I just finished talking to another potential client who had a slide down the highway due to someone else's negligence.  Happily, it seems that this crash resulted in relatively minor injuries.  I can't tell you how enthusiastic the rider was about the way that his helmet and gloves performed.

Safety gear is an individual thing.  There are no real US standards, only European ones.  There is plenty of dispute about what works, and in what situation.  Nothing is designed specifically for accidents that involve motorcycles and impact with cars or impact from cars.  Some situations can arise where excellent track gear can actually make an injury from a crash with a car worse.

Safety gear doesn't help, unless you wear it.  Some great gear can make you so warm that it can affect your ability to think clearly.  It is also a matter of personal preference.  After all, there are no standards or requirements in the US other than for helmets.  Anything you choose to wear is just that, a choice.

On the other hand, there is a lot of conflicting information out there.  New technology complicates the picture.  Now there are several companies making air bag suits.  Real data is scarce.  The manufacturers, of course, all believe they have the answer to everything.  Time will tell.  Even there, the data collection is poor.  Real studies are few and far between.  Motorcyclists discuss these issues through a pipeline with other riders.  With motorcycle magazines, maybe a consensus arises.

Until things become clearer, I will continue to periodically review and report bits and pieces on protective gear.  So will others.

In the meantime, we will all make our individual choices, and report our individual experiences.  How different this is from the many available governmental and private studies that report on safety devices for the drivers of automobiles. 

An interesting blog post about Volkswagen's 20% ownership of Suzuki and designer Nils Poschwatta's drawing of what a VW influences Suzuki would look like, made me think about some of the intangible requirements for a favorite motorcycle.  Here is the design:

What I like in certain vehicles is a "swiss army knife" sense of utility.  Lots of Beemers have this.  In the automotive world, VW used to have this, and still occasionally gets it, Saab used to have it in their peculiar way, Volvo lived it in certain models.  Honda's Hawk and CB750's had a motorcycle version of it.

It's an interesting concept, because really, it doesn't mean much.  Little things, like extra electric plugs, play on this.  Rides with solid feel and plainer styling tend towards it.  An absence of leading edge power and technology seems to help.

Mostly, though, it is just a sense that the vehicle will reliably do whatever is required, with styling that reinforces this sense. 

As a result, real or not, the rider feels confident that the bike will take whatever is thrown at it, mile after mile.  A solid feel, a certain plain aura.  It may not even be real.  Simple, easy to fix, basic.  Like a Swiss Army knife.

A lot of the cost of a motorcycle is the cost of setting up to manufacture it.  Not as bad as tooling on a car, but still.  The bikes I am talking about have a lasting quality, like a Norman Rockwell painting.  You like them better as you put on the miles.

No doubt many riders are missing what I am getting at here.  I think a lot of high mileage riders, however, will understand it. 

To me, these are some of the characteristics of a bike you grow to love over time.  Hard to describe, but easy to discover. In other words, a bike that just plain works, and looks it.

I like the Poschwatta design, a lot, and look forward to things to come from the collaboration.