ca model different? - beware!

[Randy Allen]

The insurance industry did a profile within the last year on motorcycle deaths. It was a pretty simple profile: Older riders, drinking, on rural roads, don't make the curve, going to meet their maker...One of those "Got Jesus?" things. Another thing I've seen lately is guys rent Harleys, take off for Reno's Street Vibrations, decide to ride the curves up to Virginia City or around in the Sierras, and follow the guys and gals who ride all the time. Not good, very bad for your health. It's almost the same thing you see on the ski slopes, the newbies think they're at Disneyland and can't get hurt, a very costly assumption. Randy Allen

[klr250not]

that story about baby boomer fatalities was in the Richmond paper this morning too. They noted that the number of oldtimers (as old as 38 per the story) getting killed is up and the overall number of fatalities is up too. They quoted some numbers, a couple thousand give or take. You know what they forgot though?? Number of riders. You need a denominator, as in number of riders, for those number of fatalities to mean anything. Then you could calculate a Fatality Rate (fataliites/riders) or better yet (fatalities/miles riden). Dont mean squat otherwise. Of course, whoever wrote the article thought a 38 year old was a fine example of a baby-boomer.older rider too, so I guess you cant expect to much context-wise or algegra-wise. From a real 51 yr old boomer--Bob --------------

> > The insurance industry did a profile within the last year on > motorcycle deaths. It was a pretty simple profile: > > Older riders, drinking, on rural roads, don't make the curve,

going

> to meet their maker...One of those "Got Jesus?" things. > > Another thing I've seen lately is guys rent Harleys, take off for > Reno's Street Vibrations, decide to ride the curves up to Virginia > City or around in the Sierras, and follow the guys and gals who

ride

> all the time. Not good, very bad for your health. It's almost

the

> same thing you see on the ski slopes, the newbies think they're at > Disneyland and can't get hurt, a very costly assumption. > > Randy Allen

[Rodney Copeland]

Yup, what MR Not said! Pretty sure most of us old wise riders ain't gettin snuffed! Rod,,,,,thinkin, specially with all the good advice bein pooped from sites like this one,,,,,,,thanks you old fossils --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "klr250not" wrote:

> > that story about baby boomer fatalities was in the Richmond paper > this morning too. They noted that the number of oldtimers (as old > as 38 per the story) getting killed is up and the overall number of > fatalities is up too. They quoted some numbers, a couple thousand > give or take. > > You know what they forgot though?? Number of riders. You need a > denominator, as in number of riders, for those number of fatalities > to mean anything. Then you could calculate a Fatality Rate > (fataliites/riders) or better yet (fatalities/miles riden). Dont > mean squat otherwise. Of course, whoever wrote the article thought > a 38 year old was a fine example of a baby-boomer.older rider too, > so I guess you cant expect to much context-wise or algegra-wise. > > From a real 51 yr old boomer--Bob > > > > -------------- > > > > The insurance industry did a profile within the last year on > > motorcycle deaths. It was a pretty simple profile: > > > > Older riders, drinking, on rural roads, don't make the curve, > going > > to meet their maker...One of those "Got Jesus?" things. > > > > Another thing I've seen lately is guys rent Harleys, take off for > > Reno's Street Vibrations, decide to ride the curves up to

Virginia

> > City or around in the Sierras, and follow the guys and gals who > ride > > all the time. Not good, very bad for your health. It's almost > the > > same thing you see on the ski slopes, the newbies think they're

at

> > Disneyland and can't get hurt, a very costly assumption. > > > > Randy Allen

[adriancuster@webtv.net]

Is there really a large population of under 30 year old co-ed riders. I've personally known four street riders that aren't male 35+ in my sheltered life. My point being, is this really a startling fact that, (all of the sudden) most moto fatalities are older men. Or maybe, with the increase of motorcycle sales in the last years, possibly due to advertising and TV shows geared at adult men, that just every 'dude' with good credit or some money in the bank bought himself a fat hog and a stars and stipes doo-rag so, he too, could live the American Dream, ridin' free like Willie Nelson. Just my uninformed thoughts. Adrian A-14 http://community.webtv.net/adriancuster/ADRIANCUSTER

[Darren Clark]

I blame the Discovery channel and the marketing machine at Harley. It wasn't until it became cool for fat old balding doctors and lawyers to get all dressed up in leather and hop on $25,000 bike to try to live some bad boy mid-life crises dream, and then the Discovery channel started shows like American Chopper, Southern Chopper, and whatever Jesse James else there is. Now everybody wants an over powered chopper without suspension that can't steer because it looks cool, oh and open face brain buckets are cool, so is riding with shorts & sandals and no shirt. Never have I heard anybody on these shows say anything about safety, sure Paul Jr. joked about all the sharp points and iron crosses on one of his bikes being dangerous once. But they all portray an image that the AMA should be fighting against. I cringe anytime I see on one of these shows a bunch of goons riding down a freeway without helmets or protective clothing, even standing on the seats pulling some Indian Larry stunt. These shows are irresponsible, there was an American Chopper where Mikey took a safety class and failed (thank God), but they made a complete mockery of it. Later in the show he totally disregarded the law and rode without a certification! What does this tell the general public? Mark my words, it won't be long before we're all paying higher insurance premiums, and license fees because so many inexperienced riders are trying to look cool like the bozo's (Sorry Bozo) on the Discovery Channel, and dying doing so. Darren Clark 2004 KLR 650 A18

[klr250not]

Some blame goes to the Japanese for selling so many 175 mph streetbikes over here. Older guys generally buy into the Harley image; but a lot of younger ones die quick on streetbikes that are way quicker than they are. Some of these popular, lethal bikes arent even much fun to ride long-term--too heavy (Harleys) or too uncomfortable (streetbikes--lie on you stomach and crinkup your neck to see ahead). Meanwhile less dangerous, more fun bikes like the Sherpa and some 500cc standards available in Europe arent even imported. Marketing and brainwashing at its best and worst. ------------------

> I blame the Discovery channel and the marketing machine at Harley.

It

> wasn't until it became cool for fat old balding doctors and

lawyers to

> get all dressed up in leather and hop on $25,000 bike to try to

live

> some bad boy mid-life crises dream, and then the Discovery channel > started shows like American Chopper, Southern Chopper, and

whatever

> Jesse James else there is. Now everybody wants an over powered

chopper

> without suspension that can't steer because it looks cool, oh and

open

> face brain buckets are cool, so is riding with shorts & sandals

and no

> shirt. Never have I heard anybody on these shows say anything

about

> safety, sure Paul Jr. joked about all the sharp points and iron

crosses

> on one of his bikes being dangerous once. But they all portray an

image

> that the AMA should be fighting against. I cringe anytime I see on

one

> of these shows a bunch of goons riding down a freeway without

helmets or

> protective clothing, even standing on the seats pulling some

Indian

> Larry stunt. These shows are irresponsible, there was an American > Chopper where Mikey took a safety class and failed (thank God),

but they

> made a complete mockery of it. Later in the show he totally

disregarded

> the law and rode without a certification! What does this tell the > general public? > > Mark my words, it won't be long before we're all paying higher

insurance

> premiums, and license fees because so many inexperienced riders

are

> trying to look cool like the bozo's (Sorry Bozo) on the Discovery > Channel, and dying doing so. > > Darren Clark > > 2004 KLR 650 A18

[Jud Jones]

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "klr250not" wrote:

> > Some blame goes to the Japanese for selling so many 175 mph > streetbikes over here. Older guys generally buy into the Harley > image; but a lot of younger ones die quick on streetbikes that are > way quicker than they are. Some of these popular, lethal bikes > arent even much fun to ride long-term--too heavy (Harleys) or too > uncomfortable (streetbikes--lie on you stomach and crinkup your neck > to see ahead). Meanwhile less dangerous, more fun bikes like the > Sherpa and some 500cc standards available in Europe arent even > imported. Marketing and brainwashing at its best and worst. >

Or just the market at work? The Sherpa was here. Ditto the Transalp. We didn't buy them.

[Keith Saltzer]

> Or just the market at work? > The Sherpa was here. Ditto the Transalp. We didn't buy them.

Maybe cause we didn't market them. I don't ever remember seeing a commercial for a transalp, nor sherpa, or a KLR for that matter. Nope, I see Harley's, Busa's, GSXR's, R1's, japanese cruiser, and fast high flying off road bike commercials. And that's what sells the most. MrMoose A8 (Barbie and Ken special)

[kdxkawboy@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/23/2005 6:09:43 AM Pacific Standard Time, k.saltzer@... writes:

> Or just the market at work? > The Sherpa was here. Ditto the Transalp. We didn't buy them.

Maybe cause we didn't market them. I don't ever remember seeing a commercial for a transalp, nor sherpa, or a KLR for that matter. Nope, I see Harley's, Busa's, GSXR's, R1's, japanese cruiser, and fast high flying off road bike commercials. And that's what sells the most. MrMoose A8 (Barbie and Ken special) Unfortunately both the TransAlp and TDM were marketed here in the states, in conjunction with their P-to-D efforts, but they did not sell well enough to keep them in the US lineup. Big difference between the US market and most every where else is that elsewhere the motorcycle mostly used for everyday transportation while in America they are mostly sold for recreational use. however, it looks as if the American market is finally shifting a bit to where more riders are looking for practical machines instead of these niche machines. For a while there the good old UJM disappeared from the market it had once dominated, but it appears to be reborn in the form of the sport tourer and pseudo adventure tourer. Today only Yamaha, Suzuki and BWM are offering such models and they appear to be solid sellers - Yamaha just announced a second special order run for their YJ1300 with delivery in March and the Suzuki VS and DL models aren't languishing on the showroom floor either. Pat G'ville, NV [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Don Bittle]

Amen, Darren. I've not edited your message in hopes that people will read it the second time. Everyone has their stories but one of our most tragic was when the local Chevy dealer bought himself his dream harley, lost control of it in his driveway and proceeded to kill himself on his car bumper right in front of his entire family. Naturally, no helmet. That wouldn't be cool. don

> > I blame the Discovery channel and the marketing machine at Harley. It > wasn't until it became cool for fat old balding doctors and lawyers to > get all dressed up in leather and hop on $25,000 bike to try to live > some bad boy mid-life crises dream, and then the Discovery channel > started shows like American Chopper, Southern Chopper, and whatever > Jesse James else there is. Now everybody wants an over powered chopper > without suspension that can't steer because it looks cool, oh and open > face brain buckets are cool, so is riding with shorts & sandals and no > shirt. Never have I heard anybody on these shows say anything about > safety, sure Paul Jr. joked about all the sharp points and iron crosses > on one of his bikes being dangerous once. But they all portray an image > that the AMA should be fighting against. I cringe anytime I see on one > of these shows a bunch of goons riding down a freeway without helmets or > protective clothing, even standing on the seats pulling some Indian > Larry stunt. These shows are irresponsible, there was an American > Chopper where Mikey took a safety class and failed (thank God), but they > made a complete mockery of it. Later in the show he totally disregarded > the law and rode without a certification! What does this tell the > general public? > > Mark my words, it won't be long before we're all paying higher insurance > premiums, and license fees because so many inexperienced riders are > trying to look cool like the bozo's (Sorry Bozo) on the Discovery > Channel, and dying doing so. > > Darren Clark > > 2004 KLR 650 A18 > > > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > >