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Old May 4th, 2014, 08:12 AM   #16
CaptainPlatypus
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Name: Eric
Location: Los Angeles
Join Date: Apr 2013

Motorcycle(s): '86 Honda VFR700

Posts: 173
All right, gear review time. Insurance review will need to wait until I get in contact with the claims rep - I ended up making a 2AM trip to urgent care for X-rays when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't put weight on my leg. Just swelling, thankfully, but it ****ed up my sleep so bad I wasn't awake during business hours all week.

Like I mentioned in the original post, I went down to the right on rough asphalt at about 30mph. Main contact points were my left forearm,left hand, and right knee. I slid about six feet.

I was wearing a pair of tough old hiking boots (I know, breaking that habit), and they held up well enough but I'm definitely moving up to dedicated riding boots before I get back on two wheels. Don't have a review for you there, since they aren't proper gear. My G-Max GM68S helmet never touched the ground, so I can't offer much of a review for it either.

Icon Victory riding pants did their job, I suppose, but I'm never wearing them on a moving bike again. They don't have knee armor, and I'm replacing them with a pair of Icon Brawnsons that do, but they did a reasonably good job keeping my skin on. There's about a dime-sized rip in the denim, but the kevlar under it is practically untouched. I managed to lose about a quarter-sized chunk of skin even through the kevlar, though, which CE armor definitely would have saved. Lesson learned - armor on my knees every time I swing a leg over a bike.

Alpinestars Stunt mesh/textile jacket did perfectly. My forearm hit at the same time as my hand (thanks, hapkido, for teaching me proper falling technique), and the jacket's not even scuffed up. No injuries there.

My Bilt gauntlet-style leather gloves, on the other hand (don't know the model name) failed miserably. Left palm is torn completely through, all the way across - not even at a seam, the leather just ripped wide open. Lost a bunch of skin between my thumb and wrist. Definitely going to be very careful about whatever I buy to replace them being much higher quality.

Also, the insurance of the lady who cut me off (AAA) tried to contact me Friday, though I'm not going to call them back until I've talked to at least my insurance (Progressive) and maybe a lawyer. Should be a good sign, though - her vehicle wasn't affected by the accident, so if they're getting in touch it should be to own up to her responsibility for the accident or something...right? That's what I'm trying to convince myself of, anyway...
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