I am not saying that it is foolproof... But yes it is quite effective... and moreover it was about what to do for pillion security...

Well, my situation is like i'm a student (read, not earning any money). Last time I asked money for a jacket and gloves, my parents laughed at me They have like imprinted in their minds that those kind of stuff are pure show off and whatever happens their opinions won't change. Anyways, I've started saving some money and would defnintely get some gear soon.

As for the helmet, had learnt a lesson the hard way. (P.S. It wasn't some 250rs helmet, cost about 4 times that )

Tibby & Mitz - I can perfectly understand that ATGATT can never work practically in this country. Take an instance of riding a scooter to market where you need to visit several shops at late mornings. Forget being mocked, it becomes cumbersome to carry the gears as well as groceries together, otherwise, one needs to bear the profuse sweat.

being extremely cautious is the best thing that we can do but again, we can never be cautious enough to guarantee 100% safety.. Even I tend to end up riding with pillion colleagues to drop them back home after office a lot of times & it also includes highway riding occassionaly. But I guess, these rides would have to be minimised henceforth.

lol.. a perfect example bro.. We do end up in many situation like that in day to day life where its practically impossible 2 gear up all the time.. Anyways, lets follow ATGATT as much as possible & define the exceptions to the rule as & when it is impossible to implement ATGATT

Dude no offence but i think you should walk home.
Much safer and healthier option.

even i was thinking on the same lines.....as what to do in these situations...?? least we can do is ride carefully ...

Parth,
Thats one wonderfully written article and the link which you gave was a really scary and painful one especially for a guy like me recollecting on how a few months back broke his hand and was on the bed for a month, even my going abroad for studies was affected.

Have done many tours for my age at 19 with due permission from parents, had a good helmet, A star gloves and also bought a knee guard - Fox but used them only on long rides as wearing them daily was cumbersome which i used to feel.
Didnt buy a jacket, thought its hot in Delhi and its expensive, could buy a new mobile, laptop but when it came to riding gear had no money - stupid

When i crashed that day because of a dog, straight onto the tarmac head on, the 3.5k spent on lid saved my head, the gloves saved me from bruises in my hand, wasnt wearing a knee guard, and the left knee still pains hard even after 7 month but fell in a way i fractured my wrist, might be full gauntlets had saved me. If it wasnt for the fracture and had i been wearing knee guards, i would have walked up, picked up me 220 and rode back home.

Shudder to think of what would have happened without a helmet, head on with tarmac without a helmet is a scary thing to even think of.

Well biking was restricted from that day itself, mom n dad both said no but somehow they have a belief that i do ride sanely and it was unfortunate so they are getting me a new bike soon. I have already taken a pledge, that Helmet, gloves and jacket is a bare minimum which i will wear everytime. Knee guards would always be worn, let people see it, i give a damn, can take car to places where i cant ride or keep the riding gear safe.

Have scrapped all my old riding gear and this time when i go to US this time, no personal shopping for me. Have scrapped all old riding gear, would get a good Agv lid and all A star stuff for me, jacket, full gauntlet gloves and bionic knee guards.

We can atleast spend 10% of our bikes cost on our riding gear is what i feel, the medical bills are much bigger as i have experienced. Already have the funds separate and i had a few doubts over spending 30K on riding gear but your post just removed every single doubt.

ATGATT should be followed whenever possible, always.
Hats off for this article bro
P.S: Posted on xBhp after a long time, had planned to post when my other motive was filled but this article made me do it.

Nop matter how much cautious we're, we'll always land up in mess IF ANY INCIDENT HAS TO HAPPEN.

One more point is that, its only in the developed countries car is used as a standard medium of personal transportation & a two-wheeler (read Sports/SBK/Cruiser) is considered as leisure activity. And trust me, the two-wheeler industry might struggle a lot to make a sale; atleast it isn't as much easy as selling the motorcycles/scooters in India. Even if scooters are put for grocery/market purchases, the rides are mostly within the town involving very few Kms & naturally the road standards to disciplined drivings are very high. Even if there's a mishap that should occur, things turn tard uglier compared to the same incidents here.

i avoided a knee guard untill this happened

Since then, they rest inside the helmet with my gloves.... I just changed my knee guards to the scoyco ones, and they dont fit in the helmet.
What I do now, is to strap them together and strap it to my bag. I know it looks awkward, but cant do much about it. Even my bag doesnt have enough space to safely house it.


I sweat profusely, with or without gears,,, never been a problem to me. I guess because I never thought about it as a problem.

If I think at it as a problem, then I reach to a bigger problem of WHY use a bike to ferry grocerries! I mean strapping yourself with bulky bags and riding. No thank you!

Satyen, certain things cannot be avoided when it comes to reality. Not that I do it, but put it this way. There's a congested market near by & prices of vegetables are damn cheap than More or Reliance (un)fresh. So wearing these gears (including gloves) & ride a scooter, then stepping to every shop every now & then is literally a pain & the gears + sweat will only makes things worse. Yea, a car could do the magic, but imagine driving the car inside the congested market. Only option could be is to drive the car close to market & park it somewhere outside. But not everyone till date gets the luxury of owning a car like they do on two-wheeler isn't it?

Last but not the least, all of us here talk about riding gears that costs nothing less than 5-6K, imagine someone in an average middle class who would be spending so much on fuel for over 4-5 or may be even upto 6 months. To them riding a two-wheeler is not a life style, its a basic need.

Point - I'm not against wearing gear, but to point that it may not be feasible at all the places.

PS - Another typical incident where one needs to ride about 20 odd Kms to leave his/her ride for a service & return home by bus. What happens to all the gears? Wrap them up in a bag or wear it along?

two years back ketan had a mighty different opinion about gears

I am not generalizing, just tell you how I cope up with these very serious challenges!

- In a grocery store, the jacket stays, the helmets in the hand with the gloves balaclava inside - No knee guards as the place for me is like at max a KM round trip! If any more (which happens whenever I take the bike then the stuff stays on the helmets strap!

for the svc thing! I never let the SVC guy touch my bike when I am not around! I stay put there..! If I need to go, I drop all my gears at the SVC
I know a few members from pune who have experienced this when the Yamaha folks were more than happy to house the gears!

See ATGATT fails This is what I'm trying to say.

That was one hell of an experience you've had back then in 2009 bro.. I can jus imagine it would have turned out way much worse if you were without jacket, gloves & the Cross lid.. Anyways what did you do with your lid after that crash Satyen? I'm asking because I know even the good expensive helmets turn out to be practically less useful for safety once they have been involved in a crash because the helmet shell or/& the compression liner is bound to be compromised after such a crash.
But clearly the branded helmets often looks ok from outside with just a few scratches here & there after a minor crash & most of us (IMO) may think dumping off a 3+ k lid over a minor crash is not necessary. Care to shed some light on this bro ?

I'm asking because even I'v been through a recent crash due to tyre skidding because of gravel on the road. My MPA AGV took the whole beating & my head inside was as good as new with no sort of problems whatsoever even during the impact & after it. Surely the AGV did save my head & I'm thankful to it but judging by the minor scratches on it, i never considered it for a replacement although I'm looking forward to an LS2 soon. So the question remains, how often do you replace your lid after a minor crash & what do you do with your favourite costly old lid which saved your life most probably?

Good to know that bro

All valid points here. Pillions are a necessary evil, neither can forbid ourself to take a pillion ever, nor can invest in buying gear for them as well. Simple solution, either don't take a pillion or make him/her wear a helmet + maybe lend him your denim jacket if you're heading somewhere from your place.

I personally don't have a problem with people asking me for rides as all my colleagues think I'm some stunt-maniac because I ride with all those 'fancy' 'show-off' gear everyday. I don't mind them thinking that as it solves my pillion problem.

Agreed that your daily commute is very short and it is cumbersome to put 10 minutes everyday for getting yourself in gear before heading to work and then getting out of those gear after a 10 min commute, but you're taking a risk with your life or limb when you chose convenience over safety.

If you're happy taking the risk then me writing this post and you reading this have been a moot point.

Today I was getting late for office and in the hurry I forgot to take the warm liner off my jacket and into my backpack. Got caught in a 2km long traffic jam that lasted about an hour. I sweated like a pig as there wasn't much room by my sides to get the back pack off, remove the jacket, remove the liner, put liner in backpack, put on the jacket and finally put on the backpack. Do I regret having worn the jacket? NO. Do i regret forgetting to take the liner off? YES

Good to know that, do try to get smaller knee guards to wear underneath your jeans. But till the time comes when you're able to source those smaller knee guards, use the current big ones over your jeans. Trust me, convenience isn't worth risking having a scarred knee for the rest of your life.

Make them read the first post of this thread. They WILL get the point of riding gear.

My advice is to bear the sweat. Being sweaty all the time does mean a bigger deodorant bill but will also reduce your hospital bill in case of a spill.

We simply cannot survive while being 100% safe. Riding sanely and safely goes without saying whether riding with a pillion or without one. Wearing riding gears just increases your chances of survival by minimising injuries in case of a spill, you can be as carefull as possible and may ride like a grandma but being on 2 moving wheels is an inherently risky activity. That risk cannot be nullified by any means known, all we can do is minimize the risk by wearing gear.

I've started following ATGATT due to the fact that I don't want to look back after a crash and wonder if I could've saved myself some injuries and pain by wearing gear. I'm sure you must've wondered if your fracture could've been avoided if you had invested in full gauntlet gloves and had been wearing elbow guards.

Anyways what's done is done. What's heartening to know is that you've realised the importance of gear and will touch the bike only after getting proper gear first

True, you cannot rule out the possibility of an event such as an accident. But with gear, you'd be better prepared for it.

Gear to a rider is what a cheatbook is to a student. When he goes for a ride/test, he knows that he will come back safely home/pass the test and that he won't get involved in a accident/get questions from only those chapters that he has not studied. But if the small possibility of an accident/inhumane question paper turns into reality, the rider/student has no safety net except his gear/cheatbook.

Talk about using a simile.

Sad to know about the crash, I missed that thread somehow. I too have scoyco knee guards and I'm of the view that they are far better than any of the cheap knockoff available in the market within that budget.

Although this post isn't adressed to me, but I'm sure satyen sir wouldn't mind if I too give my opinion.

1. Go to the market wearing gear and keep wearing it. Jacket + knee guards/riding pants don't have to come off you, the helmet can either go in the underseat area of the scooter (eterno has plenty of space for a helmet) or you can protect your elbows with it while you shop.

2. If that middle class family can't afford to spend 5k on gear then how will they spend lacs of rupees on hospital bills that could be avoided or atleast reduced if the rider was wearing gear when he crashed?

3. Give a 50rs note to anyone behind a desk and give all your gear to him.
OR
Wear it to the place you're going to go.
OR
Just stay there till you get your bike serviced.

I follow the 3rd one.


Dump the crashed lid. Period!