I have the Tourmaster Intake 2 Jacket and Coretech Venture Air pants which I tested yesterday for real. I had a truck pull out in front of me and I grabbed the brakes hard as I thought I was going to collide. I think I hit sand and the front wheel slid putting me down hard on my left side. I slid for a little ways and them did a little roll at the end. Between my veer to the left and him getting stopped quick we did not make contact. Anyway the armor on the elbows and the knees definitley saved me from serious injury. I am a little sore this morning but OK otherwise. I was able to ride the bike to the shop and could have taken it home but I figured it would end up at the shop anyway. The damage is broken fairing, bent gear shifter, bent handlebars, broken front turn signal, scraped up left cover (stator cover?) and the tip broken off of the footpeg. Dealer estimated about 1100 bucks. We will see what the insurance guys says. I have full coverage and I made the other guy stop and have a report with witnesses. We will see what his insurance does.

Bottom line is wear the gear, always. I had a habit of wearing the pants about half the time, that habit is broke now! The textile stuff works and the mesh I have is OK in the summer. Make sure it has the hard CE certified armour in it.

Practice panic stops, I would have preferred to stay up but grabbed way too much front brake. I need to practice enough so it is second nature to not squeeze so hard. I am pretty sure the back end came up and the sliding of the front wheel kept me from being pitched over the bars.

Glad to hear you are OK , gear and bikes can be replaced.

Wow! Very bad experience!!
The most important notice is that you are ok.

I think riders need to dress only by technical wear with armor.
I always use jacket with armor and, when I don't want to use the biker-pants, I usually use articulated knee-pads over the jeens

http://www.alpinestars.com/store/ProductImages/details/650633_l.jpg

Glad to hear you weren't seriously hurt and good to know that the gear did save you.

I have been thinking a lot about the safety aspect of my riding gear lately and have had some doubts as to just how protective the textile gear is, particularly mesh pants and jackets.

I'm very interested to hear about success or failures of gear when it is tested in a real world crash.

Did your jacket or pants rip or shred from sliding and aproximately how fast do you think you were moving?

You bring up a good point about practicing emergency stops, emergincy lane changes. I might also consider some advanced rider training classes. It's never too late to learn something new or have someone else watch me and point out my bad habits, etc.

Get back on the road soon, cheers.

John

Glad to hear you are ok. It is nice to hear that the jacket held up being that I have an intake 2 I wear when it get's either real hot or cold. And you have now just convinced me to take the advanced training course to check up on my skills.

I was going about 35 mph. The mesh parts did shred a little bit, a couple of quarter sized holes, the cordura held up a little better but tore in the knee. It is the Armour that really did its job. I am not sure how much the mesh will protect in a higher speed crash but it is alot better than wranglers. In my opinion the mesh works fine for around town driving which is where you are more likely to have an accident. I wouldn't race in it though, if think you might end up in a high speed slide then leather is the way to go.

Glad to hear your OK, many insurance companies pay for gear damaged in a fall, I guess if it saves you it saves them too. Check it out, hope you get the V back soon.

Garett

Glad to hear you're ok!!

I have an Intake Air 2 and it is good to hear that they actually do the job. I am glad to hear that you weren't seriously injured!!

Glad you made it out the other side ok...Mighty scary stuff though...Great thing about this forum, great reinforcement of things we all should do when riding and gear that might save out bacon. Sometimes I get the urge just to throw on my Olympia jacket and just keep the jeans on. But I always remember posts by great riders here and take the extra 2 minutes to get the armored pants and boots on....Always
Safe riding to all...

Glad you made it out the other side ok...Mighty scary stuff though...Great thing about this forum, great reinforcement of things we all should do when riding and gear that might save out bacon. Sometimes I get the urge just to throw on my Olympia jacket and just keep the jeans on. But I always remember posts by great riders here and take the extra 2 minutes to get the armored pants and boots on....Always
Safe riding to all...


I'm with you on that one... I always wear my pants, but the boots get to me... having to stop and changes shoes is annoying...
but then I realized... If I got in a wreck and was all gear from the helmet down to the pants, but with tennis rather than boots... I would just look/end up plain ol' dumb.

Don't want to hijack this, but Duffyduck, where did you get the knee pads?

I have gone out a couple of times without pants or boots, but just around the neighborhood to test the latest farkle. I never get out on the road without everything.

Don't want to hijack this, but Duffyduck, where did you get the knee pads?

A lot of manufacturers bear this item, most important are:
Ufo Plast (http://www.ufoplast.com/en/catalog/mx-enduro/protectors?pView=4)
Acerbis (http://www.acerbis.it/moto/index.php?module=catalog&type=detail&id=1104&cat=9)
Acerbis (http://www.alpinestars.com/Bionic_SX_Knee_Guard/pd/np/170/p/650637.html)
FM Racing (http://www.fmracingmx.com/) (I have this..)

After a quick search I find:
http://www.bobscycle.com (http://www.bobscycle.com/search.htm?searchterm=knee+guard&step=2)
http://www.motosport.com/dirtbike/search/index.php?words=knee%20guard

I always use olso this back protector (http://www.dainese.com/it_it/motorbike/wave-back-protector.html?cat=41&subcat=42)

Bye