I keep wondering if I should really be popping to the shops in my jeans, t-shirt, and helmet on my 125. Things like this make me think 'no', but then it's a 30mph limit from here to the supermarket and I barely go any faster than if I was riding my bicycle, because of the traffic.
It is personal choice whether to get suited and booted for a quick trip to the shop. Personally I always ride suited and booted no matter how short the journey.
My father was involved in a very serious accident back in 2004 (riding my bike). After month on life support and various operations followed by another month in ICU he was released but had to regularly attend physio.
I used to go along, and some of the guys we met were in a bad way. The guy I mentioned above had to have bone and muscle grafts because the tarmac had literally peeled his flesh and muscle away from his hip/femur bones like a sardine can. He had just popped out to get some milk and thought "ah its only up the road, I can't be bothered to get my gear on". Like you, he only had 30-40mph roads between home and the shop. He wasn't the only one, there were more. There was a young lad, I think he was 17/18, who was paralysed from the waist down because of a motorbike accident. Going to that ward really put my life into perspective and really hammered home to me the risks you take in biking, but also just how lucky I was to be able bodied.
I had mentally always only considered two outcomes when going riding - I either come home or I dont. I had never considered that I may be in an accident and survive but be permanently crippled, or paralysed. It was a very sobering experience. When added to the experience of sitting beside my fathers hospital bed holding his hand, not knowing if he would live or die, my outlook on biking is forever changed.
I know I can seem a little overbearing when it comes to safety gear and bike safety in general, but I am biased because of my own experiences, and the people I have met who did take chances and ended up in a bad way. Or people like my father, who did absolutely nothing wrong but was a victim of an April shower soaking a bit of mud the local farmer had left on the road making it slippy. A bit of wet mud, that is all it was. Barely even visible and it caused an horrific accident. Two compound fractures of the femur, pelvis broken in 2 places, smashed hip, smashed knee, lower leg turned to pate, 4 smashed ribs, and a dislocated shoulder + massive internal bleeding. All because of a little bit of mud, no bigger than your hand.
