Edward, I had another thought on the helmet vs no-helmet stats you posted. I'm intrigued by the apparently lower fatality rate in no-helmet states. I think to really get at an understanding of it, we'd need a study that compared injuries/fatalities per mile ridden with a helmet vs without, broken down by various categories like age of the rider, riding experience of the rider (I think it's a safe bet that newbies have more crashes), weather conditions, etc. But I think it's a legitimate question whether helmets help or hinder safe riding.

BTW, I can't believe you ride a two-wheel vehicle in icy conditions. I had a little 200cc Honda in college and I took it out one morning and didn't see the black ice. If you hit ice with four wheels, you go sideways. If you hit ice on two wheels, you go down. How do you avoid that? Seems like physics to me, but maybe you have the balance of an acrobat.