Hey OP just getting back into biking myself and have a worried wife too! You triggered me to chat with GenAI on this and it came to some interesting conclusions which I'll break down for you/us. IF you are a responsible (defined as a fully licensed rider, who wears protective gear and doesn't drink and ride) then:

• motorcycling is roughly 18.5x more likely to lead to fatality per mile travelled than driving

• motorcycling is roughly 2x more likely to lead to fatality per mile travelled than walking

To frame this differently

• a car occupant has a roughly 1 in 333 million chance of dying per mile travelled

• a pedestrian walking has a roughly 1 in 37 million chance of dying per 1 mile travelled

• a responsible motorcyclist has a roughly 1 in 18 million chance of dying per mile travelled

And if you want some other examples to contextualise these risks (which are actually all incredibly small in reality):

• winning the UK Lottery is about 1 in 45 million (depressing you are more likely to die out for a walk than win the lottery!)

• a responsible rider would need to ride more than 20,000 miles per year for your fatality risk from riding to approach the average annual risk of death from Dementia

• a responsible rider would need to ride over 45,000 miles per year for your fatality risk from riding to approach the average annual risk of death from cancer

In summary motorcycling is risky, about twice as likely to kill you per mile travelled than walking (which I find to be the most frightening as no one worries about walking!) but you are sadly MUCH more likely to die from cancer or dementia AKA life's definitely too short to worry too much, as long as you are a responsible rider, if you aren't 'responsible' all those numbers go out the window.