Something is not right in my head

[wolf39us]

I don’t know why I feel like this. 

I just bought this Honda CBR500R brand new from the dealer.  I just don’t feel excited about this bike like I thought I would and it has nothing to do with the bike and everything to do with me.


While looking into purchasing the bike, I’ve been all over the web looking at reviews, reading articles on safety, reading the good and the bad.  It never hit me until now because I really didn’t think about the potential.  I know there are inherent risks to riding, but for some reason it’s hugely bothering me now.

So many things…

Everyone I know has gone down at some point except for one exception.  Drivers around here are completely insane. 

Why hasn’t this bothered me before?  I have NO clue.  I’ve driving around on a PCX150 scooter and never felt like this at all. 

I only know one person that rides personally, everyone else gave it up.   

This seriously shouldn’t bother me, but it does.  The probability of me going down or dying on this or any bike is massively high compared to other forms of transportation.  I’m seriously just looking to get around, I’m not a thrill seeker.

If I keep the bike, I’ll most likely rarely ride it out of my own personal fear of the damn thing.  If I return it to the dealer (really *sell* it back to the dealer) I will lose quite a bit of money… but nothing compared to what could happen on a really bad day.

[PickelledEggs]

I think it is something that should bother you. Motorcycles are no joke. Practically everyone I know that has owned a bike has gotten in at least one accident. At least one of them was put in to a coma because he got sideswiped by some guy that wasn't paying attention.

I'm not going to tell you to sell your bike, but I do think it's good that you're realizing the risks involved. Have fun on it, but definitely be careful. You have to watch out for every maniac on the road. Even if you are driving safe on your end, you need to be extra defensive and watch out for other drivers.

[Mike Cl]

I don’t know why I feel like this. 

I just bought this Honda CBR500R brand new from the dealer.  I just don’t feel excited about this bike like I thought I would and it has nothing to do with the bike and everything to do with me.


While looking into purchasing the bike, I’ve been all over the web looking at reviews, reading articles on safety, reading the good and the bad.  It never hit me until now because I really didn’t think about the potential.  I know there are inherent risks to riding, but for some reason it’s hugely bothering me now.

So many things…

Everyone I know has gone down at some point except for one exception.  Drivers around here are completely insane. 

Why hasn’t this bothered me before?  I have NO clue.  I’ve driving around on a PCX150 scooter and never felt like this at all. 

I only know one person that rides personally, everyone else gave it up.   

This seriously shouldn’t bother me, but it does.  The probability of me going down or dying on this or any bike is massively high compared to other forms of transportation.  I’m seriously just looking to get around, I’m not a thrill seeker.

If I keep the bike, I’ll most likely rarely ride it out of my own personal fear of the damn thing.  If I return it to the dealer (really *sell* it back to the dealer) I will lose quite a bit of money… but nothing compared to what could happen on a really bad day.

This is from my own personal experience.  I loved my 125 dirt bike--rode it everywhere/every chance.  Then left the Army--sold the bike--and returned from Hawaii to CA.  Went long stretches where I really, really, missed my bike.  Years and years passed.  Then I got a chance to ride a friends bike--a 250--and found I liked it--but not nearly as much as I had before, and found that given my status as a new father, I found I would not have gotten one even if I could have afforded it.  I call that growing up and understanding that things change--I change.  Maybe that is sort of what you are experiencing.

[hrdlr110]

I don’t know why I feel like this. 

I just bought this Honda CBR500R brand new from the dealer.  I just don’t feel excited about this bike like I thought I would and it has nothing to do with the bike and everything to do with me.


While looking into purchasing the bike, I’ve been all over the web looking at reviews, reading articles on safety, reading the good and the bad.  It never hit me until now because I really didn’t think about the potential.  I know there are inherent risks to riding, but for some reason it’s hugely bothering me now.

So many things…

Everyone I know has gone down at some point except for one exception.  Drivers around here are completely insane. 

Why hasn’t this bothered me before?  I have NO clue.  I’ve driving around on a PCX150 scooter and never felt like this at all. 

I only know one person that rides personally, everyone else gave it up.   

This seriously shouldn’t bother me, but it does.  The probability of me going down or dying on this or any bike is massively high compared to other forms of transportation.  I’m seriously just looking to get around, I’m not a thrill seeker.

If I keep the bike, I’ll most likely rarely ride it out of my own personal fear of the damn thing.  If I return it to the dealer (really *sell* it back to the dealer) I will lose quite a bit of money… but nothing compared to what could happen on a really bad day.

Wolf, I've been riding since I was 18 years old. My first bike was a 1976 Honda goldwing. The only advice my dad gave me was ride like you're invisible. I'm now 54 and riding my 6th goldwing. I ride daily - 2 up on weekends.
When I started riding people didn't have mobile phones. They are your nemesis. They require you to quickly assess all drivers in your vicinity for a potential unexpected lane change - intentional or unintentional. I ride in the rain. I ride in the daytime. I ride at nighttime. I will admit that I avoid peak traffic times if possible. But I feel safer on my bike than I do in my partner's car. The reason is vision. You have no blind spots. (If you're driving properly,  nobody should have a blind spot, but don't get me started - the term shouldn't exist, look over your shoulder).

When your riding, be engaged 100% with riding. No music. No phone. No sightseeing. Keep your head up, be alert, look behind you often. The more you do it, the more comfortable you'll become. As a rookie rider, maybe avoid peak traffic if possible.  In time you'll become more comfortable. Never so comfortable that you won't frequently envision the pain of colliding with another vehicle. That is what keeps me sane, alert and careful.
When you ride, you never ever have the right-of-way. You can be dead right. Always expect the car sitting at the stop sign to pull out in front of you, because sometimes it will. No problem.

[stromboli]

OK getting into my personal history here. Now you get to learn how stupid I am. I had a Yamaha 360 in the Navy. Wrecked it. Spent 4 days in a hospital in a coma. Was transferred to Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston, where as luck would have it, I spent the remainder of a shortened enlistment. I wasn't wearing a helmet, btw; this is why I insist people wear them.

I was in a truck accident at 14 that scarred my face up. I wear a beard today because of scars on my lower jaw. I was scared to get back in a vehicle for a year afterward. Likewise I was scared to get back on a bike after the Navy. But I did. I simply decided the fear was not going to beat me, and I would get past it. Ultimately it made me a better rider.

In your case, a healthy fear and caution is better than bravado and "boy let's see how fast this puppy can go" attitude. I've also ridden in East Coast traffic and I know what that's like. Wait till the ice shows up on the road, then it gets fun. Better to be cautious and learn to respect the machine than to think you are Evel Knievel with something to prove.

[gentle_dissident]

I've been at the fearless point of my life. I did a lot of things that should have killed me or landed me in jail. I just didn't care. The second time my bike jumped out from underneath me due to a wet paint stripe, I started to  care. Seeing other potential realities close up put more concern into me. I even eventually stopped building gore props. People think I'm still wild, though. The swashbuckling attitude stayed. However, I now do annoying things like sneak those cautions from the OP into the heads of bikers. Yes, I'm still a bad boy.

[aitm]

My father was trained on a Harley when he rode for the National Guard back in the late 50's. His trainer was one of those guys that demanded every expected obstacle should be sought out and trained for. As a result my dad was a hell of a teacher, he taught all of us boys to not drive but "ride" the bike. Luckily we lived up mid-Michigan where traffic was rare and we would practice driving around 20-30 mph and learn to balance and tip the bike as far as we could right to where we started skipping on the peg. The idea to keep true to the center line but understand how the bike reacts. We learned how to tuck your leg and ride the side if you had to lay it down.

We had to actually practice going around corners and into dirt roads because, "every intersection has sand and it'll kill you quicker than a head on". He had us riding in gravel, across gravel, sliding into gravel and then with sand all over again, because it's "all different". Wet roads, grass, learning to ride with a passenger. He went all out. All four of boys rode for years. I stopped not for a particular reason other than money I think. One day I saw a body and his bike wrapped between the two back tires of a semi. I can control a bike in any condition, but I can't control other people.

One of my brother's eventually went undercover and rode with the Pontiac Avengers in the 70's, but afterward he and I were riding and a mail box-truck pulled out in front of him and slammed on the brakes. Luckily we just came through a light and were probably only going 40, but he laid that bike down, went under, and popped right back up, wildeset thing I had ever seen at the time.

The point, learn to "ride" not just drive the bike. Spend time out in the boonies learning the limits of the bike and you. These kids that drive around popping wheelies down the freeway at 80 mps wipe out on blowing sand cause all they ever do is drive pavement.

You'll enjoy it, but like others have said. You MUST consider everyone on the rode as someone who CAN'T see you and WON'T see you.

[stromboli]

My father was trained on a Harley when he rode for the National Guard back in the late 50's. His trainer was one of those guys that demanded every expected obstacle should be sought out and trained for. As a result my dad was a hell of a teacher, he taught all of us boys to not drive but "ride" the bike. Luckily we lived up mid-Michigan where traffic was rare and we would practice driving around 20-30 mph and learn to balance and tip the bike as far as we could right to where we started skipping on the peg. The idea to keep true to the center line but understand how the bike reacts. We learned how to tuck your leg and ride the side if you had to lay it down.

We had to actually practice going around corners and into dirt roads because, "every intersection has sand and it'll kill you quicker than a head on". He had us riding in gravel, across gravel, sliding into gravel and then with sand all over again, because it's "all different". Wet roads, grass, learning to ride with a passenger. He went all out. All four of boys rode for years. I stopped not for a particular reason other than money I think. One day I saw a body and his bike wrapped between the two back tires of a semi. I can control a bike in any condition, but I can't control other people.

One of my brother's eventually went undercover and rode with the Pontiac Avengers in the 70's, but afterward he and I were riding and a mail box-truck pulled out in front of him and slammed on the brakes. Luckily we just came through a light and were probably only going 40, but he laid that bike down, went under, and popped right back up, wildeset thing I had ever seen at the time.

The point, learn to "ride" not just drive the bike. Spend time out in the boonies learning the limits of the bike and you. These kids that drive around popping wheelies down the freeway at 80 mps wipe out on blowing sand cause all they ever do is drive pavement.

You'll enjoy it, but like others have said. You MUST consider everyone on the rode as someone who CAN'T see you and WON'T see you.

Every word is true. Better to have a healthy paranoia going in and learn to deal with the realities- visibility being one of them.

Had a friend that bought one of the first Kawasaki Ninjas that was all black. He worked swing shift at Hill. Twice on the way home he was nearly hit by a car. Afterward he painted the bike dayglow orange and wore a dayglow safety vest. Kind of overkill, but he wanted to be SEEN, dammit!

[gentle_dissident]

my dad was a hell of a teacher

Man, that is a "live to ride" attitude.

[Johan]

Bikes come with risk so your concerns are well founded. I don't think I nor anyone else can really offer useful advice on what you should do. That's up to you. I can tell you a bit about where I've personally come to rest on the topic but that's about it.

I never rode a bike. Never had the desire. Still don't. But as I mentioned earlier, I spent quite a bit of time in ratty old barely airworthy aircraft. This is what that taught me. Flying like riding, involves risk. However almost everything in life involves risk. And when you really look at the numbers you come to realize that most common things we do (driving a car, going to work, crossing the street etc) are not nearly as safe as we perceive them to be. And then you realize that while things like bikes and planes carry more risk than your average past time, they are not necessarily nearly as risky as you might first think.

I used the qualifier necessarily because here's the other thing you learn about risk. Its often manageable meaning lots of it can be mitigated. When you examine what kills in each activity, you soon find that far and away the biggest killer is stupid people doing stupid things. And that, to a large extent, is controllable. So control it and don't do stupid things. Ride in good weather during daylight hours and stay away from roads that you know will be heavily congested. That right there cuts your risk way down. You still can't control that idiot on his cell phone and motorcycles are extremely unforgiving when it comes to accidents. So yeah despite all your best efforts, you might wake up in an ER with a limb that will no longer work (as happened to friend of mine). Or worse, you might not wake up at all.

But again, all of those things can and do happen to people every day while driving cars, or eating restaurants or just sitting on a public bench. So if you follow that line of thinking too far down the rabbit hole, you soon end up afraid to leave the house. Life is meant to be lived. So live it. Do your research and define the edges of your risk envelope and then stay well within them. If that means you sell the bike at a loss, then sell it at a loss and count yourself fortunate for the lesson it taught you. If that means you keep it and slowly build your confidence via hours in the seat, then that works too. Just remember, life is fatal no matter what. About 30k people die in car accidents every year but almost none of us think twice about getting behind the wheel nor piling into a vehicle with someone else behind the wheel.

I recommend you decide what level of risk you're comfortable with and then don't lose a moment of sleep because your choice.

[gentle_dissident]

I'd simply prefer to travel in a grounded cage. When the inevitable occurs, I've got a better chance of walking away.

[Baruch]

I'd simply prefer to travel in a grounded cage. When the inevitable occurs, I've got a better chance of walking away.

EMP protection on wheels?  Neat ;-)

[drunkenshoe]

I think something is right in your head. I find what you feel is reasonable and good advice is already given.

[SGOS]

However almost everything in life involves risk. And when you really look at the numbers you come to realize that most common things we do (driving a car, going to work, crossing the street etc) are not nearly as safe as we perceive them to be. And then you realize that while things like bikes and planes carry more risk than your average past time, they are not necessarily nearly as risky as you might first think.

When I sold my house to buy a boat for the purpose of sailing across the ocean, friends were I'll say "moderately" concerned because of the risk factors, and I admit it seemed a bit more risky than crossing the street to me also.  People's first question was, "Have you done this before?"  Reasonable question in some ways, but it focuses on "risk" to excess.  "No, I've sailed a lot, but never out of sight of land."  But virtually everything you do for the first time, is something you've never done before, and most of the time people don't ask you a question like that.

As I processed the risk factors in my head, a few things became apparent.  First, compared to driving on a Los Angles Freeway (I use that example, because the boat I bought was in Los Angles, and as an outsider, driving on a LA Freeway is immediately apparent as highly dangerous), how much danger are you exposing yourself to in what amounts to a 20-30 day window of exposure on the open sea, with no one around, compared to driving on a daily basis bumper to bumper at 75 miles an hour in LA?  My guess is that freeway driving is more dangerous.

What makes a unconscious difference in perception is the factor of doing something unfamiliar or unusual, and of course, Hollywood can't make a movie about the ocean that doesn't focus on some kind of life threatening disaster.  It hypes the unusual, and downplays the highly usual, like car driving.

For Wolf, much depends on how much he wants to ride.  Maybe it's just a simple question.  "Is it worth the risk?"  No one can answer that for someone else.  I think one needs to think about risk, and danger.  I did with the boat, and ultimately decided it was worth it.  Also, insuring a boat for an ocean crossing is no small deal, and because I was doing it single handed, and for the first time, no insurance company would even insure my boat, so mostly I was risking my life savings.  In the event of my death, that wouldn't matter.  The worst possible scenario was a disaster where I survived, but was then in poverty.  In the end, the experience was more important than the downside.

I think Wolf is being wise here, but don't let the fear get out of hand and take control, either.

[wolf39us]

I'm attempting to assess probability here.  Now if I were to have a bunch of people who I know that have never gone down, have never had a problem, have never dropped their bike, and this was a common position to have, then I wouldn't have a problem.

It's easy for me to say that I know 75 people.  At least half or more have never had a car accident.  The rest had accidents that were very minor and involved nothing more than an insurance claim, while about 1 or two have died or been seriously injured.

I cannot say this about motorcycle riding.  Every single person I know who rides (which granted isn't as many people as car drivers) with exception to one person has gone down in some way or hurt themselves.  You can go on to any motorcycle forum or the r/motorcycle thread on reddit and ask about their experiences.  Just about everyone will have a story of sliding on the pavement, or the  ER visit. 

With this many people getting hurt vs other forms of transportation... it becomes difficult logically (for me) to think that it's a good idea to ride on two wheels.  One bad road, one suicidal animal, one crazy texter or asshole driver, and I'm down.  I'll be at the mercy of the asphalt.  All of those same risks are involved with driving a car, but my probability of getting seriously injured is massively reduced in a car I think we could all agree.

All this being said, I do understand the idea behind living life to the fullest.  I shouldn't be controlled by what ifs and I won't be controlled by what ifs.  The numbers are stacked against me greatly as they are with other riders though. 

If ONE thing goes seriously wrong on an airplane I'm most likely not going to make it out alive.  The probability of this happening is super super low though.  The probability of me getting into a serious crash on the road with a car is way higher, and that doesn't bother me either.  The probability of me getting into a serious crash on my motorcycle is much higher than the car (39x more likely to die or get seriously injured).

I think my risk "limit" is somewhere between injury in a car and injury on a motorcycle.

I will probably ride a few more times and enjoy the bike a little more, but I'm almost positive I will be getting rid of this thing before the season is up and give up bikes.  I'm going to find a different hobby lol