I saw a real time simulation of a person looking over to their car stereo and changing a station while driving 30 mph in a city. In the split second the car covered enough distance for the kid chasing a ball to pop out from parked cars a couple ahead and get creamed before the driver realized what happened. Distance is good, and never ever count on the other guy to be alert.
Right. 60 MPH is approximately 88 feet per second, so traveling 30 MPH a vehicle will travel approximately 44 feet in one second. At the class, one of the things the instructors said they do constantly while riding is to strategize, mostly to reduce complexity to having to deal with only one emergency. If this, then I do that, etc. The level of awareness required when riding a motorcycle is easily ten times that required by a four stance vehicle. Stupid things like leaves on a road, gravel, tar, metal bridges, potholes, mancovers, crowned roads, etc, things that a car driver doesn't even give a second notice could potentially have a huge impact to the safety of a motorcycle rider.
I hate manhole covers! Those slippery SOB's suck. Also hate roads that are grooved supposedly for water run off. On 2 wheels you really feel movement. There used to an older bridge in St Paul, part of 694/494, just southwest of the downtown airport. I hated that thing. It had the metal mesh that moved the bike around even if you tried to stay in a straight line. Oil on the road can be a nightmare too. I've been stuck at stoplights where a car dripped oil, so ended up with it on a wheel. The last time I looked like some butt head crotch rocket driver as my rear spun when I let out the clutch.
For all you that hate the idea of motorcycles, I add my experiences yesterday. Asswipe in a car on his cellphone wanders into my lane. I hit the horn, but still got all the way to the curb before the jerkoff swerved, yes swerved, back into his lane. Needless to say he saw a finger at his window, and heard a lot of bad words at the stop light. Later in the day I had a guy blow a stop light, mind you I wait 3-5 seconds before I venture into an intersection for this vary reason. He was on the other side of 3 or 4 cars that stopped at the light. I have anti lock brakes and experienced them fully. I applied probably too much front brake as I lifted the rear stopping to avoid being a statistic. Thought anit lock would avoid that, and am going into the dealer to make sure the antilocks are working correctly. The best part of my day was the cop that gave me a ticket flew by me at a yellow light. He wasn't going anywhere as he obviously slowed down after the light. I called the city and gave them the number of the squad and asked why it was ok for him to do this, but issue a ticket to anyone else. I was transfered to the chief. It didn't go well, we had a bit of an arguement.
There is something right about the design of the old: I much prefer it to the new Ninja. Maybe the bike was too heavy.
The best bike is different for different people. The best bike includes: 1. How much you want to pay. 2. How much insurance and maintenance costs you want to pay. 3. Where you want to ride. 4. How you want to ride. 5. Whether you're trying to impress the people who ain't paying your bills. Therefore the Honda Shadow Phantom probably could be considered a good buy for a lot of people. (Not that I have a bias toward a Honda product, hehehe.)