Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 1, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
The recent bike rant thread got me thinking about which two wheeled vehicle is going to get me killed first ...
On the motorcycle , you generally don't have 4,000 pound pieces of metal passing your left side constantly , but on the bicycle you rarely reach speeds that will take your life if you fall out of the saddle .
That being said , all bets are off when a motorist cuts in front of you.
The safety pros and cons are endless.
Personally I prefer the motorcycle, I ride about 10,000 miles a year . In the end I guess I'd rather be responsible for my own speed and safety , than relying on every passing car to pass me safely on the bicycle ...
You've got a lot more ability to get out of trouble on the moto. Lots of people drive them like maniacs but if you dont do that I think its safer than a bike.
My impression from talking to people who work in hospital ERs and Orthopedic wards is that they see far more motorcyclists than bicyclists.
That's strictly anecdotal, though, not proven fact.
Edit to add: Just speaking for myself, I've made it to the ER/Orthopedic ward three times in bicycle crashes. I've never driven a motorcycle though, so it's not a fair comparison
No, it's not a fair comparison. Far more people per capita ride motorcycles than bicycles on busy roads.
There are a lot of deadly motorcycle crashes here in NH, but we have the highest per capita motorcycle registration in the US, so I guess my comparison is not a fair one either.
Personally, having grown up with a dad who rode approximately four thousand miles per year on his road bike, I'd say that motorcycles are far more dangerous.
On a motorcycle, you're in the flow of traffic rather than beside it. Too many drivers don't see motorcycles when merging.
It's not how aware you are, it's how aware everyone around you is.
The guy in the video was 75. His wife had just died the past year. Not that that excuses what he was doing, but might help explain why he flipped his lid. He was given a couple of tickets for his actions.
That's funny, that car's license was EKG........just about gave me a heart attack watching that video.
I was coming back from skiing with some other guys once and somebody came up behind our car on the freeway honking like crazy. I started to get flustered at the guy until it turned out he was trying to warn us our skis were falling off the roof of the car!
Something else was going on in this video - dude had a personal problem. (haha - me and last poster posted at the same time).
Regarding bicycle Vs motorcycle. I feel much safer on a motorcycle, but you can't workout on a motorcycle.
It does not seem all that rare. Seems like hit and runs are common with bicycles too. I stay on very select roads when riding - people are too f*#ked up in cars. Hardly anything makes me more irrate than some as#@&%e in a car.
I'm getting better at just pulling off the road like I do when somebody tails me in my car - it's the best thing! Let them go and then chill. That's what those guys in the video should have done but they wanted to get a movie I guess.
They are getting serious over on the bike rant thread....guns and all!
Short of having weapons on hand, I threw my bicycle through a truck windshield on Vancouver Island in the 70s, after he helped to cause my girlfriend to flip her bike.
but on the bicycle you rarely reach speeds that will take your life if you fall out of the saddle
ha! you don't ride down hills... there are many places around Livermore where I was seriously wondering just how good the wheel I built was... and hoping that there wasn't too much gravel on the road...
...not infrequently over the 40 mph speed limit braking to stay behind cars... and with a tail wind one winter exceeded that speed by a lot, on a 1.5 lane rural road with bobwire fence boundaries, not a good mix with lycra.
Let us know!