To think that protective clothing should be compulsory for motorbike/moped riders.

[Saggyoldclothcatpuss]

After seeing a teen picked up from the ground (thankfully unscathed) after coming off his moped this morning, I started wandering about this. My friend is a biker, and told me that when you take bike lessons, you are advised to wear protective clothing, but it's not a legal requirement. I see these youngsters whizzing round wearing shorts and teeshirts, or jeans, and they have no protection at all. Apparently, you lose 1mm of flesh for every foot you slide when you hit the floor in a skid!

I agree with the overheating thing - my OH occasionally wears jeans and a t shirt when making short journeys on his bike in the sumer but he doesn't like doing so in ase he comes off - but on a hot summers day in the city it can be impossible to wear leathers or fabric protective gear as he would pass out very quickly! When going pillion I only wear fully protective gear but on a beautiful summers day it can be unbearable.

It's a real damned if you do, damned if you don't decision.

Best thing I ever saw: a very beautiful, model-like woman riding pillion on the back of a bike in Greece, preening and tossing her flowing hair. She was wearing a tiny thong bikini, her BF was riding the bike on a typical dirt gravel track

I hope she didn't come off at any point, she would have been flayed alive. We stared and laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it.