Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Safety - Brand, denver co usa, gp f1

Question
I've owned suzuki, honda, harley, and now my BMW.  It is the safest so far.  Who is making the safest motocycle on the market.  Anti lock brakes, etc.  If one were to focus their bike search to the safest bike.  Who has it?  thanks.  john Denver, CO USA

Answer
Did you ever see a motorcycle be anything other than safe? I mean, you walk into a parking lot and there's your motorcycle. Safe as can be. Won't fall over by itself; won't leap out and bite you, will it? So, who said motorcycles are dangerous? It's a bit like the old arguments about fire, guns and anything else that has utility but also the potential to be dangerous: You have to add the human to the machine to get the possibility of danger.

So, which modern motorcycle is the safest? All of them, to be honest. They all have to pass vigorous safety regulations and, what we in Europe call "type-approval" before they are allowed onto the market. Interestingly, some US made motorcycles would find it hard to meet some EU regs, but that's another story ;0)

All manufacturers have in some senses gone out of their way to minimise the damage a human can do with the machine. Brakes, as you say, now have ABS. Some bikes have forms of traction control. On board computers take hundreds of readings from various inputs at millisecond intervals and adjust the ignition timing and fuel delivery so not too much power is delivered to the rear wheel. Suspension is better than ever. Modern tyres are phenomenal, even compared with just 20 years ago.

Yet, on the other hand, engine capacity and horsepower has crept up and up. You can go out and buy a sports bike with as much power as a GP F1 bike had in the 90s. Who needs it, even on the track?

I'm not going to give an opinion on who makes the safest bike, because I can't. No manufacturer is going to risk a law suit by making an "unsafe" one, are they? BMW have a reputation for making quality machines, yet why do they stick with indicator controls that are designed to confuse riders of every other type of bike, used to a common design for bike switch gear?

What I will say, with my instructor's hat on is that the first manufacturer to have its dealer network offer riders mandatory rider development training would definitely then be the "safest". Safety rests with the rider and the best thing any rider can do to ensure their own safety is to take an advanced riding course.

Even then, you cannot remove all elements of risk. We need risk, that's why we ride. Would you want to be enclose in a 2-wheeled cage and wear a Michelin-man type suit, just to be "safe" on a motorcycle? I think not.

Hope this give food for thought.

Regards

Alec
www.alecgore.com
"The Thinking Motorcyclist"