Honestly it should not even matter if your wife want to ride with you. You should ride because you want to. Mine doesn't and probally never will. I could give a ***** less. Don't Do it for all the wrong reasons. Because thats when you get hurt or have a 20k paper weight sitting in your garage.

 

Take an MSF course, see where you stand after that.

 

...... i think if you're gonna try & convince her w/statistics, that's gonna be a losing argument

 

If you manage the risk and operate the bike in a professional manner the odds are in your favor of never having an unfortunate incident.
If your wife feels your operating the machine confidently she will feel safe.
I rode for year solo to gain experience before I ever put my wife on the back.
We've been riding together for 10 years now and 98% of the time that bike moves she is on it with me.
Our new 2019 RGU is the ultimate two up bike bar none and we put over 1000 miles on it the first two weekends of ownership.

 

More people die in bed than on motorcycles. Take a beginners riding course and go for it.

 

the decision is up to you. yes it is dangerous as are many hobbies, but if one cannot do something they enjoy, what the hell is the use in living anyway.
I learned on dirt bike at around 9 years old, 61 now and will ride until unable to do any more or room temp which ever comes first.

 

A riding course for motorcycles or a course for riding in bed?

 

I rode dirt bikes until I was around 35. I bought an old 2002 Road King Classic at 63 years old. So I had about 28 years gap in riding. I put 4000 miles on the RKC before I let my wife ride with me. Then we started making short trips. After a many trips, we upgraded to a 2019 Ultra Classic. More for comfort.
One thing about nervous wives is you need to have your stuff together and not screw up with her on the back especially in the first few trips. Put some miles on good less traveled roads and let her get confidence in you as a MC rider. I put about 4000 miles on my new bike before I let my wife ride with me on it.
We took a 100 mile ride a couple days ago and we both enjoyed the ride.

As mentioned several times, take a motorcycle safety course. I did. I plan to take an advanced course within the next couple months.

 

Just living means that you will eventually die.

Any activities, i.e. work, sports, riding in a car, on horseback, in a boat, in an airplane, etc., etc., etc., has a certain amount of risk to bodily injury or death. However, if you choose to do so you can certainly minimize the risk factors with education, training, practice, protective gear and being aware of your surroundings and the actions of others.

I'm starting my 50th year of riding and so far (knocking on wood) I haven't suffered a serious accident or injury while riding a motorcycle.
I've came much closer to suffering serious injuries in 4 wheeled vehicle accidents that I have on two!

I would highly recommend that any new (or returning ) rider should take a motorcycle safety riding course.
Wearing protective gear i.e. helmet, impact resistant safety glasses or sunglasses, leather gloves and jacket and substantial leather boots.
In warmer climates a textile "mesh" jacket with armor (actually plastic inserts) is much lighter and cooler than a light leather and does offer some protection if you should dump your bike.

Other simple, common sense things that everyone can do in attempting to reduce motorcycle accidents or personal injury are minimizing riding between dusk and dawn (deer like these travel times too), rain and fog, traffic rush hours and especially in urban traffic .

At the start of every season I promise myself that I will NOT ride in heavy rainfall but it seems like that I always finding myself doing just that! A light sprinkle is one thing and wet roads present more hazards but a heavy downpour, with a lot of water on the road can be extremely dangerous and all of us need to break the unsafe habit of trying to "ride through" a storm..

 

Got back into riding at the age of 45 I'm now 71 so far touch wood haven't had an accident, couple of near misses but that's it. I'm in the UK, and try as much as possible to stay away from our crowded normal roads, to much stopping and starting at traffic lights, roundabouts etc and side roads all of which are places where accidents happen. I tend to ride on what we call motorways or duel carrage ways, generally a lot safer as far as I'm concerned.
Dont know about America, but here very few Harley's get involved in accidents, most involve sports bikes ridden to fast, or kids on scooters.