Approximately six months ago a family came in to the dealership and purchased a 08 ZX-6R for their 19 year-old son. The family, more specifically the mother, was not concerned at the cost of any safety gear needed. The young man was able to purchase an Arai RX7-Corsair, Alpinestars jacket, and Alpinestars gloves. I had him try all the gear on and advised him to get a size small in the helmet, but he insisted on a medium because it wasn’t as snug on his dome. This young man had also been hired by my company and assigned to work for me.

After about six weeks of riding the ZX-6R around, he was involved in an accident. Now, like me, you are probably thinking what a surprise a 19 old crashed another sportbike. In this case however, he was not to blame for the accident, though like most young riders he did not have the experience and skills to help avoid it either. In this crash he was rear ended by another motorcyclist who decided to do a wheelie and lost control crashing into my co-worker. He smacked his head on the ground pretty good; thankfully, no head injuries were sustained, but did break the ball of his elbow. Ouch.

Needless to say he learned the value of safety gear. After the accident I asked him why he wasn’t wearing his jacket with the elbow cups. His response was that it was to hot that day. Now granted it gets in the 100’s here, but a little heat discomfort or broken bones? He then told me that he had learned that lesson and would wear his jacket whenever he rode. He also understood why I sold him a jacket with a removable liner and mid-level venting. Because of the damage the helmet sustained he replaced it with another Arai RX7-Corsair. Helmets should be replaced or sent back to the manufacture for inspection and repairs after any hard impact.

After he had healed from the wreck he started going out riding some more, but was cautious about who he rode with and where he was in the group. I also noticed that he was wearing his gear. He and some friends went on a ride on one of the only slightly twisty road that appears to exist in this state and the obvious happened. He went into a corner to fast and low sided the bike into a guard rail.  I urge caution before reading the next part of the story as it does contain some graphic descriptions of an actual event.

With this accident he ground the skin off his shin and ankle all the way to the bone in one spot. Though he did not purchase boots, as I tell everyone always wear over the ankle boots of some type. The damage to his foot was because one of his shoes came off allowing his foot to flop around on the asphalt like a fish out of water.

After this wreck he decided to stay away from motorcycles. His father and he had discussed selling the bike after it was repaired, but for now it was more important for him to heal.

 A couple of weeks after he was better he decided to go for a short ride. Naturally this slowly developed back into the bug that we all have when it comes to this sport of ours. He appeared to be behaving himself and staying out of trouble.

Of course it wasn’t long before the stories of going fast and being stupid started going around work. I pulled him side one day and discussed with him all of the friends I buried around his age, and gave a very graphic picture of what could happen. I also told him that these losses were one of the main reasons that got me into road racing on a TRACK!

A few more weeks went by and he came up to me to see what price I could get him on a new Arai. I naturally responded “What happened?” and he said “nothing…I have just been thinking about what you said and your right. I need a size small”. So naturally I started looking into what I could do to get him in the right helmet.

The very next morning I get a call that appears to be him, expecting him to be late or something, but instead it was his mother. She was calling to tell me that he had been in yet another motorcycle accident, but this time it was bad. I don’t remember much of the phone call because I was so focused on letting his mother talk, as you could hear the deep distress in her voice, but I never really listened to what was said.

His father came in a couple days later to update me on the situation. To say this accident was bad is a slight understatement; horrific would be a better term. Once again it was caused by impatience, poor judgment, and the unforeseen. Going home from work he was behind some cars going through a construction zone, and just when it appeared the construction zone was over he went over two lanes to accelerate past the slower moving cars. What he did not and could not see (because it was dark), was that though there were no construction barrels up, but there were still two black bases for the barrels in the road.

He hit the bases at around 65 -70 MPH which threw him into an uncontrollable tank slapper which caused him and the motorcycle to go sliding and tumbling almost 250 feet down the road. The force of the accident caused the front of his helmet to rotate so far up that the helmet hit and broke his nose. It also rotated so far back that it broke the base of his skull in two spots and dislocated two of his neck vertebra. It also induced several minor and one major bleed on his brain.

From the broken nose it caused one of his lungs to completely fill with blood, and his other lung was receiving pressure from a broken rib. He sustained several other broken bones and tissue damage and is going to require multiple surgeries to repair one of his knees. Before we continue it is important to note that he is recovering very well from all of his injuries though it is a long recovery in front of him.

Now to the point of this incident and why choosing the right gear is as important as how it fits. Because he was wearing the wrong size helmet is a cause for a lot of his head injuries and near self drowning. Because the helmet was too loose, it allowed his head to move around inside the helmet causing the nose fracture, skull fracture, and vertebra dislocations. Also it allowed his head to carry excessive inertia inside the helmet resulting in the internal head bleeding. No one can say if the right size helmet would have prevented all of these injuries, but it certainly would have prevented the likely hood of them and/or the severity of them.

I have never been one to tell people what gear they should or shouldn’t wear. Here in New Mexico there is no helmet law, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear one. What is important is that if you are going to choose to wear the proper riding gear you make sure it fits properly. Most helmet manufacturers have a proper fitment guide on their websites to help educate you in the proper fitment of a helmet. Should you take the time to review any of the information available on this you will also discover that companies such as Arai, Shoei, and Scorpion Sports have almost word for word the same techniques for properly fitting a helmet.

Though my employee had to find a lot of things out the hard way, I hope this article helps you to understand that it is not just the gear, but the true importance is that it fits properly (something only a trained brick and mortar can offer). I have been one to always wear protective gear, as earlier this year I had to replace a jacket and helmet from a minor accident myself. The $900 spent to replace the gear is worth it. There are a lot of things about life and time spent in the hospital, that money cannot buy, and your credit card won’t help with. Gear up and Ride safe!