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Revealed: middle-aged men at most risk on two wheels
Men aged between 45 and 64 riding either bicycles or motorcycles are getting seriously injured on Australian roads at significantly higher rates than they were a decade ago. They are also more prone to serious injury than vehicle drivers.
Wow... who'd have thunk!
Get hit when sitting in a car: ding in car.
Get hit when riding a bike: broken bones and torn flesh 
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, a keen cyclist who has been injured in a crash, said the figures showed the need for better infrastructure for riders.
I'd say the figures show the need for better education for all road users but what would I know, eh?
Either way - take care out there... or stick to the dirt of course! 
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I hate these kind of loose quoting of random statistics to appeal to peoples fears. Especially the use of rates per year and implying it somehow relates to risk of cycling per rider, per licensed rider, per active rider? You can't really tell what is happing with risk without knowing about the proportion of various aged riders in the population of active riders - which the article does nothing to convey. I suspect the original report was accurate, and the journo just cherry picked some "juicy bits" to sell papers.
Quoting SydneyCycleways
So apparently, according to another source, the actual risk (injury per active cyclist) has gone down - assuming inner Sydney bike counts are indicative of statewide (which they may or may not be).
So all the article does feed fuel into the fire of shock-jocks and mother in-laws, sighhh....
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.
Well said Kevin.
You've only got to go to any mtb event, look at any bunch ride on the roads or check out most of the weekend (i.e. recreational) bikers out there to know that there is a truck load of middle-aged-to-what-would-have-been-called-elderly-a-few-decades-ago blokes out there on treadlies and motorbikes. Stands to reason on that count alone that there's more of them getting injured.
May also be that as the edge goes off reflexes and eyesight that they may account for more than their share of the injuries a swell, but that would have to be weighed against the natural exuberance and less developed judgement of youth....
Seems quite fair reporting of a social phenomena. How many members of this site had fathers who rode bikes (with or without motors) for any period of time after the Depression? Not many I'd guess.
"They are also more prone to serious injury than vehicle drivers."
feel all informed now!
Your invincible, so nothing to worry about.
My argument is not against absolute numbers increasing - that is true.
I'm being pedantic, but my beef is with the title "Revealed: middle-aged men at most risk on two wheels" - the article does not support it. Taking a quick look at RTA's 2009 safety report at motorcycle fatality statistics, _risk_ was well and truly the other way round. If it was "Revealed: middle-aged men at most risk at risk of taking up cycling", there might be some truth in it. The article is about absolute numbers not risk, so the title is misleading and sets the wrong tone.
e.g. 2009 stats for motorcycle injuries are (from RTA web site)
21-25 yrs: 358 of 18,512 licensed riders (1.93%)
40-49 yrs: 412 of 109,025 licensed riders (0.37%)
So middle-aged men have 5 times less risk of being injured compared to 21-25 year olds - making the big assumption that a similar proportion of license holders actually ride, so even these numbers are hard to use to substantiate actual risk.
My other beef is with the usual "random indirect fact supporting some unrelated conclusion" in the last few paragraphs -> more accidents, therefore we need front number plates. What next, bicycle registration for safety?
O dear, our secret is out. MAMILs are now officially noticed as a segment.
As one of the middle-aged-to-what-would-have-been-called-elderly-a-few-decades-ago fellas (50ish) and proud to be a Middle Aged Man In Lycra (MAMIL) I can only say, we break easy!! We till feel bulletproof but, sadly, we are far from it, a fact that recently led me to purchase a set of knee and elbow pads.
And I am not giving up soon - I got several MTB and road events booked for the year....
I can definitely sympathize - nursing cracked ribs after the bazai lifestyle at Mount Annan last weekend after a pretty soft stack with hardly any damage at all (I thought). Changed my mind pretty quickly after the race when trying to stretch...
Do we forget how to bounce with age?
64.3% of all statistics are made up
Its a pretty irresponsible article. The bigger picture is whether the overall health of any age group is improved by this sort of activity . I believe overall you are less likely to end up in hospital if you take up riding.
The other irritating thing is they don't say anything constructive, like why the over 45's are ending up in hospital. Is it because they are getting high powered motor bikes with little previous experience, or are they all having heart attacks . It would be nice to know so if there are dangerous actions for over 45's we could avoid doing them, or at least take care when we do
and the prob is you start talking to someone at the {insert communal meeting place} and they believe everything they read.
I was in hospital almost a year ago, because I was riding a MB BUT as a consequence I had lost around 10kg, my resting HR was around 50, blood pressure was 120/80 and oxygen levels were over 100.
Some folk asked if I was going to stop doing it (some even said it's either really hard or I was just crap at it!!
) but I said why would I, it's clearly been very good for my health outside the odd incident.
It's all about your limits in the end.
When I went to see the orthopaedic surgeon after dislocating my shoulder in a stack near 19th Hole, the guy intoned in a very serious manner while peering over his glasses "Sell the bike. You're too old for this stuff. This is a very serious injury." This from one who weighed about 130kg and was huffing and puffing about the room like one of the historic steam trains up Flynny's way.
If he'd made the comment again I was all prepared to slap him back with "This from someone who thinks overeating, failing to exercise, and being morbidly obese is risk free?" but fortunately I didn't need to do that. Next time I saw him in his rooms, he'd obviously woken up to his own situation and made impressive changes, and quit being critical of mine after he'd found out more about my (lack of) incident history on the bike.
The moral: people are prone to noticing the specks in others' eyes and missing the log in their own.
I find it frustrating when the papers report stuff one-sidedly like this. While the bureaucrats in the relevant area look at the whole report and get the big picture, the pollies and those in other areas form opinions based on splashy headlines and incomplete facts. These filter their perceptions and misinform their decisions in other areas that affect us.... like Fatty O'Barrell torpedoing the expansion of the trails network in Ku Ring Gai.
This article also quoted the increasing numbers (I think, from memory, something along the lines of +5 percent p.a. for early 2,000’s, then 2006-2009 +10 percent p.a., and more recently higher again)
This article highlighted 2 things:
1. The rates of injuries falls with increased participation numbers. Basically as more people ride and a critical mass emerges drivers become more aware and considerate (Sydneysiders do not fall off your chair) and facilities (cycle ways) improve.
2. It also noted that the general health benefits (ae93gti) were greater than the incurred injuries. i.e. for the whole group there was a positive benefit.
If I can find it I will post a link. But, from a rider’s point of view, it was a well balanced article.
The facilities in my area have definitely improved. I can point out at least 5 places between Allambie and the CBD alone where the local council has spray-painted those bike silhouettes on the road. Shame that they are usually either under parked cars or about 1 foot away from the side of them but, hey, that's progress in Sydney-town!
Did you see the new gov. said that riders should 'use it or lose it' when it comes to cycle infrastructure?
I can't remember who it was, maybe the BOF, but the guy they interviewed said he was sick of seeing the College St cycle lane empty and riders cruising along on the road. Think this was on the news over the weekend but I can't find a quote like that online.
If they removed all that spray paint on the road they wouldn't be able to fudge their 'cycle lane' statistics would they? I'm all for that!
The issue with bike lanes is that they need to have road rights, not pedestrian rights. This is a simple piece of logic, but seemingly not simple enough. Maybe if the people doing the planning spent considerable time doing field work (er research via riding a lot) it might help.
@CharlieB... that is genius! I haven't heard it put in that way before.
The classic example of good intentions planned badly is the Epping Road cycle path. Crosses many driveways and roads and is often littered with distbins on collection day (and broken glass most of the rest of the time as a result). Hardly conducive to safe cycling. Would planners construct a road for other traffic in this way? Of course not!