Beating the odds as a motorcyclist

January 19, 9:42 PMDC Motorcycle Travel ExaminerMark Poesch

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(AKA “What good is training anyway?”)

In January 2006, with excitement and anticipation I picked up the February issue of Motorcyclist magazine.  I was taking my first few steps in realizing my childhood dream of riding.

As I thumbed through the pages considering which type of bike would be right for me, I came across an article about Kevin Schwantz and a picture of him sitting on the Suzuki GSX-R1000. It was love at first sight – the bike, that is… not Kevin.

I continued my search, and looked at a wide array of bikes. But, after more magazines, web browsing, and a couple of the early sport-bike-of-the-year reviews, I was hooked. It was down to the GSX-R1000 or the GSX-R750.

One day, I was browsing for images of the GSX-R1000 to use as a desktop background. Fortunately, the result is no longer ranked (although, a few similar examples aren’t hard to find). But, at the time it was number one. It was hard to see in the scaled form. Intrigued I clicked, and then jumped to the page.

Warning: Graphic text follows in italics.

The site was German, so it wasn’t clear from the article title or the text what it was all about. But, the pictures made one thing clear. Something had gone very wrong for a GSX-R1000 rider who collided with an eighteen wheeler. The site contained several photos from the accident scene. In one shot, a helmeted head was visible, alone, on the side of the road near the crashed GSX-R. In another were the torso and a leg on the ground, and caught between the eighteen wheeler’s rear tires, a large body part that was no longer recognizable.

Even without the original images, I’m sure you can imagine that my enthusiasm for riding was tempered. I was, let’s say, motivated to better understand the risks associated with riding, and how I might improve my odds of avoiding the fate of the rider captured in those images.

I dug into the NTSB,  DMV motorcycle accident statistics and related materials.  In 2006: