Dress for the slide, not the ride!

[v8-powered]

Your body - wear whatever you want but don't come crying if you end up looking like a kebab.

I've crashed in jeans and a jacket, come off pretty lightly to be fair - just wore a hole in my Levi's back pocket. Jeans and a light jacket is the minimum for me, along with summer shorty gloves. Prefer boots to cover my ankles though....

Spirited rides, deffo leathers though - my leathers have a fair few battle scars from track days. Just need to dress appropriately

[Mr. Dazzle]

I never ride to the shops etc, it takes longer and is more hassle than using the car! Therefore it's an easy decision for me, I'm always full kit.

Isn't the stat that most crashes happen within like 3 miles of home or something anyway? Solution is obvious....ride further!

[Count Steer]

I never ride to the shops etc, it takes longer and is more hassle than using the car! Therefore it's an easy decision for me, I'm always full kit.

Isn't the stat that most crashes happen within like 3 miles of home or something anyway? Solution is obvious....ride further!

Isn't that statistically where you spend most time?

There's also the 'familiarity breeds contempt' issue. You know 'I know this road like the back of my hand' sort of thing. Seen it happen too. At the end of a long journey on which my mate had been riding 'normally' we got onto home roads where he promptly RLAT (and nearly got wiped out blatting into a blind bend assuming that, like every other time, there wouldn't be any obstruction on the bend exit. ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

I never ride to the shops etc, it takes longer and is more hassle than using the car! Therefore it's an easy decision for me, I'm always full kit.

Isn't the stat that most crashes happen within like 3 miles of home or something anyway? Solution is obvious....ride further!

Isn't that statistically where you spend most time?

There's also the 'familiarity breeds contempt' issue. You know 'I know this road like the back of my hand' sort of thing.

Yeah both those things.

[Horse]

Isn't the stat that most crashes happen within like 3 miles of home or something anyway?

Statistically, most rides with a crash are shorter than the rider expected

[Noggin]

I always used to wear normal jeans, decent boots/gloves/helmet and usually a decent jacket, textile or leather (more normally textile)

My shape has meant that getting bike trousers of any brand to fit well, be comfy to ride in and to sit around having a coffee and breakfast was virtually impossible (without made to measure) and jackets never fit exactly right.


I have done virtually all my road riding in that gear and most of it was quite 'spirited' (could say RLAC with my buddy to be fair!!)

I've come off a couple of times, not when RLAC, and my cheap as chips Tesco/Sainsbury jeans did well. But I didn't slide! Pretty much every time I scraped a knee or both - but then that happens if I trip over when walking, so that's pretty normal!

The one time I did crash badly and needed the proper kit, I'm 99.9% sure that my 'proper' jacket, or rather it's armour, caused the injury. Yes I cut both my knees quite badly, but they were simple 'stitch it up' cuts. So, again, I rolled and didn't slide


Out here I wear the same kit. Although I did buy a hoody that has the road proof lining, and I did wear that a bit on hot days in the UK and definitely use it here in the summer. But I am also fully aware that it will ride up if I come off the bike. I do have a plan to make some fixings to keep it attached to my jeans in the event of a fall


I got some serious stick from a mate when I crashed because I wasn't in full kit - he only ever rides ATGATT. But, the bit that was most damaged, was 'protected'. Then a couple of years later he came off his cycle in a road race - went a bit quiet when I asked him how well the lycra helped for protection!


For me, head, hands and feet are the most important to be protected. I hate seeing riders without gloves because that would be massively life changing. But, personal choice n all

[The Spin Doctor]

I fell off my 125 out-cornering the electric milk float in Maidstone... I couldn't have been doing more than 25 mph at the time, but the crash shredded my Levi jeans from hip to knee. I took the skin off a patch the size of my hand on my hip, had grazes on my left buttock where the material had peeled back, and all the way down the outside of my thigh and a chunk about 10mm across and 5mm deep taken out of the flesh at the side of the knee.

It didn't really at the time, but after I'd picked the bike up and ridden to the station, I then had to sit on the train to London for 75 minutes, catch the tube from Victoria to the Embankment, walk up to college and finally sit a three hour exam.

By the time I finally got to the medical centre the blood had stopped running down my leg into my boot, but the threads of the jeans had glued to the wound.

I went to the college medical centre for a clean-up and a jab about five hours after the crash. That was excruciatingly painful. I could barely walk back to the bike.

A week or so later, I splashed most of my first wage packet from my summer job on a pair of leather jeans from John Brown Wheels. Must have worn those for seven or eight years, and fell off in those quite a few times at similar speeds... the crashes had just about cut through the knee when I tossed them out.

I've very rarely ridden in anything but bike kit since. Predictably, the one day I put ordinary jeans on to ride a couple of miles, I was cut up (by a police car of all things) on a damp road (summer, short shower after long dry spell), locked the front and fell off. On this occasion, the jeans stayed intact and only a slightly polished /whitened area would ever tell you they'd slid down the road at a similar speed. The police biker who interviewed me post-crash said they'd had several bike crashes on that exact patch of tarmac - it had no grip when wet.

All of which goes to show that what we wear is sometimes less important than the surface on which we crash!

Chris Hurren has been doing a lot of work attempting to calibrate his bench tester (a Cambridge machine) with real roads by using samples from garments already tested on the tester to gain abrasion times on the road.

What he's found is that chip-seal (or top dressing as we call it in the UK) is very abrasive indeed. CE level A garments disintegrate in just a second or so on this stuff.

[Cousin Jack]

Most of the time I ride in full textile gear, with boots and gloves. I know it makes sense.

I have been known to ride short distances in t-shirt, shorts snd deck shoes only. My body, my choice.

[The Spin Doctor]

I've come off a couple of times, not when RLAC, and my cheap as chips Tesco/Sainsbury jeans did well. But I didn't slide! Pretty much every time I scraped a knee or both - but then that happens if I trip over when walking, so that's pretty normal!

See what I've just posted about surfaces.

The one time I did crash badly and needed the proper kit, I'm 99.9% sure that my 'proper' jacket, or rather it's armour, caused the injury. Yes I cut both my knees quite badly, but they were simple 'stitch it up' cuts. So, again, I rolled and didn't slide

Hard-edged armour got a bad rep for this. Freddy Spencer got a bad knee injury from early body armour when he clipped a bale.

The modern stuff is soft and bendy.

Out here I wear the same kit. Although I did buy a hoody that has the road proof lining, and I did wear that a bit on hot days in the UK and definitely use it here in the summer. But I am also fully aware that it will ride up if I come off the bike. I do have a plan to make some fixings to keep it attached to my jeans in the event of a fall

Chris has tested hoodies and they don't do well on abrasion testing.

For me, head, hands and feet are the most important to be protected. I hate seeing riders without gloves because that would be massively life changing. But, personal choice n all

Lower legs are the most likely bit to be damaged according to Liz de Rome.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Does anyone want to see my scars - trust me women aren't impressed by scars, but cracked vertebrae hurt a hell of a lot more for longer.

[Noggin]

I've come off a couple of times, not when RLAC, and my cheap as chips Tesco/Sainsbury jeans did well. But I didn't slide! Pretty much every time I scraped a knee or both - but then that happens if I trip over when walking, so that's pretty normal!

See what I've just posted about surfaces.

Will go look! But if it is that some surfaces will encourage slides and others rolling, I have seen something like that before. But, we don't get to choose what surfaces we land on!! LOL

The one time I did crash badly and needed the proper kit, I'm 99.9% sure that my 'proper' jacket, or rather it's armour, caused the injury. Yes I cut both my knees quite badly, but they were simple 'stitch it up' cuts. So, again, I rolled and didn't slide

Hard-edged armour got a bad rep for this. Freddy Spencer got a bad knee injury from early body armour when he clipped a bale.

The modern stuff is soft and bendy.

I'll never have hard armour in anything again - I'd rather have no armour!!

Out here I wear the same kit. Although I did buy a hoody that has the road proof lining, and I did wear that a bit on hot days in the UK and definitely use it here in the summer. But I am also fully aware that it will ride up if I come off the bike. I do have a plan to make some fixings to keep it attached to my jeans in the event of a fall

Chris has tested hoodies and they don't do well on abrasion testing.

I've had textiles that are no good either - or that ride up and expose skin to road. Makes your choices!

For me, head, hands and feet are the most important to be protected. I hate seeing riders without gloves because that would be massively life changing. But, personal choice n all

Lower legs are the most likely bit to be damaged according to Liz de Rome.

Depends on how/when/where you crash! I've only ever skinned/cut knees - so far!

I have a right Alpinestart boot that 100% protected my foot/ankle/lower leg from some serious damage - given the wear on the boot and the bruises on my foot and ankle! I cannot even begin to imagine how awful that accident would have been with a fucked up ankle as well as shoulder, in a place without the rehab support system that we have here!!


Like I said, we have to make choices. I protect the bits I feel need the most protection to enable me to continue to live alone. Not sure how I could protect lower legs for all eventualities though!!

[the_priest]

I was thanked by the paramedics one summer, it was 28C and I was in full biking gear, when the back of a car that had swung into the bus lane took my front wheel out. I slid down the road and bust a collarbone. They had seen another crew come from scraping someone off the tarmac who was wearing shorts/tshirt and helmet. 6 weeks ICU for him. I was in and out in a couple of hours and just had a few bruises and the bust bone.

I wear jacket, gloves and helmet as a bare minimum, usually riding jeans and boots as well. Occasionally it is light jeans and shoes, but boots have saved my feet/ankles from damage, so I prefer to just wear them regardless of the heat. Grew up riding in trackpants and t-shirt in off road riding and probably faster on the dirt then than I am on the road now...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I don't know if this is just me, but I find vented leathers aren't warm in summer so long as I'm moving.

[mangocrazy]

For schlepping around in France I wear this:

https://www.planet-knox.com/product/urb ... shirt-mk2/


It has a tough ventilated outer shell with high quality body armour and back protector built in. For the lower body it's a pair of Action Pro pants (ventilated, with body armour) underneath kevlar lined jeans. I really couldn't imagine wearing full leathers in the heat of a south of France summer.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I don't know if this is just me, but I find vented leathers aren't warm in summer so long as I'm moving.

Mine have "backwards" pockets, you put your right arm in your left pocket by reaching across your middle. It means in the summer you can have them wide open and they become 'scoops' which direct air through and out hte back of the jacket.

Just be sure to put your stuff in the inside pockets

[Whysub]

Indeed, most accidents are said to occur within a radius of 3 miles from home.

So I moved.

[Horse]

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[Scootabout]

Not quite ATGATT, but MoTGATT plus ATGMoTT.
BTW Spin, is the top dressing abrasive only when it has loose chippings on it, or when they are bedded in, too?

[The Spin Doctor]

Not quite ATGATT, but MoTGATT plus ATGMoTT.
BTW Spin, is the top dressing abrasive only when it has loose chippings on it, or when they are bedded in, too?

There was a website which told you everything you wanted to know about road surfaces, and a lot more besides, which used to pop up on Google searches every time I needed to know technical details about a particular surface treatment but I can no longer find it. Probably thanks to Google's reorganisation!

So... from memory...

When surfaces are rolled into a hot and soft asphalt, the stone chips are pushed down into the binding material and the weight of the roller itself tends to orient them so they present a flat surface facing upwards.

But with the chip seal / top dressing, the chips are simply scattered and fall at random often with edges and pointy bits upward, then they set in the resin that way - that's why they are rougher when laid.

FWIW the Darmstadt machine used for the CE A/AA/AAA regime spins a clothing sample over concrete which appears to replicates much more closely a smoother asphalt surface. The Cambridge Machine originally developed by Dr Woods which gave rise to the original Level 1 / 2 CE standard now used by MotoCAP more accurately represents chip seal. That's why the A garments which pass the lowest standard on the Darmstad machine are doing so badly on Chris Hurren's machine.

[Mr. Dazzle]

What about shell grip? That doesn't sound fun! Also more likely to be on bends and junctions where you're similarly more likely to crash.