No need for safety gear...

[pantablo]

Riding without boots and crashing might cost you some road rash or foot mash
or even in an extreme case might lead to amputation. You might never walk
without a limp. You might battle a weight and fitness problem for the rest of your
life. You might never walk with pain. But it probably wouldn't kill you.

Riding without gloves and crashing might cost you some road rash or a
Munched hand or the severe, excrutiating pain of mangling a body part rich with
nerve endings. Or you could lose a finger or two. It could cost you the
ability to play ball with your son, to properly feel the gentle curve of a
womans breast, or to hold a beer. But it probably wouldn't kill you.

Riding without at least an armored jacket and leather trousers or full
leathers or an Aerostich or even just a leather jacket and jeans and
crashing might cost you serious road rash. You might grind off a nipple.
You might embed gravel in your elbow. You might get beef jerky all over
your back. You might grind off your kneecap or have a scar resembling
Australia on you calf like a friend of mine does. You would be scarred for
life and not be able to walk on a beach shirtless without feeling self
conscious. You might end up like Kevin Spacey's character in "Pay It
Forward" and have to deal with the same awkward moment every time you remove
your clothes with a new lover. But it probably won't kill you.

Riding without a back protector and crashing in all but rare crashes would
be inconsequential. However, there are so many variables out there- curbs,
fenders, poles, guardrails, debris in the road- any one of these could be
the golden BB that nicks your spinal cord in just the wrong way and leaves
you in a wheelchair for life. Or, maybe you just have constant sciatic pain
in one leg. Or you can't move your legs. Or you have to wear diapers for
when you @#%$ yourself, and/or a colostomy bag you have to pull out of your
pants leg and squeeze your waste out into the toilet at a bar like a guy I
know. Or you can't move from the chest down. Or from the neck down. Are
you good at working joysticks with your mouth? Or maybe you might need a
respirator? Or 24 hour care? Certainly, there are impacts that are
completely forseeable that would permanently injure you even with the best
back protector in the world. But there are crashes and subsequent impacts
that even mediocre back protectors can make that little bit of difference
in- the ones you get up and walk away from, sore all over, but *walking*.
Do you want the last time you walked to be when you walked out of 7-11 with
a pack of smokes and then got on your bike? Those precious few steps out
the door and over to the bike to be the five steps you remember the rest of
your life because the next time you were off the bike you were lying
strapped to a backboard staring at the headliner of an ambulance, tears
running down your face because you couldn't feel the little piggies and you
were almost ready to vomit at the stench of your @#%$ because you lost
control of your bowels? Riding without a back protector and crashing might
not make a difference, or it might make all the difference in the world. It
might not kill you, but it might make you wish it had.

And, finally, helmets. Riding without a helmet and crashing might be of no
consequence. You might never even touch terra firma with your head. Or you
might give yourself an asphalt facelift. You might get a concussion that
results in only a bad headache the next day. You might get a serious
concussion that lands you in the hospital for endless CAT scans and MRIs,
and for the rest of your days be plagued by migraines. You might fracture
your orbital and lose your vision. You might fracture your skull and end up
fully functional but with a horrible Frankenstein like scar and a metal
plate that bothers you on cold days and sets of metal detectors in airports.
You might have a closed head injury from which you don't awaken from for
hours or days or weeks or months- all the while your mother, father,
sister, brother, children, workmates, and/or riding buddies come a visit
you, filling an utterly depressing hospital room into a gauche jungle of
flowers and bright card saying "get well soon!" that you never see or smell.
Sure, you might awaken completely normal besides the hole drilled in your
head to reduce pressure. Or you might awaken a little fuzzy, unsure who
these people are. Or you might awaken and have to re-learn everything it
took you all your life to learn, eventually returning to normal or even
better like Harrison Ford in "Regarding Henry". Or you might awaken a
man-child, drooling and laughing as you try to stack blocks, wearing
sweatpants and a t-shirt signed by your mother, father, sister, brother,
children, workmates, and/or riding buddies- which you will never read. Or
you might have an open head injury, from which the "you" you know will most
likely never return. The rest of your life -be it a day, a week, a month, a
year- will consist of feeding tubes, the endless beep and whoosh of the
heart monitor and respirator, and the drip-drip or IV fluids, catheters in
your rod, and feeding tubes. Of course, you won't mind all of this, you'll
be in a dream land no one knows about. Your body will waste away and
atrophy. Eventually, the shell that used to be you would give out, and your
loved ones would have to make the most grueling decision of their life. Or,
you might die on the road, fluffy gray brain matter mixing with blood and
cerebro-spinal fluid. Perhaps you last ride would be twenty miles an hour
down the street by your house combined with an impatient young driver and an
ignored stop sign. Or perhaps it would be a ride on the freeway and a
pothole denting your rim and popping the front tire off the bead sending you
into the guardrail. Or you might go out in a blaze of glory qith a 100 mph
wheelie ending the wrong way. Whichever way, would make maybe a 10 second
news story depending on where you live, maybe a paragraph buried on page 32B
of the paper. Riding without a helmet could be of no matter- or it could
mean the difference between going on as you are now, or having life taken
awy from you as if God flipped a switch.


I can live without toes or a mangled foot- but I choose to try and prevent
that. I can live with a hand that looks like a burn victim's and maybe
relearn to write with my left hand- but I choose to try and prevent that. I
can live with a scar in the shape of Australia on my calf- but I try and
prevent that. I can live with road rash on my torso and arms- but I try to
prevent that. I could live in a wheelchair, agonizing through every day,
but I chose to try and prevent that.

I can't live as a man-child. I've already played with blocks. I only drool
when I sleep.

We all make choices. Gear can't always save you. All the best leather,
denim, Cordura, Kevlar, fiberglass, and plastic is useless when fate throws
the Immovable Object or the Irresistible Force in your path. But I choose
to stack the deck in my favor. If it all ends up for naught and the stacked
deck and the cards up my sleeve end up losing to Fate's royal flush, so be
it. But I'll try.

-Author unknown-

[Aceluck]

Pablo,
that was one heck of a sobering post.
Great post, should be an article, in my humble opinion.

[perfdrug]

if you're goin down in a crash, and time stopped, and someone walked up to you and offered more gear to you, would you take it? if you say "yes," then you're not wearing enough gear.

[AR5ENAL]

i've seen this posted before.  it's really sobering.  i'd make it a point to show it to newbies...some people really don't understand the importance of wearing the right gear.

[scar_ace]

Very touching to read, I couldn't even bare living without fingers, so I'm just gonna take this opportunity to bump this post up...
Nice find Pablo

Simon

[Shadley]

Very nice post.  I just happen to be a newby, got my bike a week ago and have put about 75 miles on it with only a helmet.  I have been wanting to get some gear, but it's so expensive and didn't really know what to get.  Anyone have some suggestions for me on?

[MacDuff]

Wow...

I think I'll be getting a riding jacket soon.  One with body armor.  

MacDuff

[perfdrug]

//www.newenough.com go to their closeout leather section. i got my gloves, jacket, and boots from them. the first time i did business by phone, cause i had sorta a special request. i've called every time since then just to chat with them for a short bit cause they're such nice people.

[pantablo]

... wanting to get some gear, but it's so expensive and didn't really know what to get...

you've got to figure the cost of the gear with the bike. If you cant afford the gear you cant afford the bike.
Newenough.com is definitely the place to start. Closeout section stocked full of good, inexpensive stuff and they're really great people. Big believers in customer service.

also check out www.motoxoutlet.com for closeouts.

GET GEAR!
joe Rocket, Firstgear, fieldshear, alpinestars, there are loads more. All good. Cowboy up and get yourself leather. jackets as low as $100 if you go textile -good enough if thats what you can afford. Boots about the same. Gloves for $19 right now at newenough...theres no excuse to NOT buy them!

[Michael]

...and I have personally seen EVERY single one of those scenarios.  And I have seen the friends and relatives who have blamed the bike rather than the DH who didn't try to stack the deck in their own favor because full-face helmets don't look cool and boots are for wimps.  And I have seen those who have allowed the very possibility of any injury stop them from ever getting on a bike again.  And I have endured the ridicule of colleagues (usually orthopaedists) who wonder how I can subject myself to the risks of motorcycling, the same colleagues who actively increase their own risk of dying prematurely from a dead heart (figuratively as well as literally).  And I have looked at my sons sleeping the sleep of the innocent and have realised that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to me, but I owe it to my sons to show them how to really live.  And I never roll out of my driveway without every bit of protective gear I can afford.

[pantablo]

And I have looked at my sons sleeping the sleep of the innocent and have realised that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to me, but I owe it to my sons to show them how to really live.

That's beautiful Michael.

[v]

And I have looked at my sons sleeping the sleep of the innocent and have realised that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to me, but I owe it to my sons to show them how to really live.

That's beautiful Michael.

true. very true. you have to always remeber about the ones waiting for your safe return home.

[Turkina]

Very nice post.  I just happen to be a newby, got my bike a week ago and have put about 75 miles on it with only a helmet.  I have been wanting to get some gear, but it's so expensive and didn't really know what to get.  Anyone have some suggestions for me on?

Spend the money and get yourself gear.  Pablo always pimps http://www.newenough.com, and they have good deals, especially on closeout items!  

I crashed with only 50 miles on my bike.  Denim doesn't help a bit when you're sliding on the asphalt And boots... if I wasn't wearing boots, I'd be lucky if I only broke a couple toes (I didn't get hurt there, even with a big gouge that went right through the thick leather to the steel toe).  And that was only at 30 mph!  

Crashes happen to the best of us at the worst times.  Be prepared!

[cummuterguy]

Very nice post.  I just happen to be a newby, got my bike a week ago and have put about 75 miles on it with only a helmet.  I have been wanting to get some gear, but it's so expensive and didn't really know what to get.  Anyone have some suggestions for me on?

8 years ago, I couldn't wait for my new heingeriche (sp) jacket to come in so i rode anyway, admittedly like a crazy person... irregardless... i went down,(Hard and Fast!!) and am now scarred all over my back, and shoulders. I get unusual stares when ever i take my shirt off in public, people often ask if i had been burned, etc. I tried to take some of the attention away by tatoo-ing over some of it, but that really didn't work... the ironic part is, the day after my wreck, my jacket arrived... i wasn't able to even try it on for 2 months... take it from me, park the bike till you get some gear.

[SmoothDave]

I've been riding all of a month now, and when I first got my bike, I planned on just wearing a leather jacket and jeans.  Once I started hanging out here, I went for the mesh pants with pads, armored jacket, etc.  Now when I ride, I'm completely decked out from the face shield to the heavy boots.  As a part of this process, I've started taking notice of other riders and what they wear.  I have yet to see even one other rider appropriately dressed.  Not one.  I occassionally see a rider in a leather jacket, and today I saw a rider in an armored mesh jacket like mine, but all of them were wearing jeans, and quite a few had skipped the helmet.

Anyway, I'm wearing the right stuff now, thanks to more than a few of you guys.  We are, however, a very small minority.  Unless it is different in other parts of the world.

Smooth Dave

[Stime187]

Thanks for the post, nice reality check.

<===== ME, not wearing riding pants like I should be...  

Scott

[Turkina]

Put a pair of mesh pants over jeans during the summer.  That way you'll have pads and heavy cordura nylon at the initial contact points (knees, hips) and an extra layer of material while sliding on the pavement!  Ummm... let's hope nobody gets to go on a test slide  

[TheGoodGuy]

i dont have proper riding pants, i sometimes use my rain pants (not exactly a rain suit but it can be used as one) as an overpant.. works fine.;

I will get some overpants over teh summer..

[Hi-T]

I'm kinda broke (like all the time...) but it's funny- my wife gets a little miffed when I buy an accessory (one of those not really needed upgrades) but never says a word when I drop extra cash on safety gear.  She and I both know that it's not the money that matters...  

Thanks Pablo for the reminder...

[jakers the 1]

Good post. I'm so glad that it's out here for all us NOOBS. I started riding about a month and a half ago, I found out what what color my bike was going to be and went out and bought my gear that day, even before the bike was really "mine". It's paramount to REALIZE the importance of your geer. Riding gear isn't something that is just out there, it's out there for a damn good reason. Again, Good post, thank you so much for findin it and sharing it with us.   (after the ride)