Okay, this has convinced me to upgrade my safety gear NOW.

From the Hell For Leather article:

"ws Let's circle back to the wreck real quick. What were you wearing. I know you had your Nexx XR1R Carbon helmet on.

ss Icon Overlord jacket with D3O in the elbows and a CE Level 2 back protector, Reign boots, Justice Touch Screen gloves. I also had on Alpinestars Axiom jeans, which have Kevlar in the butt and knees and T-Pro knee armor I'd retrofitted. Basically head to toe armor.

ws What do you think would've happened if you weren't wearing all that?

ss Well, let's say I was just wearing jeans, jacket and gloves; I think I probably would have lost my left leg. If that didn't happen, I'd definitely have had a really bad broken ankle, a completely destroyed knee and lots of road rash, bleeding and soft tissue damage. That's some fucking serious shit.

ss People die all the time, bleeding out from broken femurs.

I may have been OK because the ambulance got there so fast, but I bet I'd at least still be in the hospital and walking would be something I'd be lucky to do in a year, not three months.

Now, let's say I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, no gloves and an open face helmet. Typical gear for about half of motorcyclists. My left arm would have looked like hamburger. My breaks would have been worse and I bet I would have a broken elbow too. I definitely would have broken my jaw and tore my face to shreds. I also would have road rash all over my back and sides. Survivable? Maybe. I'd be fucked up for life though."

Wow. Wow. I'm getting rid of my silly half-helmet asap. Oh, and props to the author for the TGOC reference. :-)

In case you are a commonsewer safety equipment rather than ammunition: "A rimfire is a type of firearm cartridge. It is called a rimfire because instead of the firing pin of a gun striking the primer cap at the center of the base of the cartridge to ignite it (as in a centerfire cartridge), the pin strikes the base's rim."

I will avoid speculating on what you *might* have thought it meant, and get on with the glove lust.

I used to work with this cat named Trosky (named after Leon Trotsky) who told me a hair raising tale of crashing like a fool whilst hooning his GSXR down a freeway. While fully admitting that he was riding like a crack squirrel, he was much more interested in relating how nicely his gloves had saved his hands as they became speed bumps for his torso as he barrel-rolled down the tarmac.

I've lost track of Trosky, but think that he would find the One Thousand Rimfire Glove a lovely refinement. Click around on the image options and scope the plams and fingers: They have some very cool elastic zig-zag stitching that keep the leather from bunching uncomfortably and interfering with your death grip on the, uuhh... grips. The D30 insert in the knuckles is what protects you, the elastic detailing is what makes you want to hand them over to your best buddy.

"It's too hot for this leather suit."

"Dang! I won't be getting out of second gear!"

"Just around the track once."

Yeah, that's my dumb ass sporting the giant cherry on my elbow. My big gut was bruised from dingus to tits and I bit a chunk out of my own tooth. I was going less than 10 mph.

WEAR YOUR SAFETY GEAR.

Here lies images and links of fine and graceful faceplants, grevious wounds and passionate kissing of safety equipment.

Nom nom mou mou slurp.

Seriously, we love our safety equipment.

See here: Ben's delicious ass-over-teakettle floor excercise at the Henry Ford. And a follow up of him winning a heat as well. Excelsior! :-)