Like most of us who have been riding a long time, I have a story of “that one serious accident” … almost 13 years ago now, I was cruising on a highway at about 60mph when an SUV in front of me braked suddenly. Had I not instinctively swerved, I would’ve slammed full force into it and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. As it was, I clipped his right rear, breaking the entire left side of my body, before briefly feeling the experience of human flight. Yes I flew through the air like Superman before slamming into the pavement, bouncing back up into the air, slamming into the pavement again, my body flipping over and over a few more times, then skidding about 20 feet before finally coming to rest as oncoming highway traffic screeched to a halt.
Lucky I was wearing a full face covering helmet, ICON padded leather jacket, sturdy jeans, gloves, and boots because I didn’t always ride fully loaded like that in those days. But had I not been, again, we wouldn’t be having this conversation today. I did sustain multiple fractures - bike gear doesn’t prevent bone breaks, we know that. But when my head slammed into the pavement, not once, but twice, and when I skidded down the highway but suffered no “road rash” — better yet, since I’m not wheelchair bound or eating out of straw today, then I know the gear did it’s job.
Moral to the story is this: yeah I suit up. I don’t go all Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. But I do wear a full face helmet (modular these days to let in some breeze when appropriate), leather jacket (usually my MC vest with kevlar underneath, but I’ll change it up based on the weather and I have a lot of options), jeans, gloves, and boots. No matter what.