I'm in the motorcycle biz, so I enter the word "Motorcycle" in a search engine two or three times a week and go to "News" and I see that awful count of deaths and injury news stories. I see all the "cager did it" ones and agree they are about half and I see the single-vehicle, often unexplained, rider lost control ones.
The reason I want research is to find out about those accidents and their causes.
From 44 years of riding experience I know there a a few causes we don't discuss;
TIRE FAILURES, i firmly believe that there are 100s of single bike crashes caused by rapid loss of air pressure. Lack of post accident investigation is why we will never know
EQUIPMENT FAILURE, Especially Owner-modified bikes; because most states have no safety inspections of bikes that are at all meaningful I think there are lots of dumb mistakes made that lead to accidents. Like speed wobbles from poor alinement, frame and swing arm failures from welds and bolt-up dubiously engineered contraptions and floor boards so big and low they lift the rear-wheel off the ground and cause accidents. I actually SAW that kind of crash from less that 30 yards ahead when a big cruiser went down on a curve in front of me. I saw the rear tire and air under it. Scary for sure.
SUICIDES, I know for positive of 3 single bike deaths [over 40 year span] that were suicides but not listed as such on the death certificates. I have seen a couple of news stories from Kentucky and California of soldiers running sport bikes into objects a high speeds with no apparent cause. Suicide by vehicle is uncounted for the most part but I know is a very real occurrence. It is not a safety issue but it adds to our death stats. and accident numbers. They need to be counted for what they are.
Plenty of riders loose their lives over being under the influence of various intoxicants and from poor skills and riding beyond ability and all that's a hugh problem. But we know about that, what about the unknown causes?
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