Motorcyclist here. A lot of the danger of motorcycles is the rider. The level of danger to a 20 year old man on a sports bike is orders of magnitude higher than that of a 50 year old on touring bike.
Same story with guns: the danger of guns is entirely correlated with demographics. People outside of certain demographics and locales face very little risk from guns.
Motorcyclist here who's in their 50's - you'd better sit down. I have some sobering facts for you.
The fatalities per 100 million miles driven are as follows (NHTSA data):
- 1.1 for car and truck drivers
- 2.3 for all motorcyclists
- 21.8 for motorcyclists over 50
Why is a 50 year old 20 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than a 20 year old? Here are some reasons given by the MSF:
- Decline is physical and cognitive abilities
- Increased risk-taking behavior (20 year olds don't typically do poker runs from bar to bar, for example)
- Riding bigger, faster bikes (as you know, tourers cost a lot of money, money that a 20 year old simply doesn't have)
Now I know neither you nor I are going to park our bikes, but it behooves us both to recognize the dangers in riding at our age and doing what we can to mitigate those risks.
Also, remember this: when those 20 year olds do something stupid on their sport bikes and crash they're pretty much good to go due to the resilience of their young bodies. Us? We're going to the hospital or the morgue. Those are just life's realities.
I wonder what the break down is on over 50 doing dumb shit/not dumb shit?
I remember how fun riding was after a few beers when I was young, and that's why I don't do that now, but biker gang culture, which is older doesn't care.
I suspect you're a lot like me and wondering how can it be that riding is so dangerous for us. I'm suspecting it's alcohol. They have poker runs all the time where each of the stations is at a bar - and people are drinking up. They end up riding bar to bar to bar to bar, drinking all the way. And they're riding in groups which tends to get things bunched up. I stay away from these events. They're just not my thing.
I don't know a lot of people who've died while riding, but for the couple I do they were riding late at night (wee hours of the morning) and were well over the legal limit for a DUI. One was a buddy of mine who was having a bit of problems in his personal life and went to the bar and got shit faced and left around 2:30 AM. Went riding home on a 4 lane rd here that has a 50 MPH speed limit and winding curves. He failed to negotiate a curve.
You're arguing besides my point. My point is that I don't buy bullshit reasons how a riskier behavior is actually safer. A 50 year old motorcyclist trying to tell me "my age actually makes me safer on a motorcycle than if I was in a car" would get a similar wtf.
Same story with guns: the danger of guns is entirely correlated with demographics. People outside of certain demographics and locales face very little risk from guns.