I went to the ear doctor a year or so ago to get custom made earplugs because those little squishy ones hurt my ears. He asked me what I wanted them for and I said mowing the lawn and motorcycling things like that.
Apparently he doesn’t like motorcycles and thinks anybody who rides one is dumb. He said that to me in not so many words.
At the end of the doctor visit I ask my customary doctor joke “So, I’m going to live?”
“Well, maybe not if you keep riding that bike.”
Well he lost my business.
But today a year later it just occurred to me, because I’m going on my first bike ride this year this weekend, that I actually ride my
bicycle more in a year than I do my motorcycle, definitely time-wise and even mileage-wise.
On my motorcycle I have a full face helmet, lots of leather with kevlar and all sorts of other shielding.
On my bicycle I wear a small piece of styrofoam on the top of my head and spandex.
On my motorcycle I’m going faster, sure, but I’m also going traffic speed, whereas on my bicycle I’m always going slower than traffic speed and as anybody with any driving experience knows it’s safer to do the traffic speed than the speed limit.
IE you want your speed delta to be as close to zero as possible.
So exactly how is riding a motorcycle less safe than bicycling? But noooooo… nobody has a problem if you say you ride a bicycle.