its obviously sportbikes.

 

I've always felt that accident avoidance is key to rider survival. Concidering that even a Fiat 500 easilly wins when it comes to contact with any motorcycle, avoiding that contact is paramount. To that end, I will often practice avoidance by picking features in my lane to avoid without braking. (Don't do this when cars are around). This puts me in a mind-set to avoid danger rather than simply braking and hoping that I stop. I also recommend that you are constantly monitoring the road ahead for escape routes to use when the car you don't even see yet does something really stupid. Oh, yes, you should always expect the cars around you to do the dumbest thing you can imagine. They usually will.

 

I wonder about this myself. It is assumed that because out bikes are faster we crash more. I have my doubts. The newbie cruiser riders usually dont get a smaller bike and work their way up. They get the biggest, heaviest, and chromiest thing money can buy then go ride. A few years ago during the housing boom, I saw many more harleys crashing (local of course) mainy because an old guy, in a mid life crisis, had the money to get a bike that he always wanted, then go put the wind in his face with little or no expierence and much slower reaction times than he thinks he has. These guy would get into a canyon turn too slow or fast and crash. It happened all the time.

Not to say that sportbikes dont crash a lot, they do and it usually is bad because of the speed. Maybe we take risks, like splitting lanes, that big cruiser cant do which increases our fequency of crashes.

Cars dont care what you ride, they will try to kill us all the same... Ride alert and safe.

 

hey, i was interested to read those stats. thought you might be interested to see this youtube clip. I'm from Melbourne, Australia and this is our current TAC (transport accident commission) road safety TV ad campaign.

2012 Motorcycle Accident Reconstruction 'TAC TV road safety commercial' - YouTube

would be interested to hear any feedback regarding it. It has created quite and uproar within the motorcycling fraternity hear in Victoria.

 

Motorcycles also have a higher fatality rate per unit of distance traveled when compared with automobiles. Motorcycle rider deaths were nearly 30 times more than drivers of other vehicles.

 

I have been riding for years, CBR600RR was my first and only road bike. What seems to be a common theme from my experience has been drivers turning left out of a side street crossing my lane of traffic. They seem to think I am further away than I really am, or just don't see me. One thing I always do is watch the drivers waiting to enter traffic and I am always prepared for my "plan b" bail strategy. Old drivers are the worst, but it's not always just the elderly. Another thing I do on the freeway is I never ride next to anyone in a car in the other lane. I am either in front of them or behind them, but never casually riding next to them for fear of a sudden lane change on their part and me being in their blind spot.

Basically, when it comes to other drivers causing accidents it seems they just don't see us, or cant determine correctly how far away we are and pull out in front of us. So just always watch them and wear your gear. Gear is so critical I can't emphasize that enough. I had an accident the other day and I would be a vegetable or dead and the accident was minimal. The helmet has a hole in it and this was one of the "lucky" accident's where I wasn't going fast and happened to fall just right. People that ride without helmets are seriously gambling with their brain. My accident was one that I would have even said "ahhh, probably won't need a helmet" but I was very glad I had it on. Freaks me out to think of where I would be without that helmet on.

 

I passed my test about a month or so ago and we was taught how to swerve and it was part of my test, we had to do it a 50kmph MINIMUM to pass! there was no maximum! it was just to make sure you could swerve at whatever speed (within reason) but in this vid (i have no sound) i assume that it said 68kph was to fast compared to 60! this is rubbish when it was the cars fault for pulling out and if the rider was trained properly the problem wouldn't have occurred. I guess!

 

One of the roads I ride a lot of the time is really smooth but also has a lot of manholes in it. Speed limit is 35 so I just go down that and swerve as late as I can to avoid them to practice.

I've gotten quite a bit better since I started riding

 

Interesting.

I know my 2012 CBR250R has one front disc and one rear and weighs 350 pounds

My 1994 CBR600 has TWO front discs and one rear but weighs 450 pounds, even though there is a 100 pound difference I would still assume that going from 40-20 on a 600 is similar to 35-20 on the 250 maybe. I'm not sure though.

I think it really depends mostly on the rider though. In that video he braked too hard and locked his rear up. If you don't lock the brakes up, you will stop better and be able to swerve around objects at the last second.