how many casual riders are out on the road than put 10,000 mile on their bike in even 5 years?
how many bikes do you see for sale that are almost 10 years old and have only 12,000 miles on it.

if you have a 5 year learning curve for basic road riding (track performance riding is a whole nother animal) then you are a slow learner, its good that you know this about yourself but don't asume that it takes everyone that long to learn how to ride sensibly and safely.

 

simple rule of thumb - don't take bends "at speed" with a passenger. passenger = casual riding time, not a time to push the bike through its pases.

but maybe thats just me