Are All Those Farkles Really Necessary?

My old 900SS had Contis on it from the factory. I believe they had to drop the term "silencer" from their brochure because they didn't even remotely silence...

I also had a Cooper S with a Leyland Resonator exhaust and a Sprite with a Cherry Bomb. God, I feel old.

 

Is it not funny that all that was before the interweb really took off!

I belonged to a sort of bike club it was really more of a drinking club every Sunday we met up and rode around to about 5 different pubs clubs then home for dinner it was just that we all had bikes. We went to rallies, bike shows the county show and just had a laugh it was not until years later and I had moved back south for employment that I found out that three of the main members did not even have bike licenses it came to light when Keith was knocked off his Triumph resulting in a broken leg. Langy was caught speeding I think it was could not produce a licence he had been riding for well over a decade. Cannot remember who the third one was the club sort of broke up after Colin one of the founders dropped dead in a layby on the way back from Castle Donington they stopped for a fag.and he just keeled over mid sentence .... massive heart attack. One of the Pete's joined the NCC and opened his own shop doing custom work and building chops the other Pete got married and left.

One year it was decided to hold a party at a local pub with camping on th field next door the pub always had a band Saturday evening so we hired two ore for during the day charged £1 on the door so many people came that we made quite a profit and this was not planned the landlord was over the moon as the pub was almost drunk dry the profit we decided to give to the local Hospital scanner appeal and it was enough to get us into the local paper.

Plezier

 

Yes indeed it was about 22c on September 22 when the collision happened if I had not been protected by the reinforced leather jacket according to the Police who see too many of bike accidents and the hospital staff it's likely that ti would have resulted in a broken neck of possibly dead.

If I had just a T-shirt and shorts on my right leg would have really been torn up and god only knows what the right arm would have been like and would likely have lost a finger. As far as I can recall have never ridden without gloves did ride once in jus T-shirt and denim cutoff on the chop and once on a friends Suzuki GT250.

Plezier

 

Or in fact entire limbs....either at the time or due to the amount of damage done slightly later.......it is absolutely not pretty.

 

Here is the breakdown of how quickly and deeply tarmac impacts the body:

• Instant Skin Destruction: Standard clothing, such as T-shirts and jeans, shreds in under a second when sliding on asphalt, leaving skin directly exposed to friction.
• Deep Tissue Damage (Seconds): Third-degree road rash, which involves stripping away all layers of skin and exposing fat, muscle, or bone, can occur in just a few seconds of sliding.
• Low-Speed Danger: Even low-speed accidents (e.g., 15–30 mph) can cause severe, deep abrasive injuries that require significant time to heal or even skin grafts.

It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it.?

 

Several years ago I attended a fatal motorcycle crash as a guest of the police collision investigator. The rider had lost control of his sportsbike at a considerable speed and parted company from the machine, sliding some 30m before coming to rest against ab immovable object.He was wearing jeans and a hoodie.

The collision investigator took me to the clear witness marks on the road showing where the bike went down and then we followed two distinct trails on the ground. One was gouges in the tarmac, bits of debris, oil and coolant etc and ended at the remains of the bike.

The other started with tiny bits of greasy cotton (that's fibres from the jeans combined with skin and subdermal fat) then graduated to less fibres and more blood with larger bits of cloth before then including flakes of bone in the road surface and ending at a large bloodstain.

If the impact hadn't killed him he'd have bled to death before the ambulance arrived. It was... sobering.

 

Same sort of thing in the Isle of Man at TT 1990. I was just parking up at Hillbury, when I heard this almighty crash, it turns out that this German motorcyclist was doing about 120MPH, lent it over and a car coming the other way, well you can guess what happened, the German biker left his right arm in the windscreen, and proceeded to come out of his leathers. He was dead, the council then came along with a road sweeper and removed the meat that was once his body from the road. That was the only time I've ever felt like giving up bikes, and then |I thought, hold up a minute, I wouldn't ride like that. The police estimated that it was an impact of at least 180 MPH, between the car and bike.

 

42

 

Because I still can....for now

 

I see the aftermath at work, I won't even pop a few miles down the road for an MOT without proper kit on. I like a spirited ride very much but always wear full kit, make sure I ride to the conditions and have done extra training firstly because I like to improve at a skill for the personal satisfaction and also to try and lessen the chances of me ending up through a hedge etc. Lots of my colleagues will not ride a bike and don't like that I do because of the sort of things we witness, however I also see lots of RTCs involving cars and they can also be horrific, although I appreciate that chances of survival when things go wrong are much higher in a car in most circumstances.

One of my pet hates is seeing pillions in just normal clothing or clothing with minimal protection but the rider very well protected.

 

Because it feels incredible and is one of any number of risky things we do every day .

 

Agreed. Wear all of your kit all of the time. Last year I bought a Dainese air vest and this year sees a new RX7 lid and an Aoocci display with cameras back and front, TPMS giving pressures and temperatures and a rear facing radar guarding the blind spots.

 

First thing I got sorted for my pillion when she’d been out with me a couple of times and was keen to go again. Obviously I had a suitable spare helmet (that later got replaced for one the same as mine with integral sun visor) but sourced locally as new a secondhand set of RST ladies leathers, gloves and Sidi boots.

 

Because we can.
Because nothing makes you feel more alive than flirting with death.
Because chicks dig scars.
Because we want to live rather than survive.
For the same reason dogs put their heads out of car windows.
Because... if I have to explain you'll never understand.

 

And long may it continue.