motorcycle rider killed on crowchild tr.

[D. Dub]

^^^

I don't know about that -- I've ridden for lots of years and it's never been like this. I regularly see young guys on sportbikes splitting traffic, weaving in and out of cages at double the speed of traffic, wheelying in traffic and other kinds of stunting in traffic.

Thats just gotta have consequences --- it's just the law of averages


Generalizations like the one above have some truth behind them.

The whole move towards super sports/very powerful 600's and 750's by young "testosterone driven" men combined with the popularity of the sport has resulted in lotsa deaths.

Here are some US stats to back it up.

http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr091107.html

Obviously you can't paint ALL young riders with the same brush.

However there are two threads right here on Beyond where a newbie rider is being told to get a 100+ hp bike as their first bike b/c "you'll get sick of anything smaller right away".

This is just crazy talk. New young riders should NOT be on 120 hp --bikes plain and simple.

[CUG]

I ride a 1000, I go to the track often. I've ridden for 7 years.. I know what this bike can do, and it bothers me that a 16 year old tool can just go into a dealership and buy on off the floor.

This is tragic on all fronts.

[old&slow]

I been tempted so much to get a sport bike...you don't have to be young to be addicted to the speed and power.
It would be difficult for me at 48 to not want to use it. Bad enuf with a fat cruiser!
If I was younger and had one of these...I'd be in "a world of shit" (Full Metal Jacket)

[CUG]

Originally posted by old&slow
I been tempted so much to get a sport bike...you don't have to be young to be addicted to the speed and power.
It would be difficult for me at 48 to not want to use it. Bad enuf with a fat cruiser!
If I was younger and had one of these...I'd be in "a world of shit" (Full Metal Jacket)

"Selective application" sir!

[GQBalla]

werd ^^

[CUG]

Originally posted by GQBalla
werd ^^

Hey! Welcome aboard dude

[D. Dub]

^^^

Unfortunately.... new riders and many brash & arrogant young men DO NOT HAVE the inherent cognitive ability to use selective application -- hence the growing #'s of deaths.

[Kobe]

Originally posted by D. Dub
^^^

Unfortunately.... new riders and many brash & arrogant young men DO NOT HAVE the inherent cognitive ability to use selective application -- hence the growing #'s of deaths.

He was a newer rider on a 750, but he was also not 16 years old...




R.I.P

[D. Dub]

He was only 20 -- a veritable babe in the woods -- 20 is young

RIP

[CUG]

Originally posted by D. Dub
He was only 20 -- a veritable babe in the woods -- 20 is young

RIP

Source? He was 28.

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by old&slow
I been tempted so much to get a sport bike...you don't have to be young to be addicted to the speed and power.
It would be difficult for me at 48 to not want to use it. Bad enuf with a fat cruiser!
If I was younger and had one of these...I'd be in "a world of shit" (Full Metal Jacket)

Do it. Its fricking incredible to have a 10 second machine, abiet one that costs $11k, and gets 5L/100 km fuel economy, and is bulletproof reliable. I love it. Never gets old, just the rush and the thrill.... you'll never experience that in a car.... unless perhaps an Ariel Atom, but thats the closest thing I'd presume.

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M


Do it. Its fricking incredible to have a 10 second machine, abiet one that costs $11k, and gets 5L/100 km fuel economy, and is bulletproof reliable. I love it. Never gets old, just the rush and the thrill.... you'll never experience that in a car.... unless perhaps an Ariel Atom, but thats the closest thing I'd presume.

The Ariel Atom that I raced doesn't elicit nearly the same rush that my bike does. You're strapped into an Ariel Atom with a 5-point harness and a roll bar around you.

Sport bike = pure adrenaline.

[Jay911]

Originally posted by khtm
But when cagers are idiots often other people pay for it.

Tell that to the people in the minivan who pulled off James McKevitt onto 22X the other night into the path of a full size van.

Oh wait you can't, they're both dead.

It's very wrong to deflect blame away from bike riders because "well, auto drivers cause more harm". That's the same kind of thinking that makes people believe plane crashes are far worse than car crashes simply because the carnage is that much more intense in the former.

About 7 to 10 years ago now, a young man on a sport bike crashed on Highway 22 about as close to emergency help as you could possibly get - on the curve right in front of the Redwood Meadows firehall. He ate 3 or 4 fence posts with his face despite his helmet and had both his upper and lower jaws demolished. Fire crews did CPR from the moment they arrived until the ambulance got there from Cochrane. Three firefighters joined two medics and a student in doing lifesaving maneuvers all the way into the Foothills Hosptial at top speed. I was one of them and had to try breathing for this poor kid with an oxygen mask which I had to hold in place because his jaw was no longer there and his airway was floating around all over the place. The doctors spent less than 90 seconds working on him at the hospital before giving up. Rumor is the kid had had the bike for one day.

Yesterday while I was on duty at the firehall, two squids went past northbound, at least at a buck thirty, both on only their rear wheels.

I won't deny auto drivers act like tools too - I just heard 30 minutes ago of a car being stopped on Highway 1 doing in excess of 150, cutting people off and weaving in and out of traffic. (I won't get into whether or not 150 on Highway 1 is too fast - on a busy weekend day with lots of traffic doing 100 or thereabouts, it is.) But bikers are much more prone to act like idiots on the road, because a) their rides are capable of getting them in FAR over their skill level way too quickly and 2) they believe that the capabilities of the bike will let them get out of trouble just as fast (when their skills just aren't good enough to make that happen).

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by UndrgroundRider


The Ariel Atom that I raced doesn't elicit nearly the same rush that my bike does. You're strapped into an Ariel Atom with a 5-point harness and a roll bar around you.

Sport bike = pure adrenaline.

well you drive a 'busa... no kidding

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by CUG
Source? He was 28.

I was wrong -- 28

[TorqueDog]

Owning a sport bike definitely made me much more conscious of their presence on the road.

[Super_Geo]

I had a biker pull up to me at a light and give me shit yesterday cause I switched lanes and "cut him off."

He was also going 100+ on a 50 zone on Memorial (right by the 10th street bridge in Kensington). I wanted to switch lanes, saw that it was open, then noticed how fast the bike was going, but you know fuck it... I'm not going to change my shit cause some fucker wants to go more than double the limit in a residential area. He had to slam on the brakes, but wasn't really close to hitting me... he probably had a good 3-4 seconds to react and slow down.

The funniest thing is, he came up and said: "Watch where you're going and learn the fucking rules of the road!"

The fucking rules of the road! LOL from a guy going more than twice the speed limit... some fucking people!

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by Super_Geo


The fucking rules of the road! LOL from a guy going more than twice the speed limit... some fucking people!

That's a good point -- a bike doubling the limit is a small, fast object that is just there seemingly out of nowhere.

[retro-steve]

Originally posted by Super_Geo
I had a biker pull up to me at a light and give me shit yesterday cause I switched lanes and "cut him off."

He was also going 100+ on a 50 zone on Memorial (right by the 10th street bridge in Kensington). I wanted to switch lanes, saw that it was open, then noticed how fast the bike was going, but you know fuck it... I'm not going to change my shit cause some fucker wants to go more than double the limit in a residential area. He had to slam on the brakes, but wasn't really close to hitting me... he probably had a good 3-4 seconds to react and slow down.

The funniest thing is, he came up and said: "Watch where you're going and learn the fucking rules of the road!"

The fucking rules of the road! LOL from a guy going more than twice the speed limit... some fucking people!

Wait, you saw him and you STILL came over? Dude, just let him ride like a douche past you and then change lanes. Call him a retard as he speeds by and if you want call the cops to alert them that someone is doing well over the limit on the bike and leave it, just because you thought you were right doesn't mean you should potentially cause an accident. If I'm in the left lane on Deerfoot and speeding and someone is coming up fast behind me I'll move over, don't get the "I'm doing the right thing I'm better than you" attitude because it just makes things on the road more dangerous. Let the idiot go by in a straight line and be done with it, don't cause shit.

[CUG]

SuperGeo, often I've noticed the problem to be people that feel the need to prove a point.. even when it's not necessary (like cutting a guy off when they'think' he was doubling the speed limit).

Guaranteed you would not have not done that if the vehicle coming up in that lane was a 30,000 lb semi.... right? So pick on something your own size maybe?


Either way, there's arrogance on both ends.. unfortunately when a car decides to get righteous, there's not a ton of odds in favour of the bike.