Really ?

[Warlock]

How many of you have had a real motorcycle accident?

I have had a few good lay downs of the bike. The worst was going around a bend just after winter before they had clean the sand off the roads. Went into a hard right hand turn on my little touring bike, front wheel slides out on loose road sand and I go over the windshield into oncoming traffic. Bike gets all twisted up. I burned through on one side the leather jacket, chaps, leather belt and jeans on the pavement giving me a bad case of road rash. Not a mar or scratch on the helmet. Rebuild the bike and drove it for a couple more years before selling it.

 

[Susquatch]

How many of you have had a real motorcycle accident? Not a low speed dump, but a true high-speed ass over teakettle high speed separation of bike and rider?

Depends on your definition of high speed.

Had a guy in a truck DELIBERATELY push me off the highway into a forest. When the dust settled, I slowly moved each part of my body to see if they were still connected. No broken bones. Just lots of cuts and blood.

Converted the bike to off road after that and permanently gave up riding on the road.

Lots of off road ass over tea kettle dumps at high speeds. No broken bones.

 

[BMW Rider]

I do not wear a helmet while bicycling. The day I'm forced to, I'll throw my bicycle through the front doors of the police station. Under 18? Fine. Mandatory for all? Bite me.

And, when I'm stateside on the Hawg & there is no helmet law, I don't wear one there either. Under 18? Fine. Mandatory for all? Bite me. Again...

I'm forced to wear a motorcycle helmet in Canuckistan. When I take it off entering Montana, I can assure you, I can see & hear better without it than with it. And, it's not building a false sense of security, either. Plus, few things make me laugh harder than when I see some young hot rod attired in shorts, muscle shirt & flip-flops on his crotch rocket, replete w/ his $1000 skull bucket.

In addition, before some of you go off all high & mighty about having to subsidize medical costs, etc., etc., etc., what about everyone who engages in risky behaviour, from smoking to drinking to doing drugs to all sorts of physical activity to flying to merely crossing the street and getting out of the bathtub?

The reality of choosing not to wear a helmet and crashing is that there is unlikely to be any burden at all on the health care system. Even the most minor incident will have a high probability of death due to head injury. High speed collisions or crashes have much lower survive-ability, with or without a helmet, but slow speed incidents are very survivable with helmet (and full gear) use. But I do respect it is your choice to use the gear or not to. My choice is to use it all, from head to toes to fingertips. I too have ridden many hundreds of thousands of kilometers over many years, countries and continents, and have never felt that the riding gear ever limited my enjoyment of the ride or made me feel less aware of my situation. I even use ear plugs to protect my hearing and can still hear what I need to. I've also recently added an airbag vest to my arsenal of protective gear.

How many of you have had a real motorcycle accident? Not a low speed dump, but a true high-speed ass over teakettle high speed separation of bike and rider?

This is the Alex Fraser Bridge in Vancouver. Scenario: I’m tootling over the bridge, rush hour, speed limit is 90k. Mid-span, traffic is slowing to look at a fender bender in the opposing traffic lanes. Three or so vehicles going in my direction decide to play bumper cars. They are right behind me, and there are emergency vehicles all over the place dealing with the original fender bender, so everyone in both directions is now stopped. Not me, I’m free to go! So off I go, the lone bike on three lanes of roadway, zooming downhill. Get about a couple of hundred yards from the end of the bridge, and yee hah! I blow the rear tire. Bike shimmies, slides east, then catapults me off the saddle and I’m now flying at low altitude going west. Ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, then stop sliding on the pavement. Do a quick inventory, and I think I have all of my original flesh coverings. My right shoulder and knees are killing me, but I can wiggle all my fingers and toes so it can’t be too bad. Before I can do anything else, an ambulance rolls up. They were just coming off the bridge at the head of all the traffic and were able to prevent me being squashed by a dump truck.

Knees are quite road rashy, and the brake lever on the handlebar is broken. The round knob end of the lever, and some of the straight section of the lever is sticking out of the shoulder of my jacket.

I’m still wearing my helmet. Full face, good quality helmet. EMS dude asks how I’m feeling, I explain the shoulder and knee stuff but say other than that I think I’m ok. He tells me to carefully remove my helmet.

Entire right hand side of my helmet is about 1/8” thinner than it was five minutes ago.

That would have been my face.

I support your right to live as you see fit, but not wearing a helmet could be a very poor choice.

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I have in all my years of riding only ever had a single at speed crash in which I hit a deer (can't even begin to count the number of near stopped dumps while adventure riding). I immediately went down as the deer hit the front tire from the side, I slid about 60 feet further down the road than the bike did. I did end up with a broken ankle from the bike coming down on it and really messed up my shoulder from my elbow impacting the road. I did not however have a single scratch and only minor bruising on my elbow from the impact thanks to my full suit with CE rated armour. My helmet was seriously scraped and my gloves, jacket and pants all were shredded and torn. Without the gear I likely would not be writing this today. I replaced all the damaged gear and the bike and never hesitated to get back to riding - once the injuries healed.