Look I’m as much “fuck cars” as the next guy but riding a motorcycle on a highway is unironically suicidal. I personally know a guy who got in a bad crash on one but miraculously survived; he had a year long recovery period but will have various pain and dysfunction in his body for the rest of his life. I also know some people who did pathology rotations (state medical examiner office, autopsy basically) and the big three categories of bodies coming in were drug overdoses, suicides, and motorcycle crashes.
One of the facebook comments links to a seventh person who died a few days before these on June 18th: https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/motorcyclist-killed-sr-530-crash.amp
If you eliminate people riding without proper gear, people riding without motorcycle licenses, and people riding inebriated, the death statistics for motorcycles get cut by more than half. No doubt it’s more dangerous than driving a car, but if you’re sober, properly trained and experienced, and you wear all the gear, it’s not at all suicidal.
I changed my primary care physician a few years back because literally every time I went in he would waste time trying to convince me to stop riding a motorcycle.
if he succeeded in convincing you that would have done more for your long term health and risk of death than literally any other intervention so I don’t blame him for trying
I know a lot of medical providers and they see a lot of mangled bodies from motorcycle accidents.
And if I were making appointments for life advice he might not have been wasting his time, but it turns out it was an appointment for basic medical checkups not advice on how to live my life or how to get around. He certainly didn’t offer to buy me a damn car, pay for car insurance, pay for maintenance on the car, or pay for fuel, all of which are factors in my choice to get around on a motorcycle.
if it’s literally a matter of not being able to afford it then fine, but if you can afford it you are trading a very, very large amount of risk to save that money.
Surely you understand that everyone has different thresholds of acceptable danger? Do you think people who ride motorcycles don’t realize it’s dangerous when they’re doing 70MPH next to 20k lb 18 wheelers in heavy traffic? It’s just so weird and condescending to do this shit. It’s genuinely insulting to my intelligence, which is why I quit going to that doctor. No shit it’s dangerous, but thanks for telling me what I and everybody already know.
you came into a thread about how a lot of motorcyclists died and now are complaining about how condescending it is to be told that what you are doing is unsafe
I think you’ll find I came into a thread and shared some information about how to reduce the chance of injury or death on a motorcycle and you are now repeatedly stating obvious things to me as if the entire world doesn’t already know it. Do you feel the need to tell me the color of the sky, or perhaps how many days there are in a week?
Also, thanks for confirming that this does indeed come directly out of your condescension. Cool!
Not eating vegetables 200 micromorts
Drinking once a week 100 micromorts
Hate doing cardio 500 micromorts
Riding a motorcycle 27,000 micromorts
Bad sleep hygiene 300 micromorts
someone who is good at risk management please help me budget this i am going to die in two years
just gonna point to one of my previous replies where you probably should have picked up the understanding that your own personal acceptable danger threshold is your own personal danger threshold and isn’t actually a universal thing you can apply to everyone because we’re all different people
But don’t let reality get in the way of your smug redditposting
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The fatality rate for motorcycles is about the same as small planes, anybody arguing that it’s safe is not very smart and they just want to be as annoying as possible before they bite it.
Nobody’s arguing it’s safe they’re trying to tell silly scolders that they understand the risk and are comfortable with it.
The woke scolds at hexbear are telling me not to ride my noisy death machine even though I started the conversation by massaging statistics to make it seem much safer than it is.
Your risk of death is 100%. I drive a convertible even though it is much more dangerous than a sedan in a rollover or T-bone. Many of us here shoot guns, do direct action, have no health insurance, etc. As long as they’re registered organ donors, why should doctors hassle bikers? Bikers know the risk better than the general population, they just want it more.
I suppose bikers will go for routine checkups and respond to the doctor, “Jeez, I’ve been riding for ten years and nobody ever told me it was dangerous!”
The lessons are the same from every public health concern: risky sex, obesity epidemic, smoking. Badgering people is really fucking annoying for everybody involved - so annoying that they’ll have worse healthcare outcomes in general - and basically nobody will make lifestyle changes because of it. The most you can do with non-structural solutions is get people to take prophylactics or wear a helmet.
Learning this fact was a huge reason I finally sent it on my dream of owning a bike. And holy shit am I glad I did, I haven’t had this much fun in years.
The fastest car can’t hold a candle to the pleasure of a motorcycle ride on a nice day
Cigarettes also feel good but they are also bad for your health. You don’t need a car to crash a bike into a tree.
I hate talking about motorcycles with people because they think I’m strange when I tell them I don’t want to ride one or be a passenger unless everyone has helmets, protective gloves, airbag vests, etc. It seems excessive, and I’m sure some of it may be snake oil, but some people really do think they’re epic stunt actors who just need a pair of shades and black jacket to be safe.
Everyone also thinks I’m overreacting when I tell them to wear a seatbelt in the back of the car. If you don’t value your life, fine, but I rather not have you break my spine and kill or paralyze me because you think physics make an exception for you just because you sit in the back. Fucking HATE passengers. Fucking HATE drivers of any vehicle. I want to drive a large one seat vehicle so people can’t bother me. A tank, i guess.
The motorcycle riders who refuse to wear any gear at all are ridiculous. I once caught a flat quite a ways from home on a tubed tire, didn’t have levers (or the willingness to fight that battle in 95F heat in a ditch) so I used AAA and got a ride in a flatbed home. The driver was a life long rider, she rode a hayabusa. With no gear, not even a helmet. She hadn’t even ever tried a helmet. I tried to explain to her how pleasant having earplugs and a shield over/around your head is at 80MPH and it was like she didn’t get it.