they told me it would happen and now i believe

:tsk: everyone kept telling me... there are two riders. those who have been down and those that are going down... welp i have only been riding for 4 weeks now and had my first lay down :mad2: :frusty: .... OUCH OUCH OUCH however my exact words were a lot more vulgar... first mistake. wearing sleevless shirt and no gloves... hands and arms are covered in road rash. BIGGEST MISTAKE. not wearing my helmet :hurt: ... even though my fall was at about 25mph it still hurt and i shoulda been wearing it. every since that incident a yesterday i decided my helmet stays on my head not my rear fairing. man my head hurts too. anyways i hit a patch of gravel/glass like an area where there was debris from an accident and bam skid right through the intersection and just layed on the ground for about 5 minutes while everyone gathered around to look at me :jaw: . anyways i thought i would share my first experience of going down with you all and hopefully everyone wears a helmet cause concrete is kinda hard. lol. be safe everyone! oh and if anyone is wondering it is amazing my bike came out of the lay down with MINOR scratches and a broken clutch and brake lever, ripped grips, some small nicks on plastic, and a broken signal. actually if you looked at my scratches and bruises you would think i was going faster or it was worse. NOPE the concrete is just that damn hard.

 

sorry to hear but glad you're around to tell the story! I'm just waiting for my turn, that's why I'm always fully geared even for a soda run! :wink:

best of luck in recovery! did the cleaning of the wounds hurt?

 

haha cleaning of the wounds... well i dont know what child birth feels like but i am guessing something like cleaning of the wounds. lol i am exaggerating a little but yea it hurt MAJOR road rash feels and seems way different from normal scuffs and scrapes i am not sure why. but yea fully geared is my only way for now at least or until i actually get enough experience under my belt to feel comfy. like i said i have only been on a bike for the first time ever 4 weeks ago. i was getting a little cocky with all these other young sport riders around acting all cool... blah blah blah wearing no helmet. yeh not me. lol. screw cool i'd rather be alive to talk about it.

 

Sorry to hear about the fall.
But you gotta wear what you want to crash in...

 

Glad you lived through your first incident. A good motto for riding is "dress for the crash". Hope it doesn't happen again. Oh, and by the way...it's really cool to wear a helmet, etc.

 

do you guys really think its cool to wear a helmet. i am just asking from curiousity because i am only 19 years old and i see all these guys with no helmets but the helme it strapped to the back. seems almost pointless to have it if your not gonna use it i guess. but yes thanx for the advice i will definately dress accordingly!

 

Why don't you ask the guy who started this thread what he now thinks about not wearing a helmet.

It's up to you whether you do or not: personally, i think you are an f'in idiot to NOT wear one.

 

wait, concrete and asphalt are hard?

 

Do I think wearing a helmet is cool? Hell yes!

I think a better way to look at this 2000 is when you see a rider geared fully up (i.e. full face helmet, full riding suit (leather or synthetic) gloves & boots sitting next to a rider who has nothing on, or barely anything on...what does that tell you?

I know what it tells me, the rider with the gear is serious about riding and knows the risks, whether they have been down or not. And the person who does not wear gear? Well read KC-10FE's post about "Squids". I would say that post sums up how most of us feel

And one more thing, I refuse to ride with people who do not wear gear. For the simple reason the people who don't wear gear I have met in my 10 years of riding are generally knuckleheads and not only are they shitty riders, but they put YOU at risk. So choose who you ride with wisely, if you choose to ride with anybody. Until recently, I have mostly ridden by myself for the above reason.

BZ

 

ATGATT is cool. Riding nekkid is for fools.

I've been riding since 1970. I've crashed a number of times. (Over 300,000 miles of mostly town riding and it is inevitable.) I've done a lot more damgae to myself on bicycles (not geared up) than I've ever done on motorcycles.
I remember my first full set of leathers. The next weekend riding I managed to find a section of barbed wire fence to skid along. As I stood there cursing the fact that the leathers were destroyed, my riding bud asked me if I was hurt.
No blood, no rash. I bought another set of leathers that afternoon. (they cost me over a weeks pay back then.)
If you want to look "cool" and ride nekkid, buy a Hardley Abelson clone and join the "in" crowd.

 

I have never been down on the motobike yet (i know i know, makes me nervous). But have gone down a TON on mountainbikes and roadbikes where there is normally NO protection, and I can tell you road rash is lame. So are three broken vertebra, 7 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken leg, and a lot of bumps and bruises (all from my two wheeled pedal toys).
I shave my legs for roadbike racing cause you slide better on asphalt that way, you end up with just some minor road rash instead of looking like hamburger. The hair seems to grab the asphalt and thats all she wrote.
So if I am willing to live with the looks I get for having shaved legs as a dude, living with wearing a helmet and gear is NOTHING.
Plus, to tell you the truth, I think my helmet looks badass, iridium gold visor, sick graphics, I like wearing that thing!

 

I'm glad your ok and was able to tell us about your accident. Your young and only four weeks on the bike. This is an experience I hope you will not forget.As for your question about helmet...It's not COOL not to have one on,not COOL not to have your leathers...you have your proof...GET WELL SOON...

 

Bubba you're right ON!

HELMETS ARE WAY COOL! especially the full-faced fancy ones with all the awesome graphics. Anyone who doesn't wear one is just a moron asking for an early grave. Granted even the best helmet is no guarentee, but STUPID can be fatal.

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS were my helmet and riding jacket, riding gloves, and over the ankle riding boots, long pants. Anything less is just asking for trouble.

Be Safe and have fun.

 

Hey Sorry to hear about the fall - Hope you are ok. I am curious and do not mean to insult you so that is why I am asking if you meant you have only been riding a motorcycle for 4 weeks? I saw a post on Craigslist yesterday for the NYC area - someone posted an invitation for people like himself who are trying to learn to ride a motorcycle to come to a big parking lot and try doing some exercises together and that this is a free way to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Well it is free but it could be painful and damaging as far as the bike goes. Anyway, again no insult to you, it is just not good hearing about people going down without some kind of info/training/riding partner and especially the basics: Helmet, Gloves & boots (pants are usually a good idea). I do believe you will not ride without a helmet again. I am not a know it all and I could use all the help and training I can get myself. As an urban rider there is a lot of anomosity with the cagers who think all bikers are crazy who speed and break other traffice laws and if a biker get hurt or killed it was probably his fault (sad thing is there is some credibility to those thoughts). Getting training does not mean you will not go down but gives you a better chance of avoiding a lot of mistakes and getting better. Even people like myself who rode a bike for years learned at lot from the BRC MSF course. It also encouraged me to become a coach. Be safe and be well.

 

Wasn't ere another thread somewhere about this?

http://vfrworld.com/forums/anything-goes/7974-what-your-definition-squid.html


come on man use you head and protect yourself. im not trying to flame you but that kind of careless riding makes me sick. And we wonder why our (responsible riders) Insurance rates are so high. Well i can only hope that you lean some kind of lesson from this. Oh yeah and I am glad you OK (seriously)

meddle.........

 

WOW, im glad your around to tell us your story,.... but im not sure id have the guts to admit i wasnt wearing my helmet,.......especially with it strapped right behind you.

Sounds like you learned a valuable lesson.

 

Well I cannot argue with Meddle1999 - nuff said. Live and learn - work towards your full potential.

 

As everyone else stated, we're glad to hear your okay.... My first lay down was 4 days after I got my 1st bike... I had on jeans, helmet, gloves I had bought the night before, and steel toe welder boots... I still got hell'a road rash on my arms, a T-shirt provides ZERO protection... It's a tuff lesson to learn... The one thing I can't seem to wrap my head around is why anyone would think it's cool to NOT wear a helmet! I wear mine even when I'm just running two blocks to the gas station or around the neighborhood. of course Tennessee has a helmet law...

Glad to hear your experience hasn't been in vein, and keep those scraps clean.

 

I would like to applauded everyone who has added to this forum. Even 2000EX for descirbing his experince and mistake. This is great mentorship for everyone to share. We all have our discret secrets of our past that if only they (parents, wife, the law) would have us branded and outcasted. I know, I have a bunch of stupid things that I have done and learned the "hard way".

You can see from reading everyone posts, some have learned from their own experiences and others realized from someone else's misfortune. Crashes happen....

Motorcycling is very inheritingly risky. Why compromise your safety by reducing your protection? There are no fashion points awarded for being stupid by ignoring simple protection. It's a choice.... your choice.