You can always take it off when you get around the corner,..... LOL




I did indeed have similar thoughts as your wife one day when I was on a short ride with my wife.
We had a close call with a car that turned in front of us.
Not real scary but close enough to get us thinking about the 4 children at home that would survive MUCH better with one parent (vs. zero parents).
We don't both go real often, partially because of that.

Vests and lights? Not interested.

 

I've been in the middle of an uncrowded freeway and watched CHP almost take out a friend riding in front of me. Same thing on a back road. Neither was during a commute and both on weekends in broad daylight.

I'm not saying it will always be safe out there or that Seattle drivers are more aware than drivers from 'The Internet'. I'm saying that I will not let the fear of what might happen keep me from doing what I love. And that has worked for 100's of thousands of miles. The OP wants to ride

I agree with bikerlaw - do what you can to ease your partners mind. For my wife the thing is rearend visibility. So i have hard bags, reflective tape, and Hyperlites on my commuting bike. One trip with her following me in the cage eased her mind a lot.

 

When cranial rectal inversion occurs the existance of others doesnt matter. Being heard is your only option and that seems offensive to all others. The only option is to park the bikes stop MFG of this vehicle and stay home. Because motorcycles cause rectal inversion of the cranium in others. NOT!! anything should help awareness but ignorance is incurable. Head on a swivle and defensive rideing is all we have.

 

I never said **** don't happen during non commute hours.
I did say there are a lot more crazies out during the commute hours.

Do the math. More crazies = higher risk.
Risk management. Expose yourself more, odds become less in your favor.
Don't take a rocket scientist to see that.


Drive 25 minutes through a high risk situation to see your bike sit all day in a parking lot collecting dust, then doing it again to get home after the weather had time to change for the worst. Brilliant!

 

25 min would suck. I get an hour - 1/2 in the city and 1/2 out.

I'm not denying that we both see the same thing. I see all sorts of idiot drivers, in cages and on motorcycles, cops and soccer moms, in the city and out, at all times of the day. The only way to survive out there is to assume that EVERYONE is out to hit me (motorcycles included!) and will do the stupidest thing imaginable at anytime - constant state of paranoia - whether on two wheels or not.

Interestingly the state of Washington produced some numbers a couple years back. One of the charts is 'Fatalities by time of day'. Now, it's 'fatalities' and not 'injuries' but I was surprised to find that the data shows the evening commute having significantly more fatalities than the morning commute with the most occurring during 1300-1700-2100 (two time periods). I guess I should head home before lunch.

This somewhat echos the national stats for all vehicles though there the most fatality accidents seem to occur 1500-1800-2100 (two time slots basically the same)

2009 Washington accident data shows that a motorcyclist involved in an accident has ~20% chance of suffering severe injury or death. Auto/truck? < 1%. I guess when I head home before lunch I should be driving my car.

 

Just wave a toy ak-47 around while your riding, better than any light or reflective tape, tree huggers can spot them a mile away.

 

Yes - or an iranian flag! Ha.

The danger is part of the game - we all deal with it in our own ways. I'm going with the lights. The bike is loud as hell which is a good thing - 2005 softail std.

3 years ago my aunt & uncle were in a major wreck when a girl turned left in front of them. My aunt has TBI (no helmet) my uncle crushed his 3rd vertibret in his neck. Miraculously - he has no lasting injury - he wore a halo for almost a year & swears by a loud bike now. Still rides most of the year.

I have the helmet & plan to use it - but its better to not need it.

 

Nobody should tell anybody else when to ride or not ride.


I ride to work every day the temp is over 40. I bring rain gear in my solo bag. The to and from work are the best parts of the day, followed by the breaks I take to go outside and sit on the curb drinking coffee next to my bike and checking out the other bikes in the lot. Not sure why having it sitting in the parking lot of work is a bad thing... it means I get to leave work ON it and ride home.

I guess a lot of people must agree with you though, as I see a lot of harleys for sale with less than 3K miles a year on the clock.

Now that I got that off my chest, anyone who says that bright clothing or bright helmets don't increase your chances of making it home unscathed is fooling themselves.

And finally, I never have, and never will, take the mother of my children on a ride with me. That's cool if you do, I just won't risk leaving my child parentless, and I personally don't want to be responsible for injuring my passenger if I F up and we go down.

Everyone makes their own decisions about risk.

 

I got a reflective vest from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's website. It is black mesh with 2 verticle white reflective stripes on it. I sewed a HD patch on the chest. It looks slick and only cost $20. Msf-usa.org

 

Nothing will protect you from the teenage girl texting while driving, or the old codger spaced out on his meds, (no offense to old codgers, I am one)but extra visibility can't hurt either. I have added extra running lights on the front of my bike, converted the rear turn signals to running lights also, and added bright bulbs to the brake lights. Just ordered a louder horn too.

Of course, your best protection is your brain. Stay aware of the traffic around you, plan ahead for an "excape route" if somebody does something stupid, and ride like they are all out to get you.