[Jeff Higgins]

Makes yours look pretty mild, Todd. Some of these "survivors" (if one can really call them that) are pretty darn messed up. Lack of protective gear for the most part; a lesson it seems we all learn the hard way, to varying degrees.

Although no one could have convinced me at the time, I was rather "fortunate" very early in my riding career. I earned myself a bit of road rash that I never would have gotten if I had been wearing as much as even a jacket. I have since had two rather serious wrecks and walked awy from both. Knocked into the center guardrail by a pickup on the freeway at 70+, doing a belly-flop onto the asphalt. Low-siding it on an off-ramp covered with "kitty litter" (sand from the winter sanding)at about 60-ish, getting trapped under the bike and sliding accross four lanes of traffic. Totally destroyed good sets of leathers both times, and my full-face Bell Star II the first time. My Harley buddies still tease me about the full-face and full leathers (even mid-summer) all the time. Oh well. I try to tell them their day will come, and they cannot choose that day...