I think it's reductionist. It's all about your capacity for risk. Someone willing to ride a motorcycle in traffic has a higher capacity for risk than someone who insists on going everywhere by SUV. At the same time, that person willing to ride in traffic isn't necessarily going to do it with the front wheel up while standing on the seat. There are those of us who fully understand that we're undertaking many variables beyond our control when we get on two wheels and by and large, we try to minimize that risk, late night annihilations of Scuderias notwithstanding. Then there are those like the guy who passed me and my wife white-lining the 5 on his Katana, whom we saw a mile later shaking on his seat, mirrors akimbo from getting squished between a semi and a van, whom we saw 15 minutes after that doing the exact same goddamn thing.

I know people who have been in multiple wrecks. They ride like shit. I know people who have never been in one. They wear more gear than I do.

It's about accepting a level of risk and staying there.

The primary reason for motorcycle theft is to carve them up into bits to sell spare parts, or to cart them off across the ocean to sell in foreign markets. In the former case, you want a thriving aftermarket. In the latter case, you want a vehicle that will fade into the background and won't be searched out.

Benelli's entire run of TreKs from 2007-2010 was less than 130 VINs. Francesca is one of 7 TreKs in the United States; one of 9 in North America. There's a guy named Joe in Pennsylvania who, as the dealer liason, has the VIN of every Benelli in North America in a manila folder, not in some giant database. It's not an optimal target for motorcycle theft.

That said, it lives underground most of the time, and when I park it on the street around here, it's 50 yards from a 2014 Ducati 916 and two Repsol Honda CBRs. And countless BMWs, Audis, Mercs, etc.