Why do people think that the VFR will kill me

As many of you already know based on my many many previously started threads I got a bike last week, and I brought it home for the first time last night (25 and living at home trying to save money) and my mother was upset because I got a bike (I told her before but this is the first time she saw it) and kept saying that it isn't a Harley and that I'm going to kill myself. I don't get it is there any reason that a VFR or any bike (other then a Busa) is more likely to kill me then another bike (or in this case a Harley)?

I'm thinking that it has to do with the image some riders give us sport(touring) bike riders a bad name, with mohawk helmets, shorts, t-shirts and flipflops doing wheelies on the free way, you don't see that with Harley riders (well the wheelie part at least). I feel kinda slighted, I think i picked a good bike and was hoping for some support from my family (My biological one, not this one) and my mom is flipping out and my dad said "just be careful of all the idiots out there."

So again, am I missing something or is there some magical aspect of Harleys that make them more safe then a VFR.

 

Harleys are safer because they never leave the driveway. ;-)

Seriously, any bike can be safe or dangerous; it's the rider who determines that.

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I think the impression that people get from the VFR is that it's a "rice rocket" and that it's meant for going fast and leaning low around corners i.e. a Sport Bike, and the impression they get from a Harley is that it really just "putts along" and your not really going to go fast and lean through the corners i.e a Cruiser. I think that both perceptions are taken from the way MC riders ride in your area, however those in the know, really know the difference is the rider, as either bike can be ridden in a dangerous and unsafe manner. Most of the squids around here in the So Cal are riding CBRs, Ninjas, "Busas" etc. and dress and ride the part i.e. T-Shirts, tennis shoes, hoodies (no offense Toe Cutter) and speeding along making a menace of themselves. The guys that are typically just putting around are on cruisers (mostly Harleys) and they, for the most part, aren't pulling stunt like moves, mostly just making loud noise! Unfortunately, no one ever notices when people are doing the right thing i.e. riding within their capabilities, not speeding, not stunting, etc., they only know/see when people aren't doing the right thing, it's just how it goes.

 

They dont know any better.


But dont feel like you have anything to prove or teach. Just ride her like you love her and the opinions will change.



Or not, but ya got a nice ride so WHO CARES!


(" well it's alright now, I learned my lesson well. Ya see ya cant please everyone so ya gotta please yourself.")

 

^^ This.

Your friends/family know nothing about motorcycles and think that anything that isn't a Hardley is a supersport bike, ridden only by people with a death wish. Of course, in comparison to a Hardley, almost anything with two wheels is a supersport bike...

 

Because you can kill yourself. Of course you could get killed crossing the road, or falling in the shower, too. Following your fathers advice, will help lessen the chances of that happening.

Just remember that cager blind spots are wide and plentiful and can easily block you out of their line of site. What they don't see, can kill you. If you can't see their eyes, chances are they won't see you at all.

Cagers are creatures of habit. Most will never consider bikes in their driving decisions. If and when they do a mirror check, they will be looking for something big and slow. Unfortunately, we are neither, and can easily slip into that spot that they thought was clear, as the mirror check had showed three seconds ago. So don't be your own worst enemy and ride like everyone is out to kill you.

All corners have sand and gravel on them, until proven otherwise. Words to live by.

Most Hardlys ride in packs and go slow and loud enough that everyone can notice them. Plus, all that chrome helps too.

Have fun and ride safely.

 

I am a very safe rider, but cars do not see bikes. They will see packs of bikes when they won't see a single bike. Accidents on a bike are much worse than a car. As a victim of a blind cager, I will be recovering for probably the rest of the year. Luckily the Highway Patrolman did not show any prejudice toward bikes and did not fall for the "I never saw him line." It is a fine line between ride like your invisible and ride safely. And then sometimes "Crap happens." Do not discount the danger. It is there. If you haven't ridden before, go to safety class. If you haven't ridden on the street, it is a life endangering endeavor. Be careful. They are out to get you, and most will get off by saying "I never saw him."

 

Its only natural for family to be worried - but its not a VFR thing, its a risk which comes with anything on 2 wheels.

As others have said what really matters is the rider. There are things you can do to reduce the risks. If they are really worried then maybe recognise their concerns by taking an advanced rider training course, always do your pre-ride checks and don't forget ATGATT.

Now get out and ride that bike - once you hear that V4 growl you will know you have made the right choice.

 

This, Tell your Mother that Harley's are much riskier than the VFR because, Harley riders think that it is not cool to wear any gear...

 

OK so prove that your doing everything to educate your self...CHP training course or any other course in your area. Allways wear the right gear ..thats ATGATT. all the gear all the time and prove to Mom that you are taking this seriouse. Maybe when you were a kid you were reckless and did crazy things...thats her thinking now. JMO.

 

Moms will always be worried no matter what you do or say. I have adult age children, and I know Mom still worries about them in anything they do.

My mom still worries about me and "that bike of yours".

Dad's worry too; we just try to say the "cool" things so we don't put undue pressure on our kids.

As was mentioned: Gear. head to toe. All the time. If you don't think it helps, trying running as fast as you can in shorts, t-shirt and sneakers, then slide across your road. Let us know the results. (I'm sure you get my sarcasm, but that was how I explained it to my youngest kid when he asked "why do wear all your gear to go get gas? Its only 5 minutes away. Then when I asked him to try the slide, he got it pretty quick, lol).

If your parents ever wanted to sit down and listen, you can tell them some differences between a VFR and a Hardly. Braking system, suspension and overall reliability are actually safety features, as is the ability to be able to accelerate out of an unfavorable situation.

Its the old adage "I'd rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it".

Be smart.

 

Harleys are MUCH safer than "rice rockets". Two personnel examples. One buddy who owns a harley decided that a night of drinking wasnt over. So when friends drove him home he decided to go to a biker bar one mile away from his house. He lives sort of in the country. He didnt even make it down his long driveway and ended up in a ditch at the end of the driveway. Bike was fixable but he broke his leg and couldnt dive for 6 months. Another friend of mine was looking into getting a bike. He too also liked to drink and get behind the wheel, (what can I say he is a fuckin idiot). He thought to curb his thinking process about drinking and driving by buying a harley. 6 months later he was drinking MORE and rideing. Needless to say he totaled the bike (thankfully for him) and was out of diving for more than a year. He was wearing the standard harley ATGATT shorts, flip flops, tank top, and turtle shell. His injuries were two broken legs, broken right arm, collapsed lung, broken collar bone, major road rash and he had to wear a halo harness for 4 months. His only saving grace was that he did not land on his head at all. The helmet was still in great shape.

Its not about the bike its the rider. I remember a rider on this forum how a friend and him went on a ride that had some twisties. His friend had a Busa. Of course the freind was leaving the VFR rider behind. At a stop, it was stated by the VFR rider that he would also smoke the VFR if he was on the BUSA. They swithed rides. The friend now on the VFR, was smokeing the Busa......

The two best peices of advice, (about rideing a motorcycle) I was ever given. 1st you are invisible, 2nd everybody on the road is trying to kill you. Once you have those two thoughts in your head while rideing and as long as you wear ATGATT and keep your wits about you, you should do fine. Just watch out for the other idiots on the road.

 

I start to boil a bit every time I hear something like this. Back in the day when I was Freeway Patrol, actually for all my service, and well before I had any interest in bikes what so ever, typically when a driver made a lane change and collided or cause a collision, the ticket to that driver was simply Unsafe Lane Change which was a 3 point offense and about $173.00 in today's money. Soon as I hear any comment along this line from any driver, the charge went to Drive Without Due Care and Attention. That is something like $450.00 or so and 6 points. When they complained as they always did, my response to them was something along the lines, "You did not see them because you did not look. If you looked you would see them. After all, if they were not there, you would not have hit them."

People have to get their heads out of their asses when they are driving no matter what they are driving. For the most part, our highways and roads are safe from a design point of view. Our vehicles have just about every safety feature presently available built into them. On motorcycles, and for that matter here in Canada, all vehicles, there are daytime driving lights that automatically come on. I think that there is a substantial portion of society who would make excellent passengers on public transit.

Restitution. I told my wife I was getting a bike. When I came home with this one, her response was similar to your mother's. I assured her that I would do my part to stay safe if she did hers when she was out there driving. She is a very safe and cautious driver, but the reply was a response. But I needed some smartening up as some here found out on my first trip to Reggies. Mom will never get over it just cause she is a mom. But she will learn to accept. What choice does she have?

 

As many have commented, "Mother's Worry", that is what they do. I'm 43 years old and my mom still doesn't like the fact that I ride and worries every time she hears me rumble in to her driveway. Dad on the other hand, knows bikes CAN be dangerous, but believes that when proper care and attention is paid and safety precautions are taken, things will be OK.

Show your parents how responsible you can be about the bike and take a Motorcycle Safety Course (should be mandatory in my opinion) and learn to ride as though everyone is out to kill you. Never trust in the fact that a person in a car should be able to see you, or that they have seen you. Remember that if you ride in a place in traffic where you can not see the driver of another vehicle, they likely can not see you and try to position yourself accordingly while riding. People cut off semi's all the time and then say they did not see them. It can be much harder to gauge the speed of an oncoming motorcycle since they are so small so people tend to think you are further away or going slower than you are, so when approaching intersections always expect the unexpected. Also make sure you believe that your safety is paramount and never forget to wear the proper gear (ATGATT - All The Gear All The Time).

If you ride like an idiot your chances of becoming a statistic are much greater, but as people have said even walking is dangerous. There was a lady recently in my town that was walking down the sidewalk on her way home from the store and a truck turned across the path of an oncoming car and the force of the impact sent the truck careening in to the pedestrain and she was killed instantly. She was more than 100 feet away from the intersection at the time. Both drivers were found to be speeding and I had heard that the person in the car may have been texting while driving.

Bottom line is show her that you want to be responsible and that should help ease her discomfort but know that she will still worry.

 

People like to judge other people. We do it all the time even when we don't have all the information necessary to formulate an opinion, evaluate risk or even understand what we are seeing. If you roll up on a Harley, the vast majority of people make the quick assumption that you are a badass biker and your tatooed woman does things for you that they wish theirs did. otstir: Is it true? Maybe and maybe not but people love to speculate and let their imagination run. We love to dramatize events to make them more than they really are. We love to watch TV programs where people behave in a manner that is outrageous because it does something for them that they don't understand but like. We're pretty fucked up really!

So you arrive on the sceen with a shiny red sport bike. Few people are going to know how to identify the subtle differences that make the VFR not the same as the CBR sitting beside it at the coffee shop. Even experienced motorcyclists don't know if they have never owned one till you start pointing our the design features that make it such an amazing do-all machine vs the hard core race replicas. For many, not all, their eyes will glaze over as the words you offer simply go in one ear and out the other. So you need to cut them some slack and not be too defensive when they make comments and assumptions. Pitty them because they are the uninformed masses. The truely brilliant ones will hang on every word and then go buy a VFR.

In general terms, bikes don't kill people just like guns don't kill people but there are some bikes which, due to their design, are inherintly more difficult to operate and as such represent a higher risk to the general public. Machines with crappy brakes, raked out front ends or too much weight often fall into this category as they have a vastly reduced performance envelope compared to the average off the showroom floor bike. Overloading your VFR can put you in this zone too so beware. In stock form the VFR isn't one of these machines and neither is the entire cast of race replicas or the Hyabusa you mentioned. They all can be operated safely and responsibly, it's the operators that at times can't seem to conduct themselves responsibly. :crazy: This isn't something new but unfortunately a disproportionate number of sport bike riders have created an image that at times we all must bear the burdon of.


Just Jethro's humble opinion :smile:

 

A matter of Perception.

Nah I don't think mohawk helmets have anything to do with it Rustitution. I ride an '03 VFR800 and these are a few of my helmets.







People simply see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. (Sportbikes look fast,they look like you could get into a lot of trouble with them. Ergo because you own a sportbike you must ride fast and get into lots of trouble.)

I've found that when it comes to sportbikes it's true that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

You could be the most cautious safety conscious motorcyclist out there,always wearing your safety gear,always riding within your limits,always being polite to other motorists and in the end it just doesn't count for squat. Because all it takes is one lame brained hooligan riding around like a jackass to forever alter people's perceptions about sportbikes.

Doesn't matter what you say,doesn't matter what you do,doesn't matter what gear you wear,doesn't matter how skillfully or carefully you ride,doesn't matter if you're wearing a mohawk on your helmet or not,you just get lumped right along into that group simply because you're riding a sportbike. Might as well get used to it.

Double O hit the nail squarely on the head with this quote below. That's just how it goes.

 

I just want to reinforce ATGATT. Gear will save you. I lost a friend(my sister in laws brother) two years ago. He was a Harley faithful and was proud of it. He also wasnt a fan of wearing any gear other than his leather jacket and gloves. Only time I ever seen him with a helmet and proper gear was at sanctioned MX races where he had no choice.
His accident wasnt a fiery crash. He went down around 25 mph and made impact with a guard rail at 15mph. Died on impact of brain trauma. He had very little road rash and a broken arm. No one can know for sure but doctors said had he had a helmet on he would have survived without any major brain damage.
Wear the gear.

 

Isn't it interesting that so many of us generically think of people driving cages, riding harleys, or what many of us think about LEO's is the same as this statement. I cannot claim total innocence here. I tend to look at lawyers that way too but know they perform a valuable albeit costly, service to millions of people.

 

Randy you know that your bike never goes over 50KPH anyway.. shit it took you a week to get from the Canadian border to central California.....

 

You dudes sure pick on harleydoods a lot!