[alanmcorcoran]

David,

I was surprised to see that you didn't have "Proficient Motorcycling" in your list of references. If you have chance (and $25) I highly recommend you pick up this book from Amazon or the local bookstore. The 2008 edition is not only jam packed with really useful MC riding info, it's, well, a beautiful book! Great photos, diagrams, paper. It's really very well put together.

David Hough opens the book with a description of a pretty horrific accident and then dives right into the same statistics that you cited above (and pretty much comes to the same conclusions.) He digs a little deeper than the stats and goes a little beyond some of their conclusions (such as noting that many non-fatal single MC accidents go non reported, big bike vs non big bike, and (dare I say it) some criticism of recent changes to the MSF (he is a former MSF instructor.)

Anyway, I buy (and read) a lot of books, and many, especially when they come to things like skiing, swimming and racquetball (and the like), are poorly written, poorly organized and difficult to get anything other than the obvious from. Not true with "Proficient." It's extremely well written (even humorous and interesting!) yet, it is chock full of very simple, easy to use info on every page, with detailed illustrations, photos, etc. Highly recommended.

(I just reread the section on cornering, throttle control, etc. and it is spot on.)