Too many fatalities this year already

[BuzZz]

When your number is up, it is up and there ain't nothing you can do about it.

I hate this "logic." I see that you wear full gear, so I'm guessinig that you don't take this too seriously, BuzZz.

I hear too many riders (any # of riders using this is too many) use this "reasoning" as the excuse not to bother with gear. I'm dying to respond the next time I hear that statement, "So. If my "number" ISN'T up, I can just lay down in traffic, and nothing will happen?"

P

Actually, I absolutely believe it. But I don't see it as a reason to not gear-up. If it's time for Buzz to buzz-off, it's time, gear or not. But if it isn't time, then I view gear as pro-active pain minimization. And since I don't know when the big moment will actually come, I foolishly assume it won't be today, and the gear is there to save me some ouch time.

[Nalian]

Almost all the new riders that park at the motorcycle lot at work are under-geared. It drives me crazy, but there's not much I can do about it. My buddy who just started riding has everything except riding pants - I just can't convince him to buy a pair yet. I'm hoping the summer heat will convince him to buy mesh pants so he can wear shorts to work. Who knows, though.

For me, I'm just making sure I always gear up, wear reflective gear, and watch for the crazy people. For commuting I try to pick the easiest roads to deal with that have the least amounts of folks who can turn into me. It helps a lot I find here in Boston - but our drivers are known to be a bit bonkers no matter what.

I don't know man. I bought a set of mesh pants (very cheap, so maybe not representative) and I had zero confidence in them. I ended up throwing them out - after purchasing some hocky like pads to go with them... It was too much work.

RhadamYgg

That's too bad. I know 3 folks who have gone down in mesh gear - all walked away from it with very few scratches. One of them slid quite a ways down the asphault and had very little roadrash to show for it. Sore for two days then back to up and around. Not bad for t-shirt and shorts under mesh gear, IMHO. Jeans never would have held up that well.

FWIW these are just joe rocket phoenix pants. Not cheap, but not very expensive either.

[RhadamYgg]

Almost all the new riders that park at the motorcycle lot at work are under-geared. It drives me crazy, but there's not much I can do about it. My buddy who just started riding has everything except riding pants - I just can't convince him to buy a pair yet. I'm hoping the summer heat will convince him to buy mesh pants so he can wear shorts to work. Who knows, though.

For me, I'm just making sure I always gear up, wear reflective gear, and watch for the crazy people. For commuting I try to pick the easiest roads to deal with that have the least amounts of folks who can turn into me. It helps a lot I find here in Boston - but our drivers are known to be a bit bonkers no matter what.

I don't know man. I bought a set of mesh pants (very cheap, so maybe not representative) and I had zero confidence in them. I ended up throwing them out - after purchasing some hocky like pads to go with them... It was too much work.

RhadamYgg

That's too bad. I know 3 folks who have gone down in mesh gear - all walked away from it with very few scratches. One of them slid quite a ways down the asphault and had very little roadrash to show for it. Sore for two days then back to up and around. Not bad for t-shirt and shorts under mesh gear, IMHO. Jeans never would have held up that well.

FWIW these are just joe rocket phoenix pants. Not cheap, but not very expensive either.

hmm, probably an instance of me picking up $25 super extra low-cost pants that really didn't meet the specs of what I'd need from pants.

I'll check those out - because I'll need some lighter gear in the depths of summer.

RhadamYgg

[kawgurl]

Another death on the Calgary streets last night - the radio announcement went something like this: "rider on a sport bike doing 200 km/hr on Deefoot Trail (our main freeway/thoroughfare) loses control and rear ends vehicle"...

[Brackstone]

I have two friends who want to ride motorcycles.

One will wear jeans but not special jeans even if I bought them for her.
The other won't wear anything other than maybe fingerless gloves and sunglasses and a brain bucket.

[RhadamYgg]

Another death on the Calgary streets last night - the radio announcement went something like this: "rider on a sport bike doing 200 km/hr on Deefoot Trail (our main freeway/thoroughfare) loses control and rear ends vehicle"...

I have a bunch of relatives in that area. It always amazed me how well planned out that city was, but all the streets were named trails!

That sucks about the biker. I wish there was a way to exclude this from the fatality statistics - or have it in a full statistic and then a separated statistic so we can have a real idea of what our risks are when riding - if we do not ride on local streets and hyper velocities.

RhadamYgg

[havegunjoe]

We just last night had another biker go down. He hit a deer, flew over his bars and got hit by the car behind him. I don’t know how many that makes for MN this year but I had heard the rate was up.

[High_Side]

Another death on the Calgary streets last night - the radio announcement went something like this: "rider on a sport bike doing 200 km/hr on Deefoot Trail (our main freeway/thoroughfare) loses control and rear ends vehicle"...

I'm 39 years old and still get the phone calls from my mother to see if it was me......

They also said that the guy that he was racing took off, choosing to save his own skin rather than help someone who was dying. Bummer.

[ceemes]

Last week after picking up my new fishing license, a young lad pulled up beside me on a Ninja 250, he was wearing an expensive Shoei brain bucket, some nice gloves, t-shirt, shorts and trainers....oh yeah, and a full torso amoured vest, something like this:

.......I'd say he was half way there.

[jaskc78]

yeah, i see a lot of the shorts/t-shirt with vest armor around here in tucson, too. sometimes with a helmet but most times not.