Motorcycle Insurance Risk and Reward
I've just returned from a fact finding trip to Europe, where I spent most of my time in the UK, where motorcycles are hugely popular and sportbikes are seen everywhere, at all times of the week - not just joy rides at weekends.
Also I visited Rome in Italy, where it seems half of the population gets around using scooters.
In times past, scooters used to mean two stroke Vespa and Lambretta's which were normally 125cc or so.
Now scooters stretch from nippy 50's to powerful, futuristic 650 Yamaha and Suzuki models looking more like space ships that motorcycles!
The point of this post though, is the fact that in this warm European capital, everyone wears mandatory helmets of one kind or another, but that's it, in terms of protection. You see girls and ladies in summer dresses and men in T shirts and shorts. Traffic is dense, and usually very busy, and most often well mannered.
There is obviously not a great perception of danger and the risk of injury, otherwise people would wear protective jackets and pants.
This would be more time consuming to put on, and also hot and uncomfortable - so fewer people would use two wheeled transport.
So did we see accidents? Yes in four days we saw a couple, which did not look too serious, but obviously they could be. But in that time we probably saw 50,000 scooters while we were walking admiring the sights.
Among the motorcycling community in the US there is a strong conservative group who advocate full protection all the time, for all riding.
It's difficult to say they are wrong.
But for most of us, it's a case of weighing the risk and reward - the ease, comfort and convenience of a low speed city trip, with the bare minimum of protection in case of a mishap; against the inconvenience of getting suited up for a local 'low-risk' journey.
You choose!
Also I visited Rome in Italy, where it seems half of the population gets around using scooters.
In times past, scooters used to mean two stroke Vespa and Lambretta's which were normally 125cc or so.
Now scooters stretch from nippy 50's to powerful, futuristic 650 Yamaha and Suzuki models looking more like space ships that motorcycles!
The point of this post though, is the fact that in this warm European capital, everyone wears mandatory helmets of one kind or another, but that's it, in terms of protection. You see girls and ladies in summer dresses and men in T shirts and shorts. Traffic is dense, and usually very busy, and most often well mannered.
There is obviously not a great perception of danger and the risk of injury, otherwise people would wear protective jackets and pants.
This would be more time consuming to put on, and also hot and uncomfortable - so fewer people would use two wheeled transport.
So did we see accidents? Yes in four days we saw a couple, which did not look too serious, but obviously they could be. But in that time we probably saw 50,000 scooters while we were walking admiring the sights.
Among the motorcycling community in the US there is a strong conservative group who advocate full protection all the time, for all riding.
It's difficult to say they are wrong.
But for most of us, it's a case of weighing the risk and reward - the ease, comfort and convenience of a low speed city trip, with the bare minimum of protection in case of a mishap; against the inconvenience of getting suited up for a local 'low-risk' journey.
You choose!
posted by Motorcycle Matters | 12:09 PM
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