They're dangerous!

[knight2]

That's a decision I would leave for a couple of months. You have shown that you are capable of taking avioding action safely so take a bit of time to weigh up the pros and cons and do a bit of riding to see if you can do it at ease.

[Ministerofsillywalks]

That's a decision I would leave for a couple of months. You have shown that you are capable of taking avoiding action safely so take a bit of time to weigh up the pros and cons and do a bit of riding to see if you can do it at ease.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Why give up on 60 years of riding with hopefully many more because of an incident you handled safely? If everyone gave up riding (and driving) because there are a few idiots on the road the roads would be empty. You have made it so far because you are obviously a good rider and will continue to be.
The other point is drivers, on a subconscious level, know that if anything goes wrong they have their air bags and crumple zones to protect them. Which is why so many of them drive like idiots. We do don't have any of that, so we make up for it in observation, anticipation and defensive riding. It is what has kept you and so many others alive for so long. Bikes are indeed dangerous if they are ridden like cars are driven. As a previous post said, the riding skills of a good rider are way ahead of the driving skills of the average driver. They have to be.

[Eskam]

I spent 20 years as a driver and rider in UK Law Enforcement. Bikes and cars were unmarked, no blues or two either (they have covert blues now).

I rode probably 5,000 miles a year operationally, on city roads, A-Roads and motorways, sometimes at illegally high speeds, but mostly just at the speed of the traffic flow. No wearing hi-viz, and no lights on when riding operationally either

I never had an off or what I call a close call in those miles. Just a case of self preservation mixed in with frequent and ongoing rider training by the best riders I ever met.

[Ministerofsillywalks]

Exactly. If bikes were as dangerous as some people think you would have been killed 10 times over by now. Skilled riders survive, unskilled or reckless riders do not. There is an old saying: There are plenty of old riders, there are plenty of bold riders. But there are very few old bold riders.