Why Ride a Bike ?

I dont know about you, however I get some criticism from my non-biking friends and work colleges about riding a bike and the risks involved, after all bike traffic consist of 1% of road users, bikes are involved in 19% of all road traffic accidents, and of that 19% ... 60% of those accidents are deemed not to be the fault of the biker. SMIDSy's for example

However 40% of bike accidents are our fault ... We manage to hurt ourselves with alarming regularity and without assistance, and in todays number obsessed society until these figures are altered,  (my guess is the accident rate needs to fall to below 10%) , bikers will be on a hiding to nothing.

This is not helped when individuals fall foul of the law and make headlines .. for example 6 months in prison for doing 122mph with a 14 year old on the back seat, although I suspect that if I did 122mph in my car with my kids in it..  (not that my car would do it) .. I would probably get a lengthy ban, possibly a short prison sentence, but it wouldn't create more than a small paragraph on page 11 of the local paper 

These unpleasant statistics include all riders of any age on any 2 wheeled powered vehicle, for experienced older riders the accident rates are considerably less .. certainly less than horse riding and on a par with bicycles  

The moral is to have fun but don,t get noticed doing it.

When you come to think about it it's not entirely sensible for somebody aged 40+ to be running round on 2 wheels ... which to me is a major plus point. (Too old to Rock and Roll too young to die - YouTube)

After a pint or 2,  I lined up my thoughts below, For and Against. A lot of the "Against" can be negated by spending money .. for example  No phone - then use a Bluetooth Headset enabled helmet. (But why bother, one of the joys is not being able to answer the phone).

Everybody will have their own answers .. but here's mine.

 Now ....... Whats yours ?