[Margaret Pilkington]

Neil, I didn't say that your comment was a knee jerk reaction........I just said that it is wrong to ban things that are perceived to be dangerous.
There has always been an element of danger in everyones life.....the human race evolved in response to danger.
The other thing that I would say is that car drivers sometimes fail to consider bikers....and that while the car driver is protected in his cocoon/coffin, the biker has very little in the way of protection....and you may have seen bikers do crazy things, but car drivers are equally likely to do some of those crazy things too......like tossing a lighted cigarette out of a car window....that finds its way into the jacket of a biker(OK, it was a lot of years ago, but could have had fatal consequences).

I am sure that most bikers appreciate their vulnerability, and to a degree accept it as part of the adrenaline thing.
Men will always take risks........they will get away with some of them, but not all.