When things go horribly wrong

So you’re trundling down the road on your trusty Aprilia and everything suddenly goes wrong. You find your beautiful scooter is going one way and you’re about to get up close and personal with the bitumen. But you weren’t going fast and you have a helmet on so you’ll be ok - right? Well, maybe not!

Even a low speed crash has the potential to do horrific damage to a human body. You may not break a bone, but some people have described the effect of bare skin sliding across a road surface as being like running your hand across a cheese grater. And you don’t want to know how the medical people get gravel out of those scrapes either!

“But I’m riding a scooter” I hear you say, “and it’s not cool to have all that protective gear on”.

Yep, it’s great to have the freedom to jump on the scooter and head down the shops with just a pair of shorts, t-shirt and sandals on, but it’ll give you absolutely no protection in a fall. And you don’t need to dress yourself up like you’re about to take on Casey Stoner either.

When it comes to appropriate clothing for riding a scooter we need to strike a compromise. At the very least a decent jacket to protect the upper body, a pair of denim jeans and the most important thing - a pair of gloves! So let’s have a look at some options, and there are some trendy items out there that don’t scream out “wannabe racer” too.

When we fall over we instinctively put our hands out to break the fall and protect our self. It’s our hands that often take the biggest scrape in a crash, so a pair of leather gloves is essential equipment. Don’t rely on a pair from Myer though, they won’t stand up to the task. Drop into a motorcycle accessory shop and check out some of the less radical (or racy) gloves available. You should be able to find a suitable pair for around $40 - 50.

Next up should be a jacket, and there are some great choices available, especially for the girls. Once again drop into the accessory shop or scooter dealership and look at the range. Leather is always the best choice but textile will give you more than enough protection and not have the credit card going into overdrive either. Another nice advantage of textile is that most are vented so they’re cooler to wear on a hot day.

Finally let’s protect the legs. A pair of denim jeans won’t last longer than about half a second in a slide down the bitumen but that’s better than nothing. On the other hand, the leathers that you see racers and a lot of road riders wearing will protect you for about 6 seconds but hey – not cool!. So what’s a good compromise? Well, when you wander into the accessory shop check out Draggin Jeans or Hornee. These jeans look like normal jeans but their secret weapon in a slide is that they’re lined with knitted Kevlar that will protect your legs and butt almost as well as leather.

So there you have it, a reasonable compromise to protect you in the event of the unmentionable happening. Now, when will someone design that same sort of gear to protect the Aprilia ??