Pointman’s Page

With all the bravo sierra nanny stuff going around I found the post on Motorcycle Crash Statistics rather interesting.

72 percent of fatalties(sic) in [motorcycle] operator age group 40-49 involved alcohol.

It is typical to blame the motorcycle for the accident just as it is typical to blame a firearm for the actions of a criminal. And in a similar way of pushing for “safer” firearms to stop idiots and criminals they want to try the same logic on motorcycles and anything else deemed “dangerous” when what they mean is “politically incorrect” or “socially unacceptable” or the new gold standard of societal condescension, “causing my insurance premiums to go up”.

As an aside, isn’t it amazing that the common man has become the shill for big insurance which is, after all, part of that “evil corporate America” responsible for so much death and destruction? Obviously the media indoctrination is working.

Ultimately though these fatalities are people acting illegally. Yes folks, it’s illegal to drink and drive. And it’s plain stupid to try to do it on a motorcycle. But let me be very blunt: these are criminals who drink and drive. Creating new laws because of someone who is already a criminal, whether its mandatory helmet laws or gun control, is corralling sheep because that is always easier than hunting wolves. It’s also the most lazy cop out of the century.

There is also a propensity for people in the specific age bracket to think they can start out and learn on an 800 pound Harley Davidson because they think riding is only about Harley and looking cool to their bar buddies. This is one reasons bikers have coined terms like RUB (Rich Urban Biker) to differentiate those riding to ride from those with brand new $20k machines and no experience using them to ride 10-20 miles crawling pubs each Saturday night. I think the saying coined several years ago judging by the price goes something like “$15,000 and 15 miles don’t make you a biker”…

Experience and skill in this hobby come from doing it and striving to improve your skills. The latter is quite often missed since going out and riding in a parking lot is “undignified”. So is starting out on a Honda 250 before going larger. Not only because “it’s a Jap bike” but because it’s only 250cc! I wonder if this could be because Harley makes nothing smaller than an 883cc these days?

This lowered skill factor seems to come to be supported by other motorcycle accident statistics:

70 percent of all [motorcycle] fatalities occur on undivided highways.

There is a biker saying “ride your own” the essence of which is you set your pace and ride within your skill set and comfort level. If there are seasoned bikers ahead of you trying to “keep up” is a sure way to minimally mess up your ride and worse case get you killed. If they make fun of you or deride you in any way for it then these people are not your friends and will get you killed.

The problem is you have to hang with bikers to learn such things and fresh group of RUB’s can be a mass suicide waiting to happen unless they dedicate themselves to learning and realize that buying a bike is only step. But this, too, is another endemic problem we see in other facets of life. Take the recent trouble Pacer Williams encountered. It used to be a new player on a team was taken under the wing of a veteran and taught the do’s and don’t’s of the business. The same thing in training up rookie cops which is why it is so alarming the number of Indianapolis Metro officers are choosing early retirement.

I was fortunate to know guys who were real bikers when I was a teenager. I tended to hang with an older crowd and I learned a lot when I was impressionable enough for it to stick. What I learned about motorcycling is start small, work your way up and most importantly never stop learning. Practice, improving your skills because skill on a motorcycle is the number one factor to survival on the mean streets of America.

The other thing the undivided highways statistic reflects is accidents not the biker’s fault. It is too common for an inattentive driver coming the other direction crossing the center line. Or, coming up fast from behind and running the biker over. Stop signs and stop lights are also especially hazardous for bikers because so many car drivers today are too busy to actually pay attention to driving and tend to stop at lights and signs on top of bikers rather than behind them. Only this past spring in Indianapolis a young girl pulled out from a stop sign right in front of an oncoming motorcyclist and the motorcyclist was instantly killed when he hit the side of her SUV. The local media was more concerned with the young girl being traumatized by the “accident” than the dead motorcyclist or his family.

Recently I spotted a bumper sticker I’d not seen before that said Guns don’t kill people, drivers on cell phones kill people. As trite as that may seem, like with stereotypes trite expressions carry a grain of truth.

In the end I think most of us realize that the vast majority of Americans drive on 4 wheels and are the largest demographic. It is their perception of bikers that will rule not only on the road but in the legislature and the town hall. What that means to bikers is that if you’re not driving on 4 wheels it is automatically your fault if you are in an accident with a 4 wheeler.

Just ask the truckers…..

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 7:10 am and is filed under Freedom, Current Events, Motorcycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.