What are your thoughts on gear?

[PT1989]

So I'm on a quiet night shift, and bored, and just curious, what do you guys think about wearing your gear?
Main things I'm wondering are;

Do you agree helmets should be mandatory?
Would you wear one if they weren't?
Should any other gear be mandatory?
Do you always wear full gear on every ride?

My views are, I don't think any gear should be mandatory, you're an adult, if you want to take the risk that should be your choice, personally I would always wear helmet & gloves. Any journey less than about 5 miles and I often don't bother with any other kit though, within reason, I'm still not jumping on the bike in tshirt and flip flops, and if it's pissing it down/freezing cold then I'll still put the textiles on, for comfort more than protection though. Anything further than 5 miles and I've got full kit, minus boots at the minute, as I forgot to chuck them in the top box when parked, and somebody obviously had sticky fingers (feet?) and haven't got round to replacing them yet.

[CaNsA]

https://i.imgur.com/8rtwsFu.jpg

[PT1989]

At least I didn't ask if I should warm my bike up?

[Chuffin Nora]

If it's made out of hemp I'll wear it.

[Ste]

No
Most of the time
No
No

[deadwolf]

For me helmets are part and parcel of riding a motorcycle. Even if they weren't mandatory I'd wear one. Frankly, they look far cooler than most people's faces (especially at high speeds/wind). Without a helmet you just look like a plonker on a bike

Helmets are possibly the only thing that lets me tolerate riding in the rain. The rest of me can get soaked to f00k as long as my most sensitive part gets to roll along nice and dry. Same reason why I find bicycling in the rain to be total misery.
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Motorsapien Art

[P.addy]

[Teflon-Mike]

[daemonoid]

[dydey90]

I was having a similar thought this morning, when I decided it was too early to be fucking about with my kevlar jeans and boots.

At work we get taught that PPE (personal protective equipment, hard hat, steelies etc) is the last line of defence. Avoiding or preventing a hazard is much more effective.

For example, you drop a set of 36" stilsons:
"I don't need to move my foot, I'm wearing steelies"
"I'll move my foot out of the way, just in case"
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[PT1989]

Tef, although I agree with a lot of what you said, I can't help but notice that you seem quite set on the options being "ride safely" OR "wear gear". It is possible, and I think fairly common, to do both.

Also, I cannot ignore the fact you misspelled "dumb" twice, with 2 different varieties of the spelling... I'm not sure what to say about it.. But I can't ignore it. Surely whatever Internet enabled device you're using has a spellchecker built in?

[pinkyfloyd]

[BigShow]

I don't think any gear should be mandatory, although i'd probably still wear a helmet if it wasn't.

I've got decent motorcycle boots, two decent pairs of motorcycle gloves (summer/winter) and thats it. The rest of my gear is just jeans and a jacket or hoodie. Then i've got the obligatory waterproofs stashed in my top box.

I know it will hurt if i fall off, so i just do my best not to. If i do, oh well. It's an accident, there's a million accidents that might befall me today, crashing my bike is probably the least of my worries.

[Dave70]

All gear all of the time, whether it be textiles or leathers.

I've had the pleasure of picking and scrubbing stones and dirt out of folks skin when I worked in A&E, to know that I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

[bugeye_bob]

I didnt think we wore the gear for our protection,
I assumed it was to keep all our body parts in one area for who ever clears up after the accident.

[sabian92]

Always wear full gear.

Unless I'm going round my brother's house in which case it's a hoodie and shorts and a helmet He lives literally round the corner so fuck spending an hour getting dressed. Other than that though, I wear it all the time.

I'd wear a helmet anyway, I think. It's nice to have the wind in your hair but I'd rather have my head not smeared down the road.

When I wash my bike I hoon up and down the road to dry it off though, and the last time I did that I had an old t-shirt on, pyjama shorts and no shoes on Many kittens were slaughtered

[wr6133]

Nothing should be mandatory. If I want to ride with no lid and in flip flops and a mankini that's my choice.

Laws should only stop me harming others or directly impinging on their pursuit of happiness, doing something stupid that may kill me like not wearing a lid should be my choice.

Those that think lids should be mandatory are sheep brainwashed by the Nanny state.

[Dave70]

[hazza]

Think this topic has been done to death, but I'm not sure where I stand on it oddly enough...

It's all very much dependant upon where you are going and what you are doing. I wear leather trousers, leather jacket, helmet, gloves and proper boots every day, what ever the weather to go work in. I'm in a rush to get there, I filter, It's through town and you HAVE to be fairly aggressive so as not to get shit on by car drivers. It's not just a safety thing, but also a comfort thing. If it piddles down on the way to/way back from work I know I'm going to be in a reasonable state when I get to my destination. It's also nice to take the outer layer of clothes off and look presentable and not covered in dead bugs/bird shit as I work in an office.

I have a 70's Pedal start Puch and don't feel the need to wear my full leathers with that. 1. I would look like a tard and 2. I use it for a bit of fun and i'm not in any rush to get to where i'm going. It has a top speed of about 30mph, which is plenty fast enough for some nasty gravel rash but I regularly exceed 30 mph on my bicycle wearing a few mm of lycra as protection. I normally wear gloves on the Puch, but not always.

I can't understand why anyone would not want to wear a helmet though, it's just not worth the risk. Your head is pretty vulnerable, and for the effort it takes to put one on I don't know why you wouldn't bother. It's like not wearing a seatbelt, just why? It's an automatic response to getting into a car, takes less than a second and is quite useful if you do happen to crash.

Not wearing a helmet is all very well in America where they pay for their own healthcare, but our poor NHS is already on it's arse without inconsiderate folk expecting their heads to be screwed back together and years of rehab for free, just because they couldn't be arsed to put a lid on.

Being a riding God doesn't justify not wearing any gear unless you remove the 30 million other motorists from the road.
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3 Honda NC50's(Sold)-->'72 Puch Maxi S (Sold, want it back!)--> '90 Yamaha RXS 100 (Stolen)--> '87 Honda Cub 90(Sold) --> '95 Kawasaki Eliminator (Sold) --> '98 Bandit 600 (Sold) -->'07 SV650S (Current)

[Rogerborg]

No, yes, no, yes.

I assume Tef did ladders and risk compensation again. I do accept that there's an argument for open face helmets as they offer better visibility and provide a more tangible awareness of speed.

Everything else though, pffft, I've never caught myself thinking "I'm wearing armour and hi-vis, so I'll assume Mavis Micra there isn't going to pull out." Yes, I do analyse my riding.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[sabian92]

[Dave70]

I agree. I've scrubbed and picked many a stone out of cyclists too.

[Conzar]

If i go out and decide right I'm going to kill some kittens then i generally gear up, anything else just helmet and gloves.
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Current ride: ZX6R 636 ------- Previous:KTM EXC 450 Supermoto --- ZX6R B1H --Hornet 600--CBR 600--SV650
11:05:35 Rob Fzs: i just wanna own an rd350 valve before they send us to war with durkadurkastan

[Musketeer]

Laws are to protect us from the stupid.. and to protect the stupid from themselves.

The helmet is an absolute minimum to help your survival chances.
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Current Bike: Yamaha XSR900 Previous bikes: Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, Aprilia RS125 2-stroke

[Atomic Punk]