[corksil]

By getting on the bike, you are assuming the risk.

If you don't feel like assuming the risk, don't get on the bike.

Our modern society in the west is very 'hand holding' and 'coddling' -- yet motorcycles will continue to the be exception, not the rule.

Recently a very close friend of mine -- aged 60+, who has been riding bikes his entire life since age eight -- crashed a dirtbike while fooling around on his own private property. Long story short, four broken vertebrae in the neck and he's lucky to be walking. Could have easily been paralyzed from the neck down instead, at which point his life would be over.

If you don't feel like assuming the risk, don't get on the bike.

The person I mentioned.. still has no recollection of what happened and never will. He remembers putting on his helmet and starting the bike as he has done a thousand times before, but the rest of what unfolded is a giant question mark in his brain.

Dangit, why are we thinking about this again. It's the same repetitive mental thought loop and if you don't break the cycle, it will become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Think happy thoughts!