My thoughts are prompted not so much by tabloid scare stories, as by my own experiences of riding through mid Wales the last few summers.
I have seen lots more biking accidents over the last couple of years. It's entirely possible that the percentage of accidents is falling, but if the number of riders increases then the number of accidents also increases. The residents of mid Wales are sick of bike crashes and injuries. And as mid Wales is my biking playground this is a very bad thing.
Added to this is the fact that I seem to see more and more people on sportsbikes who don't belong on them, wobbling around corners and riding like C***s. (just to clarify, the missing letters there are OCK, not UNT).
In my time I've brought a few sportsbike newbies out on group rides and they have all returned chastened by the experience. I'm sure for most of them it reinforced the fact that they had lots to learn. This can't be a bad thing. It's this sort of inclusive instruction that I had in mind.
GC