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Needs to be said... sell the DAMN motorcycle.

MJ DeMarco

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Well another two people in my world will never have their lives be the same due to a motorcycle accident. One likely will never walk normal again.
 
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NeoDialectic

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Well another two people in my world will never have their lives be the same due to a motorcycle accident. One likely will never walk normal again.
Something I have personally comprimised to is having dirt bikes to ride off road. I haven't ridden them alot in the past few years because I've been busy with kids. However I can get most of the enjoyement that riding a motorcycle gets you and in some ways even more. Meanwhile it's relatively safe as long as you are geared up. Sure you may tweak something or even have some REALLY bad luck and break something. But nothing compared to getting hit by a 5,000 LB missile and/or being run over.
 

Red

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is having dirt bikes to ride off road.
Not to hijack things but.... what part of the valley are you & where do you ride? We're in the NE & have Tonto NF in our backyard with 4 million square miles of single track goodness... if you're ever in the NE valley, my husband is always looking for people to ride with, especially now that it's cooling off a bit.
 

Xeon

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There's a local saying : "When you ride in a car, the car's steel protects you. When you ride on a bike, your flesh protects the bike's steel".
 
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Edoardo

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Knew of a boy, somewhere around 17-18 years old, he fell from his motorcycle when going home after school, now he's on a wheelchair.
 

HoneyBadger302

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We're not getting out of this alive. I choose to ride. On the street it is very limited and I trailer my bikes out of the city and into the mountains before swinging a leg over. I ride according to the environment - 'stuff' happens, people drive like jerks, nature does nature things, and you need to ride accordingly, and assistance is probably 30-60 minutes away at a minimum.

I also race, and for me, the risk is more than worth the reward. It is not for many, and I would actively discourage anyone from doing it who isn't completely committed and aware of the risks. I have no kids or dependent family, and for me, it makes life worth living.

I'm perfectly okay with it not being a popular choice for anyone scared of the consequences - the consequences can be very real. While gear is light years ahead of where it was less than 10 years ago, it's still a dangerous sport. To each their own, I see riding a pedal bicycle on a mountain road with no shoulder even more dumb than my choices, yet many consider that to be perfectly acceptable...

Everyone has the "they knew someone...." story. I could dredge some up for every sport, event, activity that exists, including living the bubble wrap life safe in your home sitting on your chair day in and day out avoiding all the scary things outside that might get you.

Not worth it for you? Please don't do it. Find what you DO enjoy and is worth it for you.
 

Raedrum

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I've never had a motorcycle but always wanted one. In fact buying a good one is sometime a goal to encourage my business, my Lambo Picture so to speak.

But... now that I'm in my 30, life taught me to look at risks differently. I'm glad I didn't had one sooner cause I may have injured myself, or worse. I was a real breackneck, did rock climbing, combat, parkour, everything that was intense. Disaster were avoided. I did again inside climbing some years ago and experienced dizziness for the 1st time of my life (at 30m, while I did lead rock climbing on 300m cliffs when I was a teenager).

I know I'm a good pilot and I have excellent reflexes, but I know a little science too and that doing motorcycle is all around a incredibly bad idea. Plus there is so much incertitudes (road conditions, other drivers, mechanics, ...). I have a car since 13 years, never did an accident but I know how people are driving bad sometime.

I know a guy who was a biker and he stop riding on the open road and start doing circuits instead. His bike is a litteral missile now, and he say that this is actually way less dangerous than riding on the road, with the other drivers.

I don't know. Maybe doing dirtbike fully geared like NeoDialectic said. Riding on the open road seem incredibly dangerous (and circuits too lol I won't go at 300km/h not protected, I won't go at 300km/h at all)
 
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BigRomeDawg

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Something like half of motorcycle deaths weren't wearing a helmet.

And around half involved alcohol.

Most of the ones wearing a helmet probably didn't have any other gear on.

Most riders have never taken a safety course.

And of course, there are no statistics to indicate the riding style or risk level of those riders.

There's risk in everything we do, homies- don't know why y'all are projecting on others. People die tripping and falling on the sidewalk. Boycott pedestrians.
 

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Something like half of motorcycle deaths weren't wearing a helmet.

And around half involved alcohol.

Most of the ones wearing a helmet probably didn't have any other gear on.

Most riders have never taken a safety course.

And of course, there are no statistics to indicate the riding style or risk level of those riders.

There's risk in everything we do, homies- don't know why y'all are projecting on others. People die tripping and falling on the sidewalk. Boycott pedestrians.
I agree with you but in my mind, the helmet is the number 1 safety gear. I don't wear "other gear" because I don't see the point. It might save you from road rash but unless they now have a personal force field built in, it's not going to save your life or save you from broken bones. A helmet and situational awareness are the best safety gear.
 

Andy Black

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I have no kids or dependent family, and for me, it makes life worth living.
I thought like this till I had kids. For some reason it was only then I realised what I'd put my parents through if I died or maimed myself. Since losing my brother and dad I wouldn't put my mum or family through the pain and sadness I now know comes with the loss of a loved one.
 
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loop101

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A guy I knew was a complete party animal. He drank a ton and took every drug possible. He had a trick he would do to escape from the police: he would ride his dirt bike down the train tracks since the police cars couldn't follow. Later, I heard he had crashed his bike on the tracks; he was paralyzed from the neck down and only had about 5% of his brain still working. You could visit him in the hospital, but he was mostly "comatose". You could scream his name at him, and he would smile and wave one hand, then go back to being comatose. He was 24. His dad, who had previously killed himself, had a helper they called "the old Mexican." The old Mexican would go to the hospital, yell his name, and talk to him for an hour. The last I heard, after 20 years, he was still bedridden and brain dead, and the old Mexican was still his only visitor.
 

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A guy I knew was a complete party animal. He drank a ton and took every drug possible. He had a trick he would do to escape from the police: he would ride his dirt bike down the train tracks since the police cars couldn't follow. Later, I heard he had crashed his bike on the tracks; he was paralyzed from the neck down and only had about 5% of his brain still working. You could visit him in the hospital, but he was mostly "comatose". You could scream his name at him, and he would smile and wave one hand, then go back to being comatose. He was 24. His dad, who had previously killed himself, had a helper they called "the old Mexican." The old Mexican would go to the hospital, yell his name, and talk to him for an hour. The last I heard, after 20 years, he was still bedridden and brain dead, and the old Mexican was still his only visitor.
That is a sad story but it has little to do with riding a motorbike. Heavy drinking and drug use can get you in trouble in a number of ways. And most people don't ride down the train tracks. He probably would have ended up the same way (or dead) if he was driving a car.
 

Kevin88660

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A guy I knew was a complete party animal. He drank a ton and took every drug possible. He had a trick he would do to escape from the police: he would ride his dirt bike down the train tracks since the police cars couldn't follow. Later, I heard he had crashed his bike on the tracks; he was paralyzed from the neck down and only had about 5% of his brain still working. You could visit him in the hospital, but he was mostly "comatose". You could scream his name at him, and he would smile and wave one hand, then go back to being comatose. He was 24. His dad, who had previously killed himself, had a helper they called "the old Mexican." The old Mexican would go to the hospital, yell his name, and talk to him for an hour. The last I heard, after 20 years, he was still bedridden and brain dead, and the old Mexican was still his only visitor.
Wow. What a loyal helper and lifetime friend.
 
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Isaac Odongo

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My wife was a paramedic for 7 years. She and all the other medics called them donorcycles. She attended more accidents than she can count involving a motorcycle. Many, many people dead.

One thing was always consistent, it didn't matter if it was the motorcyclists fault or not, they were always the ones that were dead.

Some of these people had ridden for decades, had taken all the training, and taken part in racing events and gotten exceptionally good. And then some stupid person pulls out right in front of them with no time to react. It didn't matter how good they were. Now they're dead.
And that's the point here. They are dead. And WTF is fun when someone is dead? F*ck bikes.
 

Isaac Odongo

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A certain man had a good number of children going to school. He was a school principal in a teacher training school and his wife taught me in primary. His face had almost skin. Motobike. He died after another crash.

A neighbour was riding fast and hit a hole and died a few weeks later.
 

Kevin88660

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Last edited:

loop101

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Wow. What a loyal helper and lifetime friend.
Yeah, the father had hired him when he first got to America, and he had taken care of the kid whenever the father was in jail. Yesterday, I saw a guy on a dirt bike taking a shortcut by riding beside some train tracks. He was going slow and was not on the tracks, but it reminded me of that kid and the old guy.
 

MJ DeMarco

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A helmet and situational awareness are the best safety gear.

You seem to think you can control the risks by making good choices. You cannot.

Why?

Because you cannot control being surrounded by distracted idiots. It is 10X worse today than it was 25 years ago, pre-social media.

When you get into an accident, and I do say WHEN, it won't be because you were in error or made a bad choice in gear, it was because probability caught up to you ... on any ride into the city or around your neighborhood, you're guaranteed to be around 10000 morons who are too distracted to notice you.

I'm willing to accept responsibility for my own negligence. But I refuse to be paralyzed from the neck down because some teenage girl thought texting her boyfriend was more important.

That is the difference.

You cannot decide and think your way out from what amounts to a probabilistic nightmare.

But I do wish you luck.
 

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@BigRomeDawg what if we only ride on @MJ DeMarco place while we are out there playing poker?

when i first moved to GA, you were REQUIRED to be an organ donor to get a motorcycle license. Atlanta traffic is stupid. Atlanta traffic and roads on a motorcycle is a certain maiming / death. Now there are a lot of people I know that ride into north georgia on the weekends into the mountains, that would be pretty cool.

Would still wear the helmet. I wore one when I learned to ride a bike (pedaling) a few years ago. I'd definitely wear one on a motorcycle!
 
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Kevin88660

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That is a sad story but it has little to do with riding a motorbike. Heavy drinking and drug use can get you in trouble in a number of ways. And most people don't ride down the train tracks. He probably would have ended up the same way (or dead) if he was driving a car.
  • According to the Insurance Information Institute, 83,000 motorcyclists were injured, and 5,579 lost their lives in 2020 alone.
  • Motorcyclists are 6x more likely to suffer fatal injuries than car passengers.
  • There were over 8.3 million registered motorcycles in the country.
  • Per vehicle miles traveled, motorcyclists are 27 x more likely to be killed in a traffic crash than passenger car occupants. They account for 14% of all traffic fatalities.

I didn’t know the stats until I look it up. Worst than I thought!

Total motorbikes registered in U.S. Is 13 million. Death per year is 5k.

I asked chatgpt for a rough estimate of U.S. Armed force death rate in Iraq war that is around 0.3 percent per year.

Assuming one bike one rider, that would make death rate of riding bike at 0.38 percent per year.

Conclusion: riding a bike a year is at least as dangerous as being stationed in Iraq a year as a soldier.
 
Last edited:

Private Witt

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My state is no helmet allowed. These idiots are everywhere on the highway going 70 in t-shirts, shorts, and no helmet. Sometimes in packs and many doing wheelies in downtown. FFS how these specimens make it this long.
 

Redwolf

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This thread is getting silly.

Folks who want to ride in traffic will do so. Folks who want to ride only at the track (me), will do so. Folks who think riding motorcycles doesn't equal the risk, won't ride bikes. Nobody will convince the other to change their minds, it takes a personal connection to danger, loss or life event, like having kids, to make a rider stop riding.
 
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Kevin88660

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This thread is getting silly.

Folks who want to ride in traffic will do so. Folks who want to ride only at the track (me), will do so. Folks who think riding motorcycles doesn't equal the risk, won't ride bikes. Nobody will convince the other to change their minds, it takes a personal connection to danger, loss or life event, like having kids, to make a rider stop riding.
The riders know the risk damn well. Most riders have had some sort of minor injuries/fractures.
 

MJ DeMarco

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This thread is getting silly.

There's nothing silly about trying to save someone's life from a Downside Asymmetric Risk Event. Or minimally, open some eyes into consideration.

Folks who want to ride only at the track (me)

And this I totally understand. Why? Because if you screw up, you own it. It was your doing. I'd actually bet that racing motorcycles on a track (with other racers) is actually SAFER than riding a bike in traffic.
 

Jadus

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You seem to think you can control the risks by making good choices. You cannot.

Why?

Because you cannot control being surrounded by distracted idiots. It is 10X worse today than it was 25 years ago, pre-social media.

When you get into an accident, and I do say WHEN, it won't be because you were in error or made a bad choice in gear, it was because probability caught up to you ... on any ride into the city or around your neighborhood, you're guaranteed to be around 10000 morons who are too distracted to notice you.

I'm willing to accept responsibility for my own negligence. But I refuse to be paralyzed from the neck down because some teenage girl thought texting her boyfriend was more important.

That is the difference.

You cannot decide and think your way out from what amounts to a probabilistic nightmare.

But I do wish you luck.
I know I can't control risks. No one can, but we can all minimize them. If for you, that means giving up riding, then that's your choice. I simply choose to be a safer rider.

I know all about being surrounded with distracted idiots. I live in one of the most dangerous countries in the world for automotive accidents. A while back I passed an accident on the freeway that involved a motorcycle. I don't know if the rider was wearing a helmet or not. They had already put the body in the ambulance. I could tell it was fatal by the amount of blood on the road. That did shake me but it just made me even more cautious, not want to give up riding.

And I have been in an accident, but fortunately it was minor. A Tuk Tuk driver cut in front of me and I laid the bike down trying to avoid hitting him. Only minor injuries but I admit that some better footwear would have saved me from a badly skinned ankle. That did teach me to give Tuk Tuks a wide berth.

Everything in life has risks. Even walking on the sidewalk has risks (financial and otherwise!). Riding a bike may be risky but it gives me a sense of freedom similar to flying, which I used to do. I wouldn't give it up unless some physical or mental condition prohibited me from doing it safely (as safe as I can make it). I'd rather have a shorter but enjoyable life than living in a bubble.

I understand your fear of being paralysed and despite the anecdotal evidence in this thread, local news reports make me think that death is far more likely here. Like I've said before, everyone has to do their own risk/reward analysis.
 
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Jadus

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  • According to the Insurance Information Institute, 83,000 motorcyclists were injured, and 5,579 lost their lives in 2020 alone.
  • Motorcyclists are 6x more likely to suffer fatal injuries than car passengers.
  • There were over 8.3 million registered motorcycles in the country.
  • Per vehicle miles traveled, motorcyclists are 27 x more likely to be killed in a traffic crash than passenger car occupants. They account for 14% of all traffic fatalities.

I didn’t know the stats until I look it up. Worst than I thought!

Total motorbikes registered in U.S. Is 13 million. Death per year is 5k.

I asked chatgpt for a rough estimate of U.S. Armed force death rate in Iraq war that is around 0.3 percent per year.

Assuming one bike one rider, that would make death rate of riding bike at 0.38 percent per year.

Conclusion: riding a bike a year is at least as dangerous as being stationed in Iraq a year as a soldier.
My point was that your story was about someone who drank heavily, took drugs and ran from the police. That's someone asking for trouble and has little to do with stats on the dangers of riding.
 

Kevin88660

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I know I can't control risks. No one can, but we can all minimize them. If for you, that means giving up riding, then that's your choice. I simply choose to be a safer rider.

I know all about being surrounded with distracted idiots. I live in one of the most dangerous countries in the world for automotive accidents. A while back I passed an accident on the freeway that involved a motorcycle. I don't know if the rider was wearing a helmet or not. They had already put the body in the ambulance. I could tell it was fatal by the amount of blood on the road. That did shake me but it just made me even more cautious, not want to give up riding.

And I have been in an accident, but fortunately it was minor. A Tuk Tuk driver cut in front of me and I laid the bike down trying to avoid hitting him. Only minor injuries but I admit that some better footwear would have saved me from a badly skinned ankle. That did teach me to give Tuk Tuks a wide berth.

Everything in life has risks. Even walking on the sidewalk has risks (financial and otherwise!). Riding a bike may be risky but it gives me a sense of freedom similar to flying, which I used to do. I wouldn't give it up unless some physical or mental condition prohibited me from doing it safely (as safe as I can make it). I'd rather have a shorter but enjoyable life than living in a bubble.

I understand your fear of being paralysed and despite the anecdotal evidence in this thread, local news reports make me think that death is far more likely here. Like I've said before, everyone has to do their own risk/reward analysis.
Risk/Reward analysis.

The death rate is too high to justify the sense of freedom in my opinion.

At least there is higher pay for less risky activities such as working in an oil rig or being stationed in Iraq.

Maybe a VR headset to simulate driving high speed vehicles can be used to mitigate the addiction.
 

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