[rpoz-29]

Don't laugh. A thread that started on my club's website about the best drivers, turned into a discussion about motorcycle racing being safer that auto racing. The antagonist said that he raced bikes for a while, and that since force =mass x acceleration, once you're off the bike you'll slow down faster, thus come to rest sooner. Maybe if every wreck went into a gravel trap, I'd understand, but am I missing something? I think solid object impact on a super bike at speed sounds a bit more painful than being strapped in. The only bike racing I can claim to are some hare scrambles back in the '70's. He says the stats are there to prove bike racing is safer, but he never showed where to find them. Then he got a little snippy, and said he was trying to "enlighten" us, and was sorry he wasted his time. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[John_D.]

I think it depends on what you hit... Open space for sliding is good. Another object is bad...

My son went through a 5 strand barb wire fence last September, street driving. (no helmet, the big dummy, but that's another story). The facial surgeons spent over 4 hours patching up his ears, nose, mouth, eyebrow and neck, before they tried to sew up anything else.

Not that there would be barb wire on a track, but there are walls, culverts, chain link, other vehicles/bikes, etc.

The gear for protection from sliding is phenomenal now, but it doesn't do much for a direct impact.