Ever hit the Tarmac at 90mph+? I have. And I’m still here to tell the tale. In fact I got up and walked away from the pile of expensive wreckage that was my Gixxer. I learnt two things:

Dressing like a power ranger saves your life. Riding like an utter and complete bell-end doesn’t

Binners – you can have decent protective gear that is not a race replica suit

The thing with MTBing is that you can go balls out as fast as you can on XC and your life’s not really in danger. That’s one of the things I like about it in fact.

My leathers were plain black. But I was guilty of race replica Arai helmet and daft garish motocross boots, coupled with far-from-subtle ear-splittingly loud, tuned-to-buggery Japanese sports missile. I rode al the time though. Never bothered with a car license til into my thirties

Don’t get the problem here. Bikes are a (admittedly dangerous) hoot! And you wear whatever will most likey save you from damage when the inevitable happens. What’s the problem?

Shorts and a t-shirt are far better at reducing casualty rates than leathers. I go really, really slow in shorts.

Not a power ranger than Binners. power rangers are teh ones in multicoloured race rep outfits.

Cool! I can put my indigent persecution complex away then 😉

The thing with MTBing is that you can go balls out as fast as you can on XC and your life’s not really in danger. That’s one of the things I like about it in fact.

Not quite true, i vividly remember a friend of mine who went face first into a metal fence post as a result of highsiding out of a fast corner. His crash lid smashed into 3 pieces, and he had to have extensive surgery to realign his nose and mouth. His crash helmet saved his life. And the fact that the paramedics were miracle workers.

This was 15 years ago and he was on an RTS 3. Imagine the speeds we reach on todays machinery, and im talking about XC bikes. And the trails themselves have moved on so much to be so much more technical than back then!
You can still die on a bicycle. In fact you can still die doing just about anything!

I said not ‘really’ in danger meaning mostly it’s not. Of course you can smash yourself up quite badly but the risks are not on the same scale as doing the equivalent on a motorbike.

True- i guess if the finger of doom points at you it dosent really matter what youre doing!

So- whatever you enjoy doing, smile alot and keep doing it!

I think i fit in with the power ranger description………my one piece suit is nice and comfy to wear and should help me out should some knob in an Audi change lanes suddenly in front of me.

Exactly

One piece suits are also important for hiding ‘stains’ after moments like this..
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srMakWD6Jaw&NR=1[/video]

Sweet baby jesus and the orphans! 😯

i guess if the finger of doom points at you it dosent really matter what youre doing!

I do like to try and hide from the finger of doom as much as possible tho 🙂

Fantastic woody

One piece suits are also important for hiding ‘stains’ after moments like this..

On that subject, here is my main memory of this years TT:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHA-GuBDBzQ[/video]

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that!”

Well thanks to some awful camera work, neither have we.

Well thanks to some awful camera work, neither have we.

Cameraman probably worried about a chunk of Kawasaki flying through the air, and hitting him on the noggin.

That’s no excuse.

That’s no excuse.

Someone appears to have sand in their vagina this afternoon.

And it’s not me.. I was being silly and joking about… you don’t seem to have spotted it..?

Pah! That’s not nearly a crash. This is nearly a crash…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vzHO9Evb1g[/video]

And it’s not me.. I was being silly and joking about… you don’t seem to have spotted it..?

That’s no excuse.

Reminds me of the classic picture of Wayne Gardner

YOIKES!!! 😯 Though god only knows how anyone kept those V4 2 stroke 500’s pointing in vaguely the right direction. Balls like water melons!

Pah! That’s not nearly a crash. This is nearly a crash…

Dammit! I need to know if he got back on now!

Not forgetting Biaggi’s wheelie

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEg5ZTw0fzM[/video]

This ones not a bad save either:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYKFZEeEE4&feature=related[/video]

D’is threads turned into a relative video crash emporium init.

I’ve one of these fellas (currently in Brescia) and I’ve never been shunted nor spilled down the road despite riding around Florence/Rome/Perugia. I’ve a screen on mine though and once a pigeon hit it at 40k’s, that was quite a shock I can tell ya’s. It has, to be fair, been knocked off it’s stand on more than one occasion by errant car drivers in tight city streets mind.

D’is threads turned into a relative video crash emporium init.

Really? I don’t see any crashes?

Bikebouy – If youve ridden a scooter around an Italian city then you are a braver man than I sir

D’is threads turned into a relative video crash emporium init.

at least it hasn’t turned into a thread all about TJ. yet….

at least it hasn’t turned into a thread all about TJ. yet….

You had to tempt fate didn’t you?

I’ve (we’ve) spent some very happy times riding around Tuscany, Florence being the best city for that kinda thing. Romes a bit of a nightmare, but you see there are so so many scooters around that the chances of getting hit by a car are small compared to getting hit by another scooterist..
They really are the best things for seeing the place(s) MrsBouy loves it too.. (ahh how romantic) If you keep off the dual carriageways it’s fine, really. Cobbled streets in the rain are interesting but nothing to get fussed over.
And there are “sportsbike owners” over there too, loads of them, not all of them wear leathers, most wear t-shirts and jeans and a lid.

You should try it.

Exactly
One piece suits are also important for hiding ‘stains’ after moments like this..

How the hell did he not crash? Actually, how the hell did he not hit the barrier?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTFzJbT5iW4&playnext=1&list=PLD256BB821751ED67[/video]

You can get your knee down at legal speeds too, in fact this bloke got his elbow down!
I think this was from a Performance Bikes photoshoot…

Bikebouy – If youve ridden a scooter around an Italian city then you are a braver man than I sir

Italy is fine. You have 2 choices: Go slow and keep out of the way, or go flat out.

Me and Mrs PP both rode motorbikes to Italy a few years ago, over the Alps, down past Milan to Bologna and Florence. Even the cities aren’t too bad. It’s mote like fast ballet than anything else and nobody seems to get road rage like in the UK. 🙂

2 years around Emilia Romagna on an SV1000 and we both survived to tell the tell. Plenty of flipflopped gsxr riders out there willing to really push it to try and not let the overdressed inghilese past on his thumper.

rossi – Id be more impressed if he had the bike leant over a decent amount

Agreed – he’s barely onto the chicken strips at that angle and if you have to hook you’re knee over the seat……… 🙄

Here’s someone at the ‘real’ limit and managing to keep both feet on the pegs
[img]http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/photogallerys/633814459257787000valentino-rossi-catalunya-03.jpg[/img]

now thats the real rossi

No. this is the real rossi