Motorcycle?

Lately two friends at work have been talking about motorcycles during lunch. It is interesting to hear various stories, because they always center around speed. As in, XYZ motorcycle can do a quarter-mile in 8 seconds! Or maybe that is accelerate from 0 to 60 in 8 seconds, I'm not really sure.

One friend has a motorcycle and enjoys riding it, except it isn't working for some reason. The other friend doesn't own a motorcycle, but is considering getting one for a complicated vehicle swap: trade in his car for a cheaper car and a motorcycle. The impetus behind this is cost of insurance - adding his teenage daughter to the family vehicle insurance will nearly double the annual insurance cost (his car is a sporty Honda S2000 and his insurance company will automatically associate his daughter with the sports car and not the family minivan). A different car would lower the insurance substantially.

Anyway, while they talk about land speed records, my mind wanders to a different class of bike... the good old bicycle. On their bikes, accelerating from 70 mph to 130 mph is possible due to engine power; on my bikes, 24 mph is blazing fast. Their bikes are $15,000 to $25,000 or more for a high end bike; mine are $3000 to $4000 or more.

They always tease about letting me ride with them, but I'm not at all interested. The thing is, I don't really want to ride a motorcycle. One reason is just fear: I've had some flying rocks put nicks into my car windshield. What would the same rock do to a person on a motorcycle? Sure, you can wear a helmet and all that stuff, but hitting a rock at 60 mph is going to sting at best and really cause an injury at worst. The second reason is also fear: I always wear my seatbelt while driving, just in case I'm in an accident. What if I were on a motorcycle when I had that accident, the one I wear my seatbelt for when I'm driving a car?

Well, as you can probably tell, maybe I'm just not cut out for riding a motorcycle!