The perils of riding without the proper protective kit

I've taken this from another site but I think especially with the current weather everyone has seen someone on a sports bike dressed inappropriately, only last week I saw a guy on a gixer thou in a t shirt, shorts and flip flops weaving in and out of traffic like a maniac. Also the young kids on 50cc scooters who either don't realise or don't care about the consequences of even a low speed off and slide.

It a good read and very thought provoking.

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ouch. ive seen a few myself recently, shorts t shirt and no gloves. guy I know always does it and says being hot in leathers is more dangerous than riding in shorts. totally disagree, id rather be hot for a few hours than come off and have no skin for the rest of my life

prime wrote: id rather be hot for a few hours than come off and have no skin for the rest of my life

You only get hot before you set off and when you stop. In the mean time, i find i stay quite cool on the bike so dont see kitting up as a problem and everyone, whether a nifty 50 or full on sports, should kit up

 

I have just shown the link to my daughter to explain why i wont take her on the bike without proper bike gear.

good the face was ok

At Hunstanton whilst filling-up saw a Gixer go past, rider was kitted out his pillion, a girl, was wearing at best a vest top and crop trousers though she was wearing a helmet, good job there are some sensible laws!

I would assume the girl was his girlfriend and as such he should have refused to take her or better still treated her to some decent gear.

Had a minor spill on my mountain bike about 3 weeks ago, wearing a short sleeved top and cycling shorts. No more than 15 mph on an innocent-looking sandy fire trail.

Result - loss of quite a bit of skin on left forearm and below left knee, requiring dressings for a week, another week of taking care not to scrape or knock the sore areas, and probably permanent scarring (I'm not too worried about that, not being a kilt-wearer).

The consequences of a higher-speed spill on a more abrasive surface don't bear thinking about.

Ahh, The obligatory scare stories (not without justification, I do it myself).


I take it we've all seen the low speed scooter accident in Thailand (or some such) where the bloke ran into a lamp post without the benefit of a helmet, and his brain ended up about six feet way from his cranium?
No?
The bloke showing off in California who lost control and ran into a Taco Bell at high speed, ended up very dead but caused a bit of a mystery among the emergency services in their attempts to find his lower leg and foot (which was subsequently found jammed into some HVAC ducts in the ceiling the next day)?
No?
The bloke who pelted into the back of a lorry at night on his R1 at high speed and the lorry driver didn't even notice and dragged his dead body (jammed in the rear roller door by the head) for forty miles?

What about the Aussie bloke who went off the road at high speed and into a field of eucalyptus trees? You must have seen that one.
..it looks like his leathers that the cops have piled at the side of the road, but it's his leathers and his skin, that were flayed off as he went through the trees before the bike (and what was left of him) exploded in a fireball.


Did they make me consider the potential risks I was exposed to?
..A wee bit, aye.
Did I modify my attitude in any way.

Hell, yeah.  


(I should point out that most of that stuff was sent to me by a paramedic in the US who had just taken up biking again at the same time as me, he has a morbid sense of humour  )


p.s. I went a wee belt down the dual carriageway just outside my village wearing helmet, gloves and only a t-shirt the other week after swapping out the plugs (about a mile each way) to make sure the plugs were seated.
I felt like a proper fanny though, since my t-shirt felt like it was flapping around the back of my head at 70mph and had to slow down.

no proud but i did have 3 crashes on the first one i didn have motorcycle trousers just regular one. NEVER AGAIN !!!

All my pre UK riding days comprised wearing inappropriate riding gear. I didn't own leather or textile trousers. The former were only available in the likes of BMW shops (I am talking a good few years ago and in a land far far away). My idea of riding boots were some suede 'hiking' boots. I've done the T-Shirt thing a few too many times but think the shorts went after a couple rides having burnt my legs and <cough>  on a very hot saddle.

Looking at recent pictures of friends with whom I rode a few decades ago and nothing has really changed. Leather jacket with their colours jacket (denim sleeveless full of cloth and metal badges), jeans, takkies (sort of trainers)

Total opposite now, won't go anywhere without the gear on, no matter the weather. I have a textile fully vented jacket for the warmer days, been able to make good use of it this year (just as well seeing I broke the zip on my leathers)

Must admit I was dripping wet with sweat when I got home today from riding the bike home from work (having to stop for road works and petrol) but proper boots, gloves, jacket, helmet and kevlar jeans are the bare minimum I will ever wear (cue the pics from BC5 with me in a tshirt ... but that was a 5mph ride a few hundred meters down the road for shopping)

its scary enough when researching kevlar jeans that the best ones have to be able to stand being held against a rolling road sanding device at 18mph and last for more than 7 seconds ... you multiply that speed by 7 and im guessing you reduce your time by the same  so a 126mph off gives you all of a seconds worth of slide protection ... and how many hundreds of feet did it take the girl to stop?

They should hand that out as a "remember when you leave here" at CBT's.