NZ Herald: no wonder bikes have their "downside"

[skidMark]

I choose leathers all round, so as not to leave my skin on the ground

i sense a jingle

[Quartida]

I saw that @#@&~!~^% on her 500 dollah GN.
WTF???? WHY IS THIS ARTICLE??? WHAT ???? RELEVANCE????? WHY DONT YOU JUST POST A PICTURE OF PEOPLE IN A CAR WITH NO SEATBELT AND CALL IT :

EXPENSIVE TRAVEL HAS A DANGEROUS DOWNSIDE????

EXACTLY! And you said it so well!

I should have put THAT in my letter.

[sunhuntin]

What confused me was that it said she had only had the bike 2 months, she had already fallen off once and here she was riding around with SFA on. She obviously doesn't plan on falling off again... (as you do)

BC.

in the summer...i wear little more than that if im going for a short blat....and ive fallen off wearing less than that [read, hit by car] but as you know, i escaped with a scarred leg that is also numb...but i was wearing jeans. i was wearing a singlet and no gloves, but my upper body sustained no scrapes, nothing....i got two tiny little nicks on my thumb...my kitten could do worse, lol. and when summer rolls around...yes, ill be back into my singlet. dont really plan on getting knocked off again for a while though. im much jumpier on the brakes.

but do think the paper was a fool to publish such a photo.... the scooter girls [ie, nifty fifty] are bad enough...and they ride with no respect for anyone else. all they will do is encourage more scooter riders to wear less. even in winter in the piss pouring rain they come in....tshirt, shorts and a pair of flat or slightly heeled sandals. wtf??

BC....what is the possible outcome if i reported one of these girls, who is a regular and rides without her lid done up? ive seen her do this a few times and have always considered reporting it.

[Wolf]

Makes no difference whether you've been riding for two months or twenty years, you'll know the consequences of not wearing appropriate riding gear about one second after you hit the road.

Actually, it's somewhat longer than that. You have to wait until the body's automated protection wears off and you start feeling the pain. A second after you hit the road you so wired on adrenaline that you don't know what day of the week it is.

It took me about three-four minutes before my brain "let" me feel what the speedo and tacho did to my nuts when I went over the handlebars...

[hellnback]

Good work in getting the letter in the Herald this morning!!

[Wolf]

A debateable point. On the road, if you fall off, some fault at least must be attributed to the rider. Therefore, in some way, every crash is avoidable.

Sorry, I must disagree. Hazards can emerge suddenly well within your stopping distance leaving absolutely no place to go - i.e. you can't stop in the allocated space and you can't swerve because you do not physically have sufficient room to complete the manoeuvre.

When some bloke u-turned out of a line of parked cars without signalling he was only just outside the emergency braking capacity of the bike. I came to a rest scant inches from his door. Had he started his turn a split second later I would have hit him but at a dramatically reduced speed, had he turned half a second later I would have hit with force.

The driver was, to all intents and purposes, invisible - just another car in a very long line of parked cars; the driver himself obscured by the metal of his own car and other cars in the line.

He did not indicate, he just turned. My only warning was the sudden emergence of the car's bonnet from the line and by the time I started braking he was already broad-side to me. The bike stopped very quickly and I was safe.

OK, I was observant and I reacted appropriately but a good friend of mine has a large number of witnesses to say she reacted appropriately and is in ICU with four smashed limbs and a broken pelvis because it was physically impossible to stop the bike in the distance the idiot in the car gave her. If she had been doing the posted speed limit, she'd most likely be dead.

Recently Lias got clobbered in the side by a car that broke out of a line of traffic without warning - he was in the appropriate "safe" position in his lane - towards the right of the left lane out of the oil track and away from the nearest side roads, driveways and parked vehicles. It did not take long for the car to cross the centrline and connect with his bike.

I've accelerated out of the way of cars prematurely leaving a side road to my left and had them miss the rear wheel by inches - and they had to cross the entire other lane to get into mine! This other bugger was parked close to the centreline before she turned the wheel made her move - a rocket could not have accelerated Lias's bike out of her way, not even if he physically had time to trigger it once realising she was going to hit him. I don't know what part of her bumper hit his foot, so I can't even say he might have saved injury to his ankle by grabbing a handful of throttle, let alone expect him to accelerate his entire bike out of harm's way.

A lot of road accidents, the rider may have done something different to affect the outcome, but there are also a fair few where you're screwed no matter what you do.

I would have thought that on the track you'd be relatively safer as most of the "traffic" is going in the same direction with no T-intersections, roundabouts etc (just a couple of merging lanes). True, if a person cocks up big time, his/her bike may cross into your path (whether it's horizontal or still vertical at the time depends on the cock-up) but it is still likely to be moving roughly in the same direction you are and buy you a bit more reaction time to avoid an accident.

That was just an assumption based on watching a bit of motoGP - I've never raced on a track so I have no real idea of the levels of risk.

[Insanity_rules]

OMG, this chick is making us all look like idiots! I don't know too many riders who would go out with inadequite protection like that and then to be photographed for a newspaper with a huge circulation????

Heres an idea, spend some of that money you've saved on a decent armoured jacket girlie it might just save your extremities someday!

Although, Darwin may just be rearing his head in this situation.

[Lou Girardin]

I can look like an idiot without her help thanks.

C'mon people, who cares?
One cause of resistance to buying bikes is having to wear all that clumsy kit. If this photo gets more people on bikes - great.

It's amazing how the nanny state mentality has even permeated a biker forum.

[Big Dave]

It's amazing how the nanny state mentality has even permeated a biker forum.

As long as she's in a porno style french maid costume who cares.

If people are not aware of the consquences of riding without suitable gear - then there is perhaps some obligation to make them aware of said consequences.

if they ARE aware and choose to make such decisions of their own free will - then piss off nanna - I know what I'm doing and the price.

[Bonez]

i sense a jingle

ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!!!!

[Hitcher]

ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!!!!

Fiddly dum, fiddly dee
Eric the half a bee
Who is this dreaded demi-bee?
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?

[yungatart]

Fiddly dum, fiddly dee
Eric the half a bee
Who is this dreaded demi-bee?
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?

Wrong song Hitcher! It goes like thus:

All together now!!
Tie me kangaroo down sport
Tie me kangaroo down... et al

[marty]

It's amazing how the nanny state mentality has even permeated a biker forum.

my point exactly. there's so many fucking nanas on here it's ridiculous. 'don't do that, you might scratch yourself' - call yourself bikers? some of you are fuckin pansies and cross stitchers more like it. there's plenty of other clowns bleeding the system of much more than i ever will, and i fall off, skin grafts will be the least of my worries. AND i pay full cover health insurance anyway, have gone private for every hospital stay for my family bar one (a push bike crash which resulted in 5 weeks in starship, including 2 weeks in PICU on dialysis, and i now contribute to ronald mcdonald house and st johns annually), so if i want to ride in a singlet and shorts you can all go and get fucked.

[crshbndct]

"The biggest rise in sales had been in GN 250cc models, which sold for about $3500. "They do 28km to the litre, so to fill it up would cost about $17."

what does the mileage ave to do with the cost to fill? put a 30l tan on a gn and it would stillg et 28km/l but cost over 60 to fill

[Virago]

my point exactly. there's so many fucking nanas on here it's ridiculous. 'don't do that, you might scratch yourself' - call yourself bikers? some of you are fuckin pansies and cross stitchers more like it. there's plenty of other clowns bleeding the system of much more than i ever will, and i fall off, skin grafts will be the least of my worries. AND i pay full cover health insurance anyway, have gone private for every hospital stay for my family bar one (a push bike crash which resulted in 5 weeks in starship, including 2 weeks in PICU on dialysis, and i now contribute to ronald mcdonald house and st johns annually), so if i want to ride in a singlet and shorts you can all go and get fucked.

Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh..........