"Bob Mannix" wrote in message
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"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"T i m" wrote in message
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... her mum the other Day ... told this
huge leather clad biker to pick up his empty drink carton and put it
in the nearby bin .. luckily he just said 'sorry' and did! ;-)


In my experience most bikers, however they're clad and whatever size, are
just like the rest of us.

Even the women.

My eyes were opened when I went to a factory for some fabric and saw row
after row of 'big hairy bikers' (they were big, they were hairy - so's
Spouse) and their bikes were in the car park) sitting at sewing machines.
Girly calendars and pictures were on the walls but they were all doing a
damned good job, they were knowledgeable and helpful and found exactly
what we wanted.

We can't afford leathers but I wouldn't want to wear them anyway because
they're not easily seen when you're on the bike. I do like the Hi-vis
yellow jackets though.

Hmm. You might wear leathers if you had seen what happens to clothes and
skin at even a 30mph slide on tarmac! It's true the easily seen ones tend
to be expensive. You can get cheaper leathers and use a high-vis jacket
though. They are very effective protection. I saw a young person belting
through town on a scooter wearing just shorts yesterday - made my blood
run cold to think what he would look like after a fall.


When I was just sixteen .... we came upon an accident involving a vehicle
and a motor cyclist. My driver assigned me to the motor cyclist while he
attended to the vehicle driver. The motor-cyclist - had been wearing
'leathers and helmet' and was conscious, coherent and in great pain. My
driver was a recently de-mobbed NS Army Fire Service Sergeant and 'took
charge' of the scene - dispatching a bystander to a nearby factory gatehouse
to 'phone for Police and Ambulance, marshalled blankets etc. etc. My
assigned job was to hold the left heel of the motor-cyclists boot. I was
instructed to rigidly hold the boot - the road surface had ripped off the
toe end of the motor-cyclist's left boot and the enclosed toes and foot! The
guy was in agony. My driver staunched the flow of blood by means of a
tourniquet until the Ambulance came and carted the guy off to hospital.
Months later we had to attend court as witnesses and met the motor cyclist,
hobbling on his crutch.
That put me off ever wanting to ride a motorbike.

Decades later a trauma surgeon at PMRAF Akrotiri told me he got most of his
experience patching up motor cyclists who insisted on riding bikes with
inadequate
clothing -particularly boots.

--

Brian