Posted on 10/30/2007 9:13:57 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By EDWARD WALSH
[Portland, OR] -- Geff Hinds remembers seeing the movie "Easy Rider" as a teenager in the 1970s and thinking, "Oh my, that's what I want to do."
Eventually, Hinds' dream of cruising the open roads faded, replaced by other preoccupations. But, he said, "I told myself I'd take up motorcycling when I'm old."
His time arrived last March.
Hinds, a 53-year-old Web designer from Tacoma, Wash., now feels "old enough" to resume his boyhood fascination with motorcycling. So he's the proud new owner of a black Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic.
Fueled in part by baby boomers such as Hinds taking up — or resuming — motorcycling later in life, the sport is exploding in popularity. Accident data suggest it's also becoming more deadly.
Nationally, the number of registered motorcycles rose 61 percent from 1995 to 2005, from 3.8 million to 6.1 million.
With more motorcycles on the road, it's not surprising there are more accidents and deaths involving bikers. But the fatality rate, as measured by deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles and per million vehicle miles traveled, has steadily climbed at the same time the overall motor vehicle fatality rate has fallen.
The number of motorcycle deaths nationally dropped during the mid-1990s, reaching a low of 2,116 in 1997. But the death toll has increased every year since then; there were a record 4,810 motorcycle deaths in 2006.
There are no simple explanations for why the motorcycle death toll has continued to increase, but in a 2006 analysis of the accident data, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said two trends are evident: Today's motorcyclists are older than in the past, and they are driving bigger, more powerful bikes.
In 1990, motorcyclists 50 and older accounted for 10 percent of all bike owners. By 2003, the 50-and-older crowd represented 25 percent of motorcycle owners. During the same time, the average age of motorcycle owners rose from 33 to just over 40.
Michael Durbin has been in a good position to observe this gradual demographic shift. He owns Paradise Harley-Davidson in Tigard, Ore., where a large showroom is filled with gleaming models of the iconic American bike.
Durbin, who said sales have increased every year during the four years he has owned the dealership, said his typical customers range in age from 40 into their 60s. Some first-time buyers are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
"I've had people say, 'I wanted one all my life and I finally made my kid's last tuition payment,'" he said.
Most of the bikes in the showroom today are equipped with larger engines than earlier-generation models. Durbin said that during the past two years, Harley-Davidson increased the engine size on most of its models from 1,450 cubic centimeters to 1,584 cc.
And it is not just Harleys that have gotten burlier. According to data compiled by Motorcycle Industry Council, bikes with engines of at least 750 cc made up 40 percent of the U.S. market in 1990 but now account for more than three-quarters of the motorcycles on U.S. roads.
But Durbin and other veteran riders say they doubt that the size of the engines or the graying of the riders can fully explain the rising motorcycle death toll.
"It's the motorcyclist," said Steve Garets, a nationally recognized expert in motorcycle safety. "It is absolutely not the motorcycle."
"It's the boomers that are fueling this," Garets said of the growing popularity of motorcycling. "They're not new to driving a vehicle, but they are new to riding a motorcycle. People get into motorcycling and don't really understand the risks that go along with the rewards."
Troy Costales, administrator of the Traffic Safety Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation, notes that there are about three motorcycle fatalities in rural Oregon for every one in an urban setting. The No. 1 cause, he says, is excessive speed going into corners.
"First and foremost, it is riders killing themselves," Costales said.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have mandatory helmet laws for all motorcycle riders. Most other states require helmets for riders younger than 18 or 21. Three states — Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire — do not have helmet laws.
But even a tough helmet law doesn't necessarily add safety. According to federal government statistics, between 2001 and 2004 the fatality rate, measured by deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles, was lower in Iowa and New Hampshire than it was in Oregon, where helmets are mandatory.
Hinds, the newly minted easy rider, says he was well aware of the risks when he bought his 650-cc motorcycle. He took a three-day course on motorcycle safety and approached his first riding experiences with caution.
Now, he says, he is more comfortable cruising the back roads around his home at 50 or 60 mph.
"That's pure beauty," he said. "It's a real joy for me. It's still a minor extravagance, but it's well worth it. All of a sudden, I break out in a smile."
(Edward Walsh is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. He can be contacted at edwardwalsh(at)news.oregonian.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
I live for summer rides in my pickup and watch the gals on that stretch of road. I almost ran off the road last summer when I there were three gals flashing other crotch rocket riding groups.
YOU ARE A GREAT AMERICAN!
Yes, I suppose I should have sued him....
Worked out a little better for them.
Funny movie.
Its too late, they are alread old.
Been riding for the past 5.5 years (I am 53) and have put down 130,000 fun filled miles in that time on 6 different bikes. No crashes.
I treat riding like a high stakes real life video game with all the cars on the road out to get you......your job is too survive AND have a good time. So far I am winning hands down.
My biggest fear riding is hitting a deer....I'll take crazy cagers any day over the unpredictable panicky bambi's running roughshod across our roads.
What color was the car before the bike rider painted it?
I drove bikes for years... Loved it.. had to sell my Hog about 5 years ago... now at 36, I can tell already my slower reaction times compared to my youth. So much so, that I definately think twice whenever I get the hankering to buy a new bike.
I can’t tell you how many times I was nearly crushed in the 11 years I rode regularly, and just a split second or two delay would have cost me my life.
Someone who’s never riden before in their life has no business getting on a 1400cc+ machine for the first time in their 50s. Odds are they are going to wind up road kill.
My husband used to ride way back in the day.
The whole family saw this movie.
At the dinner table, our son asked his dad, “So, which one of the wild hogs were you most like?”
I said, “He wasn’t like any of those guys. He was more like a Del Fuego.”
My son’s mouth fell open for a minute. My husband just laughed and said. “Yep! Mom’s right!”
BTW, he’s not anything at all like a Del Fuego anymore.
That was a long time ago.
“Do you guys do any of the Ohio Player’s stuff? They were one of my favorite funk bands when I was growing up in the 70’s.”
My favorite funk band growing up in the ‘70’s was “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids”. Those dudes rocked out every Saturday morning.
Fatalities rose 73% for that 61%, the best I could figure out, the worse fact is that there was a 23% increase in the per million mile traveled numbers.
That means poor skills are involved.
I bought my first motorcycle at 43 (1997). I put 30k on it before it wore out. I rode it from Lynnwood to Renton commuting on I-5 (30 miles) even in blinding rainstorms at night. I had a snowmobilers snowsuit that kept me dry.
Some of those evening rush hour commutes in downpours were a bit hairy but I was trained well and knew what to watch out for.
Never went down.
The bike was a 1982 honda magna V45. Loved the bike but it had a fatal flaw in the design of the engine. I’ll be getting my next bike this winter. I’m looking at the concourse. My wife LOVES riding on the back.
Oh, and it is NOT the bike. It is the rider.
>>A family friend was in her mid 50’s when she and her husband bought a pair of harleys, she went over the line on a curve and was struck by the oncoming traffic.<<
My experience and observation has been that when the husband and wife both get bikes, she’s gonna go down, and probably hard.
It only comes on when you put it in reverse to parallel park.
I've come to the conclusion that the suburbs of Toronto are a penal colony to which the bad drivers from the rest of the world are banished for life. Downtown is safe because nobody's moving, the boonies are safe because the few drivers out there are not in a hurry, but in between it's pure hell.
>>Maybe they just want to live before they die.<<
Precicely! There is nothing like it.
I remember riding into a small town in the middle of summer one day and I suddenly felt eerily like an 1800’s “stranger” riding into a small town in the old west. It was great! I had a snack and took in a kids baseball game.
The open road as absorbed from the seat of a motorcycle is the most “freeing” feeling you can have.
My cousin and her husband were very experienced motorcycle riders. One night they topped the hill and slammed into the back of a semi that had stalled in the road. Instant DOA for both.
Several local people here have lost loved ones due to motorcycle wrecks, and about 14 years ago I had the dubious pleasure of pumping a boy’s chest to keep him alive till the ambulance arrived. He went around me at a high rate of speed and slammed into a car making a legal left turn.
What surprises me is so many of the wrecks, except the one above, were not the fault of the motorcyclist.
Based on what I am seeing there, the ciclist could have been thrown free, but there is NO WAY the driver of the car (or any front seat passenger) survived that.
In addition to all my other problems, I didn’t add the *too-friggin-big-a-bike* problem my list. On the 250 I can go anywhere I want—at a nice travellin speed. Now if we could find a nice storage device that actually fit the Virago 250 without costing a few million bucks....I’d go put my toe in the Gulf soon.
ly:)
Shoot, ruined my mental image of all these fat, balding 50+ers running around crashing into stuff searching for that one blond right out of Vanishing Point.
Cool story! :)
Some of the Del Fuego types can be nice guys. You just can’t tell anybody. LOL.
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