Before joining the group, or even deciding to pursue motorcycle riding at all, I spent a LOT of time reading crash reports, studying the statistics, and trying to determine if riding was going to be a death wish. I finally found that while you are 37 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than in a car, a lot of the risk can be mitigated by wearing proper gear, not riding drunk, and not riding outside of your skill level.
The one thing I found most interesting was that sport bikes are not the most popular bike model on the road, but they account for a huge percentage of the total crashes (some say sport bikes account for 90% of the crashes). Why?
Because this. ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WPzx5cf_ps (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WPzx5cf_ps)