. Yet I hope that everyone is open to learning what it means to manage their risk the best they can. That means being willing to listen to good advice from time to time. :bigthumbsup:
I am all for good advice, but where is the like between good and over the top?
Let me play devil's advocate for a moment::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:
I ride in boots, but because my stubby legs benefit from the 1.5" gain. Who has ever been saved real injury by boots?
There are two ways to go on gloves as well. If you go down, you get less rash on your hands wearing them, but without them, you are more in touch with the controls and have a more direct feel of the bike.
Full face helmet go the same path. Visability and hearing is down wearing one but if you go down while parked, they may save you some injury. You need way more than a DOT sticker to get real benifits beyond very low speed falls.
Jackets, sure, we would all love less rash if we go down, but even most that wear a jacket will ride without it on hot days. Even those that wear it all the time are not all that likely to be wearing enough body armor inside so do much more than save some rash.
Pants, again, I wear them because I am short enough to burn my leg on the pipe at a stop, but unless we are talking full armor pants, you might as well be in shorts. Jeans shred on pavement and are worthless to protect you from anything but bugs.
So, where does this leave the guy who is dressed head to toe, but did not shell out the 3k+ for full armor anything? In a false sense of security.
There in an economist who puts forward a theory that the greatest addition we could make to cars to improve road safety would be a dagger in the center of the steering wheel. If the cost of getting into an accident was right in front of you as a reminder and the cost of even a minor accident was hitting that dagger, the theory goes, that every driver would drive in a way as to avoid hitting the dagger.
This rings true. Look at statistics on accidents. Every year there are more and more but fewer fatalities. So cars are getting safer and we are driving wore for it.
Apply this to riding a motorcycle.
If you put yourself right out there; 1. you have maximum sensory input and feel for the bike, plus 2. you are very aware of the risk. So, in theory, you will drive more safely.
If you wrap yourself in real armor, you feel safer and might be inclined to ride with a little more risk.
If you are dressed from head to toe, but it is not real armor, then I suppose you would feel like you are in the second category, and ride accordingly, but be only slightly less at risk than the guy in category 1.
So, logic would say, be in category 1 or 2 because the guys in category 3 are kidding themselves and are likely at higher risk of injury.
:evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:
