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Road Rash & Riding Gear
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February 16, 2009 at 5:09 pm #2543MattParticipant
So, the recent thread on Armour got me into “public service announcement mode”.
For anyone who has taken the MSF, or read up on protective clothing, I expect most of this will sound like a broken record.Everyone on this board knows road rash exists, and that they *should* wear ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) to help minimize it and the many other ways we can get hurt every time we get on our steeds of choice.
But the question becomes, do you know what road rash is? Most people (myself included until educated by a nurse friend) think that it is essentially a really bad scrape.
Road rash is indeed skin and tissue ripped from the body by contact with an extremely abrasive material – remember, asphalt is specifically designed to increase tire grip, it is not kitchen tile. But like sliding on kitchen tile or carpet, it is also a friction burn. And that makes it much harder to treat (Hospitals have “burn wards”, they don’t have “cut, bruise, and fracture” wards, because the level of treatment and expertise required by burns is much higher than regular injuries).
Here’s an article ( http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/roadrash.shtml ) on treating bicycle road rash. While road bicycles can get going pretty darned fast, if you’ve seen any of the many lets-laugh-at-the-squid-crying photos on the web, you’ll know motorcycle road rash tends to cover much much larger swaths of skin, and travel much deeper (increasing the amount of burn care required).
Two things to take away from the article (in case you just skim over it and see it is really bloody long). Firstly, they say repeatedly that if you think it might be any more serious than a simple abrasion, see a medical professional. The risk of infection in an injury like this is high. Chances are if you ever get a road rash on a motorcycle, that part won’t be a problem, you’ll know you have to see a doctor to get it cleaned properly (and maybe get a prescription for soem stiff pain killers).
Secondly, look at how long the treatment, even for minor road rash, is. It takes up many paragraphs, and can be summed up as: Clean the heck out of the wound, and then use a sterile (and work hard to make sure it stays sterile) moist dressing, and change that dressing daily.Recovering from road rash is much more unpleasant that simply being fitted with a cast and waiting for bone to knit.
Here is a near worst case story (http://sportbike.natkd.com/road_rash.htm ).
It is well worth the read.
While her injuries were sustained in what is probably a much higher speed than most of us will play around with it really emphasises the need for gear in the event of a crash, as well as the importance of being a responsible driver on a two-up ride (it isn’t enough to ride safely, though I doubt her driver did, you also have to remember that your passenger is exposed to all the dangers you are, and so they should be as protected as you are).Okay, so there’s the big scary story. But choosing your level of protection is about choosing how much of a compromise you are going to make between image (I’m not going to pretend any of us are truly above caring what others think, we all want to look good in our own way), comfort, convenience, and protection.
I don’t think anyone here would argue that riding a Rebel for a short jaunt requires a full set of racing leather. But what levels of protection do all those alternatives provide?
First, remember if an area is exposed (gap in the wrist between glove and jacket, butt cheeks in chaps, etc) it is unprotected, period. So consider then when looking at non-gauntlet gloves, chaps, low-rise jeans, whatever have you (full disclosure: my summer weight leather gloves are end-at-the-wrist style. It isn’t how I’d choose to do things, but my textile gloves developed a hole and I needed a pair of riding gloves for a two day road trip – new gloves are on this list of things for this season).
So, how much protection does street denim provide?
“Under the EU Standards, material used in motorcycle protective clothing must have abrasion resistance of between 4 and 7 seconds for use over the high impact areas of the body (Zone 1 and 2). Just to put this in context, a single layer of 1.4 mm cow hide will last 5.8 seconds, while 200 gsm denim (or your standard jeans), will last just over half (0.6) of a second (SATRA, 2002).” – http://roadsafety.mccofnsw.org.au/a/88.html(a nice table of resistances can also be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety_clothing#Textile_clothing )
If you are buying a product sold in Europe, look for CE EN 13595, this means it passes the testing for abrasion, impact, cut and burst resistance.
There are LOTS of CE standards, and many jackets claim CE protection. Often, they refer to CE padding or inserts. In these cases, only the padded in rated to a CE standard. If you want the full protection, you need the EN 13595 rating.
The general guide line for protection goes (from least protective to most):
Street denim
riding denim with armour
textile with armour
leather with armour
full thickness (race) leather with armour(Armour in this case being padded insert in the key impact areas, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, and back)
What is important is that according to MCN, cost does not go hand in hand with quality. Many of the more expensive pieces failed, while many of the less expensive pieces stayed together. Quality of materials, quality of process, and quality of workmanship all come together to make gear safe. And while you’d think that those would all increase the cost of gear, other considerations (fashion for one) can drive up cost even more.
BBM is starting to get a pretty good base of gear reviews (some of it even real world crash information!), and so can help a lot in figuring out which kit is good, and which isn’t. I’ve also found http://www.webbikeworld.com/ to have plenty of good reviews on a variety of gear.
Have fun and ride safe
-MattFebruary 16, 2009 at 6:30 pm #16534MedicParticipantSome great info there, and a well thought out post. Thanks for the information, I wasn’t real sure what all this CE stuff was about. I’ll need to be more careful when choosing my gear now that I have a better idea of these standards.
As a Nurse myself, I can tell y’all first hand that road rash and other motorcycle injuries are no joke. If you’ve ever had a wound debrided, you know how painful that can be. Depending on the size, extent, and location of the wound, it may need to happen quite a bit more than you’d probably like. And as was said, the risk of infection is very high with alot of road rash. One of my patients actually became septic and died.
We learn every day. I for one am glad I can learn some safety tips here before I learn them the hard way with inferior gear.
February 16, 2009 at 7:04 pm #16536PhilUpParticipantGreat info! I will eventually need to start commuting to school on my bike. This will require about 25 miles on the freeway one way. I am trying to decide between a leather suit or a textile oversuit such as the ones by Aerostitch or the A* 360 drystar. I have read that the Aerostitch is very comparable to leather, but I am not sure if that is really the case. The thing I like about the textile suits is that you can where it over your clothes and get in it and out of it pretty quick. Also living in the Bay Area, you can go from different weather environments in one ride. I like the textile suit for the fact that it can be useful in multiple climates. Is leather that much more protective than let’s say an Aerostitch Roadcrafter? I guess best case scenario would be a textile suit for commuting and full racing leathers for weekend twisty riding, but that is an expenditure to say the least, and I can’t afford that yet. Anything comparable to Aerostitch gear but cheaper?
February 16, 2009 at 8:13 pm #16537MattParticipantI ride in textile.
I do so because I commute in everything from freezing, to rain, to brutally hot and humid. I find my textile overpants and jacket allow for that comfortably. I also never ride at my limit. If I ever did a track day I simply would not do it without a full thickness leathers.I’ve heard some people say that textile has caught up to leather and is as safe. I haven’t really seen anything that truely suggests that. When you look at the guys who depend on their gear for their life and lively hood (motorcycle racers), they all ride leather. Period.
If you look at the wikipedia table ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety_clothing#Textile_clothing ) you’ll see that Cordura and a Kevlar blend are both capable of the same abrasion resistance as leather. However, you’ll notice that Cordura also comes in strenghts much much lower.
So the best made and thickest synthetic materials do appear to match leather. However, that is only the best of them. If out right protection was my goal, I’d spend my money on the one that has been proven to work time and again.
The other thing about leather is that is slides better than textiles. Textiles are like a crash helmet. They save your bacon by failing in a controlled manner that takes the energy instead of transfering it to you. That means all textile gear is one crash only. A low speed slide at 20mph? Your textile jacket and pants are gone – period. Quality leather is multi use. how much multi-use? I don’t have the foggiest. I’ve just been told that low speed slides on well put together thick leather won’t force you to go buy another set.
I’d like to hear Spaz or someone else with experience in leathers chime in on that though.
February 16, 2009 at 8:46 pm #16540megaspazParticipantwell made leathers will be multi use for minor crashes. I’ve seen/heard leathers being scuffed/rashed but with no real damage from track crashes which aren’t really minor crashes. I’ve never heard of textiles being re-usable after a crash and cheap leathers won’t be re-usable either. You can’t really choose what kind of crash you’ll be in, so it’s up to you to decide between leather or textile and the quality of the leathers or textiles. I can tell you for trackdays, providers will not let you ride in anything but leathers. 1 piece or 2 piece (as long as the top and bottom attache securley). But anything besides trackdays, the choice is yours. Any gear’s better than none though.
February 17, 2009 at 4:48 am #16553SantaCruzRiderParticipantI commute 45 miles each way (Santa Cruz to Sunnyvale). I wear textile overpants, primarily because they are very easy on/off, which gives me no excuse to not wear them. They are also easily washable, so no worries about road grime.
I don’t pretend that textile provides as much protection as quality leather, but I’m comfortable with the compromise. -
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