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I ran across this on another forum, and I figured I should share it here.
Link to original article
Can you pass the Sander Test?
or, How to Select Good Riding Gear
Posted March 8, 2004
Please read the disclaimer
Introduction
A very common question among new motoryclists is, "what kind of riding gear should I get?" It's a really good question, and it shows that you're on the right track. Unfortunately, it's also hard to answer well, because everyone will have a different set of requirements for their gear.
This article discusses riding gear in general, but also proposes a thought experiment you can use to see how you feel about a particular piece of gear.
Before we continue, I want to mention the word "accident." This is a word that I use in this article to provide some variety. However, most motorcycle "accidents" can be prevented.
Why Safety Gear? Accidents Happen
A simple fact of life, faced by every motorcyclist (whether they acknowledge it consciously or not) is that motorcycles are unsafe. Being on two wheels, they're much less stable (as in, able to resist tipping over) than a car. There's no safety-cage around a motorcyclist, protecting them from the outside world.
Perhaps the most important lesson about motorcycles*:
It is impossible to reduce your risk of collision to zero.
* and cars
There is literally nothing you can do to completely eliminate all risk of a motorcycle accident when you're riding. You can make that chance very small, but it will always exist. That is why we wear riding gear: it protects us in that instant where circumstances coincide to separate bike from rider, whenever and wherever it may happen.
In a situation where someone makes a mistake, and the rider is separated from his or her motorcycle, the safety gear being worn can mean the difference between waking up sore the next morning and waking up in the hospital, or not at all. Note that it doesn't matter whose mistake we're talking about: the rider's, the SUV driver's, or the deer's. Any one of them can cause a serious enough problem that the rider is suddenly separated from her bike.
In a large number of accidents (search the web for "Hurt Report" to find the data I'm basing most of this on), another vehicle does something to violate the motorcycle's right-of-way. Although there's not a clear breakdown of the kinds of injuries sustained, a lot of damage potential exists for abrasion damage. This could be called a "typical accident" -- another vehicle does something to cause the motorcyclist to crash, and the motorcyclist then slides along the pavement until they come to a stop.
This is the scenario (or ones similar to it) from which most safety gear is intended to protect.
Safety gear is utterly useless unless you wear it, every single time you ride. You can't control when and where a collision happens. The time between the crash starting and you hitting the ground is on the order of tenths of a second, in which time you can't put on any gear you didn't happen to feel like wearing. There's a phrase used on some motorcycle forums, called ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time. ATGATT. If you do that, you will have substantially increased your chances of surviving a motorcycle accident unscathed.
This is not all to say that "accidents are inevitable, so sit back and relax," for the opposite is true. There is so much you can do to prevent collisions -- but that's not what this article is about. By no means should you come away from this article saying to yourself, "accidents just happen, there's nothing I can do about it." You need to take the MSF beginning rider's class, if you haven't already. You need to read articles on how to ride safely. You need to think about how you ride, and learn lessons when you make mistakes. Just wanted to make sure that's clear.
Link to original article
Can you pass the Sander Test?
or, How to Select Good Riding Gear
Posted March 8, 2004
Please read the disclaimer
Introduction
A very common question among new motoryclists is, "what kind of riding gear should I get?" It's a really good question, and it shows that you're on the right track. Unfortunately, it's also hard to answer well, because everyone will have a different set of requirements for their gear.
This article discusses riding gear in general, but also proposes a thought experiment you can use to see how you feel about a particular piece of gear.
Before we continue, I want to mention the word "accident." This is a word that I use in this article to provide some variety. However, most motorcycle "accidents" can be prevented.
Why Safety Gear? Accidents Happen
A simple fact of life, faced by every motorcyclist (whether they acknowledge it consciously or not) is that motorcycles are unsafe. Being on two wheels, they're much less stable (as in, able to resist tipping over) than a car. There's no safety-cage around a motorcyclist, protecting them from the outside world.
Perhaps the most important lesson about motorcycles*:
It is impossible to reduce your risk of collision to zero.
* and cars
There is literally nothing you can do to completely eliminate all risk of a motorcycle accident when you're riding. You can make that chance very small, but it will always exist. That is why we wear riding gear: it protects us in that instant where circumstances coincide to separate bike from rider, whenever and wherever it may happen.
In a situation where someone makes a mistake, and the rider is separated from his or her motorcycle, the safety gear being worn can mean the difference between waking up sore the next morning and waking up in the hospital, or not at all. Note that it doesn't matter whose mistake we're talking about: the rider's, the SUV driver's, or the deer's. Any one of them can cause a serious enough problem that the rider is suddenly separated from her bike.
In a large number of accidents (search the web for "Hurt Report" to find the data I'm basing most of this on), another vehicle does something to violate the motorcycle's right-of-way. Although there's not a clear breakdown of the kinds of injuries sustained, a lot of damage potential exists for abrasion damage. This could be called a "typical accident" -- another vehicle does something to cause the motorcyclist to crash, and the motorcyclist then slides along the pavement until they come to a stop.
This is the scenario (or ones similar to it) from which most safety gear is intended to protect.
Safety gear is utterly useless unless you wear it, every single time you ride. You can't control when and where a collision happens. The time between the crash starting and you hitting the ground is on the order of tenths of a second, in which time you can't put on any gear you didn't happen to feel like wearing. There's a phrase used on some motorcycle forums, called ATGATT: All The Gear, All The Time. ATGATT. If you do that, you will have substantially increased your chances of surviving a motorcycle accident unscathed.
This is not all to say that "accidents are inevitable, so sit back and relax," for the opposite is true. There is so much you can do to prevent collisions -- but that's not what this article is about. By no means should you come away from this article saying to yourself, "accidents just happen, there's nothing I can do about it." You need to take the MSF beginning rider's class, if you haven't already. You need to read articles on how to ride safely. You need to think about how you ride, and learn lessons when you make mistakes. Just wanted to make sure that's clear.