Motorcycle accident fatality statistics for 2008...

Very interesting statistics. Thanks for posting. Did you notice the age bracket 50 years and older merging with the less than 29? All those Baby Boomers that have never been on a bike buying Harleys. :nonod:
 
I read the 50+ rates as bikers who survived earlier on + those who gave up riding when the kiddies were kiddlets coming back.
 
Pi1otguy said:
I read the 50+ rates as bikers who survived earlier on + those who gave up riding when the kiddies were kiddlets coming back.
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That probably about the same demographic as pilots. People who are raising families sometimes don't have the time or money for expensive hobbies.

When I hung out with the Harley crowd I remember them mostly being quite a bit older than me. That would put them in their 60's now... at least.
 
hmm.. ok. I was thinking more of being nagged or "enticed" away from biking by the wife until the kids leave the nest.
 
Motorcycle riding is not an expensive hobby, unless you spend way to much on a Harley. Typically they are efficient low cost machines you can keep in your garage.
 
A very good friend of mine was in a relatively minor motorcycle accident. It happened last week. He was wearing a helmet. He nearly died and will never be the same again. He has still not regained consciousness. You would have to hold a gun on me to ride a street bike. Dirt bikes are a separate issue. They are fun and not too dangerous. I would take flying over all motorcycles.
 
It's not possible because they don't record the information however I'd like to see the numbers and how they balance out when the criteria is proficient skilled riding, proper ATGATT (full crash gear) and understanding of motorcycle dynamics vs low skill, minimal gear and little understanding of how a motorcycle operates beyond brake=slow throttle=fast. (A motorcycle endorsement on a drivers license means absolutely nothing in this type of criteria selection)

Of course the data in such a report is like the NTSB reports...the only data points entered on the list are crashes, not any of the near misses or non events that were avoided due to skill or blind stupid luck.
 
Similar to flying, you can't make the risk 0 but you can take steps to eliminate your likelihood an awful lot:
ie
-ATGATT
-never after drink
-no stunting/racing/speeding
-(I) avoid night
-(I) avoid wx
-(I) avoid congested areas
 
Pi1otguy said:
I read the 50+ rates as bikers who survived earlier on + those who gave up riding when the kiddies were kiddlets coming back.
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My obstetrician made me give up my motorcycle and horseback riding at 4 months. The kid is 39 now and I've never gotten back on either. Not sure it would be a good idea to try.
 
fgcason said:
It's not possible because they don't record the information however I'd like to see the numbers and how they balance out when the criteria is proficient skilled riding, proper ATGATT (full crash gear) and understanding of motorcycle dynamics vs low skill, minimal gear and little understanding of how a motorcycle operates beyond brake=slow throttle=fast. (A motorcycle endorsement on a drivers license means absolutely nothing in this type of criteria selection)
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I've been riding for decades, over half my life, and I've had exactly one crash at low speed near my house at night in the rain. If an utter klutz like me can do it, so can anyone. The rules are as stated by others, full gear, no stunting, no booze, common sense. If I die tomorrow it will have been a good run. I'm just not me without a bike. Weird, and a little more than stupid, but it is the truth.

The fastest rising demographic I saw was old dudes on literbikes. That applies to a few hereabouts, so let's be careful.
 
Anthony said:
Very interesting statistics. Thanks for posting. Did you notice the age bracket 50 years and older merging with the less than 29? All those Baby Boomers that have never been on a bike buying Harleys. :nonod:
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It would be interesting on the stats specific to the Eric Buell Harleys. My brother has been riding for decades and he admits his 850 Buell is a bit too much for him. So he rides his Kawasaki more often.

The point is the Buell appeals to boomers.
 
I didn't think there were that many of them. Funny you mention it, my brother, who has been riding in-line-four sportbikes for a couple decades, just bought his first Buell. Sounds like it might be a bit much for him.
 
Anthony said:
Motorcycle riding is not an expensive hobby....snip........
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You've never owned a hexhead or oilhead BMW, have you. Oh yeah, and last week I ordered up two Bing carb rebuild kits for two of the Airheads. That set me back about $400.
hehehehehehe

Currently in the 'stable':

6 Moto Guzzi's
6 BMW's
4 Honda's
2 Kawasaki's
1 Triumph
1 Suzuki

And as far as the safety thing goes.
I don't ride when I'm not feeling well, and I NEVER drink and drive, not even in the car. ever.
I am ATGATT: Aerostich Roadcrafter, Caberg helmet, leather gloves, Sidi boots.
I spend time in the dirt, I spend time in the parking lot practicing slow speed stuff. I try to stick to the speed limit, unless I find myself out on a deserted stretch of highway, then I may speed a bit. Much like scanning the panel in the plane and looking outside for other traffic, my head is on a swivel. My fingers cover the brake and the clutch. (That took some getting used to). I pretend I am invisible. I do about 5-10 under the limit while riding home after work (its dark out by 1900 now). Mainly because of the deer and coyotes and cougars and bears. And stray livestock and ponies. And dumba$$'s riding their bicycles at night while wearing dark clothing with no lights and no reflectors.
I trust no one. They are all out to kill me and given an inch, they will.

That being said, I've 'crashed' twice. Once on my driveway when I focused on a 'divot' left by an orchard working spinning his wheels trying to get traction on the steep dirt driveway, and the second time on the baby GS when I decided I could make it through that 20' long patch of slick slushy/icy snow. I made it about 17'. hahaha

I've only been riding for about 4 1/2 years now. But even though I can't ride between November and March, I've managed to accumulate about 60,000 miles. Not too shabby.
 
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DeeG said:
And dumba$$'s riding their bicycles at night while wearing dark clothing with no lights and no reflectors.
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No kidding! That is my biggest pet peeve.


I trust no one. They are all out to kill me and given an inch, they will.
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With that attitude you'll live long. It's exactly what I've been saying for years. It goes well in airplanes too.
 
DeeG said:
You've never owned a hexhead or oilhead BMW, have you.
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No, but I've had Hondas, Suzukis, Triumphs and Nortons. Came close to pulling the trigger on a Ducati a couiple of time but started flying instead. None of which cost me hardly anything to maintain and operate. A lot of mx I could do myself. With the Tiger on the other hand. :rolleyes:
 
Really cheap if you don't keep a stable of high end pasta rockets. Even if you do, still less than an airplane.
 
Dee, the Beemer parts may be expensive, but once you fix 'em expect them to last another 20 years.

I'm gonna drop some $$$ on rebuilding my frontend this winter. It needs new fork gaitors, so I figure I'd go through them, and put in new seals etc.
 
steingar said:
I've been riding for decades, over half my life, and I've had exactly one crash at low speed near my house at night in the rain. If an utter klutz like me can do it, so can anyone. The rules are as stated by others, full gear, no stunting, no booze, common sense. If I die tomorrow it will have been a good run. I'm just not me without a bike. Weird, and a little more than stupid, but it is the truth.

The fastest rising demographic I saw was old dudes on literbikes. That applies to a few hereabouts, so let's be careful.
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I have a couple decades riding too along with several more years of intermittent riding. The one crash was when a cage deliberately crossed the centerline to run me off the road. (I still want his head, not his body, just the head, do with the body as you wish) $1000 of ATGATT paid for itself that day.

Just like flying, proficiency and judgement goes a long way in keeping you safe. IMO, you can exempt youself from some of the profile generalizations by that skill and proficiency..but if you let down your guard for one second, well, just don't go there.

Lots of shiny near liter things around here too, mostly up on one wheel in traffic at high speed with no crash gear. A substantial amount of the on two wheel types are oblivious at what's going on around them. Oh well.
 
Everskyward said:
...

When I hung out with the Harley crowd I remember them mostly being quite a bit older than me. That would put them in their 60's now... at least.
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Mari, I am trying to picture you in biker "old lady" clothes (as in. "she's my old lady," not suggesting you're in any way old, which I'd never do...).

Leather vest, bare midriff...

...got some pics? ;)
 
fgcason said:
I have a couple decades riding too along with several more years of intermittent riding. The one crash was when a cage deliberately crossed the centerline to run me off the road. (I still want his head, not his body, just the head, do with the body as you wish) $1000 of ATGATT paid for itself that day.
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Someone does that to me they'd better finish the job. I will not stop until I find them. Not only to satisfy a deep thirst for vengeance, but to prevent them from doing it to any of my brothers of two wheels.
 
Anthony said:
No, but I've had Hondas, Suzukis, Triumphs and Nortons. Came close to pulling the trigger on a Ducati a couiple of time but started flying instead. None of which cost me hardly anything to maintain and operate. A lot of mx I could do myself. With the Tiger on the other hand. :rolleyes:
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The Ducati....yummy. But the reason I don't own one is because the are sooo expensive to maintain. Makes the airplanes look cheap. hehehe

And I'm learning to do all the maintenance myself. If I had let the stealer do the 2 year servicing to the bike, it would have cost about $1300. Picked up a fault code reader for about $400, now I can do all of it myself.

My Hondas, OTOH, are the cheapest, most reliable bikes we own. Love em.
 
SCCutler said:
Mari, I am trying to picture you in biker "old lady" clothes (as in. "she's my old lady," not suggesting you're in any way old, which I'd never do...).

Leather vest, bare midriff...

...got some pics? ;)
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Possibly, but that was WAY before the days of digital cameras... and before I was old too. :)
 
vontresc said:
Dee, the Beemer parts may be expensive, but once you fix 'em expect them to last another 20 years.

I'm gonna drop some $$$ on rebuilding my frontend this winter. It needs new fork gaitors, so I figure I'd go through them, and put in new seals etc.
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Yup. I'm slowly teaching myself how to do all of the work. Can be frustrating. Took an entire day to pull all the stuff off the front of the GS so I could check the valve clearances. What were they thinking? Putting a Rotax engine in there? ~sigh~

The airheads are just a joy to work on. But I've got 4 leaky carbs that need rebuilding. That's starting to scare me. :smile:

Rebuilding the clutch on one of my Rebels, then both of them get the forks rebuilt.

But I look at this as a learning experience, and it too, will help keep me safe. If I am intimately familiar with the bike and how it runs and how the maintenance has been kept up, there should be no surprises, like a tire coming off the wheel because I neglected to check the tire pressure.
 
fgcason said:
Lots of shiny near liter things around here too, mostly up on one wheel in traffic at high speed with no crash gear. A substantial amount of the on two wheel types are oblivious at what's going on around them. Oh well.
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There was recently a fatal accident involving a kid on Gixxer. We used to get calls from folks complaining about his reckless riding (speeding, stunting, etc).
Then early one morning (about 1 or 2 am) he decides he's going to blast up a side street at a high rate of speed and ignore the stop signs. (Its 2 am, there's no one out here........) Well, there was. He t-boned a p/u truck and came thiiisssss close to taking out the two guys inside the truck.

Its always sad when someone dies, but, I am finding it very hard to feel sorry for him. And his behavior just reinforces the negativity that the non motorcycling community has towards bikers. Much like the pilot who's last words are, "Hey, ya'll, watch this!" And we all know what that does to the 'image' of us pilots.
 
steingar said:
Someone does that to me they'd better finish the job. I will not stop until I find them. Not only to satisfy a deep thirst for vengeance, but to prevent them from doing it to any of my brothers of two wheels.
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Had I not been busy sliding on my face and shoulder at the time, that guy's head would now be mounted on a pike near the location where he crossed the centerline as a warning to others who might consider attempted murder as a hobby. That was 3 years ago and I still want his head. FWIW, the impact foam compression alone to the full face helmet would have likely been fatal..or worse. (If anyone rides with anything less than a full face helmet, throw that useless piece of junk away and get a real helmet that'll protect your face. My entire slide was done while looking at the 4-grit belt sander grinding away on the other side of the visor and chin bar while calmly thinking how nice it was being inside the helmet instead of outside with that angry grinder running)

And I'm learning to do all the maintenance myself. If I had let the stealer do the 2 year servicing to the bike, it would have cost about $1300. Picked up a fault code reader for about $400, now I can do all of it myself.
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On one of the motorcycle webboards I'm on, there's a trend toward doing their own maintenance. We get a do-it-yourself convert about once a month.
The typical convert is someone who has a good running bike and doing your own work is crazy. Then something isn't working right for whatever reason. They take it to the stealership and pay lots of money. It's then running worse than before they took it in or didn't get better. We talk them through diagnosing the problem. When they pull it apart, they figure out that the shop didn't even touch it or did something completely unnecessary and sometimes outright dangerous. A day or two later, the bike is running like new...and they realize that mysterious high tech piece that needs mysterious technical skills to fix by magical technicians is about as difficult to fix as putting lego's together. In the last month alone, I've talked two people through the mysteries of rebuilding a carburetor. Curiously the average do it yourself entry fee is about $500 of thrown away money that didn't fix the problem and doing it themselves solved the problem quickly and inexpensively. Personally I can't even start to guess how much $$ I saved by doing all the work myself for the last 15 years but it's very substantial.
 
Yah, I plead guilty on that one. I haven't wrenched my bikes in a long time (rather go out and fly) and I really should. Something about being married and owning a house seems to suck the life out of my mechanical skills.
 
fgcason said:
(If anyone rides with anything less than a full face helmet, throw that useless piece of junk away and get a real helmet that'll protect your face. My entire slide was done while looking at the 4-grit belt sander grinding away on the other side of the visor and chin bar while calmly thinking how nice it was being inside the helmet instead of outside with that angry grinder running)
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Sheesh ... Next you'll tell them to wear a back plate, knee pads, & armor.
 
steingar said:
Really cheap if you don't keep a stable of high end pasta rockets. Even if you do, still less than an airplane.
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Much less. Airplanes are an order of magnitude (or two) more expensive than motorcycle ownership. Other than buying it, my 03 BMW with 53k on it has consumed less than the cost of *one* annual in total service/repairs costs.

Heck, for the price of a 430 installed, you can buy a decent new motorcycle.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Sheesh ... Next you'll tell them to wear a back plate, knee pads, & armor.
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Hell yes! In which reality do you live? I wear armored jackets at minimum (all of which have a back pad), and often wear overpants as well (armored in the knees and hips). If you get to meet Mr. pavement at speed you're going to need all of it. Ever see someone crash without gear? If they survive, the rash is ugly and painful as all get out. I'd rather be a little uncomfortable than have gravel picked out of my rash piece by piece.
 
steingar said:
Hell yes! In which reality do you live? I wear armored jackets at minimum (all of which have a back pad), and often wear overpants as well (armored in the knees and hips). If you get to meet Mr. pavement at speed you're going to need all of it. Ever see someone crash without gear? If they survive, the rash is ugly and painful as all get out. I'd rather be a little uncomfortable than have gravel picked out of my rash piece by piece.
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Ditto. Mostly Aerostich stuff (old roadcrafter, newer darien). Armored backpad, shoulder, knee, elbow, and hip pads. Full face helmet. Alpinstars boots. Held gloves.

Good stuff, and yes, I did once surf the pavement in such gear back in 2000. I broke my wrist, but no rash, not bad for hitting the pavement at 60mph.
 
Can't afford Aerostich, wish I could. I have a bunch of jackets by now, different ones for different bikes for different seasons. Over the summer I was wearing the AGV Sport jacket (vented leather), right now I'm riding the Cortech Fusion jacket. Might pick up a Fieldsheer leather jacket soon, don't really need it but they're cheap and really pretty. Oh, and I have a Joe Rocket race suit that I bought off Ebay for $40. I wear it when I want to look really stupid. Still better looking than rash. Or scar tissue.

I'm due for a new helmet, mine dates back to the 1990s.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Sheesh ... Next you'll tell them to wear a back plate, knee pads, & armor.
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No. Not if they insist on being guest of honor for a ride in the owie wagon and want to have to ask their friends to wipe their butt after going potty for a few months since their hands don't take the hit any better. Unverified rumor has it that they use a stiff bristle brush to get the gravel out of road rash..I don't know about anyone else but in my book that falls into the extremely unfun best to be avoided category.

The 4-grit belt sander doesn't stop at your head, it'll grind away on anything else it can touch as well.

<--- ATGATT
 
steingar said:
If you get to meet Mr. pavement at speed you're going to need all of it. Ever see someone crash without gear? If they survive, the rash is ugly and painful as all get out. I'd rather be a little uncomfortable than have gravel picked out of my rash piece by piece.
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Absolutely. And skin grafts are very painful...


Trapper John
 
DeeG said:
The airheads are just a joy to work on. But I've got 4 leaky carbs that need rebuilding. That's starting to scare me. :smile:
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BTDT on my R65. the Carb rebuild isn't all that bad. The worst part is fiddling with the mixture, and idle to get them synched up. For cleaning 'em Berryman B65 is wondeful, but make sure the room is well ventilated :D

For synchng the carbs I found this device. simple but works great.

http://www.650ccnd.com/mano.htm
 
vontresc said:
BTDT on my R65. the Carb rebuild isn't all that bad. The worst part is fiddling with the mixture, and idle to get them synched up. For cleaning 'em Berryman B65 is wondeful, but make sure the room is well ventilated :D

For synchng the carbs I found this device. simple but works great.
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The pennytech manometer works just as good as the $100+ version.

Just do a good bench sync before reinstallation and the manometer sync goes much quicker. Mine was almost perfect except for about 1/8 to 1/4 turn on a couple of the slow jet screws.

Ignore all the years of people telling you a carburetor is high tech complicated yadda yadda mysterious. It's just glorified scent sprayer which is where the basic concept comes from in the first place. It's really rather easy and straightforward.
The best cleaning supplies is isopropyl alcohol, paper towels, q-tips and a straight pin. $3 tops, does the job and doesn't dissolve your hands.
 

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Bill Jennings said:
Good stuff, and yes, I did once surf the pavement in such gear back in 2000. I broke my wrist, but no rash, not bad for hitting the pavement at 60mph.
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Having never biked or planning to do so before the mid-life crisis I just assumed leaving the bike >30 mph was the end. Next you guys will say there is a particular way to fall off.

Back to the OP, DUI crashes on bikes seems to have drastically higher fatalities then one would expect from a car. The stats almost make it seem like a DUI wreak is fatal over half the time, but I couldn't find where it quantifies the injuries or quality of life for the survivors. I'm actually surprised that riders have DUIs given incredible risks.
 
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