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This warm spell


Venturous Randy

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It has been great to have a break in the weather with some mid 70's. There sure were a lot of motorcycles out around here yesterday.

The down side of this, and it happened two days ago, is we had a motorcyclist fatality where a guy ran off the road and hit a tree. It seems to happen just about every time we have a warm spell in the winter.

Randy

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It's always sad to hear but in all honesty if we see anything in the news here about a MC fatality it's normally related to speed of the MC or the car that hits them.

 

I just checked the stats and Texas as a whole had in 418 fatalities or incapacitating injuries on motorcycles 2018. About half were not wearing a helmet as we do not have any helmet laws. There were roughly 8700 accidents that involved a MC in 2017, 490 fatalities. Nearly 75% of the fatal accidents involved the rider being impaired.

 

If you look at the other stats though Texas is 2nd in the country in the number of Fatalities per 10,000 bikes. Florida has the highest fatality rate followed by California, Texas and Pennsylvania. California has the most registered bikes followed by Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. The lowest fatality rates (by 10K registered) are Montana, South Dakota, Alaska, New Hampshire and Minnesota.

 

Here's the link to to an article with 2017 numbers. https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/which-states-have-the-most-motorcycle-fatalities

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I wonder what ratio is between actual ridden and fatalities. A lot of bikes registered and sit. I am not one that uses my bike as transportation for the most part, strictly leisure. I'll ride many weekday afternoons in the country, parked at home before evening rush hour begins, and have never once gotten my 83 out in the evening when dark. That said, it is really starting to concern me with the amount of stupid, unaware drivers out in their cages now days. I have a friend who parked and sold his MC last year after a couple near death experiences in a given month.

Edited by SpencerPJ
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I wonder what ratio is between actual ridden and fatalities. A lot of bikes registered and sit. I am not one that uses my bike as transportation for the most part, strictly leisure. I'll ride many weekday afternoons in the country, parked at home before evening rush hour begins, and have never once gotten by 83 out in the evening when dark. That said, it is really starting to concern me with the amount of stupid, unaware drivers out in their cages now days. I have a friend who parked and sold his MC last year after a couple near death experiences in a given month.

 

I ride mine just about every day. They only time I don't is if I'm travelling for business or rain chances are above 40% when I'm going to or from work. I'm approaching 11K since I got the bike in late April. My experiences are much different. Most cages give me plenty of room, yes, there are those out there that are nuts but watching for them you can avoid most of them. A few have caught my by surprise. I've been riding in the Houston area now for ~8 years and only 2 real issues. Once a lady was merging on to the hwy in heavy traffic and was just oblivious. not on a cell that I could tell. A truck in the other lane saw what was happening and gave me plenty of room to ride the white line. I did reach over and knock on the driver's window. I thought she was going to pass out ;-). the other time in light traffic a guy in a new Cadillac CTS (still had paper plates) was on his phone texting kept coming over on me. I'd hit the horn and he'd move back and just look at me. The 4th time I kicked his door and dented it in. He move away and stayed away then.

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I ride mine just about every day. They only time I don't is if I'm travelling for business or rain chances are above 40% when I'm going to or from work. I'm approaching 11K since I got the bike in late April. My experiences are much different. Most cages give me plenty of room, yes, there are those out there that are nuts but watching for them you can avoid most of them. A few have caught my by surprise. I've been riding in the Houston area now for ~8 years and only 2 real issues. Once a lady was merging on to the hwy in heavy traffic and was just oblivious. not on a cell that I could tell. A truck in the other lane saw what was happening and gave me plenty of room to ride the white line. I did reach over and knock on the driver's window. I thought she was going to pass out ;-). the other time in light traffic a guy in a new Cadillac CTS (still had paper plates) was on his phone texting kept coming over on me. I'd hit the horn and he'd move back and just look at me. The 4th time I kicked his door and dented it in. He move away and stayed away then.

 

When I'm threatened with a 2 ton vehicle I will also take drastic measures like slinging a couple steel ball bearings. If that don't wake them up Rosko can punch a hole in their front tire 9mm size.:hihi:

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When I'm threatened with a 2 ton vehicle I will also take drastic measures like slinging a couple steel ball bearings. If that don't wake them up Rosko can punch a hole in their front tire 9mm size.:hihi:

 

LOL, I've told that by a lot of people but I call bearings evidence. I was still in HS when a group I rode withe handed me a hand full of #5 (1/2") stone. He called it road debris.

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Well, we had another motorcyclist death before the warm weather spell ended. On this one, The guy had a problem with his bike and parked it on the side of the road and started walking down the side of the road where he was hit by a tractor trailer. This happened at night.

Randy

 

:95:. We had one yesterday here in the Houston area. Both the car and the motorcycle caught on fire. It appears Motorcycle was speeding when the driver of the car made a left turn. It happened at ~3:30 am. It's sad whenever we hear stuff like this.

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I plan to take a short ride and do some errands on the bike before rain comes in this afternoon. Yes, we always have to be aware of the dangers we face everyday while on our bikes. Ride Safe everyone. Make 2020 another fun year to ride.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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