Riding Without Gear - A Personal Choice - Shamlessly copied from ADVRider

Edit: formatting is being funny and it's xceedspeed not ADVrider.. I need caffeine

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Riding Without Gear - A Personal Choice

Riding without boots and crashing might cost you some road rash or foot mash or even in an extreme case might lead to amputation. You might never walk without a limp. You might battle a weight and fitness problem for the rest of your life. You might never walk with pain. But it probably wouldn't kill you.

Riding without gloves and crashing might cost you some road rash or a munched hand or the severe, excrutiating pain of mangling a body part rich with nerve endings. Or you could lose a finger or two. It could cost you the ability to play ball with your son, to properly feel the gentle curve of a womans breast, or to hold a beer. But it probably wouldn't kill you.

Riding without at least an armored jacket and leather trousers or full leathers or an Aerostich or even just a leather jacket and jeans and crashing might cost you serious road rash. You might grind off a nipple. You might embed gravel in your elbow. You might get beef jerky all over your back. You might grind off your kneecap or have a scar resembling Australia on you calf like a friend of mine does.

You would be scarred for life and not be able to walk on a beach shirtless without feeling self conscious. You might end up like Kevin Spacey's character in "Pay It Forward" and have to deal with the same awkward moment every time you remove your clothes with a new lover. But it probably won't kill you.

Riding without a back protector and crashing in all but rare crashes would be inconsequential. However, there are so many variables out there- curbs, fenders, poles, guardrails, debris in the road-any one of these could be the golden BB that nicks your spinal cord in just the wrong way and leaves you in a wheelchair for life. Or, maybe you just have constant sciatic pain in one leg. Or you can't move your legs. Or you have to wear diapers for when you @#%$ yourself, and/or a colostomy bag you have to pull out of your pants leg and squeeze your waste out into the toilet at a bar like a guy I know. Or you can't move from the chest down. Or from the neck down.

Are you good at working joysticks with your mouth? Or maybe you might need a respirator? Or 24 hour care? Certainly, there are impacts that are completely forseeable that would permanently injure you even with the best back protector in the world.

But there are crashes and subsequent impacts that even mediocre back protectors can make that little bit of difference in- the ones you get up and walk away from, sore all over, but walking. Do you want the last time you walked to be when you walked out of 7-11 with a pack of smokes and then got on your bike?

Those precious few steps out the door and over to the bike to be the five steps you remember the rest of your life because the next time you were off the bike you were lying strapped to a backboard staring at the headliner of an ambulance tears running down your face because you couldn't feel the little piggies and you were almost ready to vomit at the stench of your @#%$ because you lost control of your bowels?

Riding without a back protector and crashing might not make a difference, or it might make all the difference in the world. It might not kill you, but it might make you wish it had.

And, finally, helmets. Riding without a helmet and crashing might be of no consequence. You might never even touch terra firma with your head. Or you might give yourself an asphalt facelift. You might get a concussion that results in only a bad headache the next day. You might get a serious concussion that lands you in the hospital for endless CAT scans and MRIs, and for the rest of your days be plagued by migraines. You might fracture your orbital and lose your vision.

You might fracture your skull and end up fully functional but with a horrible Frankenstein like scar and a metal plate that bothers you on cold days and sets of metal detectors in airports. You might have a closed head injury from which you don't awaken from for hours or days or weeks or months-all the while your mother, father, sister, brother, children, workmates, and/or riding buddies come a visit you, filling an utterly depressing hospital room into a gauche jungle of flowers and bright card saying "get well soon!" that you never see or smell. Sure, you might awaken completely normal besides the hole drilled in your head to reduce pressure. Or you might awaken a little fuzzy, unsure who these people are. Or you might awaken and have to re-learn everything it took you all your life to learn, eventually returning to normal or even better like Harrison Ford in "Regarding Henry".

Or you might awaken a man-child, drooling and laughing as you try to stack blocks, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt signed by your mother, father, sister, brother, children, workmates, and/or riding buddies- which you will never read. Or you might have an open head injury, from which the "you" you know will most likely never return.

The rest of your life -be it a day, a week, a month, a year- will consist of feeding tubes, the endless beep and whoosh of the heart monitor and respirator, and the drip-drip or IV fluids, catheters in your rod, and feeding tubes. Of course, you won't mind all of this, you'll be in a dream land no one knows about. Your body will waste away and atrophy. Eventually, the shell that used to be you would give out, and your loved ones would have to make the most grueling decision of their life.

Or, you might die on the road, fluffy gray brain matter mixing with blood and cerebro-spinal fluid. Perhaps you last ride would be twenty miles an hour down the street by your house combined with an impatient young driver and an ignored stop sign.

Or perhaps it would be a ride on the freeway and a pothole denting your rim and popping the front tire off the bead sending you into the guardrail. Or you might go out in a blaze of glory qith a 100 mph wheelie ending the wrong way.

Whichever way, would make maybe a 10 second news story depending on where you live, maybe a paragraph buried on page 32B of the paper. Riding without a helmet could be of no matter- or it could mean the difference between going on as you are now, or having life taken awy from you as if God flipped a switch.

I can live without toes or a mangled foot- but I choose to try and prevent that. I can live with a hand that looks like a burn victim's and maybe relearn to write with my left hand- but I choose to try and prevent that. I can live with a scar in the shape of Australia on my calf- but I try and prevent that. I can live with road rash on my torso and arms- but I try to prevent that. I could live in a wheelchair, agonizing through every day, but I chose to try and prevent that. I can't live as a man-child. I've already played with blocks. I only drool when I sleep.

We all make choices. Gear can't always save you. All the best leather, denim, Cordura, Kevlar, fiberglass, and plastic is useless when fate throws the Immovable Object or the Irresistible Force in your path. But I choose to stack the deck in my favor. If it all ends up for naught and the stacked deck and the cards up my sleeve end up losing to Fate's royal flush, so be it. But I'll try.

-Author unknown-

I like this. I'm all for educated risk taking. It's uneducated risk taking that bugs me.

I'd be fine repealing helmet laws in this state if riders were first forced to take a tour of a neuro ICU or a rehab unit in a hospital. Or maybe just a brief 1-on-1 with a trauma nurse. If after that you decide the feeling of wind in your hair is worth the risk, go right ahead.

If you took all the young guys with spinal injuries due to violence, shallow water diving and motorcycle accidents out of rehab, almost no one would be left. 80% of spinal injuries happen to men 'cause, face it, we're a little stupid.

I just bought a new Snell M2010 rated helmet, and feel much safer because of it. I hope it saves my head when I slam it into something hard.

My motorbike tops out at 55 right now, but I plan on getting a Honda 250, probably sometime this summer. Either way, 55 is deadly.

In reply to paanta:

I've "seen" a neuro ICU, rehab unit, had more than brief 1-on-1's with trauma nurses, trauma doctors, and much more. Let's just say that I've "seen" the neuro ICU real, real close. And a burn ICU for that matter.

Not riding like an idiot (squid), not riding drunk or otherwise altered will do much, much more for you than all your safety gear put together. More lives could be saved by making automobile drivers wear helmets than making motorcyclists.

Let those who ride decide.

A friend of my son wiped out his bike on the interstate a couple of months ago. A car changed lanes into him and he laid it down at 70 mph. Totaled the bike and $400 in riding gear. His injuries consisted of being sore the next day. What gets me is he had to fight to get the other drivers insurance company to cover the cost of the gear.

paanta wrote: I like this. I'm all for educated risk taking. It's uneducated risk taking that bugs me. I'd be fine repealing helmet laws in this state if riders were first forced to take a tour of a neuro ICU or a rehab unit in a hospital. Or maybe just a brief 1-on-1 with a trauma nurse. If after that you decide the feeling of wind in your hair is worth the risk, go right ahead.

maybe I'd agree with you if you could find a way that stopped me from having to pay for your hospital / rehab bill after your ins runs out....... yeah I'm a no feeling shiny happy person..... wear your berkeleying helmet

Dr. Hess wrote: In reply to paanta: I've "seen" a neuro ICU, rehab unit, had more than brief 1-on-1's with trauma nurses, trauma doctors, and much more. Let's just say that I've "seen" the neuro ICU real, real close. And a burn ICU for that matter. Not riding like an idiot (squid), not riding drunk or otherwise altered will do much, much more for you than all your safety gear put together. More lives could be saved by making automobile drivers wear helmets than making motorcyclists. Let those who ride decide.

Have to agree with the doc on this one.

It's really none of your business how I choose to ride, anymore than it's any of my business how, or what you choose to ride, or drive.

If you think it is, I would prefer if you would drive something safer. Will you do that for me?

It's just another form of elitism, where the gear Nazi's like to look down on those who don't wear the gear that they've chosen to pose around in.

Another form of haterism. I wish people would just mind their own business.

I'd be ok with no helmet laws and the like if it was also illegal to have a loan on a motorcycle.

The Corona tanktop, boardshorts, and flipflops on a GSXR-1000 "bro" would be extinct if that was the case.

wbjones wrote: maybe I'd agree with you if you could find a way that stopped me from having to pay for your hospital / rehab bill after your ins runs out....... yeah I'm a no feeling shiny happy person..... wear your berkeleying helmet

If it's money you're worried about, you should have done some studying of the issue. Fact is, you save money by having riders go without helmets, they die quicker and cheaper. A number of studies on the this issue have shown this.

But do consider taking your own medice. ALWAYS wear a seatbelt, only drive cars with ABS, air bags, side air bags, tire pressure monitoring devices and proximity alarms. Support all redlight and speed cameras, etc.

foxtrapper wrote:

wbjones wrote: maybe I'd agree with you if you could find a way that stopped me from having to pay for your hospital / rehab bill after your ins runs out....... yeah I'm a no feeling shiny happy person..... wear your berkeleying helmet

But do consider taking your own medice. ALWAYS wear a seatbelt, only drive cars with ABS, air bags, side air bags, tire pressure monitoring devices and proximity alarms. Support all redlight and speed cameras, etc.

Bikes don't have that stuff, why do cars need it? My car has a built in crash suit. It's... a car.

For the record, i don't really care either way, but wbjones does bring up a valid, albeit obtuse and with a small impact, point.

This was in the helmet I got when I rented a bike last week Not related, but I thought it was funny.

I finally purchased armor and a back protector for my jacket... I had to drink a beer, pace a few times, and drink a beer, but finally lightened my wallet by $150.

foxtrapper wrote: If it's money you're worried about, you should have done some studying of the issue. Fact is, you save money by having riders go without helmets, they die quicker and cheaper. A number of studies on the this issue have shown this. But do consider taking your own medice. ALWAYS wear a seatbelt, only drive cars with ABS, air bags, side air bags, tire pressure monitoring devices and proximity alarms. Support all redlight and speed cameras, etc.

Good post.

Riding without gear to me is akin to driving without the seatbelt buckled...it just feels wrong and I don't feel comfortable. I've conditioned myself to be that way.

The wife and I do make comments while driving about the stupidity of both non-helmet wearing bikers and soccer moms driving SUVs while chatting on cell phones. It's a fun way to pass the time. The helmet law in my state was repealed a few years ago and there's a lot of Darwin candidates riding around now. I begrudgingly support their ability to choose as I don't like gov't telling me what to do, but also support my choice to believe they are morons. I assume it's just nature's way of removing the stupid from the gene pool and worry about myself.

ddavidv wrote: Riding without gear to me is akin to driving without the seatbelt buckled...it just feels wrong and I don't feel comfortable. I've conditioned myself to be that way.

Same here, When I sold my old bike, it was to an non-rider. So I had to show him it ran and stopped. Up and Down the block with tennis shoes and no gloves. It felt so wrong and uncomfortable.

When I see riders without any form of gear I just think of it as god's way of "thinning the herd" a little.

Great post, and good on you for citing the source. I poked at the formatting a bit since tabs throw the board software in a tizzy.

If they repeal helmet laws, they should make anyone in an accident without one automatically an organ donor (if they are brain dead of course). I am suspicious the supply of organs may have decreased since helmet laws (a nice brain dead partially skinned body can be a great source of organs)

This makes me think about bicyclists. We have as many of those or more than motorcyclists around here. It is really hilly, so hitting 35-40 mph on a road bike is really common. Most of the cyclists around here wear helmets, but they don't have to. But bike helmets don't cover your forehead, the base of your skull or any of your face. I suspect it is good to keep those parts intact. I've asked cyclists why they don't wear something like a BMX helmet (or even a skateboard helmet would be a huge improvement). They just laugh at me.

In reply to Otto Maddox:

I can't imagine wearing something much heavier than a cycling helmet while cycling either, but they ought to explain themselves. Just laughing is rude...

In any case, the upshot is that cycling is really hard work. I ride motorcycles as well, and I know that can be physical, but nothing like cycling. The lack of cooling on a full-coverage helmet (even the relatively vented downhill mountain bike type) would just be too hot.

Moreover, unless you hit a curb or guardrail or something, it would be really hard to hit the base of your head or your forehead with a normal bicycle helmet. You're right about the face. When I'm coming down a really steep hill at near-freeway speeds, there's definitely a part of me that would rather stop at the top and change into leathers and my Arai, but it's just untenable.

OTOH, on a bicycle you spend <1% of your time at those speeds, and you are very much aware that you're doing it. Most crashes happen a lot slower.

It's a calculated risk. I really couldn't enjoy cycling while wearing armor and a much heavier helmet, and the level of risk is acceptable to me. In 25 years of avid cycling, I've banged up my shoulder from bouncing off a tree on some singletrack, and had one or two instances of road rash, but that's about it. I recognize that my lack of injury so far is no protection against the future, but I feel that the risk is very reasonable.

I have wondered about bicycle helmets also. I understand the reason you wouldn't want more, but I don't see how the standard one does anything.

They are not really self-supporting so it seems like pretty much any impact, (other then straight down, in which case, you have serious spinal damage potential) it seems like the helmet would just be pushed to the side.

When I crashed on a bicycle a few years back, my handlebars, which I was still holding onto, hit the ground first, then my chin, then my helmet on the side of my head. My chin needed stitches but my head felt otherwise fine. If I wasn't wearing a helmet, my brains probably wouldn't be splattered all over the ground, but I would have probably had a concussion.

When considering a motorcycle accident versus a bicycle accident, in addition to the speed, the weight of the machine itself is also a problem. I imagine that it's easy to get caught up with the bike itself in an accident, and 400 lbs is going to do a lot more damage than 20 lbs.

foxtrapper wrote: But do consider taking your own medice. ALWAYS wear a seatbelt, only drive cars with ABS, air bags, side air bags, tire pressure monitoring devices and proximity alarms. Support all redlight and speed cameras, etc.

I've been wearing a seat belt (without fail every time I start my car) since long before they were mandatory , both of my dd have airbags (as many as were the norm when the cars were new) my crx doesn't ... but it's a race car....I have tire monitoring devices (air gage ) in all my cars... ABS in one of them (wasn't offered in the other 2) no side air bags (weren't offered in many if any when mine were sold........

and I'm going to take a wild guess here and make the assumption that you really don't have a problem with mandatory seat belt requirements....why the angst about helmets ?

I'm a fan of choices, not mandates. I'm also a fan of personal responsibility and liability.

To me... it is a personal risk management issue and some people care and some don't. I'd prefer that was all there was to it.

The people who would dictate how safe I should be for any given activity are motivated by money. That is a broken system elsewhere and it makes finding out what is and isn't really safe and what is unnecessary spending pretty difficult. Look at the motorcycle helmet debacle.

Personally, I do the best I can and I leave everyone else alone with their personal decisions.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The people who would dictate how safe I should be for any given activity are motivated by money.

I don't think most of them are.

That's just how they try to justify it.

That's what haters do.