Lowsided...

[TheTopher]

Last week I took a turn a little too sharp and sent my bike sliding sideways across the road. Fortunately I managed to go right between the other cars and come to a stop just at the edge of the pavement. I got got up, stood my bike back up and rolled it to the side of the road where I was able to pop my turn signal back into place and continue riding. Damage was minor, scrapes at the end of the handlebars, on the plastics, the muffler and the rear brake lever got filed down just a wee bit.

I was wearing AVG Sport riding jeans, Teknic Xcelerator gloves, Sidi ST riding boots, a Scorpion Hatrick jacket and a Scorpion EXO400 helmet. My gear completely took the pain out of my wreck and I wasn't even aware I had lowsided until I heard the scraping noise and changed direction. There was not a scratch on me. Upon inspection when I got home I had scrapes along the sliders of my gloves and boots, a few holes in the denim of my jeans but the kelvar was undamaged and I had a very minor fraying of the threads on my jacket. It was really cool to look at my gear and see how each piece of it did exactly what it was designed to do.

I really wanted to thank all the more experienced riders here that drove home the need for good gear, all the times they've mentioned it and all the pictures you've shared of what happens when you don't wear your gear. It may be a little uncomfortable and inconvenient at times, but that one time I needed it all, my gear was worth it's weight in gold. So thanks for the advice to get me started ATGATT and I intend to stay ATGATT and insist my girlfriend do the same when she starts riding with me.

[Trailerboy531]

That brought tears to my eyes....

Stories like that keep us hounding the new guys.

[cuz]

ATGATT FTW

Glad you came out w/your right foot out of this

[akima]

I heard a nice saying in here:
"Dress for the slide, not for the ride."

[Mocha Man]

Sorry to hear about the crash. Glad to hear you're okay due to your gear though

[CalvinAmI]

I would LOVE to be ATGATT, but I just don't have the money to do it. After my knee getting shattered in a motorcycle accident last fall, I FULLY realize the need and value of adequate gear. I've since replaced my helmet & jacket with well-fitting new stuff, and have some cheap gloves that are mediocre at best. I replaced the bike with my '06 250. Still needing some descent pants and boots. I have actually PARKED the bike for now until I can get my hands on some second-hand gear to keep me safe. MSF course completed and ready to roll... just not geared up all the way yet
I've just been doing minor mods to the bike to keep me busy until I get ATG, then I'll be riding ATT (maybe in a month of two i'll have my gear )

Glad to hear your gear kept you on this side of the grass
Keep the experiences coming!

[Malicious Logic]

Lol, I thought riding jeans equated to only MTGATT? Either way, glad to hear you're ok and that your gear worked for you.

[akima]

Originally Posted by Malicious Logic

Lol, I thought riding jeans equated to only MTGATT?

Well, as long as they are proper riding jeans that protect your skin during a slide and they have knee pads built in, I figure they're fine.

I guess there is no official ATGATT meaning. I've considered myself ATGATT even though it was only a couple weeks ago that I bought myself a back protector. Does that mean I was MTGATT or ATGATT?

Primarily I care about skin protection, impact protection for my head and strong boots. Those 3 things are really important to me because:
skin - you're almost guaranteed to loose skin if you come off your bike at even slow speed. You're almost guaranteed to not loose any skin if you've got the right gear.
head - again, skin protection, but I believe that helmets save lives and massively decrease the chance of brain damage.
feet & ankles - i saw some statistics (don't have the source sorry) which showed that you're very likely to damage your feet & ankles in a motorcycle crash when you don't have protection for them. Infact, when I crashed my bike, I landed on my left ankle and pinned my leg in place. I was wearing protective boots though which I believe protected me from having my ankle broken.

I do also have other impact protection (shoulders, elbows, knees and back), but I would consider riding without those things in some scenarios.

[Miles_Prower]

boots/gear is amazing. i did a slow speed slide (20mph) on pavement and hit a guard rail (side of left boot and shoulder). I had waited until my boots came in before I went for a longer distance ride, and my second time out with boots on, I went down. If I was wearing anything else, my lower legs would have been torn up (abrasions all over side of boot) and possibly my ankles would be injured/broken. The only scratch I got was through my jeans right above the end of the boot. Next up are leather pants.

You can't put a price on your safety. I would rather get strange stares riding 1 mile to the store in full gear, than to have to suffer from injuries sustained in a crash!!

[TheTopher]

Originally Posted by Malicious Logic

Lol, I thought riding jeans equated to only MTGATT? Either way, glad to hear you're ok and that your gear worked for you.

I have riding pants with knee and hip armor but riding pants just don't give me enough room in certain male areas. I bought the loosest ones I could and they're still not comfortable enough to be worn regularly

I was actually worried about riding jeans being adequate protection but after watching them take a low side and still be useful, my confidence in them is boosted.