GoldOxide_imp said:
After being dragged down hill under the beast, shattering a few material things, and seriously bruising others, I was later days down touring in the U.S. on the same bike. I am amazed they let me in with a shattered windshield.
The drive to ride was still within me, and that wasn't even the best example.
I will reinforce the aspect that the armored mesh jacket, the helmet (which did its job), gloves and maybe most importantly in my case: Ankle protection boots were factors. Regular everyday jeans amazingly did not fail and were used for over five years later when the crotch material finally gave out.
Maybe there is no phobia here, but phobias we do have.
While staying at a motel after a long day of riding, some riders have no problem dropping their face into a stained yellow-brown pillow and cuddling into in a droopy/sagging, brown splotched bed mattress. Others, well, phobia kicks in. Whatever your thrill or ill, don't bring those bed bugs home.
For someone who travels for a living, staying in some questionable motels for weeks at a time all year, this is one thing that I have come to live with. But, I did have a personal revelation on my recent trip to Oregon. Since the ride was on my dime, and I'm a cheapskate, I booked Motel 6 rooms all the way up. My Waterloo was the location in Fort Bragg. I've stayed in motels that were condemned for mold shortly after I have stayed there, but this place took the cake. Homeless rummaging around, lots of noise, scratchy bed... Since I couldn't sleep, I stayed up cancelling my motels for the rest of the trip and booking nicer locations, while glancing outside every ten minutes to check on my bike. I didn't spend much more, but enjoyed the overnight stops much more for the effort for the rest of the trip.
misterprofessionality_imp said:
KiowaEagle_imp said:
We had a rider go down on our ride Saturday thankfully with no serious injury. She was wearing a mesh jacket and riding boots but just regular jeans, a few scrapes on her legs but nothing bad. Also had a small but good scrape on the side of her helmet that most likely would have been bad if not wearing one. But what struck me the most was that her knuckles on one hand were scraped. Not really badly but she was wearing leather gloves. They didn't have the hard knuckle protectors though. That's making me rethink wearing gloves without that protection. Apparently it's not just for show.
no sir, those knucks are **key**. however, it's worth mentioning that they actually don't have to be rigid plastic or carbon fiber. even something with CE2 flexible armor pads and a good abrasion resistant covering will do the trick. The part that needs to be a hard plastic (this is speaking from experience) is the slider on the heel of your palm. always check the gloves youre buying for that. if there isn't a hard plastic slider right there you're gonna have a bad time. if all you have there is a pad, it will catch the pavement rather than sliding, causing your wrist to roll under your arm, breaking it nice and neat. I have not broken a wrist but I've seen somebody go down without a palm slider and try to catch their fall with their hands.
You can probably tell that my phobia is to do with my hands. My hands are so important to me, whether for riding, playing video games, working, or whatever. It's one of my few assets. The nastiest riding phobia I have though is one that is all too real for me in Charleston. Ladders. Trucks with unsecured ladders in the back. they fall out onto the highway in front of unsuspecting motorists. Now, if you're in a car and you hit a ladder, it's a hefty insurance claim or probably a totalled car, but you'll be fine. If **i** hit a ladder, it's going to be instantly and unceremoniously fatal. I carry no illusions about this. It's such a fear of mine that i will openly and loudly admonish any stranger I see driving with an unsecured ladder in their truck. This often just gets me a lot of profanity spewed at me, but i'll spew it right back and repeat myself that they need to tie that thing down like a wild animal.
no sir, those knucks are **key**. however, it's worth mentioning that they actually don't have to be rigid plastic or carbon fiber. even something with CE2 flexible armor pads and a good abrasion resistant covering will do the trick. The part that needs to be a hard plastic (this is speaking from experience) is the slider on the heel of your palm. always check the gloves youre buying for that. if there isn't a hard plastic slider right there you're gonna have a bad time. if all you have there is a pad, it will catch the pavement rather than sliding, causing your wrist to roll under your arm, breaking it nice and neat. I have not broken a wrist but I've seen somebody go down without a palm slider and try to catch their fall with their hands.
You can probably tell that my phobia is to do with my hands. My hands are so important to me, whether for riding, playing video games, working, or whatever. It's one of my few assets. The nastiest riding phobia I have though is one that is all too real for me in Charleston. Ladders. Trucks with unsecured ladders in the back. they fall out onto the highway in front of unsuspecting motorists. Now, if you're in a car and you hit a ladder, it's a hefty insurance claim or probably a totalled car, but you'll be fine. If **i** hit a ladder, it's going to be instantly and unceremoniously fatal. I carry no illusions about this. It's such a fear of mine that i will openly and loudly admonish any stranger I see driving with an unsecured ladder in their truck. This often just gets me a lot of profanity spewed at me, but i'll spew it right back and repeat myself that they need to tie that thing down like a wild animal.
Ugh... ladders. The freeways of Southern California are strewn with the mangled remains of them. Especially on my commute, which is from the "working class" part of the county, to the "rich people" part, where all of the work is being done. One of the benefits of being able to lane split here is the ability to pass work trucks that have unsecured loads. Even if I have to squirt around someone at a not-so-legal speed, I'd rather do that than be behind a truck with something that can hit me.
And yes, I'm very careful with my hands. I'm surprised both of mine still work. They're battered, scarred and not all of the fingers point in the same direction after years of working on cars, houses and motorcycles. For the larger things, I can tell you what did it. Still, I do wear good gloves with knuckle protection. Most of the time, my hands already look like they were in an accident, but going to do everything I can to keep 'em intact.
