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sturner wrote:

I helped scrape a bike rider off the pavement in Germany once. Not pretty. A little misjudgment. He was conscious but not lucid. And very badly hurt.

Ride scared.

sturner wrote:

Get a car. It's more survivable.

Hey, thanks for your awesome advice!

sturner wrote:

I helped scrape a bike rider off the pavement in Germany once. Not pretty. A little misjudgment. He was conscious but not lucid. And very badly hurt.

Ride scared.

Problem is, this sort of tactic just doesn't register in most folks brains. We all have a weakness in thinking the human body can't be broken or that just happens to other people. Personally, I had to pull my dying stepfather out of a 25 foot ravine after he high sided off his Triumph Bonneville. The reason I don't ride at the moment is that I am riding scared, which impairs my judgment, timing and ability.

Ferdiad wrote:

Let me change the ride scared to ride aware. And NEVER EVER trust any cager with your safety. Even to the extreme of ASSUMING that they will obey simple traffic laws like stopping at a red light. They won't, and you will pay with your life. Always look cagers in the eye at intersections, that way they register you as a human being.
That being said, most of the accidents I have heard about resulted from a rider's overconfidence combined with lack of ability. Taking a turn way too fast, trying to stop like you are driving a car, or just failing to use basic motorcycle skills.

What's a cager?

See, the disdain for the vehicle?

user wrote:

One man enters.....one man leaves.

And speaking of NC and age (possibly even older! ) contrasting [ahem] youth and beauty...

I got my first motorcycle, a very battered Honda CL-175, in 1973 when we moved from town to a house in the country. I'd never much liked driving a car and a friend (whose youth was much more reckless and misspent than mine; to be fair, his youth was more reckless and misspent than that of most people who survive to age 30) suggested I get a motorcycle.

I was amazed to learn that I really like riding a bike. I haven't driven a car since 1988, because in North Carolina it's practical to ride almost every day if you don't mind being rained on. If it's more than me alone going somewhere, then generally the other party or parties drive. One of the major virtues of a bike for me is that if I screw up, I'm unlikely to hurt anybody but myself.

...

You do sometimes get second chances, with bikes and in life more generally. And sometimes it really is better the second time around.

I'll has that one. Now, let's... be careful out there.

http://www.david-drake.com/bike.html