For you guys that bike to school/work/uni

[Ride it till the red]

Got a 20-30 minute ride to work and back every shift.

All my gear goes on. Every time.

Came up to a set of lights in town the other night. Scooter guy pulls up along side. Shorts and tshirt no gloves. Grinning away in his open face helmet. Leans over and says "Aren't you f..n hot in that gear".....

I nod my head in reply.

Light green and off he shoots....wobbling all over the place. Now I am only going around the next corner to stop and get some money out.

i stop and get my money. Back on the bike, and head off towards work.

Fuck me. goes around the next corner and see's scooter lying in the middle of road... Scooter boy off to the side, yelping in pain.... Bitumen burn's gotta hurt...

Nice lot of skin missing from his legs, and his hands look like bloody mince meat. Elbow and forearm is pretty much the same way. And he was going scooter speed.....

Thanks goes to Scooter Boy for the reiteration of the advice lots on here try to give others..I'll always be a ATGATT type of rider

Ouch, guess people learn one way or another (or not at all?)

I see what your saying, and would never encourage others not to wear gear, I know it's possibly a bad decision not to but I live with that possibility

[Nagash]

To work, (5 minutes down a windey road, Scenic Drive) I wear my Leather Jacket, no gloves, work pants, steel capped working boots and a half helmet (I've got two full face helmets aswell but they don't fit on the bike lock).

I accept the risks of injury and have binned like this in the past loosing skin on my legs and hands but I don't go to A & E. Just grin and bare it.

On any other ride i'd wear my full leathers but there's little to no facilities for me to store all my gear at work.

[breakaway]

Ok I gotta ask Ride it till the red, aren't you worried about how much it will hurt / how much time you'll lose when something like this happens to you?

Bear in mind that such a major injury could have been easily avoided by an additional minute or two for putting on your jacket / jeans

Also, I'm not one of the ATGATT crew. I go to uni every morning, riding through the heart of Auckland City with moron drivers all over the place wearing jacket / gloves / helmet (and sometimes boots if I get bad vibes). I'll always wear jeans though.

[Squiggles]

Jacket, gloves, helmet. Full leathers if its wet / i suspect the trip will be more dangerous than usual. Wore the leather pants in my first year tho

[Squiggles]

Ok I gotta ask Ride it till the red, aren't you worried about how much it will hurt / how much time you'll lose when something like this happens to you?

I'm one to advise that gear is a good idea, and say why, but if they choose not to its their choice made, i prefer to know that any possible suffering will not be because of a sheltered life (i.e. they never considered that they would come off) but more because of a choice they perhaps should have made differently

[marioc]

Full leathers,riding boots,gloves the whole nine yards.
I dont intend to find out the hard way when I fall off.

[Badjelly]

Burn them!

The safety-Nazi Nazi rears his ugly head yet again!

[Ragingrob]

If I'm riding to Uni from my old flat or somewhere within like a 2 stage bus fare in Auckland I'll ride with boots, jeans, leather jacket, helmet, and gloves. If it's any more than that eg. On the motorway, then I'll don my armoured cordura pants also.

[klingon]

Well in the work i currently do I'm not eligible for ACC ...

Good news: If you're a NZ resident you're eligible for ACC whether you're at work or not.

I ride to work every day from Mt Albert to Glenfield - about half an hour including city traffic and motorway conditions. I always wear the gear!

Full face helmet
Gloves
Armoured boots
Armoured jacket

Trousers are a bit more tricky. My main riding pants are armoured cordura with a quilted lining - and the lining isn't removable! For my first year of riding I wore them over my jeans or long work pants every time I got on the bike. Last January/February I just about passed out from heat stroke every day on my way home from work!

This summer I rode in jeans all of January while I was looking for a pair of Draggin jeans that fitted me. I ended up buying a pair and getting them altered (by Kerrie of course) so now I will be wearing Draggins! Yay!

Also Santa bought me a Spidi Airtech jacket so the wind can blow through the mesh. Luxury!

I still get hot while waiting at lights or moving in slow traffic, but I would prefer that than taking the risk of road rash.

[HungusMaximist]

For me, Uni is about a 8-10 min ride.

On days that aren't rainy, I wear a Jacket, Jeans, Gloves, Helmet, and normal walking shoes.

It's all about how I feel for that day, somedays I'll chuck my walking shoes in top box and don some boots and swap them when I get to uni.

I usually try to prepare myself for the worst and don the full frikking gear when the weather is looking shit but yes, I admit and many do also, it is a bitch lugging around all that gear for a short 10 min trip.

[Ride it till the red]

Quote:
Originally Posted by breakaway
Ok I gotta ask Ride it till the red, aren't you worried about how much it will hurt / how much time you'll lose when something like this happens to you?


I'm one to advise that gear is a good idea, and say why, but if they choose not to its their choice made, i prefer to know that any possible suffering will not be because of a sheltered life (i.e. they never considered that they would come off) but more because of a choice they perhaps should have made differently

Exactly, from reading that story i think the case was slightly different (doing reasonable speed on a larger sportsbike as a pillion). I would never ride as a pillion without all my gear as I don't trust it nearly as much, not because I'm a better rider than whoever I would be behind but because a pillion is more weight and I prefer to be the one making the decisions when unprotected. I've taken into account what it would be like and how easy it is to protect against it but as I said it's a calculated risk and for me on those short journeys alone it is preferable to take the risk.

[paturoa]

I always have clean undies too (though some are overdue for the rag bag !)

Good call BT.

[Mole_C]

Always wore helmet, gloves + full leather and normal shoes when i went to uni and just suffered carrying it around till i got a locker. Seeing the bone in my mates knee cap after a 50km crash put me off ever riding without gear. After the 2 crashes i've had i'm dam glad i have all the gear and especially glad the guys at cycletreads made me get good boots. After having the bike land on my foot and sliding along where my exposed ankle would've been i'm lucky i wasn't still in my skate shoes and got off with just a sprained ankle.

[Magua]

Helmet, jacket and gloves always to uni. I have been known to skimp on the boots and pants though. Too fucking hot to carry all that crap around.

[stevewederell]

I have a 20 - 30 minute commute each day each way and wear full helmet, gloves (although not armoured), and padded (or is that armour - what's the difference?) jacket and pants. No boots at this stage but will be when I start doing longer rides I'll there...boots 'n all!

The kicker is I'm just a newbie and am currently denting the seat of a GN250!