PSA: If you ride or if you know someone who rides, wear real safety gear

[XemaSab]

I saw a gnarly motorcycle accident today.

The guy had a concussion, but I think he's going to be ok. If he hadn't been wearing a helmet and protective clothing it might have had a very ugly ending.

[joshcryer]

1. Was talking with motorcyclists about wearing leather once upon a time...

...they pointed out to me how it was effectively a "second skin." Told me stories about guys who wore nothing or regular synthetics and how they got tore the fuck up. I was convinced thenceforth to buy leather even though I'm not a leather wearing kind of guy.

Haven't ridden in years though and it's the only animal derived clothing I have, but yeah, they may have been exaggerating. Just something that occurred to me in retrospect. I'll have to check out the synthetic stuff again some time, and read up, if I ever ride a motorcycle again. It's quite a dangerous activity.

/former rider of a personally rebuilt Honda CB350

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. My understading today is that the synthetic gear is now superior, though leather is prettier

I ride daily in the desert. Mesh gear with embedded armor is the way to go.

Nice bike

[kooljerk666]

2. TBI & death or veggy state = not wearing a helmet!!

After 35 years of riding the fastest bikes I could afford I know about crashing.

I crested a hill at 125mph on a 83 CB1100F, riding the real wheel in the dark w/ headlight pointing in the sky, the front wheel dropped & i crashed. Tumbling down the road at over 120 mph. I let go of the bike, & tried to keep my face off the ground but the full face helmet could take more punishment than ungloved smoking burning hands.

Bike a write off, hands badly burned NO CONCUSSION!

I also went under a tractor trailer & while dodging the dual wheels about to hit my face, the axle hit me in the helmet, pretty good hit but no concussion.

I also got hit by a car & thrown 90 feet into stone wall, no concussion.

Whenever I see anyone w/o a helmet (I see a lot in PA) I give them a real hard time & 99% of the time they give me the finger, like I don't know what i am talking about.


Ummm biking is dangerous, last night a Philly cop, instructor of the drill team, killed on I-95 on his police bike.

A few weeks ago 10 m/c hit by drunk/hi guy in WI.
http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20120601/FON0101/206010410/Homicide-charge-expected-driver-who-hit-10-motorcycles

Lask week a 40 something man in NH on a slow CV250 overcooked it, gravel & then trees, DEAD, no helmet.

i was looking for that 1 specifically & found tons of death already in NH this year & IT is a small state.

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=nh+motorcycle+crashes&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

I have 2 old suzuki's, a GS1100E worked enuff to exceed 170 mph & a RF900 not as fast but 20mpg better.

I don't ride in rush hour, or near sunup or dusk or when the bars close.

Helmet,jacket,gloves,boot, long heavy pants or you will pay, every one does every so often

[catnhatnh]

3. If you ride for most of your life, you get a little roll call for the dead in your head...

...and after about half of them have asterisks...

Those are the wild ones-hard drinking, hard riding, party down, indestructible. They neither asked for nor gave quarter and when you rode with them a small voice whispered "enjoy them" and you knew they burned to brightly to last.

Another portion were taken off by the stupid, the left turners, the I didn't see them and other morons of four wheeled death. The phone talkers, the careless lane changers, and clueless others.

A few more were the unlucky gone to freak mechanical failures of their own ride or of other vehicles.

One or two will just be mysteries. Good rider on a well maintained bike inexplicably crashed alone along a lonely road.

So something powerful must happen when you get on a motorcycle that after 40 years keeps you climbing back on one. I'll be on mine this afternoon...

[BlueToTheBone]

5. In our state, there is no helmet law

and people cruise around with shorts and no helmet. I shudder at the possibilities.

[Jim Lane]

6. This also applies if you ride without an engine.

I hit an improperly maintained patch of road while on my bicycle. My head hit the pavement hard enough that I lost consciousness -- and that was with a top-quality helmet on.

Things would have been different if I had said, "Motorcycles are much more dangerous -- those bikers need helmets but I don't." I'd have had good odds of dying.

Woe unto you, my fellow bicyclists, if you read this thread and dismiss it as irrelevant to you. We also ride and we also need real safety gear.

[kooljerk666]

8. I'd died 2x on bicycles w/o a helmet!!

One time, riding home from a bar I crashed while cornering & my helmet hit a steel trolly track in west philly. I woke w/ 2 black eyes & helmet split at about 2 oclock if viewed from front. Like a chump I did not go to Drs. & it took about a month in bed b4 I went outside.

The other one was doing about 20-25 mph at 2 am some tool coming at me in car puts on high beams, big hole in rode & i am tumbling, again. No leather while on the bicycle either. Helmet needed replacment.

I had a cousin in a minor car accident & she bumped her head, no Dr or hospital. 3 days later extreme cranial pain, she died on the table from a hematoma (brain bleed).

I have actually given up on rollarblades & bicycles because they helmets are not good enuff for me, and the likelyhood of falling is too great, for me. No martial arts either, too many head traumas & metal in skull now a daze, sez bad idea.

Whatever you do, if they make a helmet for it, you really ought to wear it.

[GoneOffShore]

7. When I rode I was scrupulous about eye protection first.

Leather jacket and long trousers next.

Sometimes the helmet not so much. But I've gotten older and I don't ride anymore.

I watch people here in PA riding on I-95 in shorts, sandals and tank tops with the girl friend riding pillion in a bikini top and short shorts. There's a world of hurt in that future and some expensive skin grafts. Or a Darwin award.