My motorcycle days were blessed to be in the early 70’s on the central California coast.
Little traffic, great weather, no cell phone distracted drivers.
And yet, I lost many fellow riders:
Trains in the fog,
On-coming cars crossing the yellow line on winding roads,
Dogs in the road,
Drunk drivers,
etc....
Me, too. Little Honda 350SL — a “hybrid” on-road / off-road bike that wasn’t any good for either. I remember riding down Highway 1 from SF to Big Basin to go camping. The road was blessedly empty in ‘73. Only had it a couple years because the salty SF air was eating up all the aluminum. Didn’t lose any friends, but my Best Man has a short leg after a side-Swipe accident.