interesting thread dredged from the archives... i have not yet ridden a tandem, but that looks to be changing in a few months. i'm on my 7th moto, it's a Kawasaki Versys, but it currently sits on track stands and has been for over two years. i haven't had any moto tours on the agenda the last two years and my commute is too short to ride. i have been trying to get more bicycle miles, so it wasn't going to get much use on the weekends. therefore, i just left it winterized thru the summer... twice. wifey has ridden with me a couple of times, back in 2015, and enjoyed it. she has suggested that i blow the dust off this year. she is also pretty excited about the tandem idea.

> bottom line up front: safety on the moto is 90% strategy, 9% skills, 1% gear.

a few thoughts come to mind when i read about people taking themselves out of the game for reasons other than marital bliss. not all riders have equal odds of having a mishap while motorcycling. obviously we vary on our experience, but i learned while teaching the MSF rider course in CT that miles in the saddle by itself does not count for much, so many people are surviving on luck. we vary in the skills necessary to operate the machine but also in our approach to riding. the best riders have thoughtful strategies for accident avoidance... speed, relative speed, lane choice, lane position, relative position, riding gear, apparel color/reflectivity... a thoughtful rider is more active in his or her own safety and will be good at identifying potential threats and maneuvering in such a way to minimize the threat proactively, not reactively. still, no on his crushproof. a thoughtful rider who does manage find trouble on the road will analyze it, not like a police officer tasked with assigning fault, but like a motorcyclist, and will figure out where a different choice would have prevented the mishap.

personally, when thinking of safety and riding bikes, comparing road, mountain and moto... i think that i am most likely to crash while on the mountain bike but most likely to be injured or killed while on the road bike... i feel safest on the motorbike.