I went down on a blown rear inner tube, back in 2012, with my grown son as my passenger, on a 1979 Honda 750. My mechanic picked the bike up, and examined the tube: factory defect, it just blew apart inside the tire; air pressure was good, it wasn't more than a couple of years old, with low mileage.
We went down at roughly 40 MPH. I was wearing: modular helmet, leather gloves, armored textile jacket, leather chaps, and boots. My son was wearing: modular helmet and an armored textile jacket, only. I walked away with a scratch on one knuckle, and some gray marks on the leather chaps, where I slid on them, for 60+ feet. My son had road rash on the back of his thighs, and some on his buttocks, along with some scrapes on his hands. His jacket had ground through half of the armor pad on his one elbow, where he went down... My jacket has some fraying around the left cuff, but it's still serviceable.
I'm ATGATT because that was my 4th low-side, since I was 10 years old. We just purchased a pair of armored mesh jackets because our 3/4-length touring jackets are just too hot in temperatures in the 90's. Can't believe how much air flow we get with the mesh jackets (all of our jackets are hi-viz, by the way). Your ride, your choice; your body, your life. Cheers!
skins on her and ride on.
