i havent read much of this thread, just too much to read! however....
Quote:
Originally Posted by N Ja
I've seen dozens of scooter accidents overseas during service, never a
casualty, most of them just dust themselves off and rode off within seconds,
didn't even check if their scooter suffer any damage, much less themselves.
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i totally and utterly dont agree with your observation there... its possible that its a coincidence that you only observed accidents that involved scooters where they were not hurt much.
i live in a country where the BIG majority of people ride scooters, and by big i mean possibly 150 million people, lol...
i hotestly dont see the difference between crashing a bike and a scooter. obviously someone driving a bigger bike, say these 250's and up. can reach higher speeds faster, but also often drive generally at faster speed than scooters, since its so stable and it feels safe.
as a comparison, when im driving 80~ km/h on my girlfriends scooter, it feels like when im doing 145~ km/h on the ninja. generally i drive faster on the ninja, mainly because it drives more stable and gives me the impression that its safe.
anyhow, back to the scooter thing. they did a survey here in Bali, which is an island inhabited by around 4 million people i think (plus the tourists). and they came up with quite some shocking numbers:
Beritabali.com has tracked vehicular accidents in Bali from March through May 2011. Based on data supplied by the Bali traffic police, in March, 248 people died, 54 suffered serious injuries and 248 were superficially wounded. In the following month of April, 244 people were killed, 54 severely injured and 227 suffered minor injuries. Then in May, 286 people died, 57 sustained serious injuries and 303 were slightly injured.
article here:
http://www.balidiscovery.com/message...ge.asp?Id=7219
i would say about 80~90% of the people driving 2 wheel vehicles here drive scooters...
the fact that almost none wear protective clothes (most cant afford it which is true, since wages here are seriously small, but a lot of the ppl do wear thin jackets, hoodies, windbreakers, which in a low speed crash can help). it is obligatory to wear a helmet here, HOWEVER almost no one does them up, which pisses me of so much. almost every time i see an accident i see the person lying on one end of the road, and their helmet is somewhere totally different. oh, and on top of it, a lot of ppl dont bother to even wear helmets when they just drive around their village. again accidents can happen anywhere, and casualties happen that way.
on top of it, there is a misconception that scooters are "slow". that is totally false, ive seen modded scooters do almost 100mph. and regardless, you can easily die getting into an accident driving MUCH slower than that. specially when its an accident involving a car, truck, wall, tree, etc.
thats my 2 cents... and i agree with wearing as much protective gear as possible, although i dont wear full gear on the everyday basis myself tbh... which i always regret when i come off the bike, lol.
on the daily commute i wear gloves, armored jacket, and my latest helmet, a Nolan N103 N-Com. i always wear long pants, but not riding pants, just TOO hot here in the tropics, and i dont want to keep changing my pants, and uh.... Birkenstock, lol! too hot for shoes
however, when i go on a bike tour/ride, i always wear shoes, and also my knee protectors, that look something like this:
even with my normal gear, i get funny looks from most people, and if they get a chance to comment, usually they say "isnt it HOT in all the gear?" sigh~... to which i reply, "its 1000 times more bearable than road rash", lol