How do you dress for a ride?

[UtahPete]

I've hit five deer in just over 300,000 miles behind handlebars so, on average, I hit a deer every 60,000 to 65,000 miles. To be clear, four were on a snowmobile, one was on a dual sport bike, zero on a Spyder.

The last one (dual sport bike) was pretty bad, broke 18 ribs (ten broken on the left side, eight of them in two places) with six titanium plates installed to hold them together. Could not lay down in a bed for 105 days. This was just over three years ago and I am finally starting to feel 90+%. This was with wearing a Tek Vest protective vest and Klim gear with D30 reactive padding on the back, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees. Destroyed my 509 carbon fiber helmet.

Was doing 45 mph on a narrow gravel minimum maintenance road, deer jumped out into the left side of the bike so I hit it with my body and went down hard. Got a helicopter ride outa that one. Trauma team told me the protective gear saved my life. Period. They all wanted to see the gear. So yes, ATGATT. It's not if, but when, IMO.

Just to be clear, none of these incidents occurred while riding a road bike on a paved road. Is that right?

 

[sledmaster]

Correct.

 

[remus]

It's time people stopped tyring to convince others that what they wear is the only safe and right thing to wear. Riding is in part about risk management and the amount of risk you are willing to accept. People that wear no protective gear are willing to accept more risk then those of us that wear atgatt. Stop trying to create dissention on what people wear.

 

[vito1943]

I'm not sure why anyone would ask what others wear to ride, unless it is to self justify wearing less than full gear all the time. What I wear only affects me, not other riders, and I will admit that sometimes I am more diligent than other times in "dressing for the slide and not the ride". The Klim mesh textile jacket that I bought a few years ago, however, is one of the best compromises that I have found to both protect me to some degree and yet allow enough air flow so as to not roast on a summer day. When it gets colder its obviously easier to wear full gear, which for me means leather chaps over my jeans since I have yet to be able to buy armored motorcycle pants that fit me properly (too short and with too big a waist for my height). But I always wear a helmet, whether modular or 3/4, always wear gloves (sometimes lightweight, fingerless leather gloves) and ALMOST always were long sleeves if not wearing my jacket.

I've only had one crash in my 35 years or so of riding, and I was wearing a non-armored leather jacket and suffered several broken ribs which led to injuries that almost killed me, and kept me from riding for about two years. I still wear that same leather jacket from time to time, but as I started this comment, that affects me and not you.

 

[UtahPete]

Riding is in part about risk management and the amount of risk you are willing to accept. People that wear no protective gear are willing to accept more risk then those of us that wear atgatt.

True.

 

[ARtraveler]

From a moderator:

The OP asked the question "How do you dress for a ride?"

This subject has always been a "hot button" topic and the opinions are very strong from most people.

If you have read all or most of the thread, you see the answers to the OP question are all over the place. We all got a good education about what is called ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) and those that don't go with it for varying reasons. Full gear to buck naked (watch out for the mosquitos) was the range.

And then we have the many who chimed in with what will happen if you don't dress ATGATT. A few of those were kind of over the top and we had to delete them.

Opinions are fine, but when people started attacking others, getting way off topic, etc. then the site rules are going to be enforced. Bottom line: it is one's personal choice, and how much risk they are willing to take. A lot of us are set in our ways. Those who are trying to "convert" someone to their idea through scare tactics are on a losing quest: IMO of course. :bowdown: