All the gear, all the time.

[Pockets]

[Batfink]

Ur lucky to be talking about it dude..

Thanks for posting it as we all get a bit relaxed about the important stuff sometimes..

[grapyono]

I had an off on the Oxley Highway. 90 km/h only but instant stop into a drain! Hurt like hell! Right leg sore for 12 months after that one. I was wearing all the gear that day. I picked the beast up out of the mud and off I went. If not for the gear I would not have fared so well!

ALL THE GEAR ALL THE TIME!

[Pockets]

Good gear saves lives and prevents stays in hospital. It's the difference between dusting yourself off, bitching about fixing a bike and skin grafts and much much worse. The young blokes who think they are invincible sometimes forget this. When your watching the road slide by millimetres from your nose through your visor you will never contemplate anything other than a full helmet. A half face will give you just that in an off...half a face. My hands still leak because the sweat glands didn't heal properly. I only have partial movement of my right thumb, sections of skin that were ground off that should have had grafts but didn't, have not healed so well and are scars that feel like permanent bad sun burn. Scars aplenty. They say dress for a crash, well I'll be making a Kevlar and sorbothane body armoured suit lol. Current motorcycle gear falls short of the available tech these days.

[jamdonut]

[Zoro]

At work I often get asked why I need to wear the gloves, jacket, boots etc...

Usual reply is "Dress for the crash, not for the ride".

As mentioned above, If I don't wear it I spend most of my time worrying about the "What ifs" and not concentrating on what's happening. Even something as simple as an open zip on my back pack, I'll worry about my stuff falling out the whole way instead of just stopping and checking that it's fully closed. So once I'm geared up and double check everything is good to go, set my mind at ease, my full attention is on the riding. Similar to a step back 5x5, just takes a couple of extra seconds to ensure everything is right.
If anything untoward happens after that then I have no excuses about spending too much thought on trivial BS instead of the job at hand.

[revhead]

i too dress for the slide not the ride ,im not giving the road anymore of my skin ,being 50 an having lost skin ,im over the rash an the burn n the time it takes to regrow ,agatt for me

at 17 hit by a driver on the wrong side of the road ,i woke up in a table drain covered in mud and missing much skin ,

at 19 hit by a police car doing an illegal u-turn ,had multiply layers on ,lost so much skin broke so many bones paralysed down my left hand side for 3 months,

at 48 got taken out by a dog at 41ks an hour ,was wearing moleskin jeans steel cap work boots ,leather jacket ,gloves an helmet, i lost 1/4 of my left butt cheek on the road, no more skin off for me

[Pockets]

At 19 slipped in gravel on the road at woodford at about 80kph and hit a guard rail. Full gear. Dislocated left elbow.
In 20's hit from behind at stop light. Full gear no injuries.
In 20's hit by lane changing bus. Full gear, no injuries.
In 20's hit by lane changing car. Pushed bike under a truck. Full gear, broken little finger.
In 20's hit by speeding lane changing car. Full gear. Slight gouge in a finger where glove wore through.
In 30's slipped in oil at roundabout, full gear, no injuries.
In 40's got complacent. Paid price.