How much protective clothing do you wear?

[Danny Crawdad]

I ride with full gear (Firstgear armored leather jacket, full face helmet, kevlar/leather gloves, riding jeans with kevlar seat/hips and armor in the knees/shins, heavy leather riding boots). Even in 100f Alabama summers. If you have a QUALITY jacket with good venting options, being hot isn't even an issue. Hydrate at every gas stop.

See too many people busted up all over the highway. Saw too many "half" and "3/4" helmets flipped off and skulls busted open in my last job. Yeah it's your own life and people should assess their own risk tolerance, but do consider your family. Wife, husband, kids, mom, dad, siblings. That tiny piece of polycarb and foam on the top of your head isn't going to stop your jaw, chin, and nose from turning into pudding on the asphalt.

I also get tired of hearing people (usually weekend v-twin warriors) say that "you're dead if you wreck above 20mph anyway". Tell that to my brother in law who highsided at 180mph on the track, and walked away from it. His gear saved his life. Again, everyone's decisions are their own and we should have the freedom to wear as much or as little gear as we want, but it makes me cringe to hear people downplay the much higher risk of riding without proper protective gear.

Someone in this thread mentioned how they caught a june bug between the eyes and it almost took them off the bike. I've been hit in the face-shield by bugs, flying metal parts, and tire tread kicked up by trucks. You know what happened in each of those cases? I heard a loud "THUD" and kept riding.

Ever see the steel belts from tire tread "alligators" rip someone's face to bloody shreds? I have.

[Axel]

Thank you

I just gotta say that was a very good post .

[LoHo]

A couple of months ago I hit the front of a car that was going about 10mph and I was going about 35mph, maybe a little less (braking vigorously from about 52mph, I didn't have time to check speed as I hit). The bike went under the car and I bounced off the front. Full-face helmet, River Road armored jacket, steel-toed boots. My only real injury was a "deglovement" of my left knee by my grip, and I am still recovering from that. Some rash on my right leg and swollen knees, and my slip-on gloves came partially off from skidding, so a little rash on the hands. I bought velcro gloves to replace them.

I also looked into some sort of armor for my legs, as I would have had only bruises otherwise. The doc told me that if I'd had kevlar pants or armor on, I might have snapped off my leg, as the energy of impact had to do something. The energy was spend shucking my knee like an ear of corn, rather than snapping the bone or tendons.

Who knows what the next wreck will be....

[jetmechmarty]

I wear "SLIDERS" kevlar lined pants. Maybe they would have shucked a layer of cotton rather than skin? It's impossible to tell.

[Danny Crawdad]

The doc told me that if I'd had kevlar pants or armor on, I might have snapped off my leg, as the energy of impact had to do something.

I am not a doctor, but I do not at all believe this. The doctor is correct in that the impact would have had to have gone somewhere, but doesn't seem to understand that the entire point of kevlar is that it absorbs and disperses impact. I imagine the kevlar would have absorbed and dispersed a great deal of the impact of the grip, just as it does with the impact of any high speed object (like a bullet).

The amount of impact that is going to be imparted to an object in a given crash is going to be static -- it is a factor of a few things including velocity relative to the impacting object, and weight. The effect that impact load has on vital parts (your flesh and bone) is going to be determined by how that impact load is dealt with by the materials protecting the vital parts. Denim is better than nothing, but kevlar is definitely superior to denim at dispersing that load.

[Danny Crawdad]

Your flesh does absorb impact (one of its functions), but if the force of the impact load didn't break your leg then, I can't see how further dispersal of that (given, basically constant) load would make it more likely to cause serious injury. If it was going to break your leg, it likely would have broken your leg as it pierced your flesh.

Of course this is all theory, accidents are weird things. If there's evidence to the contrary, I would definitely read it even if it proves me dead wrong . The more we know about how to improve our safety on these things, the better!

Most importantly, glad you are okay LoHo! That is what matters, hope you have a speedy recovery. Have you been back on the bike?

[LoHo]

The doc said the energy of my flying through the air after the abrupt stopping of the bike was dispersed by shucking my leg, and if that hadn't happened, the energy would have been expended some other way, as in snapping the femur. I haven't ridden since the accident, as my leg doesn't bend enough and my working bike was totaled.

By the way, without a helmet I would have been killed or nearly so. On the other hand, with all the gear I had, I came this >< close to getting away with only bruises.

[cywelchjr]

I think the doc doesn't understand how the armored gear works. I'm pretty sure it would have taken up the blow without that damage to your leg. Yes the impact does have to be absorbed. That's what the armor does, and typically destroys itself in the process.

[natemoen]

Kevlar does not rip ot tare like skin, denim, or other things like that. So IIRC you said it was your pointed handlebar grip end that caused the damage right? So if your grip punched through the kevlar pants then one of two thinks probably would have happened, 1) you would have swung around the bars smashing into thing quite likely breaking your femer or 2) the pants and possibly your leg would have stayed with the handlebar.

Kevlar is used because of its rip resistance, most of the time that is a good thing, but when the plantes align against you things don't turn out good.

[LoHo]

My grip end wasn't pointed, just a squared-off chrome cap, but I got hung up on it anyway. My original post was a warning to those that might have cool spear points or arrowheads that those might be a bad idea.

[DGXSER]

When I was a rocket scientist (designed jet engines, controlled rockets) we used kevlar for blade containment. A fan blade on the commercial engines might just come loose, and we can't have them flying through the air or into the passenger compartment of the plane, so they wrap the assembly in Kevlar thick enogh to stop the blade from penetrating at full operating RPMs. When you see one blow out into the kevlar, you see the kevlar deform over an area and then go back to shape.

Yes Force= mass X speed, and that force is applied over the area it impacts. Even with Kevlar on, the area it impacts does not change, the Kevlar does try to spread it out. It is only going to spread so far, and that will nto be over the entire kevlar area.

I do agree the doc is mistaken, your leg took the force it was going to get with or without the kevlar, and it did not break. The impact force was not going to change, if it did or did not tear your flesh. And the impact force is what would have broken the bone if it was sufficient to do so. The tearing of the flesh was a movement energy, not impact energy, without the tearing of the flesh, most likely you owuld have slid further when you hit the ground. You were moving at a higher rate of speed than the handle bars of the bike, so the bars slowed you down by obsorbing that momentum by tearing the flesh. Now, if you hit your leg hard ons omething after passing the handle bars of the bike, then it is possible that did reduce the force of impact and save you a borken bone. But then, bones seem to heal much faste than torn ligaments, tnedons, and muscle.

[IanDMacDonald]

Full-face helmet, leather gloves, jeans, boots, and Tourmaster Transition II jacket.

[Crusty Snippets]

Gear

I actually have a few things to say about this.
For the younger riders your goal should be to ride for as long as I have, and still walk straight.
That generally means no crashes on the public roads and avoid solid objects.
I have crashed too many times to count on the paved tracks, and probably hundreds of times in the dirt. Sliding on wet pavement is much easier.
Several of my crashes were done at over 100mph.
I used to be the rider safety inspector at Westwood track in BC.
I have had a helmet in my hands, just removed from a dead friend. Killed at the track. Was not a pretty site. I have split a Shoei up the right temple area. Concussion can mess with your memory much longer than you realise. The reason is you do not remember what you forgot. It slowly returns.
I wear warm socks, army boots ( cheaper than riding boots ) with covers if it is raining, long john type leggings, bib ski pants with Alpinestar rain paints on top.
Same underwear on top, a polo type shirt for the collar, a marino wooly, an alpaca wooly, a vest if needed, an Alpinestar jacket with armour, a silk scarf and lined leather gloves. Have covers for the gloves for the rain.
I become a slow peeler as the weather warms up, down to jeans shirt and leather jacket.
But always a full face helmet, often the Shoei, and leather gloves.
I built spats for Yami, bolted to the frame and crash bar, helps deflect the rain from my legs. Have to ride too much in the rain. I try to tell myself I used to be good at it.
Unkle Crusty

[tv5150]

Atgatt

This is mesh jacket with removable liner, and I wear heavy jeans (been meaning to get some "draggin jeans") When it's cold I wear heavy
Joe Rocket riding boots and when it's warm I wear BMW vented mesh boots (they do make a world of differrance when it get a little warmer) AND my bike is a HotRod Pearl Yellow GoldWing. IF someone tries to use the old "I didn't see him" they gotta alotta 'splainin to do!!!

[Nubian]

I ride FULLY protected head to toe during ALL seasons with weather appropriate gear! Same for the Mrs. And I do care what we look like