One Brick Short

My fellow members of the Lunatic Fringe, we need to stop killing ourselves.

Yes, my fellow two-wheeling demons, we died in record numbers this year, our totals increasing nearly 80 percent according to DMV folks whose job it is to keep track of those kinds of things and try to find ways to keep it from happening. You see, I just got back from hanging out with 340 or so freaks who teach people to ride motorcycles in Virginia and boy, did we get an earful.

The huge increase in cyclists’ deaths and accidents isn’t all hyper-powered, 175-mph, 156-hp superbikes, either. It isn’t all young, testosterone-dripping squids on the latest flybikes. The deaths go across ages and well into the baby boomers who are going boom by buying big, heavy cruisers that are really too big and not getting training.

There were 51 deaths last year of people on bikes. And more and more of the deaths are not the traditional idiot-in-a-cage talking on a cell phone and pigging out the road turning in front of the innocent cyclists, even though that’s still the primary cause. More wrecks are being caused by rider error, like going too fast in a curve or not negotiating the curve well and running off the road and dying. Others have simply lost control or had too much speed for their reflexes.

That’s leaving the folks at the Virginia Rider Training Program, which oversees the Motorcycle Safety Foundation classes taught across the state, including at Albemarle County High School where I teach, scratching their heads.

More than 20 percent of the riders on the road and, most likely, getting into trouble have no motorcycle license as required by law, the rider trainers noted. A large number of those with cycle licenses have never been trained but trained themselves, like more than 50 percent. Those are both likely factors in the number of deaths.

Trivia fact: There are an estimated 300,000 or so motorcycles registered in the state of Virginia. There are an estimated 62,500 licensed motorcyclists. Sure, some riders have several bikes, but that still leaves a lot of folks riding dirty.

Virginia isn’t alone, either. The same kind of figures, from deaths to unlicensed riders, can be found nationwide, from South Carolina to Colorado and California.

There’s likely going to be some changes in the way we train cyclists and track wrecks in the future so we can find ways to cut down getting cut down. In the meantime, the rubber stays down, the shiny parts are up and be as safe as you can.

Rock on, fellow babies, but watch where you’re rocking.