Boots for the Rocket...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Having been through a serious accident, there’s a whole lot that can go wrong such as having an ankle getting shoved into a curb causing your foot to bend in the wrong direction and break. Race boots keep that from happening. Regular leather boots, while far better than sneakers, still offer no protection for keeping a foot from getting twisted in the wrong direction or crushed. There’s another alternative however...look at boots for motocross and dirt bikes. They offer up more protection for the ankle as well as your calves. Plus you can get them in your basic black verses having to deal with loud colors.

Americans seem to have some adversity to staying safe on the road, particularly in the eastern part of the country. Having lived in the San Diego area for nearly 20 years, I found that the majority of the serious riders almost always wore racing leathers to stay safe, because obstacles on the street are far more numerous than they are on any track. However, most riders, including myself, rode sport bikes because of the types of roads out there. When you go to Europe, it’s normal to see motorcycle riders wearing full leathers with armor. Around here I see people riding around with nothing but flip flops, shorts, a t-shirt, and no helmet. It’s crazy that the state allows me to ride a motorcycle that way without fear of being ticketed, but should I dare to get in my car and not wear my seatbelt, I’ve committed a major crime. It’s absolutely ridiculous. There’s simply NO legitimate excuse for not wearing a helmet.
My experience in American roads, eastern side, is that we love have our freedom to choose the degree of protection we want to have. Saying so, I have been part of several groups of riders and we always advocated for gear to protect ourselves when riding. I usually go full gear, even when riding in hot all year long summer Florida, I feel better that way, never had an accident but had put several crosses for fallen riders and I prefer to learn from others experience. I notice that most times is the younger riders, or the older ones, that have less gear, with the exception of the naked rides in the dragon which are their own "category"...
 
Most people in Aus that wear “chaps” can be found at the gay Mardi Gra. R3 riders here tend to stay away from wearing chaps. 👍🏼
Ha! I was 18 years old and thought I was a bad ass but I was a dumb ass for not wearing a helmet in LA. As far as the Chaps, they had Jeans under them and yes, if you go to San Francisco you would see the same there but it's an everyday occurrence. :thumbsup:
 
I can agree with most everything you have stated here except the part about no excuse for not wearing a helmet. The guy in flip flops may say to you 'there's no excuse to ride at 110 mph' because "there's simply NO legitimate excuse for riding that fast". You are required to wear a helmet that is DOT certified (which means nothing) so in a car it's a seatbelt and on a motorcycle it's a helmet (in most states). As far as the flip flops go it's not the Federal Government or the States job to dress you even though you and I know it's not safe to ride with flip flops and shorts. I cringe when I think back to my late teens riding to Los Angeles without a helmet along with my leather jacket and chaps. Not everyone has the desire to wear racing gear while riding and they shouldn't have to if they don't want to. I wear a full face helmet, armored jacket, gloves and boots. I lack in the pants department because I wear Jeans but if you wear racing pants or no pants that's up to the individual. I thank god that the State doesn't tell me I have to wear full riding gear because I have freedom of choice. It's dumb to ride without a helmet but once again it isn't smart to drive 110 mph but like most of us, we do.:thumbsup:
You don’t need to wear racing gear to ride. It just makes you the safest you can possibly be. There’s other ways to stay safe as well. Any boots are better than sneakers as they at least offer some ankle support. Armored motorcycle gloves beat the hell out of fingerless driving gloves as well. And a leather jacket beats a t-shirt any day. So when you get in an accident, even one that’s the fault of the other driver, it’s STILL YOU, THE MOTORCYCLIST, that has the responsibility to mitigate the seriousness of the injuries received to the best of your ability. You have nobody to blame but yourself if the skin gets ripped from your arms from road rash because you decided that it was okay to ride on a motorcycle without anything more than a t-shirt. That’s NOT THE FAULT of the other driver, it’s your own. When you go to court, you’re going to find that they’re going to assign a certain amount of the damages to the motorcycle rider, even when the accident was clearly the fault of the other driver. And that “but if they hadn’t hit me” won’t fly in a court of law, because regardless of the state laws (or lack there of) requiring you to wear safety equipment, the Defense Attorney is going to point out that “if not for the fact that the rider of the motorcycle decided to do so while wearing shorts, t-shirt, flip flops, no helmet and no gloves, the injuries could have been far less. So when they award you money, this will certainly be taken into consideration. COUNT ON IT. As a rider, it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MITIGATE YOUR DAMAGES TO THE EXTENT THAT’s reasonable. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is NOT REASONABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ESPECIALLY WITH TODAY’S EXTREMELY LIGHT, WELL VENTULATED HELMETS AVAILABLE. My helmet still saved my life, even in an accident that had me rear ended while sitting at a red light. The helmet was completely destroyed. But I didn’t even get a headache. There’s no way I could’ve survived that accident without serious brain injuries without it. It’s one thing to ride around the block in a housing neighborhood without a helmet where the speeds are no more than 20 mph. But when you’re out there playing with cars doing 35-80+, you should be wearing a helmet. It’s common sense. If you choose not to, that’s on you. And so are part of the head injuries you end up with. That’s the problem with today’s society...we want to blame others when our own decisions don’t work out so well. Take responsibility for your actions instead of always blaming others.

I’m not telling you you should wear racing boots. I’m just saying that they’re the safest. Their funky appearance has a purpose...it’s due protective frame that keeps your ankle protected from getting over extended while preventing the leather from being burned through. What you wear is your decision. Personally, I’d rather wear race boots or motocross type of boots. But I’ve worn combat boots as well. What I won’t wear is sneakers or anything else that has no ankle protection at all. Unless I’m just riding around my gated neighborhood with it’s 15 mph speed limits. It’s your choice as to what you want to wear. I just hope that most riders are smart enough to make sound decisions based more on their safety and less on their appearance or about what others might “think”.
 
Last edited:
I didn’t start wearing a full helmet until I started with distance glasses and then one of my eyes went belly up. Same with sneakies. Broken foot ended that. I’ve never lived in a state without a helmet law.
I live in a state without a helmet law. Frankly, it’s just plain stupid. I have to wear my seatbelt in my car, but can ride my motorcycle without a helmet. Our state government calls the choice to wear or not wear a helmet “FREEDOM.” Funny that such choices don’t apply to my car. Of course, the real truth has absolutely nothing to do with “FREEDOM.” It’s all about “MONEY.” Because if the state really wanted to show that they were about freedom, they’d dump the seat belt law too. But then the Federal Government would dump the state in giving it their share of federal funds for the roads. And the state doesn’t want to loose that money. So FREEDOM, as the state calls it, doesn’t apply to our cars. If and when it gets so miserably hot here that I can’t comfortably wear my jacket and helmet, I’ll just park my bike until it’s not nearly as hot (normally around August through mid September). I used to wear my full racing leathers out in the desert in Southern California where it was 110 degrees in the shade. As long as I was still moving, everything was fine. Stops were miserable, but very short.
 
You don’t need to wear racing gear to ride. It just makes you the safest you can possibly be. There’s other ways to stay safe as well. Any boots are better than sneakers as they at least offer some ankle support. Armored motorcycle gloves beat the hell out of fingerless driving gloves as well. And a leather jacket beats a t-shirt any day. So when you get in an accident, even one that’s the fault of the other driver, it’s STILL YOU, THE MOTORCYCLIST, that has the responsibility to mitigate the seriousness of the injuries received to the best of your ability. You have nobody to blame but yourself if the skin gets ripped from your arms from road rash because you decided that it was okay to ride on a motorcycle without anything more than a t-shirt. That’s NOT THE FAULT of the other driver, it’s your own. When you go to court, you’re going to find that they’re going to assign a certain amount of the damages to the motorcycle rider, even when the accident was clearly the fault of the other driver. And that “but if they hadn’t hit me” won’t fly in a court of law, because regardless of the state laws (or lack there of) requiring you to wear safety equipment, the Defense Attorney is going to point out that “if not for the fact that the rider of the motorcycle decided to do so while wearing shorts, t-shirt, flip flops, no helmet and no gloves, the injuries could have been far less. So when they award you money, this will certainly be taken into consideration. COUNT ON IT. As a rider, it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MITIGATE YOUR DAMAGES TO THE EXTENT THAT’s reasonable. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is NOT REASONABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ESPECIALLY WITH TODAY’S EXTREMELY LIGHT, WELL VENTULATED HELMETS AVAILABLE. My helmet still saved my life, even in an accident that had me rear ended while sitting at a red light. The helmet was completely destroyed. But I didn’t even get a headache. There’s no way I could’ve survived that accident without serious brain injuries without it. It’s one thing to ride around the block in a housing neighborhood without a helmet where the speeds are no more than 20 mph. But when you’re out there playing with cars doing 35-80+, you should be wearing a helmet. It’s common sense. If you choose not to, that’s on you. And so are part of the head injuries you end up with. That’s the problem with today’s society...we want to blame others when our own decisions don’t work out so well. Take responsibility for your actions instead of always blaming others.
I think you're venturing away from what was stated. It is the riders responsibility to wear safety gear if it is in fact required by state law. If it isn't required then that decision is up to the rider. I wear a helmet as stated and most protective gear. You feel that that decision shouldn't be based on the rider but mandatory for everyone because you agree with it. I disagree in that it should be up to the rider what protective gear he wears other than what is mandated. We differ on opinions and that's okay. Maybe Florida law is different than California law but if A rider (such as yourself) is rear ended in traffic the full responsibility falls on the driver that rear ended you. It makes no difference what you wear in the collision. The driver of the car is the primary factor of driving at an unsafe speed and an associated factor of inattention that's pretty cut and dry. The motorcycle rider sitting in traffic bears ZERO responsibility. Now civil court is different. The driver is still at fault but "what if the rider had more gear on" then maybe he wouldn't have sustained those injuries. That's civil only. If there is no law that says 'do it' then they don't have to plain and simple but like you stated 'It's common sense'. The bottom line is you can't make people do things you think they should because you believe it's wrong. I understand why you are a firm believer in armor because you probably wouldn't be here with out it and that is certainly a great argument and the laws may change in the future. Cheers.
 
You don’t need to wear racing gear to ride. It just makes you the safest you can possibly be. There’s other ways to stay safe as well. Any boots are better than sneakers as they at least offer some ankle support. Armored motorcycle gloves beat the hell out of fingerless driving gloves as well. And a leather jacket beats a t-shirt any day. So when you get in an accident, even one that’s the fault of the other driver, it’s STILL YOU, THE MOTORCYCLIST, that has the responsibility to mitigate the seriousness of the injuries received to the best of your ability. You have nobody to blame but yourself if the skin gets ripped from your arms from road rash because you decided that it was okay to ride on a motorcycle without anything more than a t-shirt. That’s NOT THE FAULT of the other driver, it’s your own. When you go to court, you’re going to find that they’re going to assign a certain amount of the damages to the motorcycle rider, even when the accident was clearly the fault of the other driver. And that “but if they hadn’t hit me” won’t fly in a court of law, because regardless of the state laws (or lack there of) requiring you to wear safety equipment, the Defense Attorney is going to point out that “if not for the fact that the rider of the motorcycle decided to do so while wearing shorts, t-shirt, flip flops, no helmet and no gloves, the injuries could have been far less. So when they award you money, this will certainly be taken into consideration. COUNT ON IT. As a rider, it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MITIGATE YOUR DAMAGES TO THE EXTENT THAT’s reasonable. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is NOT REASONABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ESPECIALLY WITH TODAY’S EXTREMELY LIGHT, WELL VENTULATED HELMETS AVAILABLE. My helmet still saved my life, even in an accident that had me rear ended while sitting at a red light. The helmet was completely destroyed. But I didn’t even get a headache. There’s no way I could’ve survived that accident without serious brain injuries without it. It’s one thing to ride around the block in a housing neighborhood without a helmet where the speeds are no more than 20 mph. But when you’re out there playing with cars doing 35-80+, you should be wearing a helmet. It’s common sense. If you choose not to, that’s on you. And so are part of the head injuries you end up with. That’s the problem with today’s society...we want to blame others when our own decisions don’t work out so well. Take responsibility for your actions instead of always blaming others.

I’m not telling you you should wear racing boots. I’m just saying that they’re the safest. Their funky appearance has a purpose...it’s due protective frame that keeps your ankle protected from getting over extended while preventing the leather from being burned through. What you wear is your decision. Personally, I’d rather wear race boots or motocross type of boots. But I’ve worn combat boots as well. What I won’t wear is sneakers or anything else that has no ankle protection at all. Unless I’m just riding around my gated neighborhood with it’s 15 mph speed limits. It’s your choice as to what you want to wear. I just hope that most riders are smart enough to make sound decisions based more on their safety and less on their appearance or about what others might “think”.
Once again Florida law might be different but in California most everything you stated is false in a court of law. Now civil case you would stand a better chance at blaming someone for not wearing protective gear but due to our laws it would still be a hard sell. You don't get on a motorcycle expecting to be in a collision although you do have basic requirements that California law states such as helmets, and a legal motorcycle. I didn't know Florida had a law that states you as a motorcycle rider must wear all protective gear in case of a collision so you can collect your money civilly. If true sounds like they want you to bubble wrap yourself up before you go out riding.
 
My experience in American roads, eastern side, is that we love have our freedom to choose the degree of protection we want to have. Saying so, I have been part of several groups of riders and we always advocated for gear to protect ourselves when riding. I usually go full gear, even when riding in hot all year long summer Florida, I feel better that way, never had an accident but had put several crosses for fallen riders and I prefer to learn from others experience. I notice that most times is the younger riders, or the older ones, that have less gear, with the exception of the naked rides in the dragon which are their own "category"...
I have three different riders go down that we’re riding with me. Scared me each time. One went down while on a very straight on ramp to I-5 in San Diego. Never figured out how anyone could go down on a perfectly straight piece of asphalt, but he managed it nonetheless. Thankfully in all three cases, everyone was wearing a helmet and one one got minor injuries (they all got their pride hurt). There’s only 2 types of riders...those that have gone down and those that are going to go down. When it comes to safety gear, my advice is this...dress for the crash, period. As for the “RIGHT TO CHOOSE”, sorry if it bothers you, but I don’t fully believe in that right. And as a 20 year Veteran whose job was to protect and defend the Constitution, for those of you who think it’s your “Constitutional Right” to be allowed the “Right to Choose”, I strongly encourage you to read the Constitution AGAIN AND AGAIN, because NOWHERE does it say or grant you the “RIGHT TO CHOOSE.” Such a “RIGHT” is a figment of your imagination. We have no such rights. If we did, there’d be no need for law enforcement, because we could all claim to be exercising out right to choose. Some people really do need to be told what to do, like it or not. And if you choose to not wear a helmet because it’s your “right to choose,” imagine if the police or paramedics decided to equally excercise their “right to choose” and leave your corpse laying where you fell on the highway afterwards because they shouldn’t have to encounter the grisly scene that you’ve managed to create, especially if your brains have popped out of your skull and are smeared across the road. Afterall, in a society where we have the right to choose, why would anyone want to deal with that before going home to their families? Living in a free country doesn’t mean you’re free to do as you please. We lost over 500,000 Americans because idiots were insisting on going around without wearing a mask during a highly contagious pandemic. That’s more Americans that WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam COMBINED. IN JUST ONE YEAR. They claimed to be exercising some phantom “Right” that’s purely a figment of their imagination. Keep in mind, we don’t even have the “Right” to ride our motorcycles. It’s a privilege. As is driving. In many countries you can’t even buy a bike with a 2500 cc engine. Or one with even 500 cc for that matter. In many countries the power output of a motorcycle is highly regulated and isn’t much more than that of a moped. Our “RIGHTS” are regulated by both the government legislation and our Constitution. Thankfully, our Constitution requires the legislation to set our limitations, not our freedoms. Thus, if it’s not set by the legislation, then you’re still allowed to do it. But don’t confuse that as being a “RIGHT.” There’s a huge difference. Legislation can’t impose on “Rights.” Thus, unless that so called “Right” is spelled out as protected in the Constitution, Legislatures have the right to impose and curb it, or take it away altogether. In a civilized society, we need to expect limitations. If you can’t live with those, may I suggest you try living in Somalia. Their government is extremely weak to the point that there’s no laws to speak of other than those imposed at gun point by warlords.
 
I have three different riders go down that we’re riding with me. Scared me each time. One went down while on a very straight on ramp to I-5 in San Diego. Never figured out how anyone could go down on a perfectly straight piece of asphalt, but he managed it nonetheless. Thankfully in all three cases, everyone was wearing a helmet and one one got minor injuries (they all got their pride hurt). There’s only 2 types of riders...those that have gone down and those that are going to go down. When it comes to safety gear, my advice is this...dress for the crash, period. As for the “RIGHT TO CHOOSE”, sorry if it bothers you, but I don’t fully believe in that right. And as a 20 year Veteran whose job was to protect and defend the Constitution, for those of you who think it’s your “Constitutional Right” to be allowed the “Right to Choose”, I strongly encourage you to read the Constitution AGAIN AND AGAIN, because NOWHERE does it say or grant you the “RIGHT TO CHOOSE.” Such a “RIGHT” is a figment of your imagination. We have no such rights. If we did, there’d be no need for law enforcement, because we could all claim to be exercising out right to choose. Some people really do need to be told what to do, like it or not. And if you choose to not wear a helmet because it’s your “right to choose,” imagine if the police or paramedics decided to equally excercise their “right to choose” and leave your corpse laying where you fell on the highway afterwards because they shouldn’t have to encounter the grisly scene that you’ve managed to create, especially if your brains have popped out of your skull and are smeared across the road. Afterall, in a society where we have the right to choose, why would anyone want to deal with that before going home to their families? Living in a free country doesn’t mean you’re free to do as you please. We lost over 500,000 Americans because idiots were insisting on going around without wearing a mask during a highly contagious pandemic. That’s more Americans that WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam COMBINED. IN JUST ONE YEAR. They claimed to be exercising some phantom “Right” that’s purely a figment of their imagination. Keep in mind, we don’t even have the “Right” to ride our motorcycles. It’s a privilege. As is driving. In many countries you can’t even buy a bike with a 2500 cc engine. Or one with even 500 cc for that matter. In many countries the power output of a motorcycle is highly regulated and isn’t much more than that of a moped. Our “RIGHTS” are regulated by both the government legislation and our Constitution. Thankfully, our Constitution requires the legislation to set our limitations, not our freedoms. Thus, if it’s not set by the legislation, then you’re still allowed to do it. But don’t confuse that as being a “RIGHT.” There’s a huge difference. Legislation can’t impose on “Rights.” Thus, unless that so called “Right” is spelled out as protected in the Constitution, Legislatures have the right to impose and curb it, or take it away altogether. In a civilized society, we need to expect limitations. If you can’t live with those, may I suggest you try living in Somalia. Their government is extremely weak to the point that there’s no laws to speak of other than those imposed at gun point by warlords.
I respectfully disagree... not the forum neither the thread to discuss that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top