yesterday some tool pulled right out in front of me. and luckily, being cautious, i slowed down and was fine, but i guess i said aloud "you have to be ****ing kidding me"-

to which he ( his window was down ) responds. "yeah, well the stop sign is back there"

i guess i snapped, and yelled "there's no ****ing stop sign, "O Ring"!" (which there wasn't). i decide to ride off instead of face a lawsuit, but i was happy knowing i COULD have kicked his butt. LOL

and i was glad that i had my gear on. well, most of it. i should be wearing the full face, but i still had my armored jacket, and kevlar pants, gloves, etc.


bastids in cages. LOL!

I'm still hobbling around with a bruised and scraped knee after my low speed crash. I was going about 30 km/hr when I lost traction in a right hand turn and lowsided, and tore a hole in my jeans. The elbow pad in my jacket kept that part fine, and the jacket is scraped on my right side. I can't believe my knee hurts this much from a friggin' slow fall like that.

I'd hate to think what my knee and arm would look like if I were wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and going 60-80 km/hr. *shudder*

Gear every time for me, especially now.

your always going to have accidents and your always going to have stupidity. but, just because you ride a motorcycle shouldn't mean your automatically at fault. Start pulling over and ticketing people who cut up police cars (seen it happen, cop just flashed his red and blues as a warning) In Britain you can get a ticket for driving without due consideration for other road users, that only seems to apply to motorcycles in Florida (Orlando area)
Ban cell phones while driving, its a car not an office. (and people reading, doing make up, watching video/dvd) stupid loud stereo that makes your ears bleed (from 5 or 6 cars away) Either pay attention or pay the bus fare, you shouldnt be driving
I'm still here and still ride but I've had way too many near misses due to other peoples stupidity (and one due to my bike losing a cylinder while pulling off from a red light, thanks for not running me over Mr. Pepsi truck driver )
the woman in the Cadillac Escalade should be taken out and shot though, sorry for being in your intended place, but I was there first and had been for 6 miles if you paid attention (stupid b****) and the guy in the 30,000 lbs rental truck who though red meant speed up and bulldoze motorcycle out the way, I actually though red lights meant stop (plus the one in the Mustang, hit a Honda suv and totaled it and himself-I hope)
I think you may be wondering why I'm so intolerant? (don't care if you are or not) But, I'm 50, been riding since 11, had 2 near misses where car drivers may have saved me and hundreds if not thousands (hundreds of thousands?) where staying at speed limit and doing everything correct (by the book) has caused pretty hairy scary moments. I don't really think its skill or experience,( although that probably helps) its mostly luck

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I'm not a complete idiot, but I'm working on it
There are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't

Maker,

Being up in years, my riding apparel has changed from wanting to look cool to protecting my arse for riding logevity. For the longest time I wore the tinest beeny helmet (illegal) and a leather biker jacket that had more slide/skidding marks and holes then leather. I now have a Cortex/Tourmaster jacket w/ kevlar in the lower back, elbows and somewhere else and a Nolan 104 full face/flip face helmet! Just got a bead on some wide waisted short legged pants with kevlar. Its crazy out there man. They're out to get ya. Cars are every where!

I'm in no way knocking riders choices to be minimilists when it comes to chosing riding gear. I managed to survive 25 years w/ the basics. I am not as brave now that I am older to take unecessary chances like I used to. I have no excuses I should know better.

I live in Florida, I'm sure I don't need to say this, but it gets hot as hell here. I still wore all my gear everytime I rode. I still need to get a good pair of riding pants though. Never really have felt good about just wearing jeans. but I'm still terrified of the morons in there suv's talking on their cell phones...almost got wiped out by one a couple weeks ago. I swear one day I'm going to snatch a phone from one of those people and lodge it deep in their lower intestine.....oh yea everything he said too
.

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Luck often favors the one who doesn't count it in their plans

Helmets FTW!

Last week the Doctor told me NO HELMET (or hats) for at least one week after stitches come out (next week) of forehead. (not from a biking accident) Good thing I live in a helmet free state! My new helmet has only been worn twice but Doc said could rip open stitches.

Lion Lady says it most succinctly:
"Because walking away in disgust beats riding away in an ambulance."

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Civility and democracy both require effort.

+1

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"Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul!"

Why should anyone make you? It's your skin you're risking, not any of ours.

Personally I feel the smart way to go is wear the gear all the time. You really never know when something unexpected can happen. Of course maybe you can predict the future and just stay home on days where you 'might' need your gear or take a different route those days. (Same argument I use for guns, seat belts, insurance, 'being prepared' etc, btw.) You just have no way of knowing ahead of time whether you'll need it or not.