How #%&*$# slow they seem to be.
We've finally had a string of nice weather out here so I've been riding around a lot more and using it to commute to and from work. In a car it's only about a 10 minute trip one way. But, in a motorcycle it takes about 20 in the mornings and for some reason the commute home seems to more than double again taking at least 40.
I don't get it, I'm just going to and from work, but the mileage seems to go up as well. Hopefully the weather will continue so I can continue to study this strange phenomenon, you know, for science.

Haha, well played. Enjoy it!

I have zero interest in motorcycles due to where I live.

Too much rain, too hot and humid and too many idiot drivers who don't know what they are doing. I would estimate that the average life expectancy for any motorcycle rider in Miami is probably 10-15 years less than non-motorcycle riders.

I stopped riding on Easter Sunday morning, 1989. Never got on a bike again. I won't share the details, as this is a thread to celebrate the freedom of riding. Be safe.

After riding for 49 years I have just quit. Cellphones have convinced me that it is just too unsafe now. Everyone is looking at their phones; eyes only half focused on the road; may register another car but not a bike.

So I’m done.

Still riding, don't think I'll give it up, at a few days short of 63 I am still enjoying riding my bike but it's a different culture here and bikes are seen as normal and there is no discrimination against them like I remember having in the UK.

Still toying with selling the FJR1300 and getting something lighter as the FJR is a bit of a heavy weight.

Still hanging on after 43 years. I've thought about giving up over the past few years but it's hard to give up the convenience and the cheap running costs.

I rode for about 10 years, but SoCal drivers were just too scary for me. I didn't have an accident or anything, but felt like it was just a matter of time before someone pulled out in front of me, or changed lanes into me. A good friend of mine had that happen and totaled his bike and had some injuries, and he hasn't been back on a bike since. It was his third incident, I think, and he went back to riding the other 2 times, but I think that one was the last straw.

I do miss it, so I envy someone in a place where they can safely ride.

If I lived in Montana I would get a motorcycle.

Rode since 87, had 7 bikes, quit around 10 years ago.

Then I ended up without ANY vehicle for the first time since 87 a couple years ago, and a deal came up on a bike I couldn't refuse. Also, my job is 100 feet away from my house, all my shopping needs are within 3 miles, so the expense of a car isn't really justifiable at this time. Cheaper and simpler to just rent a car a few times a year for when it's needed.

Cellphones have definitely modified my riding. I no longer go to the front at red lights - I go up to the third car. Started that habit after nearly getting T-boned from cellphone red light runners twice in the first month of getting the bike.

I also avoid being the last vehicle in a line of stopped vehicles, and if for some reason I have to be in that position I do a lot more staring at my mirrors than in the past.

I will not ride on Friday or Saturday afternoon/evening/night anymore unless it's absolutely mandatory, in which case I take as many backstreets as possible.

I NEVER look at my speedometer anymore in the presence of cars. I'm also a lot more anal about maintaining distance from any cars than in the past - and on that note I WILL SPEED HARD at ANY time to enforce that policy. The choice between a ticket or my guts on the road is a no brainer...

When I first got this bike I did have serious thoughts of selling it due to how much more unsafe it's become with the cellphones. I don't know, I guess in some ways that's made me a safer rider too though...

Maine is a good place for motorcycles, at least for the 5 or 6 months you can ride them. Traffic isn’t too bad, though it only takes a single car on a 2-lane road to wreck your day. You really have to watch out for moose in the northern & western parts of the state, though. They like to hang out on the shoulders from before dawn until after dusk and mosey across at any time, and their hair reflects absolutely no light. If you don’t see their eyes reflecting or another vehicle’s lights silhouetting them, you won’t see them until it’s too late. They’re BIG, if you’re riding a Harley or something on which you sit upright your head won’t clear their belly but crotch-rocket riders might make it. A full-size pickup will get totaled if it hits one.

Big animals.

I couldn't see myself riding again unless it was either off-road or there was a nuclear zombie apocalypse.

When I first got it I lived way out in the country so there was no traffic, just the odd deer or cow.
Now I live much closer to town, but my daily commute is short and I typically use the backroads and empty country roads. It makes traffic not much of a problem.
And when there are other vehicles around, I make the assumption that none of them can see me and I'll never stick in or near any vehicles blind spot for any length of time.

Besides, if I let myself worry too much about everything that might possibly be dangerous, I'd just lie in bed all day and that's probably dangerous too. There's just too much to see and do to get too worked up. The only regret I have about owning a motorcycle is not getting one sooner.

Being retired I don't need to commute to anywhere, all riding is for pleasure.

In the early 70s I commuted 50 miles per day to and from work, summer and winter, first with a Honda CD175 and then a Suzuki GT380M, the Suzuki I put over 100k miles on it in around 5 years, once I had water proofed the electrics it was very reliable.

I had the bike almost a week and got T-boned by a car coming out a side street, can't really fault the guy too much as he was blinded by a truck that had pulled up on the pavement right at the junction to unload into a shop. Police gave the trucker a ticket and the car driver too but he was admonished, still his insurance paid for the repairs to the bike.
If there had been no badge on his bonnet (hood - motorcap) then I would have slid along the bonnet and might have got away with it, but my elbow caught the badge and that pulled my arm which twitched the handlebars which made the bike tuck under and I was left hanging on the badge. Ah happy days
But the commute on good days were either much, much, longer or very short indeed, 18minutes door to door - but the fuel consumption was diabolical 16mpg UK (13mpgUS,17l/100km) that's 2 strokes for you

Been riding since '66. Another 2-3 years and will be time to give it up One accident, when this dumb female stopped at a yield sign at a traffic circle with no traffic in the circle.

Just did some maintenance on the Ultra Limited last week while it rained. New plugs, plug wires, and fuel filter. WOW. I did not realize how much my performance had dropped off. Big Iron was flying down the interstate this morning, since I am working Saturdays this month.
Hey, I commute on the biggest bike Harley has, in Dallas traffic, almost daily. (only bad weather keeps me off) Drivers are good for the most part, but I spend all my time watching out for those that are stupid/distracted/agressive.

Wormfood. none of my Buddies would blame you for 'getting lost/taking a wrong turn' on the way home while you are on that Indian.

Last month, my Wife and I and my Buddy and his spousal unit were coming back from riding in Eureaka Springs AR. Beautiful area. I was lead, don't use GPS on the phoie in the mountains, so I looked at the map, and started out.
Bottom line, I came to a fork where it was Road 271 RIGHT or Road 270 LEFT. I couldn't recall exactly, so I thought 270 sounded good. HA. Took us an hour our of the way, and after 25 miles I pulled over and declared my mistake.
But I pointed out to my Buddy that we were at the start of the highway that goes across the mountains, to get back to where we wanted to go! (Talimena Trail across the Oachita Forest Mtns)
No one was mad that I added another hour+ to our ride home (It was a 6 hour ride) because that was on the List of Places to Ride this year.

I've decided I'm going to keep on riding. And I'm going to be a real PUNK about it - in terms of RATTING the cellphone drivers.

To HELL with these cellphone #%&*$#.

Going to take the attitude of IT'S MY ROAD, I PAID FOR IT BEFORE YOU WERE BORN.

Yep, a motorcycle CAN win against a car...

Bill: I don't think there is a "wrong turn" on a motorcycle. That's half the fun is just riding around with no destination.

Currently mine's in the shop to get some a few things looked at. I miss it already, but it's raining the rest of the week so the timing kinda works out.

I use a program/app for finding nice routes to ride/drive it's called Best Biking Roads: https://www.bestbikingroads.com/

I've never been a motorcycle rider.
But I can say if I had I grown up owning one I probably would have rode it at least when I was younger. Now I'm older and thoughy yes it seems it would be nice someday to ride in the country or mountains, etc. it really doesn't make sense to consider it any safe at all.
A lot of people die on country roads on a sunday drive, etc.

Motocycles simple are not safe in that they offer no real protection. You are hurling along at say 50 mph and 'BOOM' you could die. Even 25 or even 0. Its simple physics. There is nothing to absord any impact forces except your body and whatever armor you have on.
At least cars have materials to absorb the forces, now airbags, etc.

And here in the US the statistics at least more people die every year in auto crashes then US casulties in the entire Vietnam war, etc.
Driving is dangerous, in anything.

That said there is certainly statistictly more risk the more objects you may encounter - especially when the orbits of those objects are unpredictable like here in SoCal where every fool is on their cellphone and half can drive at all to begin with.
Then there is the just plain aggressive manic drivers that have massively increased since the 80's.

I actually live in the San Diego area and this place is rated to have one of THE worst drivers rating in the US. There hardly a day goes by here that a motorcylist is not hit (and usually killed) and on the news. Whereas there are many auto accidents everyday it is far less frequently fatal.

And San Diego is fairly small and uncrowded capared to much of SoCal - Southern California.
What to speak of what it must be like in Los Angeles which has easily many times the density amount of people and cars and even years ago it was hell to drive there in the daytime and half the night. Now its probably impossible so I never even take a trip up there for 10 years.
This in spite of the fact I love driving and was a commercial driver on and off for many years and drove all over LA and SoCal.

There is one useful piece of advice i can give motorcycle riders and that is that most do not know how to ride one properly;

The thing is most riders ride on either side of the lane. This is a big mistake IMHO eg..



This puts the biker in the blind spot or spot of least awareness if visible of the auto driver. Thus there most of the time don't even see you or notice you at all.
I can tell you this for a fact because I am an expert driver and drove probably a million or more miles delivering goods for a total of about 20 years and I've been driving for 40 years personally.

While I understand reasons why the biker rides not in the middle of the lane - they (erroneously) want to be able to manuever or actually they think outmanuever an auto that is a big mistake.
That fact is IMHO trying to outmanuever another vehicle is exactly wrong.

You want advice from all my driving? Be predictable - that actually avoids accidents. Trying to outmanuever will probably get you killed. Most accidents are accidents - that implys the other person did not see or anticipate the move of the vehicle or whatnot they hit.
Of course one has to be defensive. So its quite a quandry.
And I have heard the motorcycle does not have the braking power of a 4 or more wheel vehicle but still I think is is a bad mistake to ride on the side of the lane.

I can't tell you the number of times I've almost not seen a motorcycle and almost crashed due to this. And a few times I never saw them. They blame the driver but they hang out in the blind spoots for most drivers about half the time!

as for aggressive motorcycle riders;

That will probaly get you killed even quicker, unless maybe you are a member of a fearsome Biker gang and wearing colors..

Bikes don't use the center of the lane because of all the oil and grease deposited there.

Bikes stop much quicker than normal 4 wheel vehicles.

So much this, not the centre of a lane, you ride in the tyre tracks because of the oil and grunge deposited in centre. Though, here some of the roads have deep ruts from the heavy trucks. We have a short section of two lane road joining two dual carriageways, it's only just over a mile long but they cannot join the two sections as the greens keep vetoing the construction, they have been waiting for 20+ years for them to be connected. That one section is so bad that in my Range Rover it is difficult to keep it straight as the wheel base is just slightly smaller than the truck ruts and the car falls from one rut to the other, on the bike you can really feel it and it takes an effort to pull the bike up out of the rut, it certainly upsets the FJR and I hear the other bikers around here complain about it too.

You ride according to the conditions of the environment you are in, even when I'm on unrestricted autobahn I do not ride flat out, but tailor my speed to the surrounds and what I feel is comfortable.

According to the UK police there are no accidents, only road traffic collisions, there is always a reason for what happened.

Krazykanuk covered it, all the oil and gunk dripping from cars make the center more slick than the rest or the lane.

As for hanging in blind spots, don't! Either slow down some or move past them. That's defensive driving 101 for any vehicle.

And for braking, a bike only has two brakes to a cars four, but since they're lighter I don't think it's much of a difference either way. Bikes seem to stop faster, but that's from my more limited experience and observations.

I have had to go through at least four motorcycle safety courses. The first after coming back from overseas and having to get a motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license when it hadn’t been previously required. The other times when moving to another post that riders go through a motorcycle safety course to register their motorcycle on post.

All agreed that you don’t ride in the center of a lane for several reasons. That is where engine oil is the greatest and other reasons. Lane placement increases your forward visibility and visibility to following traffic. It also gives you the most chance for collision avoidance.

These links are pretty good. The first one actually has some good illustration toward the end.

https://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/motorcycle-safety-essentials-strategic-lane-position/

https://motorbikewriter.com/what-is-the-best-lane-position/

Proper riding and etiquette requires you to ride on one side or the other of the lane.
I see unlearned/inexperienced riders ride down the middle lane often when I commute.
Reasons for riding in the outsides...
* Trash accumulates in the centers of the lane. Car tires don't touch it once its there.
* This includes gravel, oil, and anything that falls of a vehicle.
* Riding in the center is usually the crown of the lane, so the bike will want to drift to the outside because of the rise in the pavement
* Drivers tend to check their drivers side mirror more than their rear view mirror.
* Riding on the right side of the lane gets you closer to the car in the lane to your right, which makes for better visibility
* Same as above for those that are ahead of you that want to switch lanes from your right into your lane.
* If riding in a group, staggered left /right allows for a safety margin if the guy in front of you has to stop suddenly. It allows you to pass them without hitting them.

If your car’s mirrors are adjusted properly you won’t have any blind spots.

If you can't see the face of a driver in their mirrors, you are in their blind spot.

One thing I noticed on many modern cars, is there is a blind spot caused by the driver's side A pillar.

On the topic of braking on motorcycles - the number one mistake I've seen EVERY SINGLE RIDER I've known make is not buying the softest, stickiest compound FRONT TIRE possible, because that's your main BRAKE!

I'll suggest it without revealing the reason, and the answer is always "Oh I don't need that, I don't go crazy in corners".

Well, do you want the maximum potential emergency braking performance, or do you want to have only a percentage of that?

And front tires (if you're not going super crazy in corners all the time) wear out a lot slower than rear tires, so soft compound is no worry - if you're worried about the money side of this then you probably are too broke to be properly maintaining a motorcycle in general...

Rear tire is a different story, I go with the hardest compound possible there. Rears wear out much faster, but my real reason is with soft up front and hard on rear IF the bike is going to lose traction in a corner the rear is almost guaranteed to lose it before the front. I'm talking about hard riding there - obviously if you hit something like ice, oil, etc, the tire compounds aren't going to be very relevant...

As a motorcyclist I'm not about to trust that even half the cars on the road have their mirrors so precisely adjusted though...

On lane positioning on a bike - center vs not center?

Totally up to conditions.

If I'm in the furthest left or right lane on a freeway I want as much distance from the shoulder as possible to avoid running over anything that could puncture a tire, BUT, given the right (or maybe I should say wrong) traffic conditions I might choose the center of the lane so I'm not so close to the cars either. Of course if I see issues with the center of the lane in such a circumstance then I'm probably considering changing lanes...

If I find myself behind a truck (and that's guaranteed temporary), AND for some reason a lane change isn't immediately feasible I might choose center to hopefully decrease the odds of being hit by a rock kicked up by it's rear tires.

But most the time I'm going to be nearer to the lane stripes than the center, and my number one reason for that is forward visibility. I like to be in tune with potential escape routes if a vehicle in front of me has, say, a tire blowout, or spins out, or whatever...

I don't care about the grease buildup in the center if I'm not in the act of leaning the bike (in dry weather that is, wet is another story).

Well, your very first sentence kind of puts you at a debative disadvantage - I'm not usually the type to say "If you have no direct experience you have no valid opinion" unless it's something a bit "extreme" (homelessness, war combat, incarceration, etc), and compared to most peoples vehicular experience(s) the motorcycling environment can definitely sometimes fall under that metaphorical umbrella...

As for your "Recipe for Disaster" - correct concept, but terrible scaling in your example. When your front wheel could potentially be hit by a suddenly swerving car, that's the beginning of the back end of that danger zone. Obviously you don't want to be riding any closer to that LITERAL danger zone than you have to, but if you're two or three car lengths behind you're nowhere near that.

As for outmaneuvering all the non-motorcycles - with the exception of a vehicle suddenly losing control this is ABSOLUTELY possible, I've done it many times. I've even had incidents where were I NOT on a bike impact would have been guaranteed...

I'm not about to trust that they're looking in their mirrors.

They are looking at their cellphone.

Riding my bicycle, car pulls out of a side street and I hit his front wheel, picking myself up off the ground I see him putting on his glasses and saying "Sorry mate, I didn't see you"

Truth there...