I'm not entirely sure that an absolute anymore. Quality textiles are pretty damn good at looking after you nowadays, the only downside is that the protection is generally more sacrificial with leather and thus they're ready for the bin afterwards. Often they can be less grabby than leather too when you're sliding.
And y'know, riding in India on a Bullet wearing (sometimes) shorts n sandals and returning unscathed, does make me think we can be guilty of making this whole thing a bigger issue than it is. Having said that I had a mega one a few years ago and was so glad I had my back protector. Make of it all what you will. It's called motorcycling!
Yup each to his own ....I still maintain though for me personally that I'd rather sweat my tits off than have them ground off +1 for desmo knickers too ..... I really want to keep her titties as they are , fig sunburn on a baldy heeeed , blistered and peeling in a full face Lid ain't no fun !!!! Last time I left half my swede in my lid .... Oooooch .... Actually on a more serious note ( yep me serious ) last year on the way to skegvegas with emm I really thought I was going down with heat exhaustion , in a garage I got a bloke jet washing his car to jet wash me down too , lifesaver!!!!
On the way to Chemnitz in 2006 we got caught in a monster traffic jam, motorway shut and everyone filtering down a back street. Stopping for an ice cream at a garage, the temperature gauge above the shop said 39 degrees. I decided to ditch my jacket, and it remained bungee'd to my luggage for the remaining 300 miles. Very invigorating.
A mate in Melbourne gave a Harley to ride for a weekend. It was Saturday 7th February 2009, probably doesn't mean much in the UK, but the temperature reached 52 degrees Centigrade in Victoria that day. Huge bush fires and loss of life, you could ride, but sweating, dehydration and your eyes drying if you raised your visor. We don't have it too bad in the UK.
Having recently been involved in a SMIDSY I know damn well without having all my kit on I'd be disabled or dead, never leave the house without it I value my life more than the most expensive kit there is out there. I always tell people to try an remember when they were kids running then tripping and how sore their hands and knees were... That's at what 10mph tops? Multiply thy by 3, 4, 7 etc you get my gist. I also remember reading if you have bare skin and slid at 30mph it takes 3 seconds, 3 SECONDS before you start grinding bone away
I never go out without full leathers, back protector etc. it's not worth it in my opinion. Even if it's 40C and you're fully togged up your kept cool when you're travelling by the wind/breeze. It only becomes a "problem" sweating your nuts off when you stop for a breather/fuel stop etc. But then you can unzip and relax anyhow. However it is personal choice and I choose to wear protection (oooh err missus), cos I certainly don't know what's round the corner. Would I get kitted up to nip half a mile to tesco's? Nah. I would walk to tesco's or jump in the car if I had lots to buy :wink:
I can't ever envisage a day when I would spend over a grand on leathers or textiles just to feel safe. I buy kit based on comfort and weather protection, and trust myself to look after the safety aspect. Perhaps it's an age thing; back in the day even the best leathers never had armour, and most lids were open-face. And yes, I've crashed. Many times. The 'big one' involved me breaking both ankles and all my ribs. But oddly enough the broken areas were 'protected' by a very expensive pair of boots and a decent armoured leather jacket. In all fairness, though, I could have been wearing a Volvo and still would've got injured in that crash. It was pretty horrific. My only capitulation to safety after that crash was promising never to wear an open-face lid again, mainly cos I headbutted the car first... The bulk of my accidents happened as a yoof, wearing the aforementioned donkey jacket and trainers. Hey, I'm still here, and all my limbs are roughly in the same order, but now better protected by my own personal airbag suit
Ha! Looking at your profile pic you'd be good at that :biggrin: Ive crashed more times than I care to remember in my racing years, rolling causes more damage than good but with my SMIDSY you don't get off lightly when you hit a wall, that's where the good kit pays dividends
But you see, most modern leathers are designed with the track in mind; they tend to be thinner leather these days and with armour and extra layers in strategic places. Which don't help when you hit a car turning across your path. Sliding, good; hitting road furniture, not so good. So I'm rather wary of their apparent magical properties. Far better to spend the money on riding lessons, I reckon.
+1 for the leathers at all times on a bike camp. Only time I don't is if going to the next village to wash it. i won't bore you with the details of various offs with or without kit but I think I learnt my lessons fortunately before any really serious damage occurred. I wouldn't take my Ducati to Tesco. I'd take a push bike or a car. I don't mind what other people do but I think that anyone in shorts and t-shirt on a largish bike looks like a fool, anyone trying to get their knee down in jeans and trainers (seen it) ditto, and anyone allowing their gf to get on the back in a skimpy top and bare-legged doesn't deserve her.
When it is hot and I ride in London only I wear jeans purely because you are more likely to hit, fly and land then skid down the road. In that case armour is the only thing that would possibly help depending how you land so I take my chances. The way I see it if I am hot, sweaty and uncomfortable on hot day I will push on to get there faster ....
I can see a discrepancy between the number of people who claim to wear leathers all the time, and the number of people I see on the streets every day. I've opened this discussion on a few forums and maybe 90% of people say they wear protective togs every time they ride. But of the people I see riding, only about half of them are fully geared up. I wonder why this is. One thing that does disturb me is people who ride without gloves, and I see ridiculous scenarios every day where people have gone to the extent of donning full leathers, kick-to-kill boots and a helmet I'd need a mortgage for, and then riding off with no protection on the one part of their body that is certain to see action in the event of a crash.
If you are correct, at a guess I'd say it's because the kind of people who frequent motorcycle forums (what you might call 'serious' as opposed to 'casual' bikers if you get my drift) are more likely to wear full protective gear than the motorcycling population as a whole.
+1. One of my workmates has a ZR1200, owned several bike bikes over the years & has just bought a 125 scooter thing ready for our works move 6 miles down the road soon - usually just walks in? See's fit to ride the thing in trainers, jeans & no gloves with only a bike jacket for protection? I have yet to quiz him on his choice of apparel, I can only assume the small bike & low speeds render him crashless?? I crashed a 400N Superdream MANY years ago - middle of the night racing a BMW car, over 100mph and hit something in the road - HORRIFIC tankslapper that beat the lockstops off, put huge bar dents in the tank & CHIFFCHIFFCHIFF'D the front tyre down the road... Down it went. I had trials boots on, winter gloves, jeans and a ski jacket. It was wet, just finished raining which is what probably saved me? :smile: I remember starfish-spinning my way down the road, the bike spinning in front of me white/red/white/red/white/red/white/red/white/red/white/red tailight & headlight, white flashes of cars passing in the other lane... :frown: I stopped tumbling and slid down the road on my stomach, tried to stand up but couldnt, still sliding... :frown: I got up, feeling like I had just done ten minutes in a gravel-lined washing machine. The bike had thankfully slid left, I picked it up and pushed it half-a-mile down the road to a garage? Left hand grip missing, scrapes, dents, cracks... I replaced the lead back into the r/h plug cap, scooped handfulls of mud out of the bike (looked like someone had plaster-troweled it with mud down one side?), turned the key - hit the button and it started??! Both thumbs and palms were fkd, Battered hips meant three attempts at getting a leg over the bike - I rode it home at like 15mph, shaking & wide-eyed. Got home - had to get it up onto the centre-stand as the sidestand was all bent up? Not easy when you cant grip anything. Got inside & stripped off the tattered remnants of my clothes, looking like a soggy roadside bomb victim. :frown: I showered off the mud & blood and went to bed - had to be at work for 6am so was going to be an interesting day... The alarm went off. I went to hit the snooze and was instantly reminded of my earlier carnage. On the next snooze I tried to get up. My elbow and entire stomach were stuck to the sheets, a mixture of yellow and redness??! In the dark I pulled the sheet clear & staggered to the lightswitch. Shitshitshit. In the shower again I tried to pull the sheet free?? No joy, inCREDIBLY painful!! I ran a bath. Soaked the thing, shaking, crying, cursing, a complete mess. No car, no way of getting to the hospital? Shitshitshit. Imagine pulling scar tissue, skin off your stomach? Imagine being skinned alive? Never mind that paper-cut you got the other day which still plays you up, having to tear off an incredibly large area of tissue yourself?? I ductaped a towel around my midriff, got dressed and walked to Casualty two miles away. Injections, scrubbing, dressing, sterry-strips, & 8 stitches in my elbow. The bike got fixed up and later sold on, I bought some proper gear. Its not a question of "yeah, I might come off, I'll be alright!" There is no generic accident. You WILL hurt yourself, possibly soil yourself and go through the most terrible pain your have ever encountered? Sweat will wash off easier than skin grafts.
Yes, but there's NO guarantee you'll crash in the first place... Just because you did doesn't mean everyone else will.
No guarantee I wont either. None at all. Happened before and can happen again, in which case I WILL continue to wear leathers.
