Thursday 10 May 2007

No, I'm definitely not buying a motorcycle

I'd like to make a general announcement, directed nowhere in particular, that I am categorically ruling out buying a motorcycle.

Every now and again, the thought enters my head that it might be a fun thing to do. I pretty much like anything with wheels and an engine, and it does look like a lot of fun. But it's just too bloody dangerous. Pick up a motorcycle magazine and there's a tribute to someone who died while riding. Look at the death and injury statistics and motorcyclists are massively overrepresented compared to car drivers. Talk to people who ride, or used to, and they'll tell you about the crash that they had that landed them in hospital getting gravel picked out of their flesh, or with various broken bones, or on painkillers for the rest of their lives.

With all due respect to those who ride - because I love your machines and I think what you do it great - it's just too dangerous to be seriously considered. Just this week I read the news that a regular poster on one of the car forums I frequent was killed last weekend riding his bike out in the country - exactly what I would do if I owned one. He was a year younger than I am, and he'd been riding for about six months or so. Most riders who've been riding for longer than that will have learned from their mistakes and no doubt generally be quite safe out there on the roads, and are probably more at risk from inattentive car drivers than they are from their own actions. But the mistake that gives you something to learn from could be the one that kills or seriously injures you in the first place.

If, in a car, I take a corner too quickly and the car is thrown off line by a mid-corner bump that I hadn't anticipated, I may well end up going off the road sideways or backwards. I could well end up in a ditch, in a paddock, maybe even in a tree. But my chances of survival are excellent unless I hit something very large at high speed, in the manner that killed Peter Brock. I'm surrounded by lots of thick steel and I have a variety of airbags that will spring into action. I may even hit nothing at all and just come away feeling a bit stupid, but able to drive the car back onto the road and keep going.

Imagine the same loss of control happening on a bike - I would almost certainly fall off. Then I'd be sliding across the road, largely out of control, and no matter what I hit, it would hurt. There would be nothing beyond a helmet to cushion any sort of impact. And, of course, the bike would definitely be damaged in some way, simply because it too was sliding off into the scenery somewhere and being thrashed across the ground on the way. The damage would be far, far worse than it might have been in a car.

No. Much as the writings of keen motorcyclists such as Top Gear's James May and other journalists make it all sound very appealing, for me, the risk vs benefit tradeoff has far too much weight on the risk end. I'll stick with cars, and admire motorcycles from afar.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been tossing up the pros and cons myself. Pros: they are cheaper to run than cars, cheaper on average to fix if something goes wrong, and you never have to worry about people asking for lifts. Cons: I live in a flat with no garage, I live in the middle of Sydney ten minutes' walk from a train station, I don't go anywhere ever, and the vast majority of people are stupid, and they all have cars and are on the roads most of the time.

Anonymous said...

Stephen managed to win me over on the motorcycle argument some time ago by using the whole "it's way cheaper to buy, run and fix" line. After about three years of me waitiing for him to die on the way to work, I managed to finally talk him into getting rid of his death trap on wheels, largely due to the fact that he himself didn't want to ride it if the weather was too cold, too hot, too wet, too humid, or too anything. No air conditioning or windscreen wipers on a bike...

We had the bike insured for $13000, so we figured we could count on around $10000-ish, but were we sorely mistaken. We ended up selling it for $8800, nearly $4000 less than the market value... They may be cheaper to buy, but if you even want to re-sell it, don't bother...

Marco said...

I don't even know that they're cheaper to buy - new bikes seem to run between $6k and $15k for a brand new one (unless you buy the equivalent of a Ferrari) which will put you into a new Barina or similar or a very good second hand car. They're probably cheaper to maintain, but I don't think bike engines last as long as car engines so that's worth considering too.

The other thing is, though, that if you buy say a $5000 car, you get everything you need to use it for that money. They give you the keys, and you can start driving right away. If you buy a $5000 bike, you'll also need to get a helmet, and some proper riding gear (jacket, pants, boots, gloves maybe), and if you want to carry anything with you, you'll need to get some sort of luggage carrying arrangement just for starters. You don't need any of those in a car. And, of course, with a car you can simply get up off your lounge and go and get in your car and drive off - no mucking around with putting all the riding gear on.

On the idiocy of other drivers - it might be better in Europe where 30-50% of traffic is on two wheels and therefore car drivers are more aware of bike/scooter riders, but in Australia, no thanks. People don't know what to do when a bike's around and they aren't looking out for them in the first place or expecting them to be there.

Marco said...

CQ - in your situation actually, given where you live, your best bet might be to get a car licence and just hire one when you need one.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's a thought, I never considered that. There *are* occassions when I would find it easier to have a car - it's almost two hours by public transport from my house to my parents, but 35 minutes if you drive. Normally this doesn't bother me, but it does mean it's a full day heading over and back. And of course any time we head to the canned berry I need to scab a lift. It's certainly not worth me actually buying, fueling and regoing a car just for that, but hiring might be an option.

Anonymous said...

Repainting the deck is a good start, what I really want to see is you building a deck, or any other sort of extension using a minimum of professional expertise, maximum of like-minded Italian relatives, and no council approval whatsoever. Then you're moving into the big leagues of wog home renovation.

Anonymous said...

Great work.