Read about it here, and draw your own conclusions: ~http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/SeniorStats/4-09-02Bikes.htm~ And now, some reader input: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: In the spirit of B.J. Worsham, I suggest banning big-inch cruisers and alcohol. Jim Douglas, PE, PMP AFM #143-W The Sea Gull Inn B&B Mendocino, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I have long thought that eventually, data from motorcycle accidents would start to show a trend from the custom bar bike phenomenon. In my area there are a few bars around that either focus on bikers or have bike nights. The patrons are overwhelmingly on custom big-motor v-twin cruisers – upper middle class guys in their 40s and up with wives and/or girlfriends out for a full night of drinking and then riding home. I’ve seen these people as they pull into the parking lots early in the evening before they’ve even had a chance to drink, and many of them have a hard time handling their bikes sober. And guess how many of them are wearing helmets? Damned few, and those that are are mostly wearing non-DOT costume helmets. It’s a miracle that so many of them are still alive. Still, more often than I like to think about, I read in the Monday paper about someone falling off a motorcycle at drunk-thirty in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and it’s almost always a guy on a cruiser, often with a female passenger, who has “failed to negotiate a turn.” Translation: Too drunk to ride. I do hear about the occasional young guy on a sportbike eating it because of terminal stupidity (landing wheelies badly on Dallas freeways at night while in the middle of a swarm of other sportbikes, and getting run over, seems to be popular). But more often it’s the older guys on cruisers. Thanks for publishing the link to the study. I’ll bet my local paper doesn’t even know about it. I think I’ll give ’em a call. Keep up the good work. Tom Shields Fort Worth, Texas