Sorry for bringing an old thread new life but just noticed this on a search...me being slow these days?...I'm about a month late but here's my current thoughts...which vary vastly from just a year ago.
Please pardon my bi-polar shift but this is just me sharing my experience....as a sport bike rider?....I lobbied HARD for wearing the gear...always....matter fact?...one particularly hot summer where temps were close too (if not right at) triple digits here in S.E. Florida?....my middle daughter begged to ride with me....and it was during those 2-3 hottest weeks that I myself had resigned myself to just boots, lid and gloves...and up until that point?....had ALAWAYS worn at least a jacket....of which I had several...but even a t-shirt was sweltering for around town stuff let alone my Joe Rocket Ballistic Mesh jacket....I told her to get her gear on...and then my gleeful daughter came bouncing out of the house...lid, gloves, boots and no jacket...I was like "Where's your Jacket!...Get It On!".....her?...."c'mon dad...it's hot as hell and you're not wearing one."
She'd been riding with me since age 8...always made her keep her hands in my jacket pockets so I could "FEEL" if she was struggling to hang on or slipping away....
On her 8th birthday?....she even rode with me with a cast on her arm from a roller skating accident where she broke her wrist...and riding with her father was all she wanted for that 8th birthday...she even test rode an aprilla with me that day...
she even rode the dragons tail with me and got her name on the "Twisty Sister" t-shirt at T.W.O.
This was after almost 10 years of riding with me...she was 17...We were one block from the house....coming home...rounded the corner in 2nd and when I had snicked into 3rd?...she had let go to waive to a friend on the side of the road playing basketball...and I didn't even feel her fall off the back...the lid saved her life but she lost a lot of skin off her back and forearms...I've since edited and deleted the graphic pix...but here's the 4 year old thread of when it happened...
https://www.hayabusa.org/forum/gene...59-lost-my-17-year-old-daughter-off-back.html
She couldn't imagine not riding with me anymore...but her mother forbid it....and so did I...matter fact?...all 3 of my daughters used to ride with me on a regular basis...sometimes even arguing who's turn it was...but I came very close to taking myself out over that...and God forbid anything like that ever happen again?...so I have a new rule....nobody gets to ride with me....ever again.
And now I'm going to switch gears on ya'll real hard! LOL!
After owning and riding my beloved busa "Oren-Ishii" for 8 fun filled years?...I sold her and bought a 1500 Vulcan Classic...and put a real vocal Vance & Hines exhaust system on it....but not to be cool....I just got tired of covering my horn button for texters and talkers who weren't aware I was there...now they know whether they want to or not. LOL!...and it might be noteworthy to mention that I used to loath the "Loud Pipes Save Lives" mantra thinking "What BS!" LOL!....but tell ya what gents...come off a nimble over-powered sport bike that can stop on a dime and cut a turn like something out of a cartoon and swing your leg over an 800lb curb weight cruiser with all the torque but 1/2 the ponies?...and the term "Evasive Maneuvers" nearly becomes a thing of the past......word up.
And today?...If hours upon hours of traveling super-slabs isn't on the agenda?...weather permitting?...this former helmet/gear nazi doesn't wear his full face shoei RF=1100 Diabolic Revelation lid...to be cool?...yes...temperature wise...to "fit-in"?...yep...in part...but there's another reason...as follows...
After literally decades of me riding sport bikes with all the gear no matter what?...I still wear protective boots...and yes gloves....and if it's cool enough?...I'll even slide into my black leather jacket....but if the weather/ride permits that I don't wear a lid?...I don't....why?...couple reasons...one is I just enjoy the ride, sites and smells a whole lot more without one...but the other more important reason?...I feel absolutely naked and vulnerable without one...(Insert Note Here: if those feelings ever dissipate?....I'll run for my lid)....but having those feelings of nakedness and vulnerability as such?...the bottom line for me is this...
I tend to be in a much higher state of situational awareness and a safer rider without one.
Now that said?...that's on my sub triple digits V-Twin metric cruiser...put me back on a sport bike of any sort?...and indeed...I'm dressing for the occasion....lid, jacket, boots, gloves and pants if I got a pair left I can fit into! LOL!
That said?...I would NEVER....EVER......imply that anyone else do as I do...live your own life....ride your own ride...but the only ones death I'll ever be responsible for will be my own.
Thanks for reading, Ride Safe!...and L8R, Bill.