OK, let's see them motorbikes...

[sheepherder]

Also off-topic...

I've only had one 'serious' accident on a cycle...A 650 Triumph Bonneville, back in the early 80's...Hot Summer day, coming home from a picnic, turned onto a newly constructed freeway on-ramp, accelerated up to 55 and hit a sandpile right in the middle of the on-ramp...Knocked me out for a few minutes, got up, forks were twisted but not bent, rode it slowly home with some scrapes & bruises, nothing serious...Except a headache (Goggles & helmet were on!).

Another related point: What the young riders of today don't accept is that during the time you own a motorcycle, you need to realize that there will come a time when you will have to push it five miles...Or lose it.

This has happened to me twice; the first time on a Norton Atlas 750 in the late 60's, when a loose magneto kill-switch wire sidelined me on a busy thoroughfare in the middle of the city. Pushed it 76 blocks/5 miles all the way home, with a cop stopping me to ask WTF was I doing? (License & registration, please). The second time was in the early 90's, one o'clock in the morning at a popular bar with my Harley XR-1000. Wouldn't start. (Corrosion/patina on the starter relay). No kickstart on this dual-carb Sportster. Leave it at the bar? Yeah...No. Friends all asleep. So I pushed it 5 miles to the air base where I was known and it was under the watchful eye of the DoD Police. Then I walked another 4 or 5 miles home. Three cars stopped and asked if I needed help, while pushing. I declined.

It's not quite a rite of passage...But if you're not prepared to push it, then you have no cause to complain if you lose it...