Anyone here rides motorcycle?

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I worked as a medic for a couple of years, two calls that stick out in my mind...
A guy in his 60's bought his first bike and flipped it, a witnesses indo, when we got on scene he was sitting on the tailgate of a truck smoking a cigarette - not wearing a helmet.
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A guy in his 20's bumped a car and ran into the guard rail. Full carbon fiber protective gear and a full face helmet without a scratch. He died at the scene from blood loss, his leg was removed by the guard rail.
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Point is... dont think a helmet will save your life. The best helmets on the planet are only rated for a 40mph impact. Once you are on the highway your only guarantee of saftey is avoidance.
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I personally do not wear a helmet, I would rather be dead vs quad/vegatable. Ride comfortable, not "cool". Let those who ride decide.

Not true. However, if you tend to be someone who drifts off into thought, it's either a good therapy for that, or impending doom. I like how I can be in the moment when riding.
You learn to give and take with the weather, you taste the seasons as they change, and you become and amateur meteorologist of sorts.

I've been riding since I was 13, and love it, and would hate to ever give it up!

Mainly now, I ride on the street, but I used to do a lot more dirt & non-competition motocross.

On the engine sound, I don't have an issue with it because I'm on the bike, and due to physics and acoustics, the sound is mainly all behind me, and not projected at me. I despise the sound of Harley type bikes as a bystander (no offense to my Harley-rider friends). Sport bikes are a whole different sound; almost a whine like a mutant mosquito on steroids, and it's not as skull-splitting as the deep rumble of the V-twin bikes.

Between cars; only when absolutely necessary. It makes me nervous because many people won't think or look before maybe popping their door open to re-slam it, or even to spit . I'll go between cars when there is heavy traffic at stop-n-go speeds on the freeways where there is a division between the carpool lane and the left regular lane, AND ONLY when the traffic is moving at 5 mph or so (too slow for a motorcycle to balance). Or I will pass between lanes if I am approaching an intersection with a red light and a long line of stopped traffic. But I won't do it EVER in moving traffic on city streets, even though it is perfectly legal in CA to do that. Too mahy people making last-second decisions to turn onto side streets or pop out of driveways, etc.

Balance is subconscious (at least for me), and it's not possible to "forget" unless maybe a person has a physical or neurological problem, I think. Basically, I look where I want the bike to go, and it goes there even if I let go of the bars altogether (except for countersteering as in a quick turn, where you need to nudge the bar to throw you into a turn when your body positioning alone wouldn't overcome the inertia of the bike going straight up).

Shifting gears is automatic for me, but I do occasionally try to upshift when already in high gear. I don't think that's an autism thing. I think everyone does it sometimes; particularly if you own several bikes with different numbers of gears. Two of mine are 1 down/4 up, but my Yamaha R1 is 1 down/5 up, and it has a very high RPM range, which tricks my mind when I'm used to lower-RPM big bikes.

These are mine: Left to right; 1985 Yamaha V-Max 1200, 1985 Honda VF1000R, 2000 Yamaha R1, and the one on the right (backed-in) is my wife's '03 Suzuki DR650.


Charles

No offense but your comparison isn't very scientific. Nor is anyone claiming that a helmet will keep your legs from being removed. Scientist have studied thousands of accidents and there conclusions are without a doubt that you have better odds of sustaining less injury by wearing a helmet. Is this always true? No, in certain circumstances a helmet can even hurt you but it's an odd game and the odds are better with a helmet. Also, helmets aren't rated by MPH and you are less likely to sustain brain damage if you wear one.

I support everyone's right to choose if they will wear one but don't go spreading misinformation. People need to be informed so they can make their decision based on facts.

http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/mot ... save-lives
http://www.smarter-usa.org/PDF%20DOCUME ... elmets.pdf
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/811159.pdf

I'm saving up for a Yamaha Stryker. Motorcycle noise hasn't ever bothered me unless it's from a whiny crotch-rocket. No offense to sports-bike riders, I love the way the bikes look but I like a lower center of gravity. Low rumbly engines, please.

Motorcycles are one of my main loves. I don't have access to one at the moment but hope to again soon...

I rode nearly daily for about 15 years and only stopped doing this as phsycial health issues (not caused by riding motorbikes) restricted how much I could ride.

As kx250rider said the sound is not a problem when you are on the bike as it is behind you. There can be a lot of wind noise at higher speed but this gets a lot better if you wear ear plugs or have a bike with a fairing. Earplugs are recommended anyway otherwise you can get mild deafness from wind noise later on (I speak from personal experience here - I was sceptical I needed ear plugs for a while and now have very mild deafness - issues hearing when there is significant background noise - as a result).

As far as balance went I had no problems - but when I started riding I could already ride a standard bicycle and had also ridden horses a lot - I don't know if this helped. The only issues can be riding at very low speed, but this depends a lot on the bike, some are more stable at low speed than others, but you don't get a bike to ride it at 5-10 mph everywhere .

It took a while to learn to deal with all the things I had to think about on the road, but the actual riding bit was relatively straight forward.

I found riding a bike a lot more intuitive and easier than driving a car (which I learnt to do later) it kind of goes where you point it...

As others have said you will almost certainly fall off while learning, so the right kit is ESSENTIAL. I fell off at very low speed in ordinary jeans once and was amazed how easily they ripped. I was just a bit grazed but after that almost always wore leathers.

I also came off in full leathers and was unlucky enough to have a sharp stone or something go through and cut a hole in my knee - I had insufficent knee protection in the leathers - (it was all stitched up as good as new but I have a fancy scar and I'll probably have arthritus in it by my 50s...)

In the UK helmets are mandatory and are labelled as to the standard they meet (don't know how this is done elsewhere) the highest spec are designed for the race track and for coming off at speeds much higher than 40mph...

I would personally recommend riding in leathers or one of the modern rip-stop fabrics (not sure what's available now) and integral body armour, along with a full face helmet, to protect yourself.

All that said once I got experienced, riding a motorcycle has given me the best experiences of my life, the bike has felt like an extension of me at times, it was great.

It almost became a kind of (very switched on) meditative processs, I was able to just concentrate on riding and nothing else, great for getting away from stresses.

I personally don't think you've lived properly 'til you've ridden a motorbike or scooter on twisty roads through mountains (Scottish Highlands in my case).

I'd recommend motorbikes or scooters to everyone, but I am significantly biased.

So, speaking about balance - if I can ride my MTB (and I can do it really well) - I shouldn't have any problems with motorcycle?

I'd say you'll be fine.

I understand what the statistics say, but statistics can be read different ways. I was not trying to quote the stats, just personal observation from a non-helmet standpoint. In other words...
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Can it save your life? Absolutly without a doubt.
WILL it save your life? I wouldnt bet my life on it.
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And like I said, I would rather be dead vs alive with massive damage. I had my jaw broke in a fight years ago, every helmet I have ever tried hurts my jawbone to the point of not riding. I know the risks and possibilities. I just dont like to hear people say that you are not safe unless you wear a helmet, riding a bike is the most dangerous mode of motorized transportation. A helmet is a defence against damage, it does not make you "safer" it just makes it "possible" to bounce your head against pavement and walk away.
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Not intended as an attack, I just want to make sure I wasnt misunderstood.

I thought of a better way to say it...
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Wearing a helmet does not decrease (or increase) the chances of being in a major wreck. Lots of people get the wrong idea when the word "safer" is used, its not safer... but it does give you a better chance of surviving certain situations.

I'm not a big fan of statistics either. But here's some more research from Johns Hopkins
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 124141.htm



No ones arguing a helmet will always save your life.



That's why I support the right to choose



I believe by definition that does make you safer, safer from damage.


Not taken that way at all.

Today I had my first motorcycling lesson. It was about the basics: how to brake, how to start riding, how to walk with your bike, the engine powered off, how to slalom around small pylons which the instructor puts on the exercise terrain, or removes.

I like it, although my riding is a bit clumsy.

Used to ride dirt bikes all the time when I was a teen. Now I haven't rode a motor bike in over 20 years.

I had a Honda DT175 when I was 15 but ended up burning the engine out as I had a problem changing the gears .

I did ride A 1977 Suzuki GT750 for 4 years and just loved the freedom . Never got in an accident or fell off it and could change the gears by then . Sadly the police took a dim view on my lack of license and it was crushed by them

I have my motorcycle licenses

I have been riding dirtbikes since I was 10 sometimes I ride my dads harley. he wants to get another one so I can riding with him

I actually like the deep rumble of a vtwin

I use to ride off-road bikes, four stroke Hondas. I kind of like the lower pitched sound they make,
did not like the sound of the YZ Yamaha. I hate high pitched sounds.
I sure liked the sound of straight piped v8 powered dirt track cars I raced in the late seventies.(sb chevs 283s)
I think wearing a good helmet muffled out the high frequency waves.
I have never rode with traffic much so I don't know about traffic noise.
Mind you I rode on the rode enough to be cut off a couple of times.
If I ever rode a street bike I would be a hard tail with straight pipes so maybe cars
would hear me.