Something in the water?

[placidfemme]

Of late I've noticed that there has been an awful lot of accidents involving bikers, and a lot from KB. As you know Sam and I both wrote our bikes off in December, and since then everytime I've come onto KB there has been a post of some new accident involving KB members, and lot of incidents on the news and in the papers of other bikers being involved in accidents.

Is it just the time of year? Being summer with a good period of decent sunny weather? Or just lack of training/experience? I've also noticed in summer that more than half of the bikes I see on the road, the riders are wearing the bear minimum in protective gear... I know a lot of people can't afford to have the latest best gear available... but when you see someone on a K5 636 with just shorts and T-shirt... surley money isn't the factor... also with the heat no-one wants to be on a bike all day sweating your ass off inside kevlar gear or the like...

Could also be because of the increase in KB members... that we are hearing more and more about accidents?

I'm just curious, maybe if we can pin point a few key factors in biker accidents we may be able to help with education or advise to avoide these incidents happening so often...

Any ideas or comments?

[Grahameeboy]

[QUOTE=placidfemme]
I've also noticed in summer that more than half of the bikes I see on the road, the riders are wearing the bear minimum in protective gear... I know a lot of people can't afford to have the latest best gear available... but when you see someone on a K5 636 with just shorts and T-shirt... surley money isn't the factor... also with the heat no-one wants to be on a bike all day sweating your ass off inside kevlar gear or the like...

QUOTE]

Crazy....if you can afford an 05 636 surely you can afford some gear eh........I suspect gear is at home........

[enigma51]

I'm just curious, maybe if we can pin point a few key factors

People riding with there small brain (Men at least)

[Colapop]

Yeah I was thinking that same thing after reading about another (sorry not being flippant) fatality.
Maybe it's just the weather, on the one hand it was wet earlier in the summer, and now it's very hot is there a combination thing happening? Maybe it's a general lack of concentration? Either way it's not good.
It doesn't seem to matter what skill level you're at either.
I followed a newbie riding her 'Norty' down from Brooklyn yeaterday and was tempted to stop beside her and tell her to leave some distance between her and the car in front. A couple of times she got on the anchors a bit too heavily. But I didn't want to upset her, so I just followed her out to the motorway and sat there till she got to about 80k/hr and she seemed fine.

[placidfemme]

Crazy....if you can afford an 05 636 surely you can afford some gear eh........I suspect gear is at home........

Yeah it is crazy... but then just look at the different bike cultures... for example in the USA some states you don't even have to wear a helmet, and thats acceptable there... just like here it is acceptable to have just a helmet and no other gear. Like I said not everyone can afford gear, but not wearing gear doesn't cause the accidents, it causes death or extreme injury in the event of the accident. The gear issue could also indicate the riders attitude towards riding (not in all cases however).

[T.W.R]

It's mainly the "It won't happen to me attitude" rearing it's head, familiarity breeds contempt. many get a bit too casual & relaxed about the consequences of their actions.

old saying " there's old riders and there's bold riders, but there aren't any old bold riders"

here's a pic of the week from sportsbikez. US. a good promotional for safety gear

late model CBR600, t-shirt, shorts, & jandals mmmm idiot!

[lia]

from our personal experience: while the leathers are used most of the time, a quick whip up to the shop etc usually entails just a helmet (and sneakers over jandals!).Not the best I know.

Its like the old 'seatbelt' thing ... most car accidents are within a short vacinity of home hence the benefit of getting into the habit of 'always belting up' ... i guess taking the extra time and effort to get the 'gear' on is based on the same principle.

I most definately see a heck of a lot more bikes out there at the moment (weather induced no doubt) which stands to reason that the incident rate would increase dramatically as well.

[Pillick]

Hmmm, the guy I bought my safety gear from told me a lovely story about extracting a jandal from the middle of a bikers foot on his first day as a doctor. I think I'll go for my tramping boots at a minimum, thanks...

[Sniper]

I put up a thread about this a while ago. Seems like accidents happen. People are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some can help it, others can't. All we can do is wish them the best when things go tits up, besides, safety gear does sweet FA when hitting a solid objest at 70km+