Idiots in T-shirts and shorts.

Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2005
Posts
5,043
I was riding my bike to work today (full gear except for jeans) and actually I felt cold and then I see this bloke on a 125/250 scooter with shorts and t-shirt LOL.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Aug 2008
Posts
890
Im going to keep my thoughts short and sweet.

I personally feel its very selfish when people ride without appropriate protection. Both for their family and friends and also the state.

Its our taxes that pay for the Ambulance ride, skin grafts, and physio etc to get these people back on their feet.

I wonder how many people who have had accidents while wearing no protection carry on riding without protection afterwards?

Also after having two offs now,
One on the road at about 30mph and one at the track at about 90mph there is no way im not going to kit up if I get on my bike, no matter where I am going.

Falling off hurts, having no skin hurts even more!
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2004
Posts
4,100
Location
Sheffield, England
Im going to keep my thoughts short and sweet.

I personally feel its very selfish when people ride without appropriate protection. Both for their family and friends and also the state.

Its our taxes that pay for the Ambulance ride, skin grafts, and physio etc to get these people back on their feet.

I wonder how many people who have had accidents while wearing no protection carry on riding without protection afterwards?

Also after having two offs now,
One on the road at about 30mph and one at the track at about 90mph there is no way im not going to kit up if I get on my bike, no matter where I am going.

Falling off hurts, having no skin hurts even more!

Treat yourself to a biscuit.
 

spp

spp

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2006
Posts
550
I always wear full bike gear when I go out, except one summer's day a few years back. It was a scorcher, so thought I'd where jeans instead of my bike trousers....

As chance would have it, I had my one and only bike accident that day :/ cut my leg up pretty bad, my jeans just ripped as I skidded down the road, exposing the skin to the tarmac :( Never ride without full gear now. I was so angry with myself, having the damn bike trousers sat at home, which would have saved me an awful lot of pain.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Mar 2006
Posts
4,148
Location
Liverpool
Always the way eh, the one time you go out without your kit is the one time you have an off.

I had an off about 5 weeks after getting my first bike, and that night I had considered wearing jeans out with my biking jacket. But the weather deteriorated a bit, so I just whacked on my full kit. As it happened, it started to drizzle on the way home, and new rider, entering a corner too fast, saw a fox, panic braked and down I went'
If I wasn't wearing my kit, I would have been screwed, as the bike landed on my leg, and proceeded to slide about 50 metres up the road in to a kerb. That one close call with my not wearing kit is enough to make sure I'm always kitted up.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,415
I'm pro-kit, I seriously advise it but I don't like to go down the road of calling for rules about the risks people chose to take with their own bodies. Personal risk is a matter for the individual, risking the lives of others is a matter for the law.

The way I see it: If we accept the view of restricting someones right to take a personal risk, then we must also accept the possibility of motorcycles being banned by folks who think the same..

That's my thoughts on this issue.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Feb 2006
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4,799
Location
No longer riding an Italian
I know I posted earlier in here, but I thought I would come back with my own story:

Having recently had an unfortunate incident, where some deep-rooted (primal?) fear took over from training, I managed to bin the R1 in spectacular style between 60-70mph on a fast B road.

As always, I was wearing full kit, and despite taking a trip off road and having an extremely violent deceleration over very rough ground (regardless how smooth it looks in the photos – I assure you it was far from that) – I was able to immediately get up and take stock of what had just happened.

When I stood up I was aware of only two points of discomfort – my left wrist (the one already damaged from my off in ’08) and my right knee felt sore, everything else was fine, no disorientation from my head being repeatedly smacked on hard surfaces, nothing.

As I wait for assistance my knee became sorer but thankfully my wrist started to calm down, so I guess the metalwork just took a jolt this time – sitting down for an hour or so whilst waiting resulted in my knee becoming stiff and a limp starting, but still nothing else!

About 5-6 hours after I crashed, I finally got around to taking my kit off at home, and my now stiff knee was found to be swollen to about twice the normal size, and it was filled with fluid and very very wobbly, but still only sore and not at all painful – so I took a trip to A&E; but no issues were found.

Fast forward to later that night, I’m still not feeling any ill affects to my head, but lots of little aches have now started, and after posting on the forum, I prep myself for the worst night’s sleep in ages….


Whilst full protection doesn’t make you invincible, I like to think that it directly contributed to me not sustaining any real injuries on this occasion, and urge anyone serious about riding, to always kit up :)
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2003
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5,995
Location
Expat in the USA
I now live in SW Florida, and no-one and I mean no-one wears leathers. Even the cops wear just short sleeved shirts. Half the time sports bike riders don't even wear helmets and about 80% of the Harley riders dont wear helmets. Traffic moves on average about 50mph.. So to all you Frank Thomas's out there, best not visit the place or you'll leave very upset.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Sep 2005
Posts
875
Location
Midlands
I now live in SW Florida, and no-one and I mean no-one wears leathers. Even the cops wear just short sleeved shirts. Half the time sports bike riders don't even wear helmets and about 80% of the Harley riders dont wear helmets. Traffic moves on average about 50mph.. So to all you Frank Thomas's out there, best not visit the place or you'll leave very upset.

I guess in Florida you're more likely to die from the dehydration of wearing full kit in that heat than an accident :p

Remember my first trip there from the UK. Soon as I walked out of the air conditioned airport the heat smacked me in the face. Crazy hot! :D
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2003
Posts
5,995
Location
Expat in the USA
I guess in Florida you're more likely to die from the dehydration of wearing full kit in that heat than an accident :p

Remember my first trip there from the UK. Soon as I walked out of the air conditioned airport the heat smacked me in the face. Crazy hot! :D

Hey no kidding either.. In summer it would be foolish to attempt such antics.. but in winter when the weather is just perfect !! low 20's perfect blue skies, they really should wear them given the speed of traffic. But don't.

Brings me back to when i rode to the south of France in summer 2003, remember that heat wave that killed thousands upon thousands? Well anyway it wasn't there at the start of my 2 week trip.. Was on the way back though and this buffoon had his one piece NON-perforated Daineses on.. Not a very smart move 9 hrs on a bike. I did evaluate other options like shipping my leathers back to England and riding in lighter gear, but given the speed i was gonna be riding, and the flippin cost to ship the leathers back, i made a go of it.. Left at midnight due to heat in the day, Rode throughout the night mainly but I'll never forget the heat rising in the morning as i arrived south of Paris.. It was like a hair dryer in the face.. HORRIBLE.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2004
Posts
4,100
Location
Sheffield, England
I now live in SW Florida, and no-one and I mean no-one wears leathers. Even the cops wear just short sleeved shirts. Half the time sports bike riders don't even wear helmets and about 80% of the Harley riders dont wear helmets. Traffic moves on average about 50mph.. So to all you Frank Thomas's out there, best not visit the place or you'll leave very upset.

Noticed this in L.A. last september. Most of the bikes I saw were sports bikes and every single rider was wearing t-shirts and ****pot helmets. In Arizona they didn't wear the helmets. I was envious.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2004
Posts
4,100
Location
Sheffield, England
Having recently had an unfortunate incident, where some deep-rooted (primal?) fear took over from training, I managed to bin the R1 in spectacular style between 60-70mph on a fast B road.

I'm not judging you personally but leathers or not, you binned your bike due to typical sportsbike rider behaviour that ends up putting everybody's insurance up and makes the Frank Thomas brigade vilify safe riders who want to wear what they like.
 
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