Give feedback on safety gear (or lack of) when you went down.

[thelakeshow2k]

For those that have had an off bike experience:

1) What brand and type safety gear were you wearing? (elbow/knee/back/chest/hip/tailbone armor, gloves, kevlar jeans, textile or leather pants/jacket, boots, gloves, helmet, etc)

2) What injuries did you sustain? (broken bones, dislocations, lacerations, road rash, sprains, etc)

3) How effective did the safety gear perform?

4) If you were not wearing a specific piece of gear (kevlar pants, back protector, etc), and sustained an injury to that area, do you think that wearing gear would have made a difference?

Tell your story and help others decide what type & brand of safety gear to use or avoid. Thank you.

 

[Puggle]

I second the op. Really want to hear these stories.

 

[NoMoreToys]

In 07 I crashed my XX. Went down at at 111, per the GPS.

Vanson leather jacket - Minor damage that was repaired by Vanson.
Olympia touring gloves - destroyed. Really the wrong type of gloves for hard sport riding.
Joe Rocket boots - a few scrapes. Still wearing them.
Jeans - destroyed!

Human body - only a bruise on my left leg.

The wife and I have a saying "you dress to crash, not to be stylish!"

 

[captain]

When I crashed in 07 a truck pulled out from a private drive and crossed the hwy I was on. I hit the drivers door at 50mph and went through the drivers window... I had a SHOEI RF 1000, alpinestars boots, a suzuki factory textile jacket and gloves...

The helmet took all the impact and I now use an exact copy of the one I crashed in, same color, same design on it..

The rest of the gear all did really good too, it was all cut off my the paramedics but in the end it did exactly what it was supposed to do, if it weren't for the helmet and armor in the jacket I would have been messed up worse...

I ended up with a bloody face, (the shield was stripped off the helmet and glass went in my face) and 3 broken vertebrae in my neck and a broken T8 in my back... I have no doubt at all that if I had not had gear on I would not be here today.. The armor protected my shoulders and back from worse injuries...

cap

 

[Blue'87GT]

Damn cap-what happened to the offender...I mean driver of the truck?

 

[woodrrow]

I crashed 5 years ago being a squid..power wheelie.. I had on cargo pants and a long sleeve shirt. Joe rocket short gloves with kevlar knuckles, helmet. Hit a wheelie way to hard at 45mph and flew off the back before I could hit rear brake. Knees and gloves took impact. I turned myself sideways when my hands hit and rolled instead of flipped. Suffered bruised knee and a road rash about the size of a quarter,w spot on each elbow and knee from rolling.

The gloves saved my hands. If not for them I would have scraped all hide off of both of my hands
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[daviesmi]

I failed to make a turn and went through a ditch and then a fence. I was wearing a Fieldsheer jacket Alpinestar hard knuckle gloves jeans, tennis shoes and an HJC CL-15 helmet. I had three injuries a dislocated hip, a cut on my left arm and a concussion. My gloves show minor scuffing to the knuckles I have a 2 in. tear in the jacket where something cut through and cut me. My helmet on the other hand is a different story. There are scratches all over the left side. The visor mechanism is completely gone on the left side and pulled out of location on the right. The vents on the front are cracked and there are several cracks in the helmet itself on the front. The foam in front where the visor vent is pushed up out of position and the vent itself is cracked. I’m very glad I had my gear I think it performed very well. My only question is when I replace the jacket should I go with the same jacket or should I go with leather. I think the leather might have stopped the cut but costs three times as much as the textile. The cuts not bad but will serve as a constant reminder of what happened.

 

[dalaster88]

Last year I went down on the Busa. Caught some loose dirt and Low sided going 35mph. Was a squid only had helmet and jeans and long sleeve shirt. Couple of scrapes on knees and elbows nothing major but tore all the skin off of my thumb on my left hand. Great reminder for what happened and never go out without gloves.

 

[Hobo]

Hey great thread guys !!

short story from me > last year side swiped a rock wall doing 60mph, the padding in the right knee of my RST leather pants saved my kneecap big time, without it I would have smashed my kneecap to bits and they are kinda hard to fix, instead ended up with bad bruising and swelling !! for leathers !

 

[Jay Willie]

July of '09 riding as the end of three bikes on a farwell cruise for a bro going to Afghanistan and went off the second turn of a double apex in the hill country of North Arkansas. Concussion with compression burns above my right eye and across the back of my neck, broken ribs, partial lung collapse w/contusions, ripped tendons and rotator cuff on the right side, few scraps on my legs and hands, sore right ankle. Have no memory of the accident. Was wearing a helmet (I think it was an HJC full face w/shield) an AVGSPORT leather jacket, leather gloves, and leather 'waffle stompers'. From all appearances the helmet saved my life. Looks like I went face forward into a round, pointy object like a bolt or something, face shield has a round, 1/4" indention right where my nose would have been, right side of the helmet was mashed but didn't come apart. I think you're going to get lots of opinions about brand of gear etc. but I will not deter from a full face, DOT approved helmet and genuine leathers with some type of joint protection. The jacket had Kevlar in the shoulder, elbows, and spine. Most of the damage/injury was from impact, not sliding. Probably wouldn't have had the leg and hand scrapes if I would have wore regular riding gloves (these were cheap imitation mechanics type gloves) and something other than jeans, but again, most of the injuries appeared to be from impact. No matter what, you can't ignore the benefits of ATGATT. As I've read before, dress for the crash not for comfort.

 

[fastblackblur]

So far I've had a couple of lowsides at the track at pretty low speeds. One at about 30-35 the other at 20ish. Both times I just stood up, picked up the bike and road off with zero injuries to speak of. I ware a komodo KL-T suit.

This last friday I watched a guy lowside in front of me at over 80 mph. By the next lap he had his bike stood up and was trying to get it started.

A good leather suit can prevent some very significant injury.

 

[Busa1166]

80 mph get off

1) G-Max Helmet My head was banging an bouncing on the road but no head injuries an the helmet had scratches but no cracks

Sliders Kevlar Denim Jacket / jacket was ripped to shreads but I was not injured at all on the Torso

Blue jeans :down: Epic failure massive road rash

High Top Boots don't remember brand they were none riding boots but held up during the tumble

Alpine Stars gloves destroyed but hands had no damage

2) If I had proper riding pants I would have been just tending to the injuries on the bike

 

[k03gsxr750]

Squid - Gear
1) What brand and type safety gear were you wearing? Arai ProFile Helmet, SMX Alpline Gloves, Icon field armor back plate.

2) What injuries did you sustain? Due to lack of jacket, pants, and shoes I broke a toe / lost most of the skin on the top, serious abrasions on both arms and legs especially my left knee that now sports a half inch hole. Total time without shoes was around 3 weeks. Daily bandages / changes for 3-4 weeks, of which the first 1-2 weeks was HORRIBLE!

3) How effective did the safety gear perform? Everything that was worn showed signs of contact with pavement. The helmet was a throw away shield and all.(Shield came off mid tumble) The gloves got another 1.5 years of use. The back protecter was destroyed (no fault of the protector, I slid 20-50ft on my shoulder and burned the connection piece into two pieces.

4) If you were not wearing a specific piece of gear (kevlar pants, back protector, etc), and sustained an injury to that area, do you think that wearing gear would have made a difference? Absolutely! Boots would have save my toe, jacket would have saved my arms, pants would have saved my knees, I wouldn't have been feeling 100% the next day but much better. As a result of the crash and being out of work bills piled up and I was forced to quit my job.



Full Leathers
1) What brand and type safety gear were you wearing? Arai Profile (Hell it saved my life once, why not get another!) Alpine SMX Gloves (2nd full size bike crash 10th or so total "crash" counting pit bike) Alpine SMX+ Boots (SWEEETT!) Joe Rocket Yamaha Replica one Piece (2nd time wearing it)
2) What injuries did you sustain? 0 I was stiff for 2 days afterwards. 45mph low side that bounced me off an inbankment!

3) How effective did the safety gear perform? Flawlessly, watched 2 riders not two hours crash in the same corner, both left in an ambluance, neither with full gear.

4) If you were not wearing a specific piece of gear (kevlar pants, back protector, etc), and sustained an injury to that area, do you think that wearing gear would have made a difference? I can't think of anything else that would have been more suited, for that crash!

 

[VERYLANKEY]

May 10 2010 at the tail I went down about a mile from the dragon store in the last hairpin corner. I low sided about 20mph I was wearing:
Alpinestars SMXR boots- very few scrapes
Alpinestars leather track pants - also very few scrapes on the leather
Alpinestars SP1 gloves - not a mark
than there is my jacket. I had on an Alpinestars Air flow textile jacket, on my right arm the asphalt burned right through the jacket and I received decent rash on my arm right above my elbow

 

[kennym4]

I will NEVER forget the sound of my helmet (my head) smacking the road when I had my get off, THANK GOD for full face shields. If I would have lived my face would have been a mess !!

I only had on a Scorpion helmet, Joe Rocket gloves, and a pair of Dickies pants. No jacket on. Bought one 2 days later though !!

Have no idea how I didn't get hurt (road rash) ?

 

[k03gsxr750]

May 10 2010 at the tail I went down about a mile from the dragon store in the last hairpin corner. I low sided about 20mph I was wearing:
Alpinestars SMXR boots- very few scrapes
Alpinestars leather track pants - also very few scrapes on the leather
Alpinestars SP1 gloves - not a mark
than there is my jacket. I had on an Alpinestars Air flow textile jacket, on my right arm the asphalt burned right through the jacket and I received decent rash on my arm right above my elbow

Burned through at 20mph, yikes!

 

[VERYLANKEY]

Burned through at 20mph, yikes!

I could not beleve it I understand that it is not going to protect you as well as leather but come on ??? from now on I will be wearing leather

 

[theskaz]

1) What brand and type safety gear were you wearing? (elbow/knee/back/chest/hip/tailbone armor, gloves, kevlar jeans, textile or leather pants/jacket, boots, gloves, helmet, etc)

Shoei RF1000 - helmet
Some kind of really nice jeans.
Skecher boots (timberland style)
t shirt
boxers

2) What injuries did you sustain? (broken bones, dislocations, lacerations, road rash, sprains, etc)

Broken ribs
ruptured spleen
bladder or kidney damage(couldnt pee)

Road rash:
all 10 fingers
base of both palms
down the full length of forearms
both "love handle" areas
top of right buttcheek
left ankle

3) How effective did the safety gear perform?

i hit a car face first and my head was wedged under the driver side tire in the on coming lane. if i wasnt wearing a helmet, my brains would have taken a while to clean up.
4) If you were not wearing a specific piece of gear (kevlar pants, back protector, etc), and sustained an injury to that area, do you think that wearing gear would have made a difference?

yeah... the road rash.... but "It was too hot to wear gloves and a jacket" last time i rode without those.

side note, the jeans i was wearing stood up to a 40mph get off. wasnt expecting that.

 

[heavybusa]

1) What brand and type safety gear were you wearing?

• JR alter ego jacket, with the external cover on it
• Icon Hooligan gloves
• Old Navy Jeans
• Shoei RF1k lid
• Alpinestars SMX-1 boots

2) What injuries did you sustain? (broken bones, dislocations, lacerations, road rash, sprains, etc)

• road rash on knees
• sprained wrist
• whip lash

3) How effective did the safety gear perform?

• Shoei has damage on the back where I hit my head, no cracks just cosmetic
• The outer jacket was shredded, the mesh underneath, padding and zipper were still in tact (I still have it)
• The jeans had holes in them on the knees and the hip seam was wripped
• The gloves tore at the finger tips exposing skin.

4) If you were not wearing a specific piece of gear (kevlar pants, back protector, etc), and sustained an injury to that area, do you think that wearing gear would have made a difference?

• The helmet, jacket, and gloves saved my skin, no doubt.
• The jeans, albeit not riding pants, also took a lot of the rash.
• I was told that my instinctive ejection (I knew I was going down) saved me from more damage.

 

[thelakeshow2k]

Have already heard a couple of chest injury replies. Found this video on a variety of chest protectors. While back protectors are starting to be in fashion & worn by streetriders, chest armor still seems relatively unknown.