Good posts guys.... I've been having good luck with the Balistic Jersey from EVS. It's has elbow gaurds and a waist belt all in one zip-up the front piece. When it's cool a jersey over it works well. When it's warm a sleevless T-shirt under it works great as it is very ventilated. It also dont bunch me up and supports a pack well. No more pants slipping down while your waist belt slips up (I hated that) as everything is tied together. And T? Ya shouldda gone yesterday, I totally missed the set up on the bike....and ya missed a nice swap and bail on a gnarly seat sucker. ............I hate Dunlop's.
I used the Ballistic Jersey for a few months. It's a good piece of gear but the elbow pads didn't fit me very well and always seemed to get out of position. I switched to the Alpine Stars jersey last month. It's about twice as expensive as the EVS, but fits me better. Funny thing is, my Alpine jersey came from a buddy who complained about the fit!... he's now wearing an EVS! Both are great products.
I'll chime in on the wear-the-gear discussion. I just saw a patient of mine today in the dental office. Well, in the six months since I last saw him, he had a high-speed collision with a tree that severely fractured most of his upper face and his eye sockets and cranium. Lost the sight permanently in his right eye, and the shape of his eye socket on the left side is not right at all, even after several surgeries and plates and screws and such. He's very lucky to be alive, and when I asked the inevitable question about whether he was wearing his helmet, the answer was no. I'm not saying he would have been fine, but a lot of that head trauma would have been prevented had he worn a helmet.
3 weeks ago, my son decided to take the pit bike (KLX 110) for a quick ride in the woods behind the house after school. No helmet. Shorts. Tee shirt. Sandals. Launched himself into a tree resulting in a mild concussion, severe bruises and lacerations on his left arm from the shoulder to the elbow, bruised hip with severe laceration, puncture wound on his lower back. This also resulted in $200.00 damage to the bike and him being banned from racing for 2 months just for being an idiot. He was so lucky. STUPID, but lucky.
defeckle- Very sorry to hear this. As a former back-country first responder doing S&R on my dirtbike I came accross many a victim stuck to trees. (Yes- I've literally seen it all, not pretty.) The damage is severe enough with the Gear. W/o it a collision with a large tree is often fatal. Even something as simple as bark-busters can be the difference in riding back or flying out.
I'm waiting for him to heal too... so I can tear his a$$ up for being such a dummy! Actually, he's almost back to 100%. Kids are so flexible and heal so quickly. If that would have been me, I'd still be in a wheel chair!
Yeah, I fell off my bike in the mountains today on an uphill slope and rolled downhill a little bit. I was just laying there not moving and Jeff asked me if I was okay. I said that I was fine, but it just felt so good where I ended up, that I was just laying there being thankful that I was uninjured. I was almost comfortable where I landed.
I did almost the exact same thing several months ago when I still had the TE250. Cody was behind me as well as about 5 other riders, mostly kids. Once I stopped rolling, I didn't move for several seconds while I made an assessment of my condition. By the time I was ready to jump up, half the kids had jumped off their bikes and ran up to me (probably expecting me to be in pieces or dead)...
OK, I'll chime in with a stupid move. Yesterday I was tooling around in the back yard and figured I would see how tight I could make turns while going slow. I did have a helmet on but nothing else. Don't you know I cut it too tight, washed out and laid the bike down. In the process my foot gets rolled in a direction it's not supposed to go and twists my knee all in one motion. Now I'm looking at a badly sprained ankle and a sore knee all for one minute of messing around without all the gear on. If I had my boots on, nothing would have happened . It could have been worse but it's a reminder when I say " I'm only taking a quick spin" to Put The Gear On.
Well, things can happen even if you aren't riding. A guy in our local club went out and bought a brand new DRZ400 a while back. When he got the bike home and unloaded from his truck, he swung his leg over it and was just fooling around sitting in his driveway on it, didn't even have it running and somehow he lost his balance and the bike started to tip over. He put his foot down and somehow injured his knee, had to have surgery and couldn't ride his brand new bike for months.
When you find yourself flying through the air; there is nothing more beautiful than a landing zone made of POOF dirt. Next to Blake, I'm probably the most over protected rider out there. Good Advice. FTC
