Here’s a scenario for you: You meet someone, maybe at a party or are simply introduced by a friend. You sort of dance around with the small talk and eventually get to the point where you say you ride a motorcycle. How many of you hear the reply that they know someone, usually a personal relative, who rides and was in an horrific accident?

Maybe it’s just me, but literally every time I mention motorcycles to any none-biker I meet, I usually get the reply about “my uncle Gerald used to ride one of those ten years ago until he fell under the wheels of an eighteen-wheeler”. That or they don’t know anyone who rides bikes (and at this point I’m not sure which is worse).

Statistically, I can draw one of a few conclusions about this:

1. Everyone is related to the same uncle Gerald – I can only hope this is not the case, otherwise the gene pool really is that shallow. Mind you, I don’t have an uncle Gerald so I can only hope that severely lowers my chances of horrible genetic mutations a la the x-files.

2. They’re making it up – Seriously, I often think this is the case given the number of Chuck Pahlaniuk style injuries I’ve heard. “oh yes, he was decapitated by an unsecured load as he wheelied past a truck, but he got right back on the bike a week later”

3. I meet the wrong people and go the wrong parties – entirely plausible. If you know any better ones, please do let me know and I’ll be right over.

4. We really are that dangerous.

Now, I have no idea which is correct, but I’d love to know. From what I can tell, most people’s accident stories tend to take place in the past. It’s very rare indeed that I have heard anyone say a friend was recently in an accident in the past year or two, so maybe things are getting better for us all. I’d love to get my hands on some accident statistics to see what’s going on here.

But either way, I’d just be grateful if the next person I met didn’t know any bikers. Or better yet, actually was a biker. That would be infinitely preferable.

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