Went out for a ride yesterday afternoon and i came to a roundabout.. going round it was a lad on a scooter. he looked like he was in his late teens, and there was no L-plate on the bike.

what i found weird was this... he was only going about 15-20mph.. it was a dry surface..  but he was going round the roundabout in supermoto style with his right leg out and the sole of his foot rubbing the ground....  :no:

i didnt realise they were teaching this technique now!  :p

anyway i followed him down the road to a set of traffic lights.  I then noticed he was wearing trainers, jogging trousers and a rather fashionable nike jacket .. but that wasnt all.. woolen fingerless gloves and when he was sitting there he decided to adjust his crash helmet .. and it was soo loose, it must have been at least 2 sizes too big for him!


now either he was very stupid , or he actually hasnt passed a test, cos im sure they teach you to wear appropriate clothing etc?

out of interest, at the time i was wearing sidi boots, armoured cordura trousers, armoured jacket, decent leather gloves and a correct fitting roof crash helmet

Its probably the first time he's ridden it since he & his mates nicked it-lets hope the little bastard falls off & hurts himself just enough to leave it alone-before he gets serious & nicks a proper bike.
Jaded, me?

I don't usually wear the best of gear but i try and get myself reasonable quality stuff. My ankle has taken the brunt of a few falls in my younger days. So I know it makes sense to have a sturdy pair of boots on. In fact my boots are my most expensive item except for my helmet. I cringe when I see the young lads going mental on the scooters. I know we were all young and mental once but having fallen off myself, I know what its like.

Yes, I fell off with a tee-shirt and and jeans on when I was seventeen. I was lucky. You can still see the scar on my knee but my back healed up nicely. It is a mistake I have never repeated.

CBT students get about 1 hours worth of instruction on helmet style, composition, fit, care etc-also clothing, gloves in particular & jackets/trousers-the advantages/disadvantages of leather & man made stuff, EC approved armour, boots, why you shouldnt wear nylon trousers or trainers etc etc.

Most of the young uns I teach tend to take it on board-a small percentage do the minimum they need to get a certificate-you know the type-speak in grunts-then bugger off & do their own thing cos an Instructor with 28 years riding experience knows nowt does he?  :p

classic example is the lad who lives next door to me-"hair stylist" but used to ride his scooter 5 miles to work in the summer every day without gloves cos it was
If he fell off at any decent speed 20mph+ it would be tha last time he held a pair of scissors-but would he listen?

Most young uns don't take a blind bit of notice once theve done their CBT, take my own eldest daughter for example, 18 years old passed her test and bought a Suzy GS500 restricted, last july I caught her going out on it no gloves, boots or proper jacket, ended up having a reet old argument with her, I went back into my office thinking sheed gone to get her gear on, but no she went up to feed her oss, when she got to the stables mi wife played bloody ell with her and got the reply mi dad said the same thing, 10 mins later a distraught phone call.  :cry:

I've dropped me bike, of I goes with the van to retrieve her, got there guess what? yep gravel rash to both hands and a cut ankle where a bit of the screen from her bike had stabbed her, how fast you going says I, 30 says she bugger off says I you doing at least 50 when ya hit the covers on the bend, how dya know says she, slide mark from yer fairing goes 45 feet up the road.:buttrock:  :buttrock:

It is a painful way to learn a lesson. I think that youth and a feeling of being indestructible are the reasons behind it.

I know folk don't always agree but I think thats why it is a good idea to have the helmet law. People wouldn't wear a helmet because it would be seen as uncool.

It would be bloody freezing, never mind uncool davie

Reminds me of the time I borrowed a M8's Harley & did the Eastern seaboard of the good ole US of A.
Some states you had to wear a lid-others you didnt-but had to carry a lid anyway(presumably you saw the accident coming & put lid on?).As I was on holiday & it was hot & I was younger-23 I did ride for a while without the lid on, brought out the rebel in me i suppose. Mostly I wore it though, the novelty soon wore off.

IAM bloke told me that he reckons to lose a mill of skin per foot travelled on the road surface.  At thirty he would cover fourty four feet per second and reckons to stop in a second and a half.

he said that after doing the maths he decided to either wear high abrasion resistant clothing when he rides his bike or put on a minimum of fifty millimeteres of callouses over his entire body.

Having an entire right thigh of skin graft scarring i would have to concur.

Its 1 inch per second at 60 mph-ask the dead pig the DSA chucked out of an army lorry-pig skin is similar to human skin apparently-dont ask me to splain how?why cos I'm pissed(just back from a NAM meeting, matey boy whoose fairing is awaiting paint  gave me a lift soooooo, Stella time.

A mate of mine lost a good deal of flesh from his right arm in a 20mph spill when a car got him on a roundabout - he was wearing leather jacket and gloves at the time - but they were old and in poor condition and they split.

He's very lucky to have a usable hand but he'll never get all the movement back.  It's important to look after your gear and replace it when it's worn out.