Excellent Article About Protective Gear

[Guest KTMrad]

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-

[Buckshot 0]

Bravo!

Good Post.

I'm a freak about armor... Motorcycles, Mountainbikes, Snowboards, Climbing, Shooting... I currently have 6 helmets for my various sports, not to mention every conceivable type of body armor!

If you want to see first hand what type of damage happens to mountainbikers (which is simular to off road MC riders), check out this crash photo section at mtbr.com:

Crash Wounds

I warn you in advance... some of it is not too pretty!

I've been down so many times, in so many ways, without serious injury, due to being armored-up, I'll preach armor use all day long!

[Crawdaddy 96]

Riding Without Gear - A Personal Choice

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 Agree.....

Jarrett and I have Big Bear, Tahoe and Bass Lake on the agenda in the next two weeks......so I decided to invest in some updated safety gear for me and the boy......

Bought those bitchin KTM/Thor combo shin/knee/thigh guards that I first saw on Schwinn.....great flexibility/comfort and protection:

KTM Knee Guards

And in that same theme (flexibility/comfort/protection) - bought us both the Thor "Impact-Rig SE" jackets....underarmor rather than bulky chest protector......

Thor Impact-Rig SE

[Paul 0]

I normally use these: unless I am moving my quad in my yard in first gear.

Chest Protector- Nice Back protection, Good colar-bone protection, but it does zip-up in front so I question how good it is on chest protection compared to the thor.

http://www.evs-sports.com/products/product....asp?prodID=169

Knee Braces - no complaints except the price. They have aluminum "hinges" to reduce the chance of hyperextension.

http://www.evs-sports.com/products/product....asp?prodID=118

[dirt dame 561]

I read an article in the paper this morning about a young navy man who died in a motorcycle accident on Otay Lakes road. He was wearing a helmet, but died of major head injuries. I would never ride without a helmet, as I have landed on them more than a few times and land on one so as to damage it in such a way that the damage was immediately highly visable. (not scrapes, but huge fracture lines) I generally don't wear much other protective gear-leathers with internal armor on the road or kneeguards and a kidney belt along with the usual offroad outfit for the dirt. I will wear body protector and elbow guards if I am riding in a competition or a very large group event.

I have broken my right arm, my right femur, my right hip, torn my right rotator cuff, torn my right thumb out of the socket and poked a hole in my right knee cap. What I need to do is quit falling down on my right side, although I have not been seriously injured since 1988. And when I tore my rotator cuff, I didn't even fall off of my bike; I was riding a section in an observed trials event and got off balance while unexpectedly negotiating a floating turn on a boulder and it pulled my arm right out and tore that rotator.

I feel like the article posted above was written by my old orthopedic surgeon who wished I would quit ridng after the head-on that broke my femer and hip in 1975. He advised my to NEVER ride again.

The point I am trying to make is that I just want to be careful and alert, enjoy my sport and not think about all that horrible stuff. I went through some and was pinned up in traction and then in a cast which took close to a year out of my life. I am lucky that I am in as good a shape as I am in today. Stuff can happen anywhere, any time beyond our control. One of my teen times riding pals whole family died when their small plane crashed into Volcan mountain back in the 70s. He wasn't with them, but he lost everybody and never really recovered.

Ride safe, be alert and above all, enjoy-because you never know WHAT will take the joy of motorcycling away from you.

[backhoedoc 0]

Good Stuff! Thanks for sharing it's allways good to read these stories and thoughts from fellow riders. It makes all of us better riders. The Doc.

[pyro 1]

When I first started riding with SDAR, the guys told me right off that bat that I needed boots at the very minimum, so I went and got my first pair of mx boots. Wow what a difference !

I CAN"T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR THAT MY FRIENDS ! ! !

On a solo ride a few months back, I took a pretty nice digger at around 30-40mph or so. I hit the ground so fast there was nothing I could have possibly done about it. I didn't see it coming at all. When I hit the ground, my head ended up smashing right into a medium sized rock. My chest/ribs landed on another larger rock. After getting my leg out from under the bike, gathering myself up, and appreciating the ringing in my ears, I took a look and found the nasty rut hidden under loose dirt that got me. Without a helmet I would probably still be laying out there. I ended up with some cracked ribs that ached for more than 3 months, and a badly bruised knee. That's when I stopped saying 'who need gear if you don't crash', and finally invested in some armor.

I ended up getting the THOR impact rig se and a pair of alpinstar knee pads. It's a pain putting all that crap on, but I feel so much safer and better when I ride. It was the best couple hundred bucks I ever spent in my life!!!

It's a shame I had to go get hurt first to realize it.

A perfect example of learning something the hard way, but not as hard as it could have been, as exemplified in the spine tingling descriptions in the first post. Thank you SDAR for raising my safety awareness!!