Are motorbikes safe. Is the risk of riding worth it?

[lifeisforlivi...]

Not sure why I have been looking at bikes, maybe because every time I go into the garage my bike is there sitting staring at me. I rode bikes and scooters from 16, nothing gets close to the feeling of riding a bike. I no longer ride after friends dying, passing fatal crashes and myself crashing I knew I was being warned to stay away.

When I crashed all I could think about was the image of the lorry behind me which fortunately stopped in time. I was lucky and one look at my kids and I quit there and then at 31. I said I didn't want to be the one in a coffin and my son reading a speech on how much he misses me. I crashed on a 125 scooter, I think down to oil or deisel on the road breaking in a straight line on a wet road and the front end washing out. On my bike test for the swerve test I locked the back but immediately released and reapplied and got no minors and got complemented on my control.

On a bike sometimes you are unlucky and it just comes down to luck. I now have a 2l turbo car and enjoy the performance and know I am a lot safer. I keep thinking maybe I should have some lessons again and maybe get something small capacity for fine weather riding. I have been mountain biking and love that which kind of satisfies being on a bike but with less risk so not sure what to do. I know the risks of dying on a bike are high.

[stinkwheel]

[Hong Kong Phooey]

[Polarbear]

Who cares, you could die of some unknown virus tomorrow. Get on a bike.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[doggone]

For the inexperienced can be dangerous.
You sound old enough to have plenty of road miles one way or another.
A lot here will have had 2 or 3 incidents early on then gone for years with little more than embarrassing topple over when parking or similar events.

[Kyle.]

[lifeisforlivi...]

[lifeisforlivi...]

[pepperami]

Ride the bike or just sell it.

Maybe you should take up croesche/knitting
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Bhud]

People have different attitudes towards risk. I find Nassim Nicholas Taleb to have the most complete and insightful understanding of risk. I do find him convincing and influential. However, riding motorcycles is a risk too far in his risk philosophy. Then, you have to consider, what is it that gives life value. Taleb's as-yet-unwritten unified theory on this will come out of a particular tradition and philosophy which, ultimately, fails in the circular theism of Farabi and Sadra. That sort of stuff finds some universal resonance in social theories which elevate family life and structure - basic tribalism - to privilege. A lot of people come to motorcycles when they have more years behind them than ahead, in the hope they sort of cheated death by leaving behind heirs. But death is never cheated. You will be forgotten. So why not guve yourself a chance to enjoy the time you have left remaining. It could be less than 1 year or 4 decades. Same difference.

[lifeisforlivi...]

[chickenstrip]

[UncleFester]

You will probably not be on the bike when / if you die .... so that makes being on the bike pretty safe.

That's your risk mitigated.

Go ride
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Module 1 and 2 passed - October 2014. Happy owner of a 2017 Z1000SX, ex owner of a YBR125 / CB500 / VFR800.

[yen_powell]

I have known more people who died of cancer/old age, car crash than on a motorbike. And like most people on a bike forum, I suspect I know more motorcyclists than the average person.
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Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[1198]

If it’s too risky in your opinion don’t do it. Simple.

[dynax]

You may benefit from some advanced rider training from IAM or similar, reading what you wrote you seem to have a problem with reading the road and hazard perception, riding a bike involves more than just looking where you are going, you have to look and see all around you, you have to expect the unexpected, taking mental notes of road signs and positions of streetlights that indicate a hidden junction, are just some of the things you need to be able to do to ride with as much safety as possible, you may benefit from doing some of the hazard perception tests online just to help hone your skills, but the main thing is not to ride in situations that make you uncomfortable, those situations take away your concentration and then you will have more chance of dying, motorcycling is a very enjoyable and rewarding thing to do, but you have to do it the right way
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Mike.
Bikes: Xena, Bridget,Florence
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmihUc0xXxYbR4_0l-F1FzA/videos?view_as=subscriber

[linuxyeti]

If you have to ask, then perhaps it's not for you, as, you ares tarting off from a position of doubt. Also, whilst, I and a couple of others I know have crashed on bikes, I don't personally know anybody who corked it as a result ..

However, this is what raises concern ..

[BTTD]

It's not for everyone.

Just accept that it's not for you, and move on.

[WreckTangle]

[Undinist]

Wow, that's a spectacular failure to interpret statistics.

Anyway. I nearly gave up bikes after a scary crash. I decided to stick with it and work at improving my skills. Lots of training to get better at road positioning and cornering, lots of off-roading to get better at coping with loss of traction. Skill and fun increased exponentially.
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Current bike: K1100RS. Previous: CD200, GSX250, GT550, VFR750, K100LT, K1100LT, R1100GS, R1150GS, ZZR1100, Hayabusa, RSV Mille, MV F4 750S, R1, ZX-10, KTM Adventure 950S

[WreckTangle]

Don't forget a well, that when the traffic gets real bad, especially on a bad day, in a car........you can do nothing but sit in your hot sweaty car...........and go nowhere...... where as us bikers have the option of filtering ............that the one perk about biking which looks terrify at first, but when you get use to it, it's a blast!
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My wife asked me to get her something that goes from 0-100 in under 5 seconds for her birthday. ......................I got her a bathroom scale.

[Teflon-Mike]

More people each year are murdered in the UK than are killed on motorbikes...... usually by some-one they know..... get it in context, bikes are dangerous, so are a lot of things; you gonna die of something.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[JackButler]

Just about the single most stupidest thing I ever did was ask a table full of BSB riders "aren't you scared of dying".

The silence was stunning, a very huge chin was rubbed & a now retired old & wizened one finally spoke on all of 'ems behalf.

"I'm scared of losing. If that was on my mind I wouldn't get on the bike".
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I clean my guns with the tears of the snivelling, left wing scum.

[bhinso]

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

?

Are you Dr. Quack?

[Pete.]