| Author | Message | ||
     Pwnzor |
What's going on here in the South? I mean, people are very friendly and respectful everywhere I go, but something worries me: I am seeing people... LOTS of people... riding in traffic with shorts, tennis shoes, and yes, even FLIP FLOPS!!! I expect this behavior from the Goldwing crowd and the weekend warriors on their "choppers", but sportbikers????? Come on people, this is not rocket science! Bare flesh vs. incredibly hot pavement = BAD NEWS.  | ||
| Greg_e |
You must have been living under a rock, this is standard attire for the sportbike crowd. Let Darwin prove himself. | ||
| Malott442 |
No, he's from the west coast. Maybe more people have a damn brain over there. There are lots of those idiots over here in Birmingham. They always ask me if I'm hot in my suit. I ask em if they are stupid..... | ||
| Teeps |
Malott442 Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2010 No, he's from the west coast. Maybe more people have a damn brain over there. No just as brainless here... What makes me cringe is seeing innocent(?) young women riding on the back of any bike. Attired for the boudoir, not the flesh eating tarmac. We had a customer that lost 6 toes and both knee caps in a single vehicle get off into road bed of crushed,compacted gravel. He was wearing a tank top, shorts and flip flops. | ||
| Pwnzor |
What I'm getting at is it seems to be NORMAL here... the people wearing gear are SEVERELY in the minority. In California, it was a much higher ratio of gear to bare flesh. Even the squids in Cali wear spine protectors, gloves, boots and helmets for the most part. Even if they have no sleeves and are wearing jeans... | ||
| Kenm123t |
Most famous last words in Ga. WATCH THIS | ||
| Hughlysses |
It's definitely true in many places, but when you get in the twisties, you'll see a lot more proper gear. Seems like the average squid is happy to ride in a straight line 99% of the time. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I was all up and down 129 last Sunday, and I saw a lot of shorts and t-shirts. A LOT. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
They grow 'em dumb in all places. One difference between TN and CA is that in TN, the humidity will rot your junk off. Not condoning the practice of "squiddin' it" but I can see the temptation. Then again, took a ride with Hargis and Barker today. One full set of leathers, two sets of leather pants and armored mesh jackets. Not all folks in TN and GA are squids. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
I see it all the time. All I can do is shake my head and say to myself.."It's gonna hurt when you hit bro...". My father and I saw a guy who apparently just wiped out taking a corner one day. The guy was wearing a wife beater, shorts and shoes. He had a nice size strawberry from shoulder to ass! | ||
| Bikertrash05 |
I see it all the time in WI too. When did full gear become out of style? I am guilty of wearing jeans (one of these days I will buy some riding jeans), but I always wear helmet/gloves/jacket/steel toes boots. | ||
| Stirz007 |
Kenm - In Louisiana, or most of Texas, Arkansas - and oh wait - most of the gulf coast - it's "hold my beer and watch this" (at least that's what the F150 voice cockpit recorder research shows). The difference is those who have gone down probably wear gear. Those who haven't yet will learn a painful lesson if they survive it. What gets me is how many I see who don't even wear any eye protection. | ||
| Dynasport |
So much of this is just ignorance or poor training. When I first bought my Harley I admit I was guilty of riding in t-shirts in the summer. I also wore the smallest beanie helmet I could find. I did wear glasses and gloves and boots at least. Then, somehow, I came across some photos of this young, pretty girl who flew off the back of her boyfriends sportbike. She had been wearing a full face helmet, but little else. Needless to say, the pictures were not pretty. After that I bought a mesh jacket. I get the, "isn't that hot" comment constantly. I take my time with the people. I show them the mesh and tell them it flows air pretty good when you are moving. I tell them it is hot sitting still in Florida with or without the jacket. I often show them the armor too. As a result of my personal choice of wearing the mesh jacket, several of my friends have gone to mesh jackets as well. One also moved to a full face helmet after I did. I still have friends who don't wear any protective gear at all, not even a helmet. It is their right here in Florida and they exercise it. I just hope and pray they don't go down. BTW, I have been down twice in my gear. Both were pretty slow speed get offs. Both times I ended up needed a new jacket and helmet. A leather jacket probably would not have needed replacing, but I am glad I at least had the mesh on. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
if your kid wears more to pee wee foot ball, than you do when you ride.... you might be a squid | ||
| Dynasport |
The shoulder pads cut down on my flexibility. I do like the mint flavored mouth piece though. | ||
| Greg_e |
This goes right down to the helmet laws... In my opinion people should have the right to decide if they wear protective gear or do not. They should not be forced to wear anything special if they do not want to. In the end, as the world population continues to grow beyond sustainability, we should welcome what Darwin tried to teach us. | ||
| Pwnzor |
As a kid, before the helmet law in California, I rode around all the time in shorts or jeans, tennis shoes, no helmet and some shorty gloves. Always wore some sort of gloves. I took dumb risks, and I was very fortunate and still am. Never been down on pavement. I support the right of any individual to not wear gear if they don't want to. I don't even care if my taxes pay their medical bills, since it is utterly an insignificant amount of money compared to all the illegals sucking the life out of our system. At this stage of my life, it just utterly confounds me to observe others risking their skin like that. On a cruiser, at moderate speeds just tooling around, I can understand the t-shirts and no helmet. Sort of. But down here, where the bugs are more like pterodactyls than insects, what scares me even more than hitting the pavement is the bird-sized objects with sharp-pointy-stingy-venomous parts jabbing into me at 80mph that drives me to stay as covered up as possible. I caught a grasshopper in the face once while wearing an open face helmet. It got in there and started burrowing into the helmet instead of trying to get out, and it was all the way around the back wiggling around in there by the time I pulled over and ripped the helmet off my head. Creepy. I'd hate to catch a cicada in the eye. | ||
| Glitch |
Up and down 129? Must have stayed on the flat end, if not, why didn't you ride up 180 to T.W.O. and meet some riders? Remember one thing about Georgia, way more than half the people you are concerned about ain't from here. Only a hand full of people I've met are actually from GA, and fewer are even from the South. Big mix of people around these parts, so you can't judge GA or the South by the way yankees act  Let us know when you head out if you'd like to meet us. What bike are you riding, I'll keep an eye out, you're only up the road from us. | ||
| Glitch |
You're profile says you still have the red XBR, I thought you sold that bike? | ||
| Nik |
I've noticed a lot more squids out this way than when I was in California too. My theory is that a lot, of the squidly types in San Diego were Marines and Navy, and the extra training and gear required of them for riding on base set a good example. Another thing after moving out here; after years of favoring leather and blasting mesh, I broke down a bough a mesh jacket. I'm used to heat but the humidity is ridiculous. | ||
| Metra6924 |
After today you won't catch me riding without a full face helmet and gear. I had to dodge a Great Blue Heron on take-off. I saw him in time and was able to slow down and aim for where he was, because he wouldn't be in that space when I got there (I was doing 50 or better). I still got a nice close-up look, really a pretty bird. Even though it was a bit warm today (85+), I still wore the gear and am glad I did. |
