Motorcycle safety equipment

[Alpo]

We have several riders here.

 

Ignoring helmets - when you ride do you wear safety gear? Boots, leathers, goggles?

 

Once upon a time, many years back, I was going downhill with a curve at the bottom with sand in the curve and it went out from under me and me and it went sliding down the road. Busted off a foot peg and the left mirror. Me - had road rash on my left boot. On my left jeans leg from about 6" below my knee to about 6" above my knee. The back of my left glove, and from the cuff of my coat to 3" above my elbow. And the helmet.

 

I always wore safety gear.

 

What brought up this question was seeing this couple yesterday. He's wearing a t-shirt, she's wearing a tank top. They're both wearing shorts and flip-flops. He's wearing sunglasses, she has no eye protection, and of course neither one had a helmet. Both on the same bike.

[Tooky Slim]

Leather is not a fashion statement...it saves skin

[Sedalia Dave]

I'll have to see if I can find it again but there was a study done about wearing more than just a helmet.  From what I remember different body parts were each given a point system that corresponded to the amount of trauma they received in an accident.

 

Made it really clear that you needed more than a helmet if you expected to survive a serious crash.  

 

I always wore protective gear.  Boots, heavy jeans, jacket, gloves helmet and eye protection. Any time I expected to be riding in any kind of traffic I also wore leather chaps.  Winter I wore a leather jacket. Summer I wore one made of ballistic nylon with additional padding at the elbows, shoulders, kidneys and spine. Riding even in 100 degree heat the gear was no more uncomfortable that riding without. Now when I stopped it was a different story and I unzipped or removed some gear until ready to hit the rode again.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

 

What brought up this question was seeing this couple yesterday. He's wearing a t-shirt, she's wearing a tank top. They're both wearing shorts and flip-flops. He's wearing sunglasses, she has no eye protection, and of course neither one had a helmet. Both on the same bike.

Forgive me for being insensitive but …. Organ donors.

[Blackwater 53393]

I wear lineman’s boots, heavy jeans, canvas pants or leather pants. I will be the first to admit that I don’t always wear a helmet or a heavy shirt.  I always carry a leather jacket and even if I’m not wearing it, I’ll have a helmet.

 

I have several leather jackets, chaps, gloves, and a set of fine woven kidex mittens that go over the gloves when it’s really cold!  The mittens prevent the wind from chilling the fingers of the gloves, keeping my hands much warmer, even in sub-freezing wet weather.

 

I always have a rain suit if I’m on the road.

 

I have six rules for riding.

 

1) Never leave in the rain.

 

2) Never leave without leather.

 

3) Never ride without a plan.

 

4) If you have working lights, legal license, a sound machine, and can keep your interval, you’re welcome to ride with me.

 

5) You don’t ride with me if you’re high!  That means no drinking and no drugs!! (After we’re settled in for the night, do whatever makes you happy, but be sober by sunup!)

 

6) If you’re with me, I’ve got your back, but if you show your @$$ you’re on your own!!

 

Makes it simple and I don’t have many surprises!

 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

Rode from eastern Connecticut to Milwaukee and back with an a$$ once and it was the worst motorcycle vacation ever. 

[Pat Riot]

I always wear:

- Modular full face helmet

- summer - Mesh jacket with armor at elbows, shoulders and spine.

- cooler weather - Leather jacket with armor at elbows, shoulders and spine.

- Boots, 9” lace up with zipper side. I keep them tightly laced. 
- Gloves, leather with D30 palm armor. 
- In cold temps I wear a pair of insulated over pants with knee armors and hip padding. 
- I used to wear modular knee pad protection but found the tension it took to keep them in place actually affected my lower back and hips. I no longer use them so I technically don’t have knee protection most of the time. I need new knees anyway…damn, just jinxed myself…

 

I never cared for chaps. I have owned 3 sets. I have given away 3 sets. 

[Trailrider #896]

A college mate rode a Harley down a hilly street and hit gravel at the curve.  Got off without road rash as he was wearing a pair of heavy woolen Air Force enlisted trousers. Tore them up, but saved his skin. As he was scheduled to turn the uniform in the next day (end of the Spring semester) he just folded them so the damage didn't show and turned the uniform in!  Me, I don't bother with such stuff...I won't go near a motorcycle! 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Forgive me for being insensitive but …. Organ donors.

 

At one time, I wanted dumb people to go ahead and ride w/o a helmet.

My Mother needed a kidney.

[Rip Snorter]

My college girlfriend back in time would always want to ride in short shorts and a halter top.  I made her wear boots, denim jeans and jacket and a helmet. I took care of equipment so for paybacks she would drop and scrape an expensive Bell Magnum.  Never had a crash with her on board, and escaped my pair without significant injury.  Eventually we agreed to disagree.  A very old friend who finally stopped riding last year told me about an Airbag vest for motorcyclists.  That sounds useful!

[Pat Riot]

53 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

My college girlfriend back in time would always want to ride in short shorts and a halter top.  I made her wear boots, denim jeans and jacket and a helmet. I took care of equipment so for paybacks she would drop and scrape an expensive Bell Magnum.  Never had a crash with her on board, and escaped my pair without significant injury.  Eventually we agreed to disagree.  A very old friend who finally stopped riding last year told me about an Airbag vest for motorcyclists.  That sounds useful!

They have an airbag jacket and I recently saw that a company in Sweden (I think) has airbag pants. Now, I do not know who “they” are. I just read about the jacket and pants in a news blurb. 

[Rip Snorter]

One source https://www.thedrive.com/reviews/30248/best-motorcycle-airbag-vest

[sassnetguy50]

Watched one deploy on TV when a Dakar racer wrecked while a camera drone was following.  It happened so fast, you wouldn't have known what happened, it looked like the rider miraculously wrecked, walked back to the bike, picked it up, continued racing.   

 

 

[Trailrider #896]

Air bag vests/pants. Helmets with visors. So you fall off and are thus protected. Except you break your neck and wind up paralyzed or die!  No thanks!

[sassnetguy50]

31 minutes ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Air bag vests/pants. Helmets with visors. So you fall off and are thus protected. Except you break your neck and wind up paralyzed or die!  No thanks!

You forgot to put on your neck brace.

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

Always:

*  Full face helmet/ shield (was a Bell guy) - I have recently gone to a (Sedici) modular as it had the built in comm system I wanted.

 

*  My glasses are impact resistant lenses in case weather dictates my shield is open.

 

*  Leather gloves - I wear palm padded bright yellow deerskin.

 

*  Lace up Boots (Same model {but two different pairs} Ariat lacers for riding and for cowboy - I don't care for pull on boots as they do not give me sufficient ankle support {for either hobby})

 

*  Full length Jeans

 

Majority of the time:

* Long sleeve shirt (but admittedly usually lightweight and would be of next to zero additional protection).

 

*  Joe Rocket "Phoenix" flow thru jacket.

Elbow, shoulder and back/ spine armor.

 

I also ride with empty pants pockets - house keys go in a storage compartment, phone is on its holder, wallet and small carry gun are in the jacket pockets - so if I do go off the bike; I am not getting additional puncture wounds from a bunch of keys or cell phone parts.

[Equanimous Phil]

I sold my motorbike about 16 years ago and haven't ridden one since. I always wore leather boots, gloves, and jacket with protectors (shoulders, elbows, back) and Kevlar reinforced pants with knee protectors (looking like regular jeans). I started with a good reasonably priced full face helmet. Later, I upgraded to a Schuberth helmet: I was amazed how neutral that helmet behaved no matter how you turn your head and how silent that helmet was due to its aerodynamics. I considered that a big safety improvemement for my ride! Also, the integrated flip down sun visor added much comfort.

[Blackwater 53393]

Ya’ see, Alpo??  There’s a lot of variety in equipment and choices in what to use.

 

MOST of those who ride will agree on one thing !!

 

LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE!!

[Dr. Zook]

Over the years, I've responded to many motorcycle accidents, some involved another vehicle and others motorcycle only.  Helmets and full gear does work... Had some with good outcomes and others bad.  Had a rider go down solo at est 100+ in full gear and ultimately didn't make it but was alive and recognizable due to his gear when we got him to the trauma center. Another was a couple riding tandem, he had the helmet and she didn't. Tank top and Levi mini skirt, fell off at est 40mph - still conscious when we got there. Back of her head was a mess, but her first contact with the road surface was her backside - never ever seen a Levi mini that got shredded by the asphalt like a cheese grater and you can guess what else was grated as well.  At one point someone did a study on our motorcycle crash data and gave the avg life expectancy of a new rider to be 6 months (lack of skills, situational awareness and ever increasingly busy roads).

[Sedalia Dave]

2 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Ya’ see, Alpo??  There’s a lot of variety in equipment and choices in what to use.

 

MOST of those who ride will agree on one thing !!

 

LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE!!

 

THIS ^^^^

[Alpo]

I have absolutely no problem with LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE.

 

And the couple I mentioned in my original post - they decided. It was a stupid decision, but it was their decision. Once upon a Time back when I was in high school the car wouldn't start so the father figure called down to the garage and they sent out a mechanic. And he had the air cleaner off and told me to pump the gas and I did and there was a WHUMP! noise.

 

The mechanic had decided that it was intelligent to be smoking a cigarette over an open carburetor while asking someone to pump the gas. It burned off his eyebrows, his eyelashes, and all his nose hair. He decided, but it was a stupid decision.

 

I was talking to a fellow cowboy shooter one day, who had it bandage running from the base of his fingers up to about 2 inches below his elbow. I asked him what had happened.

 

He was loading a muzzle loading rifle while smoking a cigar, and the resulting flame went schusting up the barrel and burn the Billy be Jesus out of the hand.

 

He decided to smoke a cigar while handling black powder. It was a stupid decision.

[Pat Riot]

11 hours ago, Equanimous Phil said:

Kevlar reinforced pants with knee protectors (looking like regular jeans).

I bought some of those pants. Great in cool weather but hotter than he** when temps rose and / or when the sun was beating on you. 
One of my problems is my natural average body temp is 97.1-97.6. I get hotter faster than most folks. A warm motorcycle suit becomes hot for me sooner than for others. 
I met a new motorcycle rider that was my size and I gave him both pairs of Kevlar jeans. He was ecstatic. My wife was not. Those jeans aren’t cheap. My logic was that I would not wear them. He would as he was new to motorcycles. I figured he could use them. 
I don’t know if he ever went down wearing them as we moved away from Oregon. I hope that if he ever did that he was wearing his protective gear. 

[Rip Snorter]

I have Bicycling shorts with Kevlar panels bought after a crash at speed that took off a patch of hide the size of my hand.   Not too hot, because of the spandex but they really work.  Still have them and they still fit, don't ride anymore, unfortunately.

[Chicken Rustler, SASS #26680]

4 hours ago, Dr. Zook said:

At one point someone did a study on our motorcycle crash data and gave the avg life expectancy of a new rider to be 6 months (lack of skills, situational awareness and ever increasingly busy roads).

I read another study that said 6 months was the most likely time for an accident, they concluded it was because that's when you get comfortable with the bike and confident in your abilities and start to get complacent.

[T.K.]

I Always wear a Helmet, heavy Steerhide leather jacket (not one of those "fashion" weight leather ones)

Levis and Leather gloves and boots.

I only wore shorts once in 105° weather in Laughlin at the bike run (still had my boots on) I burned. my leg big time on the exhaust pipe. It hurt like HELL! The weird (or Scary) part was it smelled like BACON!!!

 

Good Luck, and RIDE SAFE Pards!

[Rye Miles #13621]

When I rode years ago I always had a helmet, leather jacket and never shorts no matter how hot it was. If it was really hot I’d wear a lighter jacket. 

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

2 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

When I rode years ago I always had a helmet, leather jacket and never shorts no matter how hot it was. If it was really hot I’d wear a lighter jacket. 

Hard and fast rules - if it's too hot for gloves, boots and jeans...

It's too hot to ride.

 

There will always be a cooler day to go for a ride - without the gear; might not make it to that cooler day.

Might never make it anyway - but it won't be because I failed to gear up properly.

[Painted Mohawk SASS 77785]

I agree with Blackwater in that riders are all different with their choices of clothing, for myself I ride light,never shorts, tanktop or flip flops but only jeans, ordinary boots & shirt with a leather vest...we have no choice down -under as helmets are compulsory, hate full face so wear open face & the lighter the better, gloves, heavy jackets only in bad weather which I always have in my saddlebags...yep it's the other road users you gotta' watch but I want to feel as one with my bike not like a blob on top loaded up with clothing unless I have to.

And yes before you ask  I have shredded the bark off myself before when in Oct '012 I had to put my bike down as my then wife  on her bike was killed in a head on collision [ RIP Keryn ]

[Rye Miles #13621]

12 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

When I rode years ago I always had a helmet, leather jacket and never shorts no matter how hot it was. If it was really hot I’d wear a lighter jacket. 

I forgot, gloves and boots too.