The AGV GP Tech helmet has a transparent face shield that enables the everyday motorcyclist, the helmet user, to observe his surroundings, allowing him to navigate his machine along the motorway at a fashionable pace. Lifting the face shield up a notch or two provides the user with added air intake, as well as greater auditory sensations. The helmet's interior is soft and comfortable. The helmet is not snell rated. DOT and Euro. This is a high end helmet. Up there in class with the Spec 1rs and the RX-7s.
Motorcyclists are weird about helmets and gear in general. Sportbike motorcyclists that is. They are described to other motorcyclists who also own helmets with a sense of mystery and awe, love and hate. A hated helmet is a nasty, evil thing, like a girl friend who cheats on you. The motorcyclist never forgets a hated helmet and will rarely give it a second chance. There's a cliff at Devil's Slide north of Half Moon Bay where angry young men go to purge their Hated Helmets, sacrificing these poor human artefifacts to the Devil by throwing them out to sea, hell.
I don't think I've ever heard two Hell's Angels discussing the pro's and cons of this type of leather vest over that one. "Well, I only buy Italian made fingerless gloves man. Only way to go, unless you can get them in roo skin. Those cheap Pakistani ones chafe my palms. Those aussies have more kangaroo than they know what to do with" Or, "Dirty Larry bought some Brown Wing vented waterproof sport work boots for the big Poker Run last year. He said he loves them!" grinning.
You just don't hear that kind of stuff. I don't, at least.
But put a bunch of sport bikers together and eventually, because there's usually not much else to talk about, gear qualities will be discussed.
All crashes happen quick. One second you were _____ (fill in blank) and the next you were sliding into a steal guard rail, skidding over two lanes to get there, at 60 miles an hour. Then silence. Then you try to move, only to find that your body parts are not in their original locations. Bones shift off their hinges, your jaw may feel like it's been repositioned a few centimeters to the left. Skin, that paper thin stuff that holds your insides together tears and opens up.
In this kind of scenario a good helmet is always nice to have, but really any helmet is nice to have in this kind of scenario.
If you've never crashed, or never run your mind through how it would be to crash, motorcycling may seem no different than riding a horse or going roller skating or swimming. Ahhh, the wind in your hair, the countryside slipping by, as you cruise at a brisk pace through rolling hills. When you crash, it's comparable to the feeling you might get some hot afternoon at the beach when you decide to go for a quick dip in the ocean to cool off, only to be chewed to death by a ferocious man eating shark.
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