Interesting perspective on MC crashes.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

"Blame" has the same polarizing qualities as "Fault".

Most of the preachers of the "Crashes are avoidable" gospel allow for a small percentage of unavoidable crash situations. Perhaps yours would have fallen into that percentage. Of course, you didn't crash and we don't have all the details to analyze the situation fully.

Those preachers are not blaming you, though. And until a rider gets past the "fault" and "blame" game, they may have a block on how to work toward an avoidance strategy.

I know many motorcyclists as well as road cyclists who spend a lot of time discussing what they will do and how they will respond if anyone hits them or runs them off the road, etcetera. I know very few of these folks who actually take the responsibility upon themselves to do everything possible to avoid an accident, such as riding uber-defensively, being visible, realizing that others often don't see you or anticipate your actions, and last but not least, training, training, training.

The culture, for example, with road cyclists is to reject any lighting on the bike at all. More riders now than ever are using lights but there is still a stigma associated with them, like having a bell or basket. Pretty stupid, since the new LED lights are super-bright and hardly add any weight to the bicycle at all.

Speaking of crashes, I don't know a single motorcyclist who was involved in an accident who was not completely at fault, including my own three crashes. The rider was completely at fault, I'll say it again. No other vehicles around, no other riders involved. The list is too long, many of the riders are deceased. Single-bike accidents, guys and gals just overcooking it somehow. I am talking 34 years of riding here, not one incident where another vehicle or condition was to blame. So that CHP statement is very consistent with my personal experience.

Learn to use those brakes, they are much harder to master than opening the throttle.

I attended a presentation from the CHP several years ago and their underlying message was that all motorcycle accidents are avoidable and are always the fault of the motorcyclist, even when another vehicle violates their right of way. I agree. It's a matter of understanding the risks, even those you can't control, and taking measures to manage or avoid them.

+1, as I explained above. 34 years riding, over 500,000 miles, plus road racing and lots and lots of track days, this has been exactly my experience. I crashed thrice myself, and each time it was my own dork move.

Actually this assessment should be good news to us as riders, because it means we have much more control over what happens to us than we might have thought. That's how it's worked out for me, at any rate.