How do you feel about the dangers of riding?

[patzx12]

This is how I used to ride the wine country in California back in 1982.

[swarrans]

Probably pissed too!..
(In the European sense rather than annoyed )

[Syscrush]

Many thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts on this. I didn't really want to drive a discussion about my own thoughts and feelings, I wanted to see where others are at with this.

Risk and reward are tricky things. My thinking has always been in line with the folks here who referenced David Hough. I think that as a rider, you have a lot of control over the amount of risk you accept - you kind of dial that risk up and down with your right wrist. The way I've expressed this is "People tend to crash when they make something else more important than not crashing." This can happen dozens of ways, but for me the underlying principle holds - if a rider gets caught up in something that at the moment seems more important than their own safety (showing up that clown on the cruiser or sportbike, capturing something good for the camera, getting to work to punch in on time, getting to that game before it starts, staying ahead of that storm, running this iffy yellow in the hopes of getting on the right side of the stoplight timings, etc. etc. etc.), they open themselves up to a world of pain.

I'm not an ATGATT person - I'm a most of the gear most of the time person:

• Helmet: always
• Gloves: almost always
• Jacket: any time I'll be in a 60+kph zone
• Boots: any time I'll be in an 80+kph zone
• Earplugs: any time I'll be in an 80+kph zone for more than 30 minutes
• Riding pants: trip away from home on superslab or doing technical mountain riding

I'm not saying that this is a guide for anyone else to live by, just that for me this is what I'm comfortable with.

It's really hard for me to imagine a life without riding. For the next year or two that's a bit of a hypothetical since my bike's staying in storage for a bit longer and then getting another round of major surgery - so I won't really be riding much in any case. And I am really determined to see through the conversion to EFI and getting it dialed in. When that is done, the question of how much I'll ride and when will be a more concrete one. But it's almost impossible for me to imagine a life without 2 wheels on pavement at least some of the time.

Thanks again to all who threw in their 2 cents' worth on this.

[wyly]

I'm not an ATGATT person - I'm a most of the gear most of the time person:

• Helmet: always
• Gloves: almost always
• Jacket: any time I'll be in a 60+kph zone
• Boots: any time I'll be in an 80+kph zone
• Earplugs: any time I'll be in an 80+kph zone for more than 30 minutes
• Riding pants: trip away from home on superslab or doing technical mountain riding

I'm not saying that this is a guide for anyone else to live by, just that for me this is what I'm comfortable with.

Helmet -always, even if it wasn't the law

Gloves-always, even if it a low speed fall the damage your hands sustain can significantly impact your life *the first thing you do when you fall is extend your hand into danger*

jacket-depends on temp and speed, anything over 80, sever road rash can you put in the hospital for an extended stay, below 80 road rash is still severe but it's the blunt force trauma of impact with a car/truck/bus/tree that will kill you...below 70-80 on a hot day of urban riding I put on my armored vest( not that it will help when that prius makes a left hander in front of me)

boots, low rise armored boots at minimum at any speed, high speed I put on my high rise boots(below knee)

earplugs-extended highway rides

pants-kevlar denim at for highway speed extended rides...and on cold days, they're warm...

[Rick Pope]

The only item listed above that's optional is the pants. Jeans for casual rides, over pants for distance/speed/hot. I have three pair, one mesh w/armor, one solid w/armor, and my aero-stitch over pants. Mesh pants over just undies is coolest. Ear plugs are a must.

[Mouse]

How ever hot or cold the weather

Full face helmet - always
Textile with armour jacket - always
Gloves - always
Boots - always
Earplugs - always
Jeans (Finding riding pants in my size has proven to be either very expensive or impossible so far)