The Choice Is Yours: Sweat Or Bleed
By Adeyemi Bennett – July 09, 2013
My COMMENTARY: Most accidents end up in road rash or more seriously DE-gloving of the skin. You don’t die right away. You are treated like a burn victim sometimes days to months. Skin grafts after skin grafts. Worst case scenario you develop an infection that can lead to sepsis. There is no cure for sepsis, aka blood infection except antibiotics and crossing of the fingers. If you die it’s counted as a medical complication secondary to the bike accident. Motorcycle stat deaths do not show how many die from road rash. So, wear gear, be smart…not everyone is lucky enough to die at the scene from a head injury or become a donor. My 2 cents.
It was over 100 degrees out that day, so a friend who’d just started riding decided it would be a good idea to ride to work without his jacket. Long story short, it wasn’t. Especially when he t-boned a car at 35mph. Here’s grizzly proof that getting a little hot in full gear isn’t such a bad idea.
We’d been in the middle of a heat wave here in LA, with the usual 72-and-sunny replaced with humidity and temps in the high 90s and low 100s. In conditions like that, riding around in a leather or textile jacket may seem like an insane thing to do. But to me, it’s the most sane. I’m not here to preach or sound like an elitist to new or inexperienced riders, I only want to share with you the consequences of some of these choices. Maybe they’ll even scare you into making smarter decisions.
During this friend’s short commute to work — the one in which he thought it was smart to leave his newly-purchased Alpinestars jacket at home for — he was caught off guard for whatever reason and missed a woman making a right-hand turn into him. Travelling at about 35mph, he had no time to grab his brakes, T-boning the car and flying right through the woman’s passenger window. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of that story…
The Choice Is Yours: Sweat Or Bleed
Had he been wearing his jacket, he would have just brushed himself off and waited for a friend to give him a ride home. Instead, he got a ride in an ambulance and a whole bunch of stitches.
Now, I know what it’s like to kiss Tarmac. That’s why, even when it’s seriously hot out, you’ll find me in my Dainese G. Speed Naked Pelle jacket, Steel Core Carbon gloves, Axial Pro In Boots and AGV Grid helmet. Yeah, I get the occasional puzzled look and “Aren’t you hot in that?” I’m actually quite cool because I know if anything happens on my ride, I’m well prepared for it.
The Choice Is Yours: Sweat Or Bleed
Luck for me, that jacket is so thin, light and ventilated that I didn’t need to pick up a textile mesh item when summer finally hit us. I can sit at a traffic light and not totally overheat. Unlike my R1…
Dress for the slide (or for flying through a car window), not the ride.
Recommended by
Follow RideApart
Share this:
Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
Reblogged this on Pacific Northwest Super Tenere Owners Group and commented:
ATGATT! All The Gear, All The Time is a way of life while on two wheels. Please get the word out!
so true, road rash hurts
And kills
Amen for proper gear!!!
All of my street bike friends teases me for AGATT but I’m living proof that it saves me. One time on a trail, I hit a rock which sent down the hill side which could have been devasting but since I was AGATT, the only injuries I received were on my knees which were not protected. I walked away and continued riding that day with colorful knees.
Mesh jackets and breathable gear is so widely available now that I don’t think “sweat vs. bleed” is even an issue. Even on the hottest days (and I wore my mesh jacket riding in Vietnam and Cambodia where the temperature was over 40 degrees most days), they aren’t too hot and the air flows through them freely.
It is so much easier to wash sweat off than blood. I get it all the time in Florida. Aren’t you hot? It is hot no matter what and to be truthful, I prefer covering up than getting fried by the sun.
My gear is old, 25 years old.
It’s basically a cow hide with a liner and no armour. It’s saved me once when I T-boned a car at 50mp/h; just a couple of scratches on my backside and a badly bruised leg, nothing broken. I was lucky.
I still wear that jacket but have added a back protector after reading an article about a bloke that low-sided at 10mp/h in fog on a steep decent, He caught his back on a cats-eye (road reflector) and now commands a chariot of a different kind.
I also wear knee pads in my Kevlar jeans but am unable to add the same for my elbows due to the construction of the jacket. I guess I’ll have to make do for a while, but its better than nothing.
Cheers
As you know we came off the bike last year in the Czech Republic after hitting an oil slick – we slid to a stop from about 50mph. Gear had some good abrasions but held up well. We both got up without so much as a scratch or bruise, just a few stiff muscles the next day. Luck played a part of course (no other vehicles involved) but the gear made the difference of carrying on with our trip and spending the next long while in hospital or worse.
My jacket has tonnes of ventilation zips so it never really feels too warm even when the temperature climbs to the mid 30s (°C) – while moving anyway… it’s properly lined also so there is the option to wear either just an undershirt or nothing underneath and still maintain protection.
I would rather be sweaty any day and I never ride without my gear. It just takes a second and things can go terribly wrong. I even wear it when I am sitting on the bike just moving it around in the garage and driveway, it seems from what I read and hear a lot of people tip over in the driveway at home and it just takes a wee smack on the noggin for a concussion. Its a choice we all make and I can honestly say I never can understand those who make the choice to not wear gear.
It’s a choice for any rider. As a motorcycle rider AND an undertaker – I dress for the crash not the ride and if my friends choose to poke fun and laugh, I just smile and remember what the last motorcyclist who wore shorts and flip flops looked like that came into my morgue. I AM ATGATT!
I cannot believe how many riders I see wearing nothing but shorts and a tee shirt in the summer. And the Harley riders with their “pot” helmets. Grim. And, to top it off, there are states, like AZ, with no helmet laws and I have seen plenty of riders there without any protection whatsoever.