Post Accident Safety Equipment Review

[sgtslag]

Had a low-side crash yesterday, riding two-up, on our '79 Honda – rear tire went flat, not sure why yet.  No one seriously injured, my son (passenger) suffered road rash on his posterior, a few nicks on his left hand, and a bruised elbow.  Thank you, God!

We were accelerating out of a 45 MPH corner, when the rear tire fish-tailed, then we went down on our left side, at around 40 MPH – I was babying it, as something seemed “off” with the bike, the entire ride (normally ride our other bike, thought I was being paranoid as I wasn't accustomed to riding the Honda).  We both slid around 40 feet, on our backs, across the blacktop, before stopping in the middle of the roadway.  No oncoming traffic at the time, cars did stop to see if we needed assistance.

We were both wearing 600 Denier Nylon riding jackets, with high density, foam armor, and full-face helmets.  I had on leather chaps, and leather gloves; my son only had his jacket, and helmet on.  My son's jacket, is an inexpensive Xelement jacket (it is no longer available, but this one is very similar, in style, and price – http://www.leatherup.com/p/Xelement-Mens-Jackets/Xelement-Mens-Vented-Cruiser-Tri-Tex-Fabric-Level-3-Armored-Motorcycle-Jackets/56222.html); mine is a Mossi, ¾ length jacket, (http://www.amazon.com/Mossi-Tourtrak-Black-Medium-Jacket/dp/B001URMOZ6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1312815672&sr=8-6).  My son landed hard, on his left elbow:  the nylon burned through the outer two layers, but the armor prevented broken bones, as well as road rash on his elbow; the rest of his jacket suffered no ill effects, even though we both slid on our backs for ~40 feet.  My jacket suffered no wear whatsoever.

We were both wearing fluorescent green, construction worker type, vests, for improved visibility on the bike – helped immensely after the accident, when we were waiting for the tow truck (narrow shoulder, no good place to stand, and the bike was on the side of the road, partially in the traffic lane), and for cleaning up the crash site while we waited.  Cars saw us, and slowed down (county highway, speed limit of 55 MPH).  These vests were not damaged in the slide across the pavement, either.   Amazing!

Our helmets do not have any scratches, as we both held our heads up, while sliding.  Zero helmet impact.  In a prior low-side accident, several years ago, I did not think my head hit the road, but the scratches on the helmet told me otherwise.

My son's wallet was in his blue jeans rear pocket.  The pocket burned through, the leather wallet burned through, literally, with brown burn marks, spewing plastic cards (insurance, debit, membership cards, etc.) across the roadway.  Then the denim, and undershorts, burned through, as well, resulting in minor road rash on his skin.  My denim pants burned, and frazzled a bit, my leather wallet shows some signs of high heat, but no holes.  My leather chaps show some white, chalk-like stuff, on the right side, which I started to turn onto, just before I stopped.  My only injury is a small bruise on the back of my left hand.

My son was wearing his army boots (leather and cloth), and the left boot shows a burn mark on the outside ankle (portion of leather, no injury!).  I was wearing leather shoes, with leather spats (for medical reasons, I cannot wear any over-the-ankle shoe/boot, but I can wear the spats over my shoes, which affords similar protection to boots) – no injuries to my ankles at all.

Don't know if the bike is repairable, or not.

The reason I am sharing this review, is to show that even inexpensive gear, can offer excellent, real-world protection.  More expensive gear might offer better protection, but that is up to each individual to decide for themselves.  I am almost always ATGATT.  When it gets beastly hot, I tend to shed protective gear.  Fortunately, I had full gear on yesterday.  Ride safe!  Cheers!

[TOOLS1]

Glad that, you both came out fairly unscathed. Do, you know what caused the tire to go flat?
TOOLS

[Re-run]

Nice to hear how your gear worked. I ride with a mossi jacket and it is nice to know that it should stand up if I need it too.
Good to hear that you both are ok too. A bike is just a bike when compared to your family.

[Piute]

 Glad to hear your both able to "walk away",Never thought of the vest for after the fact ,plan to get A new one,was A road leader so had to have 1,gave away after lost that bike,Every-one can learn from this Thanks...Piute N Judose...Wallets have save my ----.

[shinyribs]

The Lord is good. I'm glad to hear that you and your boy are both fine.Sorry to hear about your bike.Hope everything works out like you want it to.   Eric.

[sgtslag]

Not certain about the cause of the tire flat, but I suspect it has to do with a mistake I made, last year.  I thought I found something, on the Web, that indicated I was running my tires under-pressured, so I increased the pressure...  After riding that way for several weeks, I realized I had made a mistake.

My mechanic used synthetic inner-tubes, which do not stretch like natural rubber -- they don't go back, they stretch out, and stay that way, I believe.  Anyway, I suspect I might have stretched them out, and yesterday's ride may have been the last straw before it broke.  I will hopefully hear back from my mechanic, later this week, as to what really happened, as well as whether it can be salvaged, or if I need to sell it for parts [Choke!].

A bike, is just a bike.  Family, and friends, are irreplaceable.  Yesterday was a poignant reminder of that.  Life is short -- make it sweet!  Cheers!

[Lucky 1]

It is great that neither one of you got seriously hurt.
The nylon jackets are great and I feel are better than leather.
The leather really grabs the pavement and rolls you around causing possible injuries.
The nylon just slides.

[shinyribs]

sgtslag wrote

A bike, is just a bike.  Family, and friends, are irreplaceable.  Yesterday was a poignant reminder of that.  Life is short -- make it sweet!  Cheers!

Well said Sarge! On the inner tubes,I used some synthetic tubes to save some bucks and the drag car.NO SIR!NEVER AGAIN!  $15 per syn tube versus $80 a piece for natural rubber,I thought i was just saving money. 3300 lb car doing 115 mph on 9 psi of air inside of a wrinkle wall carcass is already tipsy feeling as is. Put the syn-tubes in and it gave a whole new meaning to the word "pucker". I don't know about bikes,but also very important to get tubes that match profile of the tire as well.You don't want any empty voids in there.Been there,lived that...barely.Not cool. I'm glad everyone's okay.How old is your son,if you don't mind me asking?Is he shook up?

[wes]

glad you and son are ok. wow. that is very sobering. when i look at my "pleather" jacket i got at target, thats made to look like a motorcycle jacket. that i scratched up purty good riding a sk8 board. i need some safe gear. how stupid of me to ride almost bareback. again, glad you and son are both ok. think he will ride on the back again?

[LukeM]

Quite a detailed report.  I'm glad you and your son are OK. That must have been pretty scary. I've yet to lay down a bike at speed: only once at an intersection.  This is just another endorsement for wearing good armor jacket and pants, and a good helmet...even if you're just going on a short ride.

Be careful out there.
Luke M

[sgtslag]

Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but one thing I never realized, is the burning injuries that come with road rash. My son's road rash abrasion wounds, are surrounded by burns in his skin. His leather wallet shows brown burn damage around the edges of where it was abraded. My blue jeans, as well as my son's, show brown burn damage around the edges of where they were abraded. I never realized, before this accident, how much heat is generated by the fabrics rubbing on the pavement as you slide. I believe that is where a larger portion of the pain associated with road rash comes from, the burning heat damage to your skin, more so than the abrasion of the flesh -- it is just a nasty combination of hurt.

My son is 22.  He told me he was thinking of getting his motorcycle endorsement, until this accident.  He was emotionally shaken up a bit, but not as bad as I thought he might be.  He said he relied on his Army training in the crash:  he hit on his left elbow, initially, then he tucked in, which saved him from more serious injury.  He took it better than I would have, at his age.  He is recovering very well, emotionally, and his physical injuries will take time -- they are actually very superficial.

Back in 1982, my father was touring with a group of friends on motorcycle, when he T-boned a car which pulled out in front of him.  He impacted it at around 40 MPH -- the same speed as my crash.  My father was critically injured, and nearly died.  He did not work again, until 18+ months later; his recovery was excruciatingly painful, and extremely long.  He did return to motorcycling after a few years.  We were truly blessed in our accident.  My only injury was a light bruise, on the back of my left hand, which is nearly gone already.  I will likely be climbing onto my Voyager tomorrow, for a ride.  My wife is ready to go, too.  Cheers!

[Piute]

Your family has a great attitude..Ride ON ..Piute...

[shinyribs]

I never considered the burns either.That is crazy to think about that kind heat. Well,22 is young,but i'm glad he wasn't scared away by the accident. Arm training? Tell him i said THANKS FOR BEING A SOLDIER. He's a hero in my book...aaaaand you must be an ok guy to have raised a good kid

[shinyribs]

Hey SgtSlag,how are you and your boy doing since the crash?

[sgtslag]

Great, thank you.  My son's road rash wounds are healing very well, no infections.  He asked about buying my Honda, but he is low on cash (after the accident, he came off as not being interested in bikes anymore, so this was a pleasant surprise).  My small bruises are gone.

The bike has been in the Shop since the accident.  They finished it up today, replacing:  front fender (used); handlebars and grips (used, new, respectively); engine guard bars (used, 3-point replacing my old, 2-point); new rear inner tube; driver's footpeg (used); windshield on my Vindicator Fairing (used Windjammer shield, with pop vents -- didn't have these before); topped off the oil.  They had a 1982 750K rotting in the back, customer basically donated it to them, so we cut a deal on parts off of it, where we both came out ahead.  Will pick it up tomorrow.  Looking forward to riding it again.

Discovered that something punctured the tube.  I thought I had stretched it out, over-pressurizing the tires last year, for a week, but found out that was nigh impossible.  That was a relief.  I try to suck as much learning out of every experience I can, so I can avoid making the same mistake again...

  Cheers!

[Re-run]

That is the crappy thing about tubes. You puncture them and they go flat real quick. Tubeless tires, unless the hole is BIG, deflate slowly like a car tire when it has a nail in it.

Glad your son isn't letting this keep him down. I don't think I would be smart enough to stop riding!

If I were, I would have stopped riding years ago with all the crashes on dirt!

[LukeM]

I love your attitude, SgtSlag.  Live and learn, and then you learn and live.  I'm glad you and your son are healing up nicely, and not afraid of getting back on the bike.  I have yet to lay down a bike at speed.  Once or twice at a stop light (forgot to move forward before turning the front wheel, and *flump* down it went on the crash bars). Tres embarrassant.

Luke

[shinyribs]

Good to hear.Thanks for letting us know.I don't know if it would be any help or not,or if it even relates to bikes.But,when mounting our drag racing slick,we use baby powdre on the tubes so they will slide around inside the tire and not pinch themselves.Real easy to pinch one in a wrinkle wall during use,but also while inflating for first time.Just my c.02

[sgtslag]

Yep, same thing with bike tubes and tires.  Mine were pro-mounted, as I tried myself, initially, then took it in after I punctured a brand new tube.  Poor equipment, and lack of skill, can empty your wallet rather fast.  Cheers!