Any Motörbike riders here?

Haych

Dominic said:

The answer is to keep on doing double bows until there is no hookable lace left.
A pair of ankle length dealer boot type things is ideal really.......no laces ,smart enough if you are going into work /a restaurant etc etc ...your ankles don't get cold and they have a little bit more protection than a shoe/trainer.
Obviously the best protection is a biker boot of some kind but I've never seen a 'nice' pair especially at a sensible price.
 Talking about protection .......does anybody here use/own kevlar jeans /shirt etc ....they seem terribly expensive for decent ones, pretty unstylish compared to normal jeans but most of all I watched a vid where a guy put them alongside a decent pair of jeans and attacked both with a belt sander to imitate road rash ......the kevlar ones only lasted a second or two longer which was disappointing......even so ,they may reduce a bit of road rash but they have no impact protection value anyway.
I think there are waistcoats/jackets you can get now with built in gyroscopic airbags .

I have a couple of pairs of riding jeans. Both are made from much heavier duty stuff than normal jeans and both have armour at the hips and the knees so there is impact protection at the most bony bits. 

My Covec jeans aren’t bad for the price, they don’t look terribly like biker jeans. My Fuel jeans do look like biker jeans but ironically they look better than the Covec. As well as being heavier duty they are both Kevlar lined. 

In a crash I’d much rather be wearing either of these than a regular pair of jeans.

Airbag tech is available, some with clever gyroscopes and accelerometers, which tend to be very expensive and a few of them require sending back to the manufacturer in the event of a deployment for resetting. 

Then there’s the cheaper tethered flavour which, as the name suggests, uses a tethered cord attached to the bike so if rider and bike become separated the jacket deploys. These are cheaper and use a compressed gas canister which can be replaced by the user. 

LastMantra

Kittyfrisk said:

LastMantra said:

It's the word "degloving" that gives me the willies. 

Try having your willy degloved...

Nah, I'm church of Scotland. 

Koa

I had some Hein Gericke boots for years, Velcro straps which maybe says something about me! Great boots though. I now have a pair of  Triumph ‘engineers’ boots…..lace up.

Dominic

I'm so fast that I was overtaken this afternoon by a guy on a powered Unicycle !
I was doing about 40 mph on a 40 road when a thing flashed past me .....a guy standing up with full leathers on and a full face crash helmet ,gloves etc ...he was leaning forward like a speed skater but was riding what looked like a fat wheelbarrow wheel with a set of footboards each side

p90fool

Haych said:

Dominic said:

I think there are waistcoats/jackets you can get now with built in gyroscopic airbags .

Airbag tech is available, some with clever gyroscopes and accelerometers, which tend to be very expensive and a few of them require sending back to the manufacturer in the event of a deployment for resetting. 

Then there’s the cheaper tethered flavour which, as the name suggests, uses a tethered cord attached to the bike so if rider and bike become separated the jacket deploys. These are cheaper and use a compressed gas canister which can be replaced by the user. 

Images of Sam Smith are floating before my eyes...

JEM

Haych said:

Airbag tech is available, some with clever gyroscopes and accelerometers, which tend to be very expensive and a few of them require sending back to the manufacturer in the event of a deployment for resetting. 

Then there’s the cheaper tethered flavour which, as the name suggests, uses a tethered cord attached to the bike so if rider and bike become separated the jacket deploys. These are cheaper and use a compressed gas canister which can be replaced by the user. 

There's quite a good FortNine video on YouTube about these (and yes, some do get a bit Sam Smith-esque)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jZryt607U

It's interesting technology but if I was that concerned about crashing I'd just take the car.

p90fool

Just chilling by a river yesterday...

Kittyfrisk

^ Presumably that one is drying off after you salvaged it from the river? 

Haych

Took a ride from south Wales to Bournemouth and back yesterday to see my stepson. 

Traffic was fairly busy in places but once I’m off the motorway and on the A350 I don’t mind, I just love that road, especially when I’ve cleared the busier parts. 

One thing that struck me on the ride there and back was how courteous other drivers were. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. Even the time when I wasn’t filtering, drivers seemed completely aware of my presence and would pull over to the far left of the road to allow me to pass - some were practically driving in ditches and hedgerows almost to let me by. 

Almost six hours of riding in the day and only one silly woman in a silver Nissan attempted to kill me, too. 

thebreeze

It’s so lovely being out on a bike when it’s like this.  I’ve been getting up early and biking for a swim in Abergavenny at 7am.  Such beautiful countryside.  I enjoy the ride more than the swim obviously 

Haych

thebreeze said:

It’s so lovely being out on a bike when it’s like this.  I’ve been getting up early and biking for a swim in Abergavenny at 7am.  Such beautiful countryside.  I enjoy the ride more than the swim obviously 

You’re can’t be so far from me then. You ever make a pit stop at the Baffle Haus?

AK99

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Presumably that one is drying off after you salvaged it from the river? 

thebreeze said:

It’s so lovely being out on a bike when it’s like this.  I’ve been getting up early and taking the bike for a swim in Abergavenny at 7am.  Such beautiful countryside.  I enjoy the ride more than the swim obviously 

Knew I must have read that 2nd post wrong.

That's your fault @Kittyfrisk.

thebreeze

Haych said:

thebreeze said:

It’s so lovely being out on a bike when it’s like this.  I’ve been getting up early and biking for a swim in Abergavenny at 7am.  Such beautiful countryside.  I enjoy the ride more than the swim obviously 

You’re can’t be so far from me then. You ever make a pit stop at the Baffle Haus?

Is that the cafe on the way to Cwmbran, nr Goytre?  I haven’t ventured too far yet.

thebreeze

^ I see that it is.  I’ve been once, it’s nice and I like that it’s supporting men’s mental health.  We should have a coffee sometime?

Haych

thebreeze said:

Haych said:

thebreeze said:

It’s so lovely being out on a bike when it’s like this.  I’ve been getting up early and biking for a swim in Abergavenny at 7am.  Such beautiful countryside.  I enjoy the ride more than the swim obviously 

You’re can’t be so far from me then. You ever make a pit stop at the Baffle Haus?

Is that the cafe on the way to Cwmbran, nr Goytre?  I haven’t ventured too far yet.

Umm, to be honest I don’t think I know. I know how to get there but I don’t know where it is, if you know what I mean?

Just looked it up and it’s on the A4042 south of Abergavenny. 

Haych

thebreeze said:

^ I see that it is.  I’ve been once, it’s nice and I like that it’s supporting men’s mental health.  We should have a coffee sometime?

Yeah, that’d be good, I’d like that!

AK99

TheBigDipper said:

AK99 said:

^ Same. I remember reading an article in one of the Bike magazine articles back in the day which suggested tales of toe-amputations in steel toe-capped boots  fell into the modern-myth category. I stand to be corrected by more knowledgeable individuals though. 

I just don't know who to trust, TBH, my own experience of never amputating my toes or that of two A&E nurses who see a lot of injuries every day and are trained by others who've been doing their jobs for decades.

 Like I said, just passing it on in good faith. I've no evidence other than their testimony. To clarify further, it wasn’t that the toecaps did the amputation, but the steel cut off blood supply and the toes died, thus requiring amputation. 

I googled further on it -  because I'm genuinely interested to hear if it is 'a thing'. Couldn't manage to find any examples of it being reported formally , but did find a quote from somebody else on Bike Chat Forum who claims he's seen it first hand. How accurate the report is I don't know, but here it is anyway:

"I have dealt with several crashes where the rider has lost their toes or parrt of their foot as a direct result of wearing steel toe caps, although to be fair it tnds to be the exception rather than the rule.  In a couple of crashes, the riders foot was pushed upwards causing the back edge of the steel toe cap to slice across all five toes a nd were found floating around inside the boot. 

The most common injury is where the foot is forced the wrong way so in affect the foot tries to bend back on itself towards the heel but cannot return to its normal position.  In affect the foot breaks in half across the shank towards the front end. 

So, to say it is a myth is not accurate, but it is also not a problem that happens everyday."


For me a piece of somebody else's logic posted in the same discussion perhaps sums it up well:

I would think that its more important that motorcycle boots ave strengthening to stop the boot twisting and fucking your ankle in an accident. 

nothing < trainers < stout shoes < general boots < steelies < M/C boots 

thebreeze

"The most common injury is where the foot is forced the wrong way so in affect the foot tries to bend back on itself towards the heel but cannot return to its normal position.  In affect the foot breaks in half across the shank towards the front end. "

^ I find this kind of thing difficult reading.  My mantra is; every time I go out, the priority is to get me and my bike home safely.  My mother was a nurse and she was particularly negative about motorcycling as a result.

Question:  Have all of you fallen off or had an accident at any stage since you since you started?  Anyone not?

thumpingrug

thebreeze said:

Question:  Have all of you fallen off or had an accident at any stage since you since you started?  Anyone not?

I've been riding 27 years, mostly just commuting back and forth to work when the sun shines, with an occasional longer trip to see family.   I've only been involved in 1 accident, fairly early on in my riding, it was a wet winter day, a long slow queue of traffic, car in front braked hard for no apparent reason, I did the same just as hit a patch of wet leaves causing my front wheel to locked up.  I was probably only doing 10-15 mph, no damage no injuries.  Picked up the bike and carried on.  Current bike as ABS so probably wouldn't happen.

LastMantra

AK99 said:

TheBigDipper said:

AK99 said:

^ Same. I remember reading an article in one of the Bike magazine articles back in the day which suggested tales of toe-amputations in steel toe-capped boots  fell into the modern-myth category. I stand to be corrected by more knowledgeable individuals though. 

I just don't know who to trust, TBH, my own experience of never amputating my toes or that of two A&E nurses who see a lot of injuries every day and are trained by others who've been doing their jobs for decades.

 Like I said, just passing it on in good faith. I've no evidence other than their testimony. To clarify further, it wasn’t that the toecaps did the amputation, but the steel cut off blood supply and the toes died, thus requiring amputation. 

I googled further on it -  because I'm genuinely interested to hear if it is 'a thing'. Couldn't manage to find any examples of it being reported formally , but did find a quote from somebody else on Bike Chat Forum who claims he's seen it first hand. How accurate the report is I don't know, but here it is anyway:

"I have dealt with several crashes where the rider has lost their toes or parrt of their foot as a direct result of wearing steel toe caps, although to be fair it tnds to be the exception rather than the rule.  In a couple of crashes, the riders foot was pushed upwards causing the back edge of the steel toe cap to slice across all five toes a nd were found floating around inside the boot. 

The most common injury is where the foot is forced the wrong way so in affect the foot tries to bend back on itself towards the heel but cannot return to its normal position.  In affect the foot breaks in half across the shank towards the front end. 

So, to say it is a myth is not accurate, but it is also not a problem that happens everyday."


For me a piece of somebody else's logic posted in the same discussion perhaps sums it up well:

I would think that its more important that motorcycle boots ave strengthening to stop the boot twisting and fucking your ankle in an accident. 

nothing < trainers < stout shoes < general boots < steelies < M/C boots 

Although it doesn't tell you how many toes have been saved by them, or if the toes would have been crushed without them.