I Think I Need A New Helmet

[Dale.]

Let it not be said these things don't work, it at least saved my rugged good looks , if not my life, after an altercation with a corner, a vehicle coming towards me on the bit I was supposed to be on, some gravel and a hedge. I don't remember hitting the floor or coming to a stop but I do remember people standing over me and asking me where the blood was coming from. Thankfully nothing more than a bloodied chin, badly sprained wrist and a headache for over a week.

My advice? Bikers, gear up, you might not regret it one day.

 

[Box Brownie]

Any 'landing' you can walk away from (in due course ) is a good outcome,

PS going back to the 1970's when I biked most everywhere a work friend had a very bad RTA...............very long recovery with a life changing injury but she survived because her helmet worked. Though the police at the time kept it (i recall seeing the pictures of the helmet ) for the 'black museum' evidence locker because of the state it was in and the fact that she survived the crash!

All the best and hope you are full mended soon......................or already recovered (in case I missed that bit anywhere?)

 

[MatBin]

It amazes me to see bikers riding round in summer in T shirts and flip-flops, no gloves etc. I ALWAYS wear a full suit (often sweating like a pig!), helmet, gloves and boots, even in summer.
Glad you seem to have survived with minor scrapes, but more importantly, how's the bike and where's the pics!

 

[Box Brownie]

It amazes me to see bikers riding round in summer in T shirts and flip-flops, no gloves etc. I ALWAYS wear a full suit (often sweating like a pig!), helmet, gloves and boots, even in summer.
Glad you seem to have survived with minor scrapes, but more importantly, how's the bike and where's the pics!

'Back in the day' (maybe still now) anyone riding without full covering of any sort was at risk of or actually ended up sporting the "road pizza" look ~ never a pretty sight

 

[Mr Bump]

nice one and yep, good gear worth every penny

 

[Dale.]

I'm almost mended, which is more than can be said for the bike.

It still got off lightly, will need new fairings, a new can, which I was going to do anyway, new indicators, new mirrors, the support frame for the clocks and dials needs straightening, possible replacment, 2 covers, one for the clutch, the other for the crank, those are cosmetic damage only, I just want it right. A few other bits and bobs, the tail tidy is badly scratched.

Not been able to bring myself to take pics of it yet, but I will soon.

 

[Cobra]

My advice? Bikers, gear up, you might not regret it one day.

Glad you are OK Dale

I had a "nasty one" many years ago, I was was fully kitted up, quite a bit of damage to me, the kit and the bike.
But the thing that has stuck with me all these years, was the two 50p sized chunks missing from the top of the helmet and the fact that it could have been my head!

And before anyone say's mad arse, it was a 30 mph impact with a dick head car driver, that thought he'd turn right, right in front of me!

 

[Dale.]

Glad you are OK Dale

I had a "nasty one" many years ago, I was was fully kitted up, quite a bit of damage to me, the kit and the bike.
But the thing that has stuck with me all these years, was the two 50p sized chunks missing from the top of the helmet and the fact that it could have been my head!

And before anyone say's mad arse, it was a 30 mph impact with a dick head car driver, that thought he'd turn right, right in front of me!

Cheers Chris. I couldn't tell you how big or small it was though, I can't remember the bit in the middle, it's missing, so I'll go the same as you and say it was nasty.


On the pics front, I did take a few on the day with my phone, one of these is from a couple of months ago, the other from the day itself.

From this to this springs to mind.

The Lady, happier days, (I phone)




I broke it day,

 

[camerassassin]

OUCH !!

 

[Cobra]

From this to this springs to mind.

At least it doesn't look too terrible
My F1 750 / 4 was a lot shorter at the end of the day than at the start,
and totally devoid of fairings

 

[Dale.]

Forgot, it will need a rear brake lever too, as well as bar ends.

 

[Dale.]

At least it doesn't look too terrible
My F1 750 / 4 was a lot shorter at the end of the day than at the start,
and totally devoid of fairings

I've not measured The Lady yet, I'm not sure what it hit, all I know is I was lying next to it, so maybe she is a bit shorter now too.

Seriously, it's cosmetic as far as I can tell, nothing a few hundred quid won't fix.

 

[Cobra]

I'm not sure what it hit,

Mine hit an Austin 1100 ( that'll give you an idea that it was more than a couple of years ago)
The bike actually ended up underneath the car, the idea was to drop the bike and step off,
somewhere along the line, that plan went to s***

 

[Dale.]

Mine hit an Austin 1100 ( that'll give you an idea that it was more than a couple of years ago)
The bike actually ended up underneath the car, the idea was to drop the bike and step off,
somewhere along the line, that plan went to s***

My plan kinda went that way too, the hedge was looming, I had to grab the brakes, and then I saw the gravel. My thoughts were " yep, this might hurt, options are limited". Funny what you process during an accident.

Also funny how all rebuilds tend to start with a stripdown. A nice winter project for the days when there's no light. (sarcasm alert there ).

 

[Nod]

Glad the bike's relatively OK!

I'm with Chris - no fairings for me, either.

Hope your personal injuries all heal fully and fast.

 

[Yelkrub]

Good to hear you're okay Dale, Bandits look best as a naked bike ( biased as my 600 and 1200 were both naked).
Hope your repair bill is small!
Here's my lid after an off in 2014. Good kit is a must have on a bike, something you hope never to test though!

 

[MatBin]

Mine hit an Austin 1100 ( that'll give you an idea that it was more than a couple of years ago)
The bike actually ended up underneath the car, the idea was to drop the bike and step off,
somewhere along the line, that plan went to s***

I hit one of those head-on after someone pulled out from the left hand side road and I swerved to avoid a side impact. The "idea" was to go round the front of them and then get back over to my side, didnt happen. I wrote-off the car coming in the opposite direction, wrecked it's sub-frame, I landed on their roof on my back and fell off sideways onto the pavement having done a sumersault as my knees hit the bars (I was getting ready to get off). Luckily I only smacked my knees, couldnt walk for a couple of days. The rim of the spoked wheels (remember them?) went back as far as the drum (remember them?) and the forks bent back so the mudguard (remember them) was wedged against the downtube. Ho hum, learnt a lesson that day and I can still see it clear as day to this day, happened in 1973, bought my wife's engagement ring with the pay-out.

 

[Cobra]

I wrote-off the car coming in the opposite direction, wrecked it's sub-frame,

Thats the problem with trying to avoid accidents isn't it? Sometimes a totally innocent person bares the brunt of some other t***ts "mistake"

I landed on their roof on my back and fell off sideways onto the pavement having done a sumersault as my knees hit the bars

8/10 for artistic content

Luckily I only smacked my knees, couldn't walk for a couple of days.

That could have been a lot worse! Apparently according to the witnesses I landed on my head and shoulder forcing the two apart.
The upshot was tearing the nerves in my neck that trigger my left arm, excruciating pain, off work for 2.5 years.
Lots of physio to re-train my muscles as the deltoid is "dead" 35 years later, I still get a lot of pain from it every now and again, just as a reminder.

 

[Dale.]

Good to hear you're okay Dale, Bandits look best as a naked bike ( biased as my 600 and 1200 were both naked).
Hope your repair bill is small!
Here's my lid after an off in 2014. Good kit is a must have on a bike, something you hope never to test though!
View attachment 136363

Ouchy, thank God for helmets. My kit saved me from much worse injuries. The gravel burn alone would've been horrendous but if that had been an open face helmet, well, I don't want to dwell on that. My chin is still sore (3rd week now) as I'm sure the 'chin' of the helmet took the brunt of the impact (the aperture for the visor is 1cm narrower than it should be) and I don't remember the bit where my helmet got scratched.

I have considered putting my own stamp on the Bandit now but I'm a sucker for keeping things original, we'll see.

I second the "good kit" comment, I can vouch for it now.

I hit one of those head-on after someone pulled out from the left hand side road and I swerved to avoid a side impact. The "idea" was to go round the front of them and then get back over to my side, didnt happen. I wrote-off the car coming in the opposite direction, wrecked it's sub-frame, I landed on their roof on my back and fell off sideways onto the pavement having done a sumersault as my knees hit the bars (I was getting ready to get off). Luckily I only smacked my knees, couldnt walk for a couple of days. The rim of the spoked wheels (remember them?) went back as far as the drum (remember them?) and the forks bent back so the mudguard (remember them) was wedged against the downtube. Ho hum, learnt a lesson that day and I can still see it clear as day to this day, happened in 1973, bought my wife's engagement ring with the pay-out.

that sounds like a big one.

That could have been a lot worse! Apparently according to the witnesses I landed on my head and shoulder forcing the two apart.
The upshot was tearing the nerves in my neck that trigger my left arm, excruciating pain, off work for 2.5 years.
Lots of physio to re-train my muscles as the deltoid is "dead" 35 years later, I still get a lot of pain from it every now and again, just as a reminder.

that sounds even bigger!

 

[Cobra]

that sounds even bigger!

As above, you don't have to be going fast to damage yourself

Funny, the other thing that stuck in my mind, the cop that came to take a statement, was a bike cop
The guy in the car claimed I was riding too fast "As he didn't see me" (It was a fairly straight bit of road with a 30mph limit, built up area,)
The cop retorted, I don't give a f*** how fast he ( me) was going you weren't paying attention were you?

 

[Dale.]

As above, you don't have to be going fast to damage yourself

Funny, the other thing that stuck in my mind, the cop that came to take a statement, was a bike cop
The guy in the car claimed I was riding too fast "As he didn't see me" (It was a fairly straight bit of road with a 30mph limit, built up area,)
The cop retorted, I don't give a f*** how fast he ( me) was going you weren't paying attention were you?

I'm guessing as I didn't look down at the clocks but I was setting myself up for the corner and slowing down for it (it was a 60 limit), it's not a 60 mph corner and I had already braked before I really grabbed them, that I was probably travelling about 35-40 mph when it went down. I second your thoughts on not having to be travelling all that fast to hurt yourself, this one really hurt.

A friend once said to me in my 125 days, "12bhp is enough to hurt yourself".

 

[jonbeeza]

Reminds me, I need a whole set of new gear. Should I ever get a bike again, that is.
Glad you are ok.

 

[MatBin]

Thats the problem with trying to avoid accidents isn't it? Sometimes a totally innocent person bares the brunt of some other t***ts "mistake"


8/10 for artistic content


That could have been a lot worse! Apparently according to the witnesses I landed on my head and shoulder forcing the two apart.
The upshot was tearing the nerves in my neck that trigger my left arm, excruciating pain, off work for 2.5 years.
Lots of physio to re-train my muscles as the deltoid is "dead" 35 years later, I still get a lot of pain from it every now and again, just as a reminder.

I felt really sorry for the other guy, completely innocent, then sees me hurtling towards him (at about 40mph) so closing at about 60? He swerved one way and I thought I was going to get away with it and glance/hit the wall on the offside, trying to avoid the concrete bush shelter in the process, but he swung back at the last moment, for which I attach no blame, tank slapper and crash.
Copper thought I'd been killed, didnt believe I'd got away so lightly given the damage to the vehicles, no crumple zones then.
Here I am 45 years later and not suffering any after effects, very lucky, still riding to this day. More luck than brains?

Sorry OP if I'm hijacking the thread (again)

 

[Byker28i]

Good news you are OK. I got bounced off last year by a woman changing lanes suddenly without looking. Bruising, damaged tendons in a hand, insurance company put it as 50/50 as both parties were insured by them, despite the police statement. The bike was written off and scrapped before I even got told/had accepted the payout. Payout was rubbish as it was a 90k mileage ZZR 1200, but was in really good condition, loads of new parts.

I had all my protective gear on, which saved me enormously.

 

[Cobra]

nsurance company put it as 50/50 as both parties were insured by them,

I never get that bit, its obviously her fault.
A few people I know, have had accidents on roundabouts, usually due to some t***t changing lanes, and the usual comments are
"Its difficult to assign blame because its a roundabout"
No wonder dash cams are so popular, even if *we* have to do the insurers job for them.

 

[MatBin]

I never get that bit, its obviously her fault.
A few people I know, have had accidents on roundabouts, usually due to some t***t changing lanes, and the usual comments are
"Its difficult to assign blame because its a roundabout"

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago, in the wife's car, fortunately the t*** that changed lanes bu**ered off before I hit him, actually I managed to stop before I hit him, unfortunately the bloke behind me didnt manage to stop before he hit me, we'd only had teh car 15 minutes (really, just collected it from the dealers, Mrs wasnt best pleased,)
So it was reasonably easy to define who was at fault.

 

[Cobra]

we'd only had teh car 15 minutes

b****r!
( I remember the post)

 

[boogie man]

Glad you are OK Dale

I had a "nasty one" many years ago, I was was fully kitted up, quite a bit of damage to me, the kit and the bike.
But the thing that has stuck with me all these years, was the two 50p sized chunks missing from the top of the helmet and the fact that it could have been my head!

And before anyone say's mad arse, it was a 30 mph impact with a dick head car driver, that thought he'd turn right, right in front of me!

I had a similar thing back in the 70s. Archetypal little old lady in a Morris Minor who sat in a side road waiting to turn right across the main road in front of me. I almost knew what was going to happen before it did.... yup, she sat there until I was about 20 yards away and then pulled out. I’d slowed down in anticipation but I still hit her at about 20 mph and went over the top of the bars. Smashed my face up a fair bit and lost my front teeth. My dad had bought me the bike, a BSA Bantam, on the proviso that I wore a helmet (they still weren’t compulsory at that point). That probably saved me from worse injury.

The old dear still complained that it was my fault because she hadn’t seen me!

 

[Nod]

When I did the BikeSafe day last year, the coppers all thought that anyone who used SMISY should be had up for driving without due care and attention (and had all had people pull out on them on their works rides.)

 

[Cobra]

BSA Bantam,

My first ever bike

The old dear still complained that it was my fault because she hadn’t seen me!

That still stands today