Gimme five: NHTSA stats indicate that motorcycle fatalities have been climbing since 1998. Could it be that we've forgotten how to ride?(Stayin' Safe)

Publication: Rider

Publication Date: 01-MAY-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Ehlert Publishing Group

This week I won a major battle in the war against winter. It snowed 25 days in the last month, but on Sunday I did something I hadn't done in 10 years--race around a frozen pond on a big thumper with 200 spikes in each tire. I figure each of the four hours I spent churning ice bought a week of mental health.

Now I know that doesn't seem an appropriate opening for a May column, but fret not--this isn't a primer on winter riding. Hack writers just like to use winter as a metaphor for loneliness, despair and even death--which, coincidentally, are the three stages of motorcycle deprivation.

As I write this, I've not ridden a motorcycle beyond my little neighborhood in two and a half months. Never before, not in the coldest winter, have I gone so long without a real ride, and that makes me wonder-maybe it's not just winter. Maybe it's me.

I know it's my friends. Within my inner circle, few still commute to work regularly on their bikes, and only one does so faithfully all winter long. They all have electric vests and cold-weather riding suits. Most have...

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