Gotta love that attitude....
Bikes are about freedom of choice I reckon, every individuals got a right to choose what they wear to ride, it's their life, their skin, their choice.
I ride more and more these days in a piss pot, to me for the pleasure I get from feeling the elements on my face on a warm day it's worlds better than being cocooned in a full face
True.
Apart from those who have to help clear up the mess if it goes wrong, or passersby/witnesses who may well be children.
So don't be naive enough to think it is only going to affect you.
But that's a dangerous road to take Nick. If it's that much of a burden on others, perhaps none of us should ride at all. Perhaps people shouldn't do other dangerous sports - rock climbing, sailing the oceans in a small boat, mountaineering, hang-gliding, parachuting, white-water rafting......all have the potential to kill you, and not everyone always wears the full safety kit doing them.
Yes, I know you are arguing that you can do these things and reduce the risk by wearing good gear, but you can never eliminate the risk entirely, and as I have found out first hand, you can have all the gear and still get pretty mashed up - you are still putting yourself at risk in a way that may affect others should the worst happen.
Lately, I've been wearing some fairly lightweight cargo-style trousers and my hiking boots on the bike - with a proper jacket, gloves, lid - but some would say I should have protective trousers and boots. I'll always
recommend to others that they wear full kit if they ask me, but I'm not preaching. The choice has to be down to the individual in the end.
My mate killed himself on my bike wearing leather jacket and jeans, plus lid and gloves of course. Family and friends were devastated. But NO ONE said he shouldn't have ever ridden motorcycles. Everyone accepted that he died doing what he loved best. Better that than a long painful illness stuck in a chair or bed where you can do nothing but suffer the pain and indignity. That can be much harder on that individual's loved ones, and can be a greater burden on the caring professions that look after us when our health fails.
Well, we all know the usual arguments, blah, blah. But as long as it remains the individual's choice, that's what is important. I bet there are as many doctors, paramedics etc who argue about this as well - I doubt they
all see it the same way.
LIFE is a risk, and whilst we try to mitigate some of that risk in various ways, we all have to make our own choices how far we take the risk-reduction thing. Or hand all those choices over to a babying, nannying state - which most of us spend plenty of time complaining about cos it removes our freedoms.
Death, illness and injury happen
Part of life is to learn to come to terms with that, in whatever way it happens.
