Need a Reason to Wear the Gear?

[dragstaar]

A mate and I were trying to convince my other friend that he needs to get some gear and that he can't carry on riding in joggers and a sweater. He wasn't having it, until my mate showed him this video.

Its simple, but effective i think. And apologies if its a repost!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIN8n-ux0Eo&feature=related

[ms51ves3]

*Yawn*

[carl_easykart]

i went to weston beach race and the police had a crashed bike there..

the man was a post man coming back from work only a couple mile journey home he opened the trottle, high sided the bike went straight into the metal railings he lived just about.

on the top half of his body he was fine had leather jacked on

from bottom down he had normal trousers on and trainers. his bottom half was a right mess the police man said. think its riped his foot off.

im new to biking and was good to see that from the start as it makes you think to wear the correct gear ever how short your journey is.

carl

[dragstaar]

I think what puts off a lot of new bikers (myself included) is that gear can be expensive. New riders dont tend to know about the ways you can go about getting cheaper gear. What gear is okay to get second hand, what gear needs to fit perfectly etc etc.

But a few hundred bob spent on gear goes a long way!

[0l0dom0l0]

please tell me thats not actually real?

[Irn-Bru]

[rac3r]

Pretty nasty though
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Bikes : 2006 CBR125R - 2004 Monster 620ie - 2004 ZX-6R B1H - 2005 Monster S2R 800 - 2011 Street Triple - 2009 Streetfighter 1098 - 2014 ZX-6R 636

[0l0dom0l0]

Thanks god for that. I actually felt sick.

[G]

Some pictures of damage from crashing at town speeds with no motorcycling style protection:

https://pelotonjim.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/pain.jpg

https://gearjunkie.com/images/1854.jpg

https://assets.sbnation.com/assets/390051/tour_de_france_road_rash_medium.jpg

[dragstaar]

I've always thought that. Some of these cyclists can ping, and all they're wearing is a thin bit of lycra!

[rac3r]

Baboon butt
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Bikes : 2006 CBR125R - 2004 Monster 620ie - 2004 ZX-6R B1H - 2005 Monster S2R 800 - 2011 Street Triple - 2009 Streetfighter 1098 - 2014 ZX-6R 636

[G]

I've had road rash like that (motor and push bikes) and it's not fun - especially if you're not as fit as the people pictured (or predisposed to shaved legs, which helps apparently). Can get pretty annoying if nothing else.

Of course you can do worse easily - oncoming traffic etc which the racers don't have to deal with.

Armour in motorcycle stuff helps a fairly narrow range of possible injuries; they can only spread force over area and time, not get rid off it. Too much force and you will be breaking stuff anyway; generally you're talking a reduction in bruising to a smaller amount spread out over a bigger area.

[Ariel Badger]

I know a guy that got hit by a car head on, he was riding an Armstrong MT500 with panniers and the combination of BMW and rather solid military spec luggage system chopped straight through his Tibia (shin bone) resulting in both ends of the shattered bone exiting his leg.
This in itself is not a very serious injury, all it needs is plates, bolts, nails, stitches,antibiotics and time to heal (if the recipient of such an injury is not made of the right stuff they may need to take an aspirin or two) however........ He proceeded to travel down the road (sans motorcycle) and the bone ends came into contact with the road and came off the worse. The white line of eroded skeleton was over 25 foot long when the police measured in on the road, when the surgeon measured his leg they calculated he had lost 6.75 inches of bone.
They are trying to grow new bone by having his leg in a frame and stretching the bone daily with spanners, I believe the morpheme helps a little.
IMHO he would have been better having the leg off.
Also IMHO, he should not have been wearing jeans.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[G]

Colleage I used to work with had similar. He was wearing (not bike) jeans and trainers. Someone flashed another car out, which ignored the bike coming the other way.

He lost 2"3/4 of bone I think. Massive amounts of pain trying to regrow it and got addicted to Morphine. Wearing army boots and kevlar jeans as I do isn't guaranteed to have solved all problems, but I bet would have in his case - good observation definitely would have!

In my nasty racing accident I broke my bone in a similar place and the rest of my body was much worse broken up. Different situation, but the leathers and boots kept it all in and I was out of hospital in two days rather than over three months.

[pits]

Safety is a personal choice, but two things that have made me spend epic amounts of cash on the right gear that fits me

1. Seeing a bikers boot halfway down the road from where he crashed, foot and shin still inside, truly horrific accident which I only saw the aftermath of, and it has stuck with me, poor guy didn't stand a chance but it was more his fault than the car, too fast on a crested left hand bend, he didn't make the turn and hit the car coming the opposite way

2. This post on PH

[TUG]

Tbh, sometimes gear is a bit overdone, i wear it don't get me wrong but say, i'f i'm going to the bike shop litterally quarter mile down the road, its a bit of a piss take, seeing as i'll be takin it all off to work on the bike.
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Haz ER-5, innit!

[L4Isoside]

I try to get a minimum of jacket gloves and lid, i want some hood jeans but i think if i can put them on, why not put leathers on. Another idea is to wear them as normal jeans but then id need several pairs.. so rather expensive!

Even on some ride outs ill not wear leather bottoms but will wear the boots... I really should try and wear full gear more often

[P.addy]

Every time i go out, helmet, gloves, textiles with armour and leather jacket. Over this i have the warmest brightest padded jacket aswell...
Its just past experiences that taught me to wear it!

Let him learn by removing half the skin on his leg

[Paxovasa]

[27cows]

I've never worn 'all the gear' myself. I believe in a combination of skill and luck. If you're going to be unlucky, you'll be smashed to bits no matter what you're wearing. If you're going to be lucky, you'll go head first through the window of a van and end up bursting out the back doors, bouncing down the road and being side swiped by another car, but getting up with nothing more than a few minor abrasions (as happened to me in the late 80s).

While you can never know what idiotic madness someone else might get up to, you can acquire enough skill that you don't go sliding down the road and lose it round bends etc.
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The RXS100: vehicle of choice for Chuck Norris

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[pinkyfloyd]

I made a post when I started here on the new biking section about wearing the right gear and for the most part it was laughed at and I was accused of being a safety policeman and a sheep among other things.

The majority decided it was a case of an "each to their own" mentality with a few people agreeing that wearing the proper gear is important and the rest telling me about how they are happy going out in t shirt and trainers etc.

I'm a big believer of wearing the right gear for the job and I cringe when the pedbois hammer up and down the road in their three stripes. Personally I wont ride the bike without at least decent boots on, heavy jeans and either my textile jacket or my leather one, no matter how hot it is outside but as my post seemed to prove. "each to their own"
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[pepperami]

[Vman]

Buying any safety kit is sometimes a hard decision, it often costs a lot, and you buy it hoping that you'll never have use it, however, with bike stuff, it tends to be functional as well.

I've heard the pro's and con's, but to be honest, I'd prefer any little help I can get to avoid an injury. I'll take that option, rather than relying on skill and luck of me and/or other road users.

[pinkyfloyd]

Look at it like condoms..... Its better to have them and not need them than it is to need them and not have them


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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.