God i hope my kids never ever want one.

I was just held up by 40 mins in going to get the kids from school due to an accident, motorcyclist v's car, poor motorcyclist died at the scene.

Thats 2 bike accidents I've come across in the last 3 weeks which i think will make me much more bike aware on the roads.

We always said with all our kids that no matter how skint we are we'd rather pay money towards helping them buy a car than have them buy a motorbike.

I hate the things. No matter how good a biker you are you never come off best in a collision. When my son announced he was going to get one I told him he had also better find a new address cos I wasn't going to sit up worrying until he came home. He got a car instead :P

going to play devils advocate here :hide:

had many boyfriends who were bikers, and i have to say i thinks it down to the safety conscience of the biker as to how dangerous the bike is and how bike aware other road users are.
several boyfriends have been dangerous riders, with poor attention to safety and no concern for other road users. but ive also had boyfriends who were very road safety aware, and abided by the law and were considerate to other road users.
ive also been involved in a high speed bike accident - an idiot boyfriend was doing over 110mph on the m1 near leicester when we came a cropper; i got off lightly with bad bruising, concussion and a fractured pelvis, he broke his pelvis, left leg, left arm and quite a few ribs.
ive also been run off the road when with a careful biker by arrogant car users who think its funny to ram you off the road when you are being a textbook biker. that resulted in bruising, and my boyfriend breaking his arm.
i had to stop when with a friend in a car, when travelling back to sheffield from london, at an accident - a biker had gone flying over a car when it braked in front of him and he was too close; that one resulted in the biker dying - his abdomen was flung into his handlebars and (we found out at the inquest - we attended cos we stopped and tried to resuscitate him) his aorta was ruptured and he bled out into his abdomen :(

there are 2 kinds of bikers and 2 kinds of car users - the safe and the dangerous; its circumstances that result in accidents, but not all are down to dangerous bikers/car drivers.

sad to think though that such an enjoyable activity (cos being out on the open road on a bike in lovely weather is heaven on earth!!!) can be so badly spoiled by inconsiderate/arrogant/stupid behaviour on behalf of both biker and car user.

That is so true. Unfortunarely though neither biker nor driver see themselves at fault!!

I live on the coastal road that runs from Stanwell Park to Thirroul, beautiful drive and as you can imagine attracts all road users. On Tuesday nights we have the bikers doing a time trial between stanny and thirroul and on weekends we get gramps out in his dusty old car doing 20kph. Being a resident, I could throttle both sides.

I cant count the amount of times a biker has overtaken me on a corner and nearly come a cropper. Then there are the bikers who sit on your blind spot. Some of them really take silly risks, but there are also a lot of blanker drives who tailgate, drive too fast/slow and overtake in silly places.

Dont get me started on cyclists.....

I don't really have a problem with the way people ride bikes or drive cars, you get nutters, careful drivers and over careful drivers everywhere, my grouse with motorbikes is the lack of protection you have. The guy yesterday was just out minding his own business and the story goes that the elderly car driver had a heart attack and hit him, just cruel luck but knowing the junction speed couldn't have been a factor so had he been in a car chances are he'd be moaning about whiplash today but that would be all.

I love motor bikes, but agree with Lynn totally :yes:

Having worked in ITU for 6/7 years and having seen loads of accident victims and having attended roadside too, it's the protection you get from a car that makes it a bit safer. But I agree that idiots come in all shapes and sizes!