom succumbed to head injuries suffered from inadiquate head protection in a 35 MPH accident where a truck pulled out in front of him.
An accident that could have been avoided if he would have had the basic training to earn a motorcycle endorsement, and the brains to wear a decent helmet.
I know about Jerry pretty well, as he worked for me for about a year.
Any answers? None that aren't obvious already, like motorcycle license enforcement, and getting the booze out of biking. Those two elements alone would probably make a huge difference in motorcycle injuries and fatalities. Especially the ones who will die today, and tommorow, and the week after this.
Makes you think about the little stuff, like freedom to ride what we want. Keep it up, and they will legislate it away from us.
Don't think it will happen? Ask every person in California that owns a 50 caliber rifle.
They were just banned in California. Does not matter that a crime has never been commited in the state of California with one, it was a popular political move.
If we do not collectively stay on top of this, we ARE next.
Think about articles like the one that prompted this one.
Mark