Protective gear

[H00dz]

India is a bad example in so many ways. If your basic religious tenet was "you'll be back", you'd ride like the clappers in shorts and chandals as well.

LMFAO....Not often I'm Speechless, but that got me

Bling for that

[madbikeboy]

I'm going to wade into this one as well. I've ridden in Malaysia and Singapore, most people wear street clothes. I still wore gear.

You are going to hit the deck, it's inevitable. If you stop moving, eventually you fall over, right. So, with that impending inevitability, why not prepare a little by putting something more capable of dealing with abrasive surfaces during the deceleration segment of your next crash? I ride pedally's as well, and there are days where I wish for lighter full body leathers.

I have had the unique opportunity to have gravel plucked from my back and ass by a couple of hot nurses. Thing is, when you're face down on a gurney and bleeding, there is less sex appeal that you might first guess.

Also, I have thrown live grenades (once, but I threw a few), and I've also been shot at without result, twice. I've been in the middle of a gun battle once as well. Again, that has less appeal than you might first guess.

Edit: Something just struck me, isn't Dpex a brand of panty liners or something?

[jaymzw]

The absense of the opening poster really makes me think this was a piss-take???

What about Molotovs?
Ive thrown one of them.....

[cs363]

plus 10

[TLDV8]

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climat...=site&lc=14015


http://www.stjohnnt.org.au/index.php...146&Itemid=280


.

[beyond]

An old cliche.... dress for the slide and not the ride.
You come off your bike on New Zealand roads at 100kmh and for every second you slide with no protective gear, you WILL lose 5mm of skin and muscle. Some parts of your body don't have 5mm of this stuff so you grind bone instead.

Ever had a bad burn.... multiply that pain by the area of the gravel rash or road seal filing. Once you survive that they give you a scrub in hospital. Rough brushes scrubbing all your skinned bits to get rid of any road matter to stop infection. That's worse than the slide. Then there's the daily dressings for months.

I'm not talking skin grafts yet... where they peel hunks of good bits on your body to plug up the leaky bits. Absolute agony.

I've worn leathers in summer and winter, hot and cold, dry and wet and have never had a problem. In our hottest summers you can drop the front zip a tad and get some air in that way if need be. Once you are at open road speeds or more you stay relatively cool anyway.

Yep, love the feeling of riding without all the gear but it's not worth the consequences should things go wrong and even when you are careful, it's not always your fault.

I like to lessen the odds so have a leather suit, best gloves and boots I can afford and I wear them.

[kasper]

has anyone here ever thrown a hand grenade....just wondering. *

Yes I have and it is scarey as shit even on a training range.

And to the original poster. Get better quality advanced gear.
Hell if I leave my vents open on my cordura by mistake I almost freeze on some rides.

--kasper.

[Mystic13]

lol... his brain shut's down if he wears cordura or leathers. Seems he had a permanent shut down and being brain dead has continued to live on and make decisions with what little brain was left.

As all riders who've tried the different gear know,

Cordura and plastic in winter

Leather and plastic in summer. And leather feels so cool on a hot day. When you're riding. Walking around the Paeroa races for the day in leathers wouldn't be fun.

Summer mesh jackets are great around town but on the open road can get a little cold.

I only wish I was wearing protection when I came off the other day and got road rash. Yes I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Yes I thought the small trip would be harmless. Yes the hill I went down was steep and there was a little bit of an adrenaline rush as I set off with the wind through my hair. (Yep, I had no helmet) Yes I had an audience of my son, his friend, and my wife and a whole bunch of people in the adjoining park enjoying a summers day.

I remember flying through the air and thinking "what the?"

But seeing my son on his skateboard reminded me of being a kid with one and I just had to have a go. I was doing really well for a few metres till I hit the crack in the foot path. Then...

if only I had my full motorcycle kit on I'd be fine.

Thank goodness I only got a scraped knee and arm.

I have to try the hill again and beat it.

[Tunahunter]

Not wearing good protective gear is bad for you - dehydration it makes you really forgetful - and what's more, it makes you really forgetful - RIP Mr Zimmerwhatever

[Swoop]

Waiting for bones and skin grafts to heal, will seriously cut into your riding time.

[slofox]

I have never suffered heat stress in leathers. Ever.

[swbarnett]

I have never suffered heat stress in leathers. Ever.

I have. That's why I started wearing Denim (in the days before Cordura). I would often open the leather jacket fully and do 140 down the motorway just to get a decent breeze and cool me down.

Even now I come close to overheating when wearing full cordura gear. This is why, during the summer months, I seldom wear more than jeans on my legs.

I don't advocate the t-shirt and jandals approach but I can certainly appreciate the fact that we all react differently to heat. Some of us are heat lovers and could run Death Valley in full leathers while others of us are ice lovers. When I lived in Europe I would regularly cycle in -5 to -10 degrees wearing nothing but standard lycra gear (I actually got frost-bite once and didn't notice till the next day).

My point, really, is that we shoudln't judge others as if they're clones of ourselves. You may not like the way they dress but, for them, it may be appropriate. On the other hand they may be complete idiots - it is not for us to judge. After all, the skin they risk IS theirs.

[slofox]

You have a point there - I do like it hot..(as in "Some Like It Hot" haha).
It is possible that the vents in my leathers work better than some. At highway speeds I do not overheat, not even when we had 30's temps with 90%+ humidity recently...bit different if I am not moving however.
Although you say "the skin they risk is theirs" we do all pay to have it repaired...which I think is another factor to be considered...

[dpex]

Riders who think that wearing less will keep them cooler when ambient temperatures are high (35 degree plus) are deluding themselves.

A few months ago I was privileged enough to spend several weeks riding in the USA and Canada. On some of those days the temperature ran into the high 40s and, on occasion, into the low 50s. Wearing a helmet with the visor down was essential. Imagine tailgating an F16 and you'll start to get an impression of how unrelenting and desiccating such conditions are. We stopped every half or so to take on about a litre of water. Every second stop we had a water fight to make sure that the cottons we had on under our mesh jackets got a good soaking.

Here in New Zealand I'm generally in the habit of flipping my visor open when I enter a 50kmh speed limit, just to get a bit of fresh air in my helmet. Once the temperature gets up, believe me when I say that there's no such thing as fresh air, at any speed.

The bike gets so hot you can't touch levers unless you've got gloves on. Take the ignition keys out and they're burning hot. The sheepskin seat covers were a godsend for those times we had to get back on the bike if it had been parked in the sun for a while.

Great fun, but only an idiot or a potato crisp would want to spend longer than a few minutes unclad.

You see, the prob here is speculation not supported with factual evidence.

'My' speculation, based entirely upon observed responses of my own, more than suggest that when dressed in full leathers, helmet, boots and gloves, on a burningly hot day, makes me a danger to myself and others; irrespective of my water intake. My view is, you will appreciate, both subjective and objective.

Tooling up the highway, from Rotorua, on yet another burningly hot day, dressed in a t-Shirt, jeans, shoes, and gloves allowed me to both objectively and subjectively assess my safety.

At no time did I feel any sense of heat-stress.

At no time did I accept my mind was other than focused on the task in hand.

Better yet, I remained entirely conscious of the result of even a minor splat, dressed as I was, thus my concentration was heightened; not lessened by heat stress; which would have been the case had I been wrapped in all the gear.

I can but presume I am the only rider who suffers a personality change when dressed in leathers and all the gear (because I've never asked other riders).

But when I do I develop a certain sense of safety. That leads on to me feeling the need to test it. Like the guy whom I followed today, who went into the sweeper from SH27 to the Southern Motorway, like he was Mr World biker. Dressed to kill, he was. And how he got out of the tank-slapper, halfway through the corner, neither he nor I will ever know. But he was leathered up to die for, and nearly did.

It is my view that leathers are dangerous on various fronts...heat-stress and attitude changes being two obvious. Leathers have an effect on folk.

Ask some Germans, or a few of the gals who work in B&D parlours.

Personally, I love getting leathered-up, especially on the track. Maybe I have German Kaupapa. Gawd. What a horrible thought.

[James Deuce]

You see, the prob here is speculation not supported with factual evidence.

What are you talking about? You just quoted someone talking about their own experience. Factual evidence of experience in temperatures in the 40-50C range.

Big giant fail, chap.

If it was a troll you just lamed it.

If it isn't a troll, you're probably missing half your cerebellum and I should taking the collection plate around to help with your respite care. Your Mum must need a break by now.