If anyone is on the fence about learning to ride a motorcycle, I highly recommend it. One of my favorite hobbies. However, it does get expensive if you get serious about it like doing trackdays
I love motorcycling. It is a passion. I had my motorcycle classification before I got my car license.
But, I don't recommend it to anyone. I will not be party to suggesting, encouraging, cajoling or any other "ing" to get someone on a bike.
It's too dangerous to allow someone else to convince you.
Anyone in the community for any duration has their share of personal experiences, being close to someone lost or badly hurt, or simply being in a small community where loss and injury happens. I've lost friends. Had my share of (thankfully) mostly minor injuries. I've gone down on a freeway in rush hour traffic. It happens, it's real.
The two highest cohorts of folks getting injured or worse on a motorcycle are folks riding under the influence, and folks new (or even returning) to riding. The first cohort you can do something about, don't drink. The second, you can take measures (training, reading, practice), but, in the end, you have to just survive through it. You have to find yourself in situations and work your way through them.
I like traveling on a motorcycle. I love long distance touring rides. One of the best aspects of riding is going on a long trip with a friend. You may both take the same path, but, in the end, you have separate journeys and get to share them at each stop. In a car, you have a driver, and everyone else essentially asleep. As a driver you're likely barely conscious. Fingertip on the steering wheel, cruise control holding steady, songs serenading you on the stereo. On a bike, that's just not the case.
On a bike, you get to smell the air. High on my list is riding behind a lemon truck. You get to feel the environment. It's hot. It's cold. It's wet. Ride through the desert and feel the temperature change as you drop down in to a wash, even if just for a few hundred feet before you rise back up in the heat.
I love it.
But I don't recommend it.
I've described it like this before, but it feels less like driving than like running really quickly.
Road trips are nice, but even on largely open country roads fatigue is real and it is easy for experienced riders to have accidents. Commuting is not safe. Some car drivers are just bad and will pull in front of you. Some car drivers will pick fights and threaten your life with their motor vehicle.
After giving it up, and growing up I suppose, I have also come to realize how many motorcyclists are jerks. I don't expect this to be a popular opinion. I always knew some were jerks: I saw their bad riding & picking unnecessary arguments with car drivers when out on rides with them! As a motorcycle-aware car driver many years later I have encountered many more whinging motorcyclists who themselves created unnecessarily dangerous situations then lectured me or flipped me off.
As a car driver, stay away from motorcycles. Considering motorcycling?: stay away from motorcycles. ;-)
As a non-motorcyclist, I detest the noise from loud exhaust pipes. Bad enough are the ones that sound like loud farting, the absolute worst are the ones that sound like roaring thunder and can be heard from 500 m away. These noises degrade my experience living in the city, whether I'm walking on the streets or in a building (street shop, apartment, etc.). It is absolutely selfish and despicable that one driver can cause so much noise for hundreds of people nearby.
There are cars and motorcycles that are guilty of making excess noise. Motorcycles make up a minority of traffic, but I would say about 50% of them are overly loud. As for cars, the vast majority of them are normal, and maybe 5% are the obnoxious noisemakers. These are my observations in Toronto.
There was also a recent anecdote that the CHP was enforcing noise regulations at a popular motorcycle destination/hangout. And you have to appreciate the difficulty of this, as it requires special equipment, and a specific process to perform the measurement, which is not something the typical CHP officer carries (I can't speak to their training if they, indeed, did have the equipment).
Also, violations are no longer "fix it" tickets, but immediate fines, which deter those that simply swap them out, get them checked out, and then swap them back in. There's also recent (past few years) requirements for badging and labeling from the manufacturers about compliance, and these need to be retained on the equipment which is an immediate violation if they're inspected and found lacking.
It's difficult to enforce in the wild. You can't, necessarily, readily cite someone for being "too loud". Just like you can't cite someone for going "too fast", they need an actual measurement, and they can't normally do that in the field. The labeling requirements help, as well as the fines to vendors and installers if they're caught facilitating the violation. Mind, many bikes are grandfathered in, and it will take more time for them to fade off the roads. But it should get better.
Right now, there is pressure back on the State because there's more legislation in the works that starts making it more and more difficult for folks that do, indeed, wish to modify their vehicles for competition and other off road activities. There should be balance, and it's not unheard of for the State to go too far and need to be reeled back in.
I also have a lot of negative stories. Right now I have to ride 700 kilometres of highway in 14 degree cloudy weather to get home. My ears are ringing. They are sore from the ear plugs. I have to wear 4 layers of gear to make it. It's dreadful.
Yet I keep putting myself in that situation every year. It's that good.
I knew 100% that a bit of gravel in a turn, me or someone else not paying attention to the road, and a million other things could mean I'm dead or permanently disabled. Just the other day a couple died on a bike near here at low speed because a deer ran in front of them and they fell into the other side of traffic. That same scenario with a car and they are looking at minor injuries and car damage.
I chose to ride because I've always wanted to get that thrill and figured better do it before I had kids. Now that I got my son I don't ride anymore - it's just irresponsible IMO. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and think that people promoting "safe riding" are deluding themselves. You can drive smarter, but there's no reasonable definition of safety on a motorcycle going anywhere near the speeds that make it worth driving a motorcycle (even if speed is not your thing long distance riding requires non-trivial speed to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time). That said it's fun and I haven't been able to get the same feeling with other things. If you chose to do it you should know that you're taking a real gamble.
Safe riding is still more dangerous than being in a car, of course. But, the vast majority of motorcycle injuries are due to known dangerous factors such as alcohol, or going too fast through turns.
So, that's a pretty hefty claim. I'd like to see some data. :)
A very large chunk of motorcycle accidents are single party (about 25%), the rest involve a car, usually at low speeds such as an unprotected left turn or bad merge.
I did some quick googling and found that motorcycles are less likely to be involved in pedestrian accidents than cars, but I think the the onus is on you to support your claim.
That makes 85.2% of pedestrian fatalities. This does not make automobile traffic a "safe" form of traffic in my book...
Going fast through turns is exactly the point for the majority of riders (all except choppers)
One of the reasons I stopped going on group rides was lead riders who burned through blind corners. I'll take an open corner with good visibility as fast as I dare, but if I can't see through the turn, I take it slowly.
Let the other guys arrive at the scene of the accident first.
You, me, a couple of other middle aged guys all hanging back on our sports tourers, while the crotch rockets are off antagonising the cage dwellers.
We'll all arrive in time for coffee, no sweat.
Good gear, I mean expensive gear, has built in spine protection. Good helmets limit your neck movement. We even have airbag-equipped suits! Outcomes are WAY better than they used to be. If you are in full leathers and with good neck protection, your odds for major spinal injury are incredibly reduced. Similar results also come from riding a motorcycle with ABS.
Problem is: people do not take safety seriously.
The thing is the people you didn't see at the hospital: People who don't wear helmets, let alone the rest of the gear. They died before then.
Motorcycles are a calculated risk, few correctly do the math, but when the math is done it is a far lesser risk.
I don't think it's settled that this has been "solved"
"This systematic review highlighted lack of appropriate evidence on efficacy of back protectors. Based on limited information, we are uncertain about the effects of back protectors on spinal injuries. Further research is required to substantiate the effects of back protectors on mortality and other injuries to the back."
https://sjtrem.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13049-016...
This is a great video about the Helite Turtle (it came out before the electronic e-Turtle) and motorcycle airbags in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jZryt607U
I'll definitively grab a Helite e-Turtle when I start riding next year.
I doubt it has solved basic physics, though. When a huge, fat SUV overlooks you at > 100 km/h - then yes, you want all the protection gimmicks avaiable - but chances are you still wake up in hospital - if you are lucky.
I had the same experience, I was in hospital and feeling like sh* - but next to me was a motorcycle accident. He put my misery into perspective.
I don't ride, but I am a big fan of racing.
The MotoGP guys (wearing the best of all said gear) crash regularly at VERY high speeds. You'll see them eat asphalt at 150mph, cartwheel off into the gravel trap... and pop right up and dust themselves off. 5 minutes later, they'll have caught a ride back to the pits, get a new suit (if the airbag went off), and be right back out on track.
Not that there aren't injuries, sometimes severe, but generally the outcome is way way better than you'd expect if you aren't used to it.
Over the past 20 years or so, deaths have been pretty rare (roughly the same as in open wheel racing - F1 and similar). Almost all of the fatal crashes involve a rider falling off, and then getting run over by another bike.
It's a fun hobby and a uniquely direct interaction with some interesting physics, but I can't recommend anyone do it on public roads shared with vehicles driven by careless/incompetent/inattentive/distracted/tired/drunk/stoned drivers.
If you're going to play on two wheels do it off-road or on otherwise closed courses, unless you're looking forward to being crippled, paralyzed, or dead, through no fault of your own.
Adjusted for inflation that equals ~$1300 today.
I've looked around at a lot of used motorcycles and I've see other 1984 Honda's that are asking $2500-$3000 The average price seems to be $4k-$5k for 20 year old bikes!
This used to be a financially viable option for CHEAP transportation. Not anymore.
I want to ride again, and even though my wife would kill me if I did; I just can't afford it. Once upon a time, it was all I could afford; now it's a fancy toy that I can't afford. I think that stings more.
For example, Texas State Highway 130 has an 85 mph speed limit and traffic typically rolls along at 5-10 mph above that. There isn't a lot of headroom for passing a car going 80 mph on most 250cc bikes.
If I were buying a bike today, I don't think I would consider anything that didn't have anti-lock brakes.
My last bike was a KLR650 and it was pretty crude. I sold it and gave up on motorcycles because drivers around where I live are too distracted. I rode 35 years accident free and decided to quit before my luck ran out. I do miss it though...
I used it to get me to high school. I was always sick that winter though. I had money for the bike, but not the gear.
CA had a insurance policy of requiring insurance, but not demanding it at DMV. Cops couldn't ask to see proof of insurance for any reason. It was all civil if their was an incident.
To be devils advocate here, that’s a one-time capital cost that you may well be able to make money on once you sell again, assuming the price trend continues. It seems to me that price is also way cheaper than a comparable* car. If it were me, I’d be enjoying fun driving, cheap operating costs and easy parking long after the sting of not getting the bike for $800 had worn off.
*for some definition of “comparable”
I recently moved to a Zero, and despite the concerns of my peers for missing out on the pure riding experience, its really re-ignited my joy.