Accidents on motorbike

I just learned that my Best friend has bought himself a road bike. Since finding this out, I have heard all sorts of horror stories about people having nasty bike accidents. It seems that everyone who has been riding for a while has had at least one bad accident. I was talking to a friend on the weekend and she told me her boyfriend's dad lost his leg due to a bike accident.  Others tell me that you should expect to go down once a year if you are an active rider.

I am curious:  Who’s had a nasty accident, or who has been riding for a while and had no mishaps?  

been riding about ten years, been down once the first year. it was a minor fall and only ended up with a few burns and scrapes on my leg and hand. there have been few close calls since then and there is always the possibility of going down again (knock on wood). i just try and be ten times more aware when riding the bike then driving the car. your friend that says you should expect to go down once a year should retake the saftey course or give up riding. that is ridiculous to expect to wreck that much. bikes are definently more dangerous than a car is but a safe and vigilant rider can lower the level of danger drastically. o and i put between 5000 and 10000 miles on my bike a year.  

I have been riding for about 8.5 months. Close calls? Ya plenty. But crashes ? Nope. The thing is I avoided the crashes myself because I was paying attention and reacting accordingly.

Now I'm not saying it will never happen to me. But at least so far it's all been working out.

Watch everywhere, and never get lazy.  

The stats say you will have atleast three crashes big or small during your riding years. This could include falling over in your drive way lol. The odds are no more so than in a car it just hurts more when you do it on a bike.  

I got all my crashing done and out of the way during the dirt bike side of riding (LOL) with street side I have only been down once way back when I was young and invincible...completely stupid story...anyhow, your friend should take an MSF course and always wear the proper protective equipment. If I crashed once a year, I'd quit! Oh, I have been riding 2 wheels for 35 years!  

Once a year????? I think they should stop riding!!! Now accidents do happen but I have been riding actively ('92 Suzuki Katana 750) since 2000. My bike has been down a few times but always from a stopped postion. I dropped it leaving my girlfriends house about 3 weeks ago, I was going about 15-20 mph and got into some wet grass. All my mishaps have always been my fault. When your riding you have to be extremely observant and just assume the car, truck, and suv drivers are going to do something stupid. Watch your back at all times. Motorcycling is only as safe as you make it.  

Been riding over 17 years, been down once.  Like the others i was young and stupid.  About ten years ago riding my CBR900RR me and two others just kept hammering the same stretch of twisty over and over a little bit harder each time.  It was inevitable that eventually we would press the limit too far.  On the 4th or 5th time through i got in too fast, went wide and ended up bouncing down the side of the road with my bike following me end over end.  With a few broken bones and a totaled bike i definitely learned a lesson that day.  

most accidents are low speed, less than 5 miles from home. [ riders switching off]
half the blunders in this world are commited by people in their quest for self importance [same holds true for motorcycles too]
a quest for performance can also get u lying on the gravel [the only way to know ur limit is to exceed it]
hopefully this venture should be reserved for the track.
meticulous attention to the bike and it's parts, tire pressure etc goes a long way to reduce accidents
familiarity with the controls is yet another variable that can be improved on- leads to faith in extreme circumstances.
improving skill and vigilance is paramount.