By Paul Westlake (CVAM)

Before getting on your bike give some thought to what's in the pockets of your motorcycle clothing ;-)
If you wear a rucksack when riding you really want to be careful what you carry in it!!

In a recent event that I unwillingly took part in, I gained some unexpected (maybe I should say unwanted) experience. To most of you, the following will be common sense, unfortunately, to some of us it isn’t yet with the potential for a hard learned lesson!

I left home in reasonable temperatures, certainly well above freezing, only to find that over the hill, but not far away, were temperatures I wouldn’t have dreamed of venturing out into on my bike. In the space of a hundred yards the road had gone from dry to icy, black ice too and there I was, suddenly bikeless and much dirtier than I like. I was very fortunate, all I appeared to receive in injuries were dirty looks from the following car drivers who proceeded to drive round me.

But as the day progressed, I found the bruises colouring up. A particularly exciting one on my hip looked like a love bite from a crocodile and proved to be the imprint of the toggle on the elastic string at the bottom of my jacket. Another late arrival, even more impressive and rather sore as it turned out, was courtesy of my mobile phone in my breast pocket!
Accidents are by their very definition unpredictable, so it makes it harder to consider the consequences of filling your pockets, or ruck-sack. When I now consider the bits I sometimes carry in various pockets, it makes me cringe. We have all seen the theft conscious riders with a chain over their shoulder. Looks good on a hairy biker, probably not so good in him. I’ve got a top box, I now decant what I need into that and just keep things that don’t hurt in my pockets and for those who don't have a topbox there's a huge range of tank bags, day bags and tail packs that really don't cost that much and could prove a wise investment ;-)

Footnote by AndyW (CVAM)

I recounted the following sad story to one of our members just the other day having seen them pull a flask from their rucksack at a stopoff on one of our rideouts. Good idea to have a flask of something warm to drink with you on colder days but there's potential for disaster in carrying something like that in a rucksack whilst riding a motorcycle!

It's actually a very long story but I'll keep it short and to the point here and you'll have to forgive me for not being too specific about the details. A guy I had come to know very well via a motorcycle forum had what should have been a reletively minor 'off', ordinarily in the circumstances he would have gotten away with a few bruises and grazes but sadly he had a fairly large solid item in the rucksack he was wearing at the time which as he hit the road on his back, shattered a section of his spine. He survived but had to endure a couple of years of extreme pain and repeated surgery all of which finally got the better of him. RIP JT

If you have to carry anything in a rucksack...........SOFT ITEMS ONLY! ;-)

< Back