ABOVE: A full-face helmet is an essential item if you wish to avoid plastic surgery (note the grazed area). BELOW: Better to have a few scratches on your good-quality leathers than nasty wounds on skin.

At the age of 17 I took to Queensland roads with my mates on a worn out 500cc Triumph Twin. In those far off days we had no formal ‘road craft’ training, didn’t wear helmets, often wore thongs and were a menace to ourselves and other road users. These days I ride my Triumph Trident with a far greater degree of skill and awareness and wear modern protective gear. And most of us who ride bikes today are aware of appropriate rider training but often neglect the important area of protective gear. This sobering story comes courtesy of a skilled bike rider, former Air Force member Stewart Ross — Motoring Editor Ken Llewelyn

I lean the bike into the left turn, accelerate up the steep hill past the picnic grounds. That Akrapovic exhaust system sounds great at 9000 ... through the esses ... the bike handles beautifully, done this a thousand times before, racing does improve the breed, the bike is dead stable ... the front Pilot Sport tyre slips a little in the right-hander ... no worries ... I jump across to the left side of the bike as I lean it in ... I love these corners!

Suddenly a brown blur ... kangaroo! ... I instinctively lean it in really hard to the left ... the front end goes away followed in a fraction of a second by the rear ... now I’m on the ground looking back at my Honda SP1’s gaping intake and dual headlights ...what am I doing here?... sliding along on my back ... the hump on the back of my leathers is holding my helmet off the ground ... I marvel at this for a nanosecond, suddenly I am tumbling end over end, it takes ages to stop ... then it’s dead quiet. I’m a bit sore but I think “I’ve gotten away with it again”... (wrong, it turns out I’ve broken my back). I’m battered and bruised but I’m still alive and in one piece.

A while later in the ambulance the nurse asks if she can cut my $2600 leathers off. I agree: they’ve done their job. A long time ago I learnt that whatever bike you ride it is vital to have good protective gear. That is: a good full-face helmet (unless you are partial to plastic surgery) – mine was an AGV X-Vent; good quality gloves with carbon fibre and Kevlar protection (I chose Alpine Star GP Pro gloves); good quality leathers (in my case an “armoured” one-piece Dainese safety pro racing suit with a back protector and padded back hump); and a decent pair of motorcycle boots (Alpine Star GP boots).

This may sound like an ad for racing gear, but I was relieved to have the gear on while sliding along the all-weather tar surface. The gloves wore through the carbon fibre reinforcement on the knuckles and all of the padded reinforcement points were badly worn away.

The leathers were worn in several areas and the plastic armour was ground almost through, but nothing got through to me.

The back protector stopped any feeling of the road getting through. The padded hump on the back of the neck was holding my helmet off the road, at least while I was sliding on my back. I remember thinking this during the accident.

The helmet had a large graze on the side along the cheek area. Thankfully I wasn’t wearing an open-face type. Due to tumbling harshly when I hit an embankment, I broke my back in the accident. However, the sum total of my other injuries was one small graze on the side of my hand, a couple of friction burns on my forearm from the lining in the leathers rubbing on my skin, and a broken little finger tip (I’ve now joined the “deformed first joint on the little finger” club).

I spent a month in hospital on my back and I am now getting back to normal. I am convinced the reason was due to the quality of the gear I was wearing, mostly race tested and very well engineered.

How many people have you seen lately riding the latest superbike on a hot sunny day, wearing a T-shirt, track pants and runners.

Then you transfer your gaze to the pillion passenger, a good-looking girl wearing a tank top and jeans.

Then put them in my situation and picture their bodies tearing away as they slide along the extremely hot and abrasive road surface, causing months of plastic surgery and permanent disfigurement.

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