Couldn't believe my eyes

Omega Man said:

I thought riding a motorcycle in the United States was all about have having fun, freedom and enjoyment.

The bleak stuff is-

Now comes a study in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher 2014 between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death, the study says.
That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.
Courtesy of The Scientific American
OM

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Well, I beat heart disease. Well on the way to defeating cancer. Guess my next challenge is a medical error!

SeabeckS;:thumb1104905 said:

Well, I beat heart disease. Well on the way to defeating cancer. Guess my next challenge is a medical error!

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Sounds like you did
OM

ATGATT, good mantra and we believe in it, but ......

• when in leathers we ride harder than in textiles.
• when in textiles we ride harder than in jeans

So we should wear shorts and be really safe?

Then there's the whole "society has to pay" argument over injuries. Being a fan of Darwin I don't personally care if someone rides with no helmet or whatever. Their choice, but what I do want is for them to move over and let us by. Is that too much to ask? We'll be in leathers or textiles, full face helmets, and gloves.

SeabeckS said:

Well, I beat heart disease. Well on the way to defeating cancer. Guess my next challenge is a medical error!

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Well, Bill, you probably have already overcome a medical errror or two and just don't know it. So, check that off the list and move on to surviving a volcanic eruption or falling space debris.

Said no one

There's nothing quite like seeing a 5 page thread related to what to wear and who should wear it. Loved the poster who suggested this be hijaked to an oil thread.

The posts here are indicative of the phrase "Your views on this have really caused me to rethink the subject (said no one, ever)"...

I've ridden across oklahoma, texas and new Mexico in the summer triple digits. Here in Arkansas it's a broiler too. Yes, it's hot in an aerostich, helmet, mesh pants, and boots yet I have managed to stay healthy enough to where a good sweating doesn't render my body debilitated. Tons of water at each stop and a camelback hydration pack are necessary. Heck I even enjoy pouring the cold gallon of water all over my head when filling up. Available at all c-stores. Evaporative cooling at it's finest.

I did get pissy with my wife once on a trip when she complained and wanted to remove her jacket and gear but after a moment decided to leave her be. After 20 miles or so she said she couldn't get used to riding without gear pulled her bike over and put it back on. Although she put it back on but still wouldn't let me pour cold water all over her (women and hair!).

I think we get used to gear and put up with the discomfort. But as many cynics on this thread would probably agree: Gear is just the difference between an open casket or a closed one in many cases....

Safe riding to all.

akbeemer said:

Well, Bill, you probably have already overcome a medical errror or two and just don't know it. So, check that off the list and move on to surviving a volcanic eruption or falling space debris.

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Thanks for not mentioning earthquakes!

Omega Man said:

Sounds like you did
OM

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Come to think of it, guess I did make it past a medical error. First time the lab took a look at my tissue sample they said it was benign. I insisted on a second look...radiation treatment started a few weeks later!

Like I told my brother the other day, I don't dance well, but I'm still dancin'!

SeabeckS said:

... Like I told my brother the other day, I don't dance well, but I'm still dancin'!

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Keep on dancing! What do you wear when dancing. No. Wait. Strike that.

CABNFVR said:

Keep on dancing! What do you wear when dancing. No. Wait. Strike that.

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Sort of like asking a Scotsman what he wears under his kilt...you don't want to know.

henzilla said:

...I'm a MTGMTT guy and it's funny how most of us learned in basically nothing and lived to tell about it but now have a different set of standards...some from experience...some from just getting older and grumpier...happens.

...Oh, I use Castrol Oil these days...unless I am using BMW BP Bottled juice...or Mobil 1 V-Twin

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Those that didn't live to tell about it, are missing from this conversation. Only those who were lucky, are still around to talk about how long they've ridden without gear.

FWIW, I'm one of those who added the airbag vest. It works great.

And I use Shell Rotella T6...

Chris

Shell Rotella T6?

Are you kidding me?!?

"FWIW, I'm one of those who added the airbag vest. It works great."

Have you "tested" it? I hope not.

71243 said:

"FWIW, I'm one of those who added the airbag vest. It works great."

Have you "tested" it? I hope not.

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Actually, yes. I have tested it. But not probably as you were thinking.

I went to turn right at a very busy intersection. The light had changed and I knew I had a few seconds before the traffic coming from my left would get near. (It is a large intersection.) I thought I was clear and started to turn right. Just as I started moving, a teenager crosses in front of me. I jammed on the brake hard to keep from hitting him, and the next thing I know, I'm laying up against the curb with a 570 lb motorcycle on me. (I don't fault the kid at all. It was my fault, and I do a double-check now to make sure I don't repeat that mistake again. )

As I'm laying there doing a mental check on what just happened, I realize I don't hurt even though I have the edge of the curb against me. Ahh...the airbag went off.

I think that even at that low speed, with the force that high-side (?) had, if I had hit the curb without the airbag, I probably would've cracked some ribs. As it was, the only thing hurt was my pride and my wallet for the $20 cost of a new CO2 cartridge.


I had a friend go off the road before I bought the air bag vest. Highly experienced rider. Leading 4 other bikes on a ride. He doesn't remember what happened, but the road turned and he didn't. His gear protected his body and head from road rash and a concussion. But he had 17 bones broken in his chest, a fractured vertebrae and a crushed vertebrae. For over a month, it was touch and go if he would live through the accident. Yet with something like an airbag vest, he probably would've walked away from the accident. As we've written before, a lot of gear selection is a process of risk management. I haven't had an accident other than that incident since 1980, and that one didn't even scuff my USAF blue jacket. (No riding jacket in those days.) I don't think I'll get into an accident the next time I ride...but the cost in pain and my medical bills in an emergency room far outweigh the cost of the HiT Airbag vest.

Chris

daboo said:

Those that didn't live to tell about it, are missing from this conversation. Only those who were lucky, are still around to talk about how long they've ridden without gear.

FWIW, I'm one of those who added the airbag vest. It works great.

And I use Shell Rotella T6...

Chris

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I don't doubt gear makes a difference in most situations. I can say it has helped me more than hurt me.
Have lost friends thru the years, some before the advent of modern gear...and as many with ATGATT. Getting run over typically ends badly.
There are no guarantees and why we make personal choices on our risky passion. Out of my two wheeled riding friends that have been lost thru the years...it wasn't from riding their bike for the majority of them.

I see the airbag as the next evolution of gear, not the end all answer to survival in all incidents, but a potential plus in some situations.Time will tell. I just hope the shaming from users to those who choose to not wear one isn't the next evolution of this technology...but I know better

Also an observation of the ATGATT is the only way crowd when at a rally just " riding across the grounds" or just down the street to eat or shop is at times just a bit hypocritical.
A fellow local club member who growled at me early on came out with bermuda shorts and knee high socks to go to dinner one night...no helmet. I just shrugged my younger shoulders and followed him down the dark construction zone in an unfamiliar town

I go back to the introduction of seatbelts...still have friends who will never buckle up and some who had that as a causal factor of their demise. I have rolled a topless Jeep down a hillside after sliding off the highway after a rainstorm and
everything on the Jeep was bent and broken after the 5 revolutions I counted...and I walked away from being kept in place.

The organ donor comment I have heard from non riders for years is kind of sad hearing from fellow motorcyclists regardless of what brand they ride. Some folks just do not know any better and being callous about it does no one any good.Others are never going to change their behavior and will do what they want. Education and experience is typically the only method of change...some come by this from a bad personal experience or the loss of a friend or family member

henzilla said:

...I go back to the introduction of seatbelts...

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As a 15 year-old, I was wearing the seatbelt in the front seat of our family car when we were struck head-on by another car at highway speeds. No doubt it saved my life. Ever since, I take all the safety equipment I can get my hands on. People who don't...I just shrug my shoulders.

henzilla said:

I go back to the introduction of seatbelts...

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I am a firm believer of safety equipment. Wearing a seat belt saved my life (as the police officer said while laying in the ER). Was t-boned by a '73 Plymouth Satellite running a red light at over 50mph and knocked head-on into an old style concrete street light down in the fashion district of downtown Los Angeles. (Yes, my mouth hit the steering wheel, but did not break any teeth).

Tonyfr,

Hell of an end to your Capri, glad you got out of it alive.

Twenty six years in the fire service plus one with a private ambulance company. That experience makes me a firm believer in being strapped in securely.

Won't go into details but one anecdote has stayed with me. I-80 in Sacramento, two accidents with days of one another. First was a 427 Impala that went off the road at high speed and was literally wrapped around a steel utility pole. Guy walked out of the hospital the next day. Second was a Bel-Air station wagon rear ended by a Ford Galaxie on that same stretch of road. Hard to see any damage to either car from a fairly low speed impact. Front seat passenger in the Chevy was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. The Impala guy had his belt on, the lady in the Bel-Air did not, unfortunately.

Have a lot of other stories, but this one always stuck firmly in my head.

One of the reasons I hung up my spurs recently is I no longer felt safe on the highway with all the idiots out there. Only got taken out by a cage driver once (20 years ago), but had this nagging feeling that my luck would run out. And I need to preserve all the luck I can.

Ride Safely my friends!

My dad added belts to my moms 64 Nova after she got slammed in her 63 between two larger vehicles.Her and my sister were pretty banged up, but lived.The Nova looked like a crushed can

I was in the right rear when we got t-boned on my side shortly afterwards by a red light runner. Had my mouth sewn shut and only had liquid food for weeks.Pretty clear it could have been way worse unrestrained.
I have always worn restraints and when folks didn't buckle up in my vehicle I didn't roll.
Their choice...if they wanted to ride or work...buckle up bud.

The next step




OM

Popped up my face shield the other day to scratch my face. Rolling down I64 near Lexington. Va. Before I got the shield down Slam. Yellow jacket about a centimeter below the left eye. At 75 mph the impact left the critter too damaged to sting me but it mattered very little. I was reeling from the shock. If that had been a bigger bug or even the tiniest pebble I would have been in trouble.
And that’s with an Aeroflow the size of a car hood out front!
Wear what you can. Hope the rest is just bugs.


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