Hey, sorry about your friends who lost their lives while riding. But to claim "it wasn't even their fault" is so wrong on so many levels. I'm not one to blame my mistakes on others because I know that most drivers are negligent a shocking amount of the time. So even when the official police report assigns blame to the other driver, you must understand, a person lost his/her life and it was because they put themselves in that situation. If I die on a motorcycle it will most likely be a single vehicle accident, my fault, and the official report will likely reflect that..." failed to negotiate a corner. Excessive speed was like a contributing factor." Or something similar.
How exactly do you blame my friend for being hit by a driver running a redlight? How do you blame one of my other friends for a pizza delivery guy making a U-turn directly into him on the spur of the moment because he missed a turn (that friend is still alive, but I used to jog with his wife because he can't anymore). I'm not taking offense to you "blaming my friends", as I understand you meant it in a clinical and non-personal sense, but when you can explain to me how a driver running a redlight, and the flagrant illegal U-turn with no warning was somehow the fault of the bike rider, I'll agree. Now, I also agree that sometimes, yes, the two parties are both at fault. I witnessed a guy on a sport bike (well, I heard it, ran to the scene) hit a black cadillac that he claims he did not see/no lights. But you know what? There was over 40 feet of rubber laid down by that bike's tires...THAT was a two-party fault. Or mabye it was JUST the biker's fault. But that isn't what happened to my friends.
But I still want to point out...being right didn't and won't bring anyone back from the grave. Being wrong and admitting it won't either. Airbags and some material between you and the other vehicle/concrete barrier/whatever DOES have a higher chance of keeping you above ground, though. Like I said, everyone has their own "acceptable risk" category. That's PERSONAL, and that's my stance. YMMV, and I don't fault or condemn your stance either. Everyone needs to be happy, so long as they aren't harming others.
When there are other vehicles around, I ride like they are all secret enemy agents who, for whatever reason, have been ordered to kill me and are just acting normally until they have the perfect opportunity to swerve in front of me and take my life. They might be surprised when they fail because I am as ready for them as I can possibly be and am constantly scanning the situation and identifying safe exits. Doesn't mean I can't ride in a sporting manner in traffic, but I do need to be aware of every stupid thing other drivers could do and avoid putting myself in a place where I have no exit. But I can't count on all my fingers and toes the number of people who have only a year or two of experience and yet think they know how to ride a performance motorcycle. I can say the same thing about people that have 30 years riding experience and yet, still have very poor technical skills. Most riders simply have no idea how to stop their motorcycle in the least amount of time, let alone brake and change direction at the same time. Yet they believe they do.
Exactly. I am new to bikes (were I to get into them). You don't get re-do's. I work in healthcare. I see what happens when people make mistakes. I would make a mistake, just like I did when I first got into sports cars. but you know what? My sports car mistake cost me a few thousand dollars and one very shameful situation (noone was harmed though, 1 vehicle accident). A bike? That might not be so "cheap"...I am not willing to pay the price to learn.
But life is short and precious. Live it like you mean it or, you might wake up at 80 years old some day and wonder if you ever really lived at all.
Everyone has their "acceptable risks/rewards" algorithm in life, and for me, sports-car is in, while sport-bike is out. YMMV.
