"Phil W Lee" wrote in message news
Blackblade considered Fri, 27 Jun 2014
06:47:09 -0700 (PDT) the perfect time to write:
[...]

Ed, you're either uneducated as regards statistics or, if you
aren't, then you are fundamentally dishonest. If there are 3.5 million
rides per day then even a risk of 0.01% would result in 3,500 serious
injuries. All you can produce is a tiny handful ... so we can safely
conclude, as have all the medical bodies, that mountainbiking is relatively
safe.

Edward Dolan wrote:

Your statistics don't interest me since we do not know what is
being measured. A few stories explain the situation better than any of your
meaningless numbers (data).

The statistics don't interest you because they disprove what you would like to state as fact. As a result, you'd prefer to highlight a tiny handful of reported incidents and pretend that they are somehow indicative of a wider malaise. We are measuring, and you are reporting, injuries and fatalities ... as such, whilst the precise metrics (fatalities per million miles, serious injuries per thousand exposures etc) may vary they allow us to, quite sensibly, compare different activities. And, on doing so, mountainbiking comes up as relatively safe; safer than driving, skiing, rugby, american football etc etc. In this case, it's not the statistics that are trying to lie ... it's you !

If anything, the statistics have a tendency to overstate the danger of
simple trail riding, as it generally gets lumped together as "MTB"
along with competitive downhill racing and similar extreme sport
cycling.

It's a bit like trying to judge hiking based on statistics which
include mountaineering and fell running.

Running on trails is strictly for the insane. Climbing is only slight less insane. But bike riding on trails, at least here in the US, is a sport more than it is anything else. Blackblade approves of extreme sports which is why is I consider him such an idiot. But even so, I do not want any bikes on hiking trails since it is conflict of both means and purpose. Deaths of course in any sport are somewhat rare, but serious accidents are not rare at all. Bike riding on trails is rife with serious accidents.

Mountain bikers are barbarians and have no right to be on any trail used by hikers – unless they want to get off their god damn ****ing bikes and walk like everyone else. When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to mountain biking!

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
~ Christina Rossetti (Psalm 24),
from "A Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets"

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great