The last time I rode was about 30 years ago. A kid on a bicycle came out of nowhere and cut me off on a fairly busy 45 MPH street and I had to dump the Harley. Even after I hit the street the kid kept going like nothing ever happened. Bottom line though was that I figured if it was that easy to kill a kid or get killed or maimed then I didn’t need the bike. Of course, had I been driving a car, the kid might have been toast but then, I would not have been so banged up.
@Bill Boggs Regarding biking accidents: Roy Orbison, of notable music fame, loved riding as did his wife. He witnessed her driving her motorcycle under a semi-trailer. Killed. Some time later, both of their young boys burned to death in a house fire. The man's life was pervaded by misery. Frank
I'm not familiar with the term, but if you mean driving down the center when traffic is stopped, not long after I moved to California, I was in a traffic jam on my bike. The only reason I didn't go down the center was because there was a motorcycle cop on the shoulder and I assumed that was against the law. He came over to me and told me that it was okay to do that. That was in the early 1970s.
We went to hear Roy several times in Odessa, Texas. My wife's boss had owned a majority of the liquor sold in a big part of west Texas. He had a chain of liquor stores and several other companies under his wing, one of them being the best hotel in Odessa and he periodicly brought Roy Oberon to Odessa, but I did not know about the tragic situations in his life.
@Cody Fousnaugh those Kawasakis 650's and 1000's were good bikes but one of the 650's went into a high speed wobble with me and I was never so scarred before I could get it slowed down to smooth riding. I was trying it out to buy but that scarred me off. It had never happened to me before and I wasn't sure how to handle it. And those sports bikes can rev it up so quickly. They scare the hounddog ot of me the way the zip in between traffic and change lanes. And going around corners at a good gallup with their tires and can cut a corner at such severe angles. Of course I'm too old for anything now save a three wheeled bicycle but those sports bikes scarred me from the time they came out in our market. I was sure more bodies would be laying out on our streets but the kids seem to handle those bikes A-okay.
I went thro' this when I lost my brother aged 20 and his girlfriend as his pillion passenger on his 250 motorcycle in an accident. According to the police he had overtaken improperly. He died in hospital, his girlfriend on the spot. He wore a helmet but it didn't help him. Don't know if she did. It was a traumatic experience both for our family and the family of his girlfriend. It had always been clear to me and my twin brother that riding a motorbike was out of the question although this led to a loss of prestige among our peers who did. It even took quite some time before we were able to tell our mom that we had a driver's license and, eventually, a car. Thank God both of us did not get involved in a severe car crash while our mother was still alive. I did not mention the four ones I was involved in since there was material damage only.
Even though it's been many years, I'm sure you still,feel the loss! Only blessing is that your mom wasn't alive....something like that would kill me.
Back in the year that my mom and dad died, my oldest son was almost killed in a motorcycle accident. He worked as a deputy sheriff, and was on his way to work when. Deer jumped out of the brush and crashed into his motorcycle. The only reason that he even survived was because God was taking care of him, and they landed with the deer on the bottom, and the bike on top, so when they skidded down the road, it was the poor deer who was spread into mush all down the road. My son was in and out of consciousness, but it was late at night on a back road, and not very many people came by.It was early spring in Idaho, so the weather was below freezing, and he apparently was there for over an hour before someone reported the accident. For some reason, the dispatcher thought it was just a road kill and not an accident, and they didn’t send anyone because they assumed that my son would find it on his way to work. When he didn’t check in for work, they sent someone out to see what happened, and found the accident scene, and were then able to call and ambulance and get him transported to the hospital with a broken leg, and face lacerations. He wouldn’t let anyone tell me, because he know that his grandmother had just died, and he didn’t want his mom to worry about him, but his girlfriend did tell me anyway (after much prodding on my part). He was very fortunate to have survived at all, and he still rides a motorcycle, and loves it.
"Splitting traffic" is riding in-between two rows of stopped cars. IOW, cars on your right and left. I never had a problem doing it. Problem with following "stop and go" traffic is using the clutch, whether it's a motorcycle or a vehicle. Can wear out a clutch pretty darn fast.
She was when the fatal accident happened and she also was when I got involved in my accidents but I never told her about mine.