I suppose you could buy all this safety kit when you were 17 perhaps - I don't recall thinking 'which back protector ' back then Sure as shit I probably couldn't have afforded it I think the chances of decking it were much less 30 plus years ago - traffic was less , roads had Tarmac on them - about 10% of the tossers around - and people weren't in such a rush/ on mobiles , probably just changing their cassettes - plus they were likely to be driving a rusty pile of BL shite that if crashed would have squished and they would have ended up through the front windscreen
Spot on, back when I was on a 50cc I wore the paddock jacket, jeans and trainers but over years the number of other vehicles and idiots and mobiles etc has increased so my perception of the risk has increased. I guess the number of near misses and also friends knocked off and/or killed has also increased this. I wear full kit every time now, my choice. If someone else doesn't want to then fine but so come crying when a numpty has turned right without indicating and you have slid up the road with shorts on.....
Think you have a point there Char, how mich has enhanced safety features in cars made the inhabitants feel invincible and therefore less attentive?
As far as kit's concerned, I think you're right. There was certainly no armour in my day, and you had to be pretty well off to afford full leathers. My riding kit was donkey jacket and any old gloves I could find. But as far as the roads are concerned I think you're wrong. Sure the roads are a bit grim these days, but with traffic lights every hundred yards, traffic calming, clear road markings, etc, they've never been safer. And them old jalopies hurt a lot more than modern motors with their crumple zones. And of course you can't go as fast cos of the endless traffic jams...
I think there are several reasons: 1. Bikers are ageing and older people are generally more risk adverse. 2. Older bikers are richer and can afford the kit. Certainly, if you've just paid 15 grand for your bike, you can hardly say you can't afford it. 3. Lifestage would indicate that people often have families making them more risk adverse. 4. Over a few decades of biking, you've probably had painful offs, and realised that they would be less painful if you were wearing all the right kit, or if you were, that they would have had nastier consequences if you hadn't been. 5. There is almost certainly something in the "look" syndrome for many. Why lavish thousands on carbon and open clutch covers if you as a rider look like you've just been kitted out at M&S? I think that dressing up is a way of separating yourself from your humdrum professional existence. I'm sure that people do confuse Sainsbury's carpark with the Gobi, a Milton Keynes roundabout with Spa, or their local town centre with Namur, or the A303 with Highway 61. I don't really have a problem with that. It's all part of the fun. It's only a bit hideous when the HD brigade are all desperately trying to look as if they were extras in The Wild One, but even then, what's the harm? They're having a happy time.
Part of the reason is also linked to our obsession for bling. Once you've dressed the bike in all the latest race goodies .... You start on your kit. Only the latest race replica kit will do.
Its maybe risk perception. The risk of decking it is outweighed by the hot sunny feel good weather but in effect it's the same risk. Would you wear jeans and trainers on a trackday? The tarmac is just as hard on the road as a track but you wouldn't dream of it or be allowed to. Would you go roundabout surfing in a thong and gaffa taped sliders and nowt else? Doubt it but the risk is the same whatever you wear. I think experience of avoidable pain plays a part too. Actually seeing the whites of your elbow bones makes you think twice. It's a free world, we all choose what to wear and god help us if compulsion to wear certain gear comes in. OGR
I think it's like most things in life, we are now completely obsessed with brands, if you have just spent £10,000 on your new pride and joy the last thing you are going to be seen riding out in is a pair of Frank Thomas leathers and an Oxford textile jacket, so you give the missus a load of bollocks about how safe Alpinestars and Dainese gear is and spend the price of a summer holiday for the whole family on trying to look like a middle aged version of Carl Foggerty.
As my paramedic mate pointed out, the medicos are pretty good at fixing bones, but not so good about skin. I can see the attraction of lighter gear in hot weather, but as our summer is going last a fortnight then plunge back into winter, what's the point? Duke
A guy was knocked off his bike about 50 yards from my office the other week. HGV pulled out in front of him. Our industrial estate was locked down from 8AM until 2PM as the rider was critical. Surgeons later stated "his expensive safety gear saved his life". You pays your money and you makes your choice. Over the years my mates and I have done many trips abroad in blistering heat, not once has any of us thought of ditching the leathers, back protectors etc. It only takes a second to wipe you off the face of the earth. I would well imagine that your chances of being wiped out on a motorcycle are much greater today than they have ever previously been. We all see how the standard of driving has hit rock bottom, hell, many cannot be arsed to even indicate these days.
And what is pissing me off big time is that when people do indicate, they do so after they have almost come to a stop for the turning they want to make, or start indicating at they effect their manoeuvre. It's really started to annoy me. The signalling starts at best about 15 feet from their turning. Mirror Signal Manoeuvre? It's become: Manoeuvre, maybe Signal if you're lucky. As for Mirror, that's gone out of the window completely.
One reason for the late turn signal especially LH at lights could be to prevent the opposing Right turning traffic get in before them. Seen it and done it.
