Testimonials / Letters - Letter 08April 2000 Draggin Jeans This is a mildly edited version of a post that I sent to the aus.motorcycles USENET newsgroup. I wrote it two days after having a very big accident riding my bike and, coincidentally, wearing Draggin Jeans. Before the accident, I wore them all the time when I wasn't wearing the cordura type Touring gear - basically every day of the week for commuting, light touring, group rides etc. They more than did their job as you will see. Considering that there have been a number of threads asking about Draggin Jeans etc., this is my story from the weekend (Sat 15th April 2000). The point of this is to show what happens when you wear proper gear when riding rather than being an idiot in squid clothing. Things can happen anytime, anywhere, when you least expect it. I'd had a nice run this morning. I live in Perth and decided that an early morning ride up to York for a coffee felt like The Right Thing to do. Commuting all week, I needed some roads with some bends in it - and something above walking pace speeds. I was joined by a friend and we traveled up there (about 80km of sweepers) enjoyed the coffee and headed home via the Northam route. We'd stopped at a servo when a guy turns up on a TLR. Newcomer to Perth and newly purchased bike so wanted to know where the good roads are. Mundaring Weir was only 5 minutes up the road so we took him for a blast through there (one of only two sets of local twisty roads in the Perth area). Having gotten the adrenaline rush out of the system we sat back and joined the normal traffic flow again on the Brookton highway. The accident basically was from a van driver not paying attention to the road. Left hand sweeper down near Kelmscott. I'd been sitting in traffic following a couple of cars for about 10 minutes slowly making my way back to the city. Traveling along at about 60km/h with two other bikes behind me I'm enjoying and relaxed watching the scenery (ie I wasn't trying to overtake every single car I came across). In the corner and hear a loud screeching of locked brakes. Look over to see a van on the other side of the road locked up and going sideways and straight at me. With zero time to react (he'd missed the two cars in front of me and the two bikes behind!) I've impacted with the front of the van at about 45 degrees. Luckily, because I was already leaning over in the corner, I got thrown clear of the van and sailed about 20m down the road in the air before tumbling a couple of times. As everything stopped I sat up and realized I couldn't stand because my knees were killing me so I lay back down again :) Basically the set of Draggin Jeans that I had on at the time saved me from more serious damage (ie total removal of the kneecaps). I think that I've hit the ground knees first and tumbled a number of times. As you can imagine, a closing speed of about 120km/h and the rider getting tossed in the air for 20m meant I was going pretty fast when I hit the ground. The denim was shredded but the kelvar stayed intact. I ended up with a couple of big punctures in my skin around the knees that required 8 and 9 stitches in the respective knees. There was almost no abrasion marks (a couple of gouges from the handlebars I think) and the cuts are clean - like a piece of glass or something has cut straight through the kevlar (leather or armour would have made no difference). As a result I can still walk (well, barely at the moment due to the swelling) and laugh and get angry at the van driver for being such an attentive person. One of the Ambo drivers had just purchased a ZZR1100 that week. When they rolled up I told them about my knees. Wearing jeans they brought out the scissors to cut around where my knees were to see the extent of the damage. We're not talking about home scissors for cutting paper here - these are the real things for cutting through almost anything. They had huge troubles as the scissors couldn't cut the fabric. It was only after I told them that they were kevlar lined that they tweaked and had to cut around the back of the knees where there isn't any lining. That instantly convinced the ZZR rider to buy a set and I also think the other two riders with me. The cost of the $130 for a set of decent riding pants has saved me from a shitload worse set of damage to the knees. Naturally my lid and gloves are also trashed and the boots aren't in the best condition so I might replace those too. So, what's the first thing I'm going to do when I can walk again? Buy another set of Draggin's. Cant beat 'em! Also, the Blackbird will no doubt be declared a write-off (this is the one that I did the round-Oz trip on back in Dec-Jan). As soon as I can jump on a bike again, I'll be off hunting for another (I've still got my KR-1S to ride). Regards |
