ADVrider.com
By now you’ve probably seen FortNine’s video about motorcycle gear armor. Maybe you’ve just seen posts about it on social media. Maybe you already have an opinion about it. We’ve linked the whole vid so you can see it in full for yourself.
Yes, we know it was posted on the first of April. We here at ADVRider got into the game with a couple of prank stories as well. But we gave this one a couple of days, and there’s no indication that Ryan was joking about his “motorcycle armor is kinda useless” stance.
Hope It’s A Joke
There’s no knowing wink, no clues in the notes, no obviously ridiculous sources cited. It’s one six-minute single-take walk along the beach.
The Take
First, he lays out the fact that the gear most of us wear is clunky (sure). Then, details the standards that said armor is built to – which are mostly EU specs. And he states motorcycle armor in general is too small and too thin to be useful.
The Gaps
The researchers looked at “a few thousand motorcycle crashes with known injuries” and that “the benefits could not be detected, specifically in relation to fractures.” Anyone who has ever fallen off a motorcycle will tell you that fractures are not the only injury we face in that regard.
The Internet Is Forever
So, yes, maybe it was an April Fool’s gag and we’re all dummies now. But that video is going to stay on the internet well past that one goofy date. And new riders will come across it, assume he’s right, and forego the armored gear.
Ow, My Knees
But I want you to do me a favor if you’re on his side: go outside in your jeans and drop to your knees on the nearest slab of asphalt. Don’t sweep it first, just go knees-first, pebbles and all, at zero mph, into that blacktop. You’re going to get creative with language when you land.
Here’s the thing: we’re going to break bones if we crash. A bad crash will have us in a hospital. Fractures, dislocations, sprains will happen. But he’s focusing on the wrong thing.
Survivorship Bias
A bunch of folks I know had a great discussion about this vid, and it came down to survivorship bias. The riders who end up in the statistics that Ryan cites do not paint the whole picture. There are many of us, myself included, who have had minor getoffs during which we sustained no injury at all precisely because the armor in our gear took the brunt of the impact.
Heck, I stuffed my KLR under a Volvo during my commute one damp morning when I lost traction on a fog line. And then I picked myself up and went to work. I had no injuries because I fell on my padded gear. My knee and elbow armor did their job, the ankle armor on my boot got super scuffed, and my helmet did not live to see another day, but I was fine.
So yes, armor could be better. But it’s absolutely not useless. Those of us who crash, get up, swear, take some ibuprofen, pick up the bike and continue on with our lives are unrepresented in the data.
Here’s one of the inevitable responses. It’s four times as long, but the detail is worth it.
Don’t Be A Fool
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. And the corollary to that is, the best way to find the right answer to anything, is to post the wrong answer as fact. People will come out of the woodwork to tell you how wrong you are.
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