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Rockin' 'n' Rollin'Nov 09 '00 Write an essay on this topic.Is what you'll be doing if the worst happens when you're out on your pride and joy. So, the bottom line is "dress to ride". Actually the small print under the bottom line may even say "dress to fall". So let's see what that boils down to, whether you're riding Laguna Seca on a Superbike or tootling around Hicksville on a scooter. Now I'll be the first to admit that you'd look a bit of a turkey sat on a Harley wearing one-piece race leathers, knee-sliders and a full-face race-replica helmet. But seeing as most of the HOG fraternity favour black leather, set off with optional beards and beerbellies, that shouldn't be a problem - because leather, black or otherwise, is still the street acrobat's first choice for protection. So what should YOU wear? An approved helmet: even if you are on Milwaukee metal, a full face helmet is the best choice - have it sprayed to suit the bike if "the look" is so important. As I see it, taste - or the lack thereof - is a purely personal hangup, but a 60 mph facial slide will have pretty negative effects on any future pick-up lines. If you really must wear an open-facer, make it a 'jet' type as opposed to a minimalist "Bozo the Clown the Human Cannonball" model. Unless you are Bozo the Clown, of course... but then again, it's your head, and you must be the judge of how much it's worth. Eye protection: a helmet visor, goggles, even sunglasses are better than nothing. When you think that the power of impact (in G's) is calculated by multiplying the mass of an object by it's acceleration, even a relatively small bug will spoil your whole day if it hits you in the eye at highway speeds. Not to speak of the really considerate types who heave cigarette butts of varying sizes out of the window of their hopelessly meandering charge - like, "Hey, wassat??-Blat-Yowch-Wobble-Clang-Scuff. You get the picture? At the very least wind blast will cause watering eyes, and dodging maniacs who unexpectedly change lanes while nattering to their wife/girlfriend/mistress on their cellphones is hard enough when you can see them clearly, let alone when you're peering through a torrent of water framed by stuck together eyelashes. Another point in favour of a helmet visor is that it avoids the flapping face which makes you look like the main man in a 1950's "breaking the sound barrier" film. Adequate protective clothing: depending upon personal preference this can take the form of a 'Kevlar' type jacket with jeans, Village People black leather and engineer boots, race or touring leathers - the list goes on and on. Gloves are a good idea because the natural inclination in a fall is to put out your hands to take the impact - and conditioning is a stronger stimulus than reason. It doesn't matter to your gibbering mind that you're about to hit the ground at umpty-umph miles an hour - out go the paws, and off comes the skin. For the same reason I'd advise against the T-shirt, shorts and shower-shoe route too, because there are few things worse than having bits of road scrubbed out of raw exposed flesh prior to a saline bath. So what happens when, after all your preparation, experience and care, you find yourself in a "this is gonna hurt" situation? Well, most bikers know the feeling of inevitability when, for whatever reason, kissing the pavement is only a millisecond away. It seems like you're watching the world in slow motion, right up to crunch time. Now, the classic so-called "high-side" is pretty uncontrollable. It's caused, more often than not, when the rear shock violently unloads after the back wheel loses grip and then finds it again after a power transition. Cue music... "I believe I can fly..." and you can too - for a while. The "low-side" is when she just slithers away from you, like when the front washes-out. Altogether easier to deal with, but in both cases when you and terra-firma are reunited, go with the slide. Make sure that you've completely stopped sliding before attempting to get up, otherwise you'll find yourself doing a forty mile an hour moon-walk down the street before falling over again in a blizzard of arms and legs. While most bikers have fallen off while warbling into a curve twenty miles an hour too fast for the road conditions, or after hitting oil spills, or other slippy stuff, the majority of bike accidents are caused by other road users and we end up the extremely vulnerable victims. Although most people are averse to making tyre tracks over other people, motorcyclists have no defence against the odd exception to this rule other than applying roadcraft born of experience to good situational awareness. It should be remembered that car drivers are incredibly inventive when it comes to doing the unexpected. Actual comments after an accident include the classic, "Sorry mate, I didn't see you," which was kind of comforting - I'd hate to think he saw me and run me over anyway. A friend of mine was the recipient of another beauty: - "I had to swerve twice, but I hit you in the end." They're out there alright, and there are lots of them. Wearing the right clothing is a step in the right direction if you want to enjoy your two-wheeled passion in spite of these road-going rocket-scientists.  |
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