Safe Speed Forums

is there a break down of who is crashing? Are the riders that have their shiney new sports bike in the garage in all but the best weather the ones that do the most crashing? I wager that the "Weekend Warrior" types that just do a few frantic miles of a weekend do the most crashing per mile and if they weren't on bikes they would be doing something else for the adrenalin rush. Having said that, Bike and bike journos seem to spend alot of time sweeping up press bikes off roads and digging them out of the scenery.

During the summer I saw a young maiden on a plastic stepthrough scooter. She was wearing her helmet, but no gloves, a short sleeved summer dress and nothing on her feet. If she dropped that on her dads drive she would have been sore, never mind falling off at even 10 mph.

I have no idea of the actual figures (perhaps Paul has the details) but from memory, the people most at risk are young riders and riders that do a high milage - absolutely no surprises there.

As any seasoned biker knows, just putting the bike away for a week or so, will mean that you loose the "edge", so the casual, occasional weekend rider will not be as good as he thinks he is!

Having said that, the bike handling skills some of the young guys have is wicked. I couldn't dream of doing wheelies or stoppies like they do. Sadly, these skills are only half the story. It can hardly be considered defensive riding!

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

I agree with what you say, but I think it's only half the picture.

Many people drift back into biking with advancing years - and it's these people who seem to make up the vast majority of people joining the IAM or RoSPA.

The big problem these organisations face is how to attract the younger rider. (Or, indead, the younger driver!)

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

That's the government 'culture damage', I'm certain of it.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

And driving a small car is more of a risk than driving a large car.

If you ban motorcycles then surely you have to ban cycles as well (and probably pedestrians). This will make small car drivers the biggest risk group, so ban them. When you have banned those....

I love the ban motor bikes arguement. To take it to it's logical conclusion remove, bike, then pushbike, then small cars....end up with 4x4's.

Magic.

I imagine there is a significant overlap between the ecomentalists and the speedkills/ban the bike brigade. (big on nannying)

I love these paradox's. I call upon them to square this circle!

This argument has a problem too, because incremental improvements in safety are desirable. Somehow we have to prove that we need to improve safety across the board rather than by 'starting at one end'.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I was the youngest driver my Rospa examiner had had at 32. I got id'd on saturday too, but that is another post.