I agree, but remember, a lot of those incompetent riders back then were also drunks.
I know damn well you've seen riders too drunk to kick start their own bike.
Or they had bike fall over on them in the bar parking lot.

All decades have their share of incompetence and idiots.

I don't think there is near the drunk riders now as there was in the 60s and 70s at least as a % of riders.

 

Oh yeah guilty as **** of all ofthe above at one time or another when I was a party hound. Still seen more stone cold sober newbies screw the pooch than drinkers on 2 wheels and buried more than I want to remember.

 

Hahaha. I started on a ninja 300 best thing I've done.yeah I got some s#*t for riding a small bike but didn't bother me I was riding they weren't. Had it for about a year till it got stolen.Learned alot and now I got me a Harley

 

Safer?
If you consider the newer style clothing and the with more folks using better protection clothing, yes.
Safer as of bad driving and not seeing a motorcycle, no I do not agree

 

With disk brakes, ABS, better suspensions, etc. the bikes themselves are safer. When I started riding there was no MSF riding classes or anything like that. Drunk driving wasn't the taboo it is today either so all things considered, I think it's safer overall.

 

Wouldn't hurt to see more PSA on motorcycle awareness.

 

You mean starting an a Suzuki Hayabusa 1100 as your first bike isn't a good idea?? LOL one of our CMA riders did that. One of the fastest bikes made that year and he cant keep up with a bunch of 70 year old's on Goldwing!!

 

Only because of technical advances to the motorcycles. Riders and drivers are no smarter, nor better. Whether it's a car or motorcycle, most cause their own death.

 

I disagree. I learned on a FatBob and consider myself a safe rider.

 

I found the MC brakes are a lot better after a long time out of the saddle. But; the real risk always was and remains the 4 wheel passenger vehicles. And that seems much worse and getting worser (is that right) all the time.

IMHO, No1 is not distracted drivers it is crushing volume of traffic. I dont know the stats but if we are lucky we got 10% more roads and 1000% more cars - say last 40 years. Some are distracted for sure. I do see a lot less after hours DWI (I mean the cars). That DWI sat night was almost like playing pacman. But the sheer volume and number of distractions are way up and my reaction time is down. I bet, just a WAG, that bikers under the influence driving is also down. That used to be a life style for some.

Around here gravel roads all but gone and forgotten, which is also good. Nice smooth RR crossings. Remember those!