Nuhaus,

Interesting point about pants. I have a friend in California who was involved in a horrific crash in Idaho, taken out by an 18-wheeler. She was wearing full leathers, but she had failed to zip them together in to a single unit -- which is something we all can easily forget. As a result, the jacket pulled up and the pants went down, and in addition to having multiple bone fractures and serious internal injuries, she also lost a ton of skin, and required months of hospitalization.

Don't want to turn this thread into fright night, but it really is those little things that can lessen, even slightly, our odds of catastrophic injury.

I still wonder if there was anything I might have done to project my clavicle in my fall in Kunming. I wear a thick, close-fitting leather jacket that has very nice armor in the shoulders. But I'm thinking that, short of those motion-sensitive air bags now on the market, there's really nothing that could have helped. Well, if I'd responded better to the circumstances and gotten away from the bike as it went down, rather than clinging to it. As I recall it in my mind, there really wasn't time to react much.

Good on you for taking good care of the GF. It's a powerful for of affection, respect and maybe even love to insist on suiting up. And imagine what the rest of your life would be like if you were OK in a getoff but your pillion was seriously hurt for lack of proper gear....

cheers