I just bought a bike and everyone and I mean everyone keeps saying **** like hope you paid your life insurance and your gonna die and all this crap and its too the point where the bike isnt enjoyable because of all the BS people keep saying. So i ask.
How likely is it?

If you arent out being a clown
you wear your helmet every time
you wear yourglovees every time
you wear yourleather jacketevery time

obey traffic laws and dont go over 75.

no drinking and riding.

How likely are you to die or be severely hurt?

These guys make it sound like i will be killed by august and its driving me crazy.

 

Im a new rider as well but i'd say gear or not the majority of the time it doesnt matter really how YOU ride, its the people in CARS that you need to be aware of...

 

Not what you want to hear but they are correct (not that you're going to kill yourself) but that it is high risk compared to riding with a cage and airbags around you but what you need to tell them (and what many seem to forget) is that the risks are relatively low if you factor in time of use. In other words, if you do what you said (ride safe, fully gear up, etc..) then per number of hours riding the risks are relatively low compared to injuries in other risky sports such as skiing, bungee jumping, etc.. etc.. So it's all a matter of perspective. Don't let them get in your head because riding safely has a lot to do with your mindset like the whole "look where you want to go" thing.

 

Majority of our "crashes" are because of our own stupidity, inabilities, and exceeding our limits. I dumped my ride six seeks ago on a corner that I've riden a hundred times over and over...this time, I was going a little too fast for the conditions and although I've taken this corner much faster before, it was just this one time that the stars and moons aligned and lost control of the bike and fractured the L1 in my back...I've been out from work since and will be for about another few weeks.
As for dying, when your #'s up, it's up...One can be as safe as possible to lower your odds, but if a drunk driver is gonna cross into your lane, there's nothing you can do...
RB

 

Get a new group of people...! [8D]lol

No seriously though.. If you have a level head on your shoulders and wear Full Gear All the time, everytime.. youshould be ok. Yes you probably will go down, it happens... but people that wear their gear walk away from accidents all the time. (KEY here)If you ride with the mentality that you are invisible, people are out to kill you, and you ALWAYS are looking and expecting a driver to (For example) .. run red lights, rear-end you, come over on you, cross the double yellow around a corner, pull out infront of you, make a left turn infront of you... you'll be set.

They teach in the MSF course, lets say you're riding and you're coming up on a green light. You enter the interesection and WHAM!! Car runs you over. Who's at fault?? .. well on the police report it will read that the driver was at fault... BUT the MSF says, the rider was at fault for not scanning the interesection, covering their brakes, and expecting a driver to run that red light. And GUESS what.. its doesn't matter to throw blame at the driver because most likely the rider is dead.....

I too have gone down recently, BUT the CAUSE...... My own fault. Pushed pass my limits, got too comfortable with the bike, and didn't check my ego before setting off to ride. REASON i walked away..... The man upsides and GEAR!!

 

Hey 123k and I'm still here... can't be that bad! [8D]

Dont' let them scare you too much. But in a sense, they are right.... riding is indeed risky. Riding a motorcycle regardless carries a certain amount of risk, mainly other cars but also road debril/oil, or anything else that could cause you to crash. So there's always a certain amount of risk, but after that, it's only as dangerous as you make it. If you ride safely and always wear your gear, it's really not as bad as everybody makes it out to be. Most of the time the people telling you how dangerous it is, have never ridden a motorcycle before in their life, they just go off of hearsay. They don't realize that the extreme manuverability of a motorcycle could actually keep you from getting into an accident, whereas the same situation might be unavoidable in a car. Just something to think about

Just ride like everyone on the road IS out to kill you, and by all means DO NOT TRUST ANYONE.... EVER!!!!! If you ride with that mindset, more than likely you'll be just fine. Remember, a little common sense goes a looooooonnnngggg way on a bike!

 

http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm
Deaths odds yearly lifetime odds

Motorcycle rider, V20-V29 4,387 67,448 866
Car occupant, V40-V49 14,584 20,289260

ill take my odds riding

 

FACT:

If you own a CBR your chances of dying before 100 is 99.9%.

It's tough, but I make do...

 

Those odds are based on population and are not representative of the people actually riding the bikes. The people that arent rididng the bikes will significantly skwq the data. All they are doing is taking 295 mil and dividing it by the number of deaths. So i assume 295mil was the population of hte US when this study was done.


After some more digging I found this on Wikipedia
for every 1 mile you drive on a bike you are






0.0000004347000%
likely to be involved in a fatal accident

for every 1 mile you drive in a car you are






0.00000001560000%
like to be involved in a fatal accident


So you are 35 to 40 times more likely to die on a bike than on a car

I guess thats not too bad.

 

Just be the opposet of a careless rider...

In other words: Don't be a SQUID![8D]