It's Definitely Later

In my last post I mentioned posting about my personal views on motorcycle safety in a later post.  Well, today is later (technically so is anything after the last post.  Shut up, brain).  I just think it's too important a topic to not talk about.  With enough idiots out there on the road already, what we don't need are the moron "SQUIDs" who make things that much worse.

SQUID: Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Idiotic, and Dangerous

These are the idiots you see riding around wearing a t-shirt ("It's cotton blend protection!"), shorts, sneakers, no gloves, maybe a full-face helmet ("Gotta protect my perfect face, dude."), and generally riding a sport bike of some kind (any Ducati, a Honda VFR or CBR variant, Kawaski Ninjas, and the like).  You can also readily recognize these idiots because they're weaving in-and-out of traffic ("Dude, I saw this in a movie once.  It kicks ass!  Also, No Hands! Woo!"), accelerating really hard ("Woah, look at me I'm going so fast!"), only to squeal tires to stop at the next red light ("Stupid red lights, spoiling my fun, brah!"), and more-or-less give a lot of motorcyclists a bad name (biker gangs generally don't, contrary to The Wild One).

Most people who truly call themselves "riders" are the majority.  They generally obey the rules of the road, wear a hefty compliment of protective gear, and don't ride like jackasses.  It's this latter group that I am eager to call myself part of.  At the moment I own a Tri-Tex level 3 armor jacket, Johnny Rocket armored gloves, a Z1R Venom full-face helmet, and I plan to ride wearing at least a tough pair of jeans and my steel-toed boots.

The course I took was enough to get me motivated to buy the equipment (not to mention the fact that Sam would kill me if I didn't), but there was some extra motivation.  In the late 70's a professor from USC studied over 900 motorcycle accidents in the United States and correlated the results into one of the most widely published reports on motorcycle accidents in the world.  Called the Hurt Report (after Prof. Harry Hurt), it has been called "the most comprehensive motorcycle safety study of the 20th century" by journalist David Hough.  In 2001 (so, not the 20th century, Mr. Hough's comment stands), the European Union released the COST 327 report.  This report, unlike the Hurt Report, was focused on motorcycle helmet effectiveness in crashes, but is still a valuable source of information on motorcycle accidents.

After reading the Hurt Report, and part of the COST report, I can't understand why anyone would ride around without a helmet.  The most telling piece of evidence I found was that, when a motorcyclist wears a helmet, the majority of fatal accidents were not caused by head injuries alone; indeed, in many of those cases, had it not been for other bodily injury, many of them would have survived.  If that isn't a hidden endorsement of proper body armor, I don't what is ("But, dad, chicks dig the asphalt scars!").

Part of the reason I know about these two particular reports derives from my search for the best helmet to buy.  For some reason, it's really difficult to find information on helmet comparisons.  That was until I stumbled upon an article written for Motorcyclist Magazine in 2005.  The article (called Blowing the Lid Off) all but came out and said that, for the most part, the polycarbonate DOT helmets are actually more effective in the typical crashes that motorcyclists face than the high-strength, Snell Approved, carbon fiber helmets.*  The helmet maker that won the Motorcyclist Magazine study (including a more damaging impact than the Snell requirements), was Z1R.  Guess why I bought the Z1R helmet?  ("It makes you look like an extra in some cheesy 80's sci-fi action movie?"  Well, that too.)

The jacket, that was a whole 'nother adventure.  I was shopping around Amazon.com for a decent jacket (i.e. one that contained protection of some kind.  "Bring me my armor!").  Leather jackets are way out of my price range.  The cheapest leather jacket that had armor that passed any kind of standardized regulation was over $300 (and that's with amazon's crazy price cuts.  You'll see why I say that in a second or two).  The jacket I did buy was a 5XL, Tri-Tex armor jacket that passed the highest European Union impact ratings, and was on sale.  The standard price of the jacket was around $170; shipping included, I paid $77 for it.  Granted, it's a textile jacket and not leather, so it loses a bit of the abrasion protection a good leather jacket has (particularly one designed for motorcycling: triple kevlar thread stitching, reinforced joint protection, you know, the usual), but I think I did all right.

(The jacket is what prompted me to start losing weight.  It fits through the shoulders and arms, but I can't zip it up.  I'm hoping by spring that I will have lost enough that the jacket will fit beautifully and get me all the girls.  'Cause, quite frankly, it looks pretty awesome.)

As far as leg protection goes, I'm either stuck with leather chaps (blech), or armor pants (also blech), or dealing with the consequences of crashing without leg protection (umm... what?).  I think I'll go with the chaps on this one.  There are a few companies that make armored chaps, and they aren't nearly as expensive as the jackets are.  But, I figure getting those now, before I've lost a lot of weight is probably shooting myself in the foot as far as money goes (why buy a huge pair now, which are more expensive, then have to pay to have them re-sized again when I lose the weight?), so I'm going to hold off on those.  And as far as boots are concerned, the style of motorcycle I really want means that my steel-toed boots are perfect (leather construction, over the ankle, non-slip sole).  So I guess I lucked out there.

Long story short: If you're riding a motorcycle, don't be a squishy cephalopod.


*Author's Note: I would like to add that I have nothing but respect for the Snell Foundation.  At a time when nobody was truly looking into better head protection, the Snell Foundation pushed for better manufacturing techniques and increased helmet usage.   I merely made the above point about the differences in protection based on research and an article read.