Too many fatalities this year already

[Skier]

congrats to your sis and your friend...practice, practice, practice makes us all better riders.

My state's sister program has little to nothing to do with my sister.

[Lion_Lady]

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

[sapaul]

Hi all, picked up on this one becasue it is very close to my heart. We also have an increasing fatality rate, not just bikes but we are more vunurable.

In SA we started the THINK BIKE movement and we have had great success and we would love to get this going internationally as well.

go to www.thinkbike.co.za

In short we have acheived a good deal towards road safety. 4 years ago you never saw a rider here with a high viz vest, now we have thousands. ATGATT is everywhere and we have programs like TITTS, (dont laugh, got your attention yeah) Take It To The Schools.

yours truly started a marshals program that we now assist cyclists on their rides and we have captured all of the business for the major cycle races. Thus helping to fund the campaign. We have support services, a shop, media, training, a 15 man committee now. All in 4 short years. Ironically our chairman was killed last year as a bus made a u-turn without warning.

Saying we cant do anything about it is bull, you can, if you want to. We have and we believe we save lives.

It is sad to see this as a world wide trend and if there is anything at all that we can help or assist you guy's with, we will. Visit the web site, have a read, read our forum.

I was a bit lost befoe Think Bike, see 1000 posts haha, but I now have a home with a common cause. No reason why you can't do the same.

[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.

[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

[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.