[markjenn]

Not counting youthful exuberance crashes (I probably had five or six in the first six-months I rode, but I was riding a Honda CB350 in all sorts of weird situations), I've probably gone down in street riding perhaps 3 or 4 times in nearly 40 years of riding. Never seriously injured though - just a broken hand here and a bruised rib there. And never hit a car. I pick and choose where I go fast pretty carefully and I don't ride aggressively in traffic at all - it's strictly survival instincts and keeping a buffer in urban traffic situations - I ride close to the speed limit and get there when I get there.

I can live with crashing every 10-15 years or so and I think it would be tough to ride 15K+ miles every year in any kind of reasonably sporting way and not run this sort of risk. I wear the gear, am a wimp in traffic, avoid riding at night and in bad weather, keep the bike mechanically sound, and try to listen to that little guy on my shoulder who occasionally chimes in with the words "Ah Mark, you're going awfully fast and you're a long ways from medical help - is the risk/reward here really worth it?". So far, so good, but I never kid myself that I couldn't kill or seriously injure myself if the cards break wrong.

- Mark