How dangerous are bikes really??

I'm new to the biking game and really enjoying it - however - all the talk on this forum of crashes and injuries has me worried - how common are serious accidents??

[Sid Squid]

Depends who you talk to.

Whilst it is true that it can happen to anyone, the reality is that it keeps happening to the same people. Ride sensible, learn, (forever), and importantly learn from your mistakes.

Hard to say really, depends where you ride, what kind of riding you do and what your skill level is.
Attitude is very important as well as blind luck.

So far over almost 20k in under 2 years I haven't had a serious accident and the minor ones I have had have all been my own fault. Either through lack of awareness, overconfidence or just making a mistake.
I know that all but one of my offs could have been prevented by me; the other was where I just slipped on the controls.

Btw, I'm not the slowest of riders, though certainly not the quickest. I choose to ride at a speed I feel safe at.

[embee]

what you need is experience. Unfortunately left to your own devices you tend to get it just after you needed it (plagiarised from someone else, due respect ).

The best way round this is to gain from other peoples' experience, and the way to get that is training.

For a start get hold of a copy of "Roadcraft", the police riders manual. Read it.

Get on a course like "Bikesafe", also strangely run by the Police .

Use your imagination, think what might go wrong, because someday it probably will. Have your escape route planned in advance.

Always assume other road-users have not seen you. Either they haven't or they'll pull out anyway. Cars pulling out of side roads are a very high risk to your enjoyment of the rest of the day.

As far as accidents caused by the bike rider, a large proportion involve running wide on bends. This is down to misjudgement of the bend, not slowing down enough, "chickening out" of trying to get round, generally lack of skill and roadcraft. Right handers (UK) mean you end up in the hedge, left handers mean you get "Volvo" stamped on your forehead.

Always ride within your own abilities, and always wear your ferkin' leathers. (BASAT).

If in doubt, don't.

What do you define as serious accidents?

Also, keep in mind that when something bad happens, its far more likely to be talked about than an uneventful trip. Which would you find more interesting? The fact that a couple of weeks ago I managed to chuck the bike up the road and body surf tarmac at about 40 mph or that fact that I did exactly the same trip today and the traffic was really quiet?

I've found the best approach is to go one step at a time and assume that other people on the road can't see you, and always wear full protective gear.

No matter how good you get, there will always be some wally out there who can do something stupid and cause problems. By training and working at it you can spot them sooner and stay clear of them, but there's no way you'll ever be able to be 100% safe, whether you're on a bike, in a car or driving an artic... nothing is risk free, and bikes generally come off worst in any crash.

Originally Posted by LondonLad

all the talk on this forum of crashes and injuries has me worried - how common are serious accidents??

Sid Squid is right. We have a few "crash monkeys" on here.......... not many but it does seem to happen to a few.

And that's the other thing to bear in..................... how many users crash compared to the number of regular users.

I see that you're in London - you need to take extra care due to the sheer volume of traffic and the number of bikes that can descend upon you very quickly if you're filtering slowly. Just move over and let 'em through.

Everything carries some form of associated risk and motorcycles are no different.

You can dramatically reduce your chance of being involved by selecting your attuitude, riding defensively and practicing your roadcraft.

Even police Riders get SMIDSY'd from time to time. You can never completely remove the element of risk caused by other people. Similarly, you can't always predict mechanical failure (although according to Police Roadcraft, only 5% of bike accidents are due to that).

What you can do is reduce the risk of these things by servicing your bike regularly, giving it a visual check when you're cleaning it, keeping your chain oiled, etc. When you're out on the road, ride like you're invisible to everyone except speed cameras and coppers (1/3 of road users will not notice you, even when you overtake them! ), ride defensively, don't engage in road rage, decent observation, keep an escape route available wherever possible, don't get caught up in 'racing' other vehicles.

Even if you do all the above, one of the biggest factors (aside from car drivers) is how you ride. Take the mick with the speed you enter corners, leave your braking too late, don't countersteer etc. and you're an accident waiting to happen. As has been said, some of the most common accidents that're your fault are botching a turn and you'll run wide, either into a hedge/wall or worse, an oncoming vehicle.

I'm fairly inexperienced, only 8000 miles in a year of riding (but a few years of big car mileage prior/in addition to that), but thankfully haven't had any serious accidents, or even damaged the bike. My one 'off' I actually remained on the bike and toppled sidewards onto a mud bank, not even any brusing/scraping of fairing, etc. I've run wide on left hand bends 3 times, twice was a concious decision (I saw it was empty and rather than risk tighter turning on mud/etc. ran wide). The other was due solely to inexperience/poor riding and was not controlled. I'm lucky nothing was coming the other way.

Of course, In addition to that, I've had well over 50 incidents where had I not reacted quickly to another road user's mistake/poor driving, I'd of been off/in some cases, probably dead. I think the key area to focus on in reducing the chance of serious accidents is in other people's actions and reacting to them. Looking at IAM/Roadcraft material, you'll notice a hell of a lot of the info isn't so much, 'How to ride', more 'How to second-guess what that retard in a volvo is about to do'

Most 'persistant crashers', who aren't just inept riders (in terms of their own bike control), seem to repeatedly be had off by cars pulling out in front of them/'changing lanes' into them, etc. Fair enough, legally/insurance-wise not their fault, but it's a lot better to spot it and avoid it than deal with the aggro of crashing. The fact that it happens to the same people (as Sid said) and that Police/IAM riders crash far less than most (even taking into account 'other parties fault' accidents) would suggest that in the majority of cases it's avoidable. Of course, some times it really is unavoidable and a car will pull out into the side of you, far too late for you to swerve/you'll get sandwiched between two trucks on a motorway, etc. but those things aren't what you should focus on (as you can't do anything about it), although of course you should include this in your calculation of risk as to whether or not you think bikings worth it.

[timwilky]

Bikes are not dangerous, it is the people who ride them and the SMIDSY brigade that you need to watch out for.

As others have said the throttle works in two directions. If you aint happy back off. Get advanced training and learn to read the road and environment.

Yes the same people do seem to crash. However, it is up to them to anlalyse the crash and reasons for it and be honest with themselves and hopefully it will be their last off.

BTW just in the unlikely chance that it does happen to you, heed the advice of Mr APE. "Always wear your ferking leathers"