Why you're supposed to wear your gear...

[benVFR]

Link

That'll get me to stop wearing jeans for the 3 mile trip to work. (I've been slacking on wearing riding pants lately in the heat)

Ben

[PinHead]

The link isn't working for me
Brings me to microsoft.com

[craig]

Originally posted by PinHead
The link isn't working for me
Brings me to microsoft.com

there's two "http://"'s in the link

That site is definately not for the squeemish but is certainly a wake up call for gear

[mikeb]

jeans are alot better than shorts and a t-shirt like that guy had on. i'm allergic to leather so its jeans for me. i wrecked my old bike two years ago with shorts on and have the scars to prove it. yes i know very squidly!!

[bemused]

Originally posted by blackvfr
jeans are alot better than shorts and a t-shirt like that guy had on. i'm allergic to leather so its jeans for me. i wrecked my old bike two years ago with shorts on and have the scars to prove it. yes i know very squidly!!

allergic to leather?

that's gotta suck!

[mikeb]

sure does suck

[Thrill]

Always wearing full gear has to be automatic, like your pre-ride bike check....

I know yesterday it was HOT and Humid as hell, but I still threw on the full leathers, boots, gloves, helmet before my ride.... saw a nasty accident (SUV/Van flipped) on RT 2 in Colchester, CT.

This is one lesson I do NOT want to learn the hard way !!!!

Nice post on the consequences of NOT gearing up.

[benVFR]

Originally posted by blackvfr
jeans are alot better than shorts and a t-shirt like that guy had on. i'm allergic to leather so its jeans for me. i wrecked my old bike two years ago with shorts on and have the scars to prove it. yes i know very squidly!!

Cordura.

Get an Aerostich or something. Convenient and good in more types of weather than leather.

[TheIglu]

Jeans don't help much at all. I tumbled for about 15 feet and spent another 15 in the air, and I got pretty banged up. Leathers aren't perfect though. If you hit hard on one spot (shoulder usually) like I did, it looks like you didn't wear a jacket. You end up rubbing so hard against the inside of your shirt/jacket that you skin gets left there. That's why my shoulder/hip and elbow were all scabbed pretty nasty when I went down.

Moral of the story:

Leather helps, but goin down is gunna suck no matter what.

[benVFR]

Clayton... you were wearing jeans and a leather jacket?

Curious to hear from some of the racers if a tighter set of leathers fully zipped to the pants still moves around like that...

My Joe Rocket jacket was fairly loose, when I crashed in it, it rubbed against my skin and I got slight scrapes from the inside of the jacket.

It was way less damage than if I hadn't been wearing the jacket though, and I didn't have a long sleeve t-shirt or anything under it.

My leathers fit much more snugly than that jacket.

Ben

[TheIglu]

Yeah, jeans and a leather jacket. Leather jacket isn't exactly loose, thats for sure, and it didn't move much when I hit the ground. I landed from about 8 feet up on my shoulder, but it hit on the padded area of the jacket.

[keeena]

Thanks for the link - I'm going to send it to a friend who likes to ride w/o gear.

[odduc]

Full leathers DEFINITELY work best. I went down HARD in turn 3 at NHIS @ about 90-95mph. I slid on the racetrack for about 100ft before sliding into the grass. I had no skin abrasions whatsoever, but my skin was bright red for a few days after the crash. I did, however, break some bones, which is probably gonna happen if you are involved in a crash where you're thrown from the bike. Asphalt is always gonna be much harder than any part of your body.

Anyway, I do not wear full leathers for street ridin, but rather a leather or heavy duty ballistic nylon jacket, long pants, over the ankle boots, gloves and of course helmet. I would reccomend anyone wear at least the gear that I mentioned, no matter how hot the temps. might be. If you think you're gonna be too uncomfortable with all that gear, maybe you should just stay home until the weather is more suitable. You just never know whats gonna happen out there. It is always better to be prepared.