Miggyman, it's not a coverup.
Youngsters on (generally uninsured) scooters and mopeds are a pain in the whatsits.
I know what I was like on a 125 at 19. I couldn't afford woohoo kit, I made do with the best I could buy at the time. Part of my reaction to that was a promise to myself that if I got anything capable of going over 60 (that 125 was a trailie - low gearing and zippy around town but nothing in the way of speed) then it'd be in safety gear as good as I could get. I bought the kit before the bike, so as to make sure I didn't spend it all on a bike and then only have 14.99 for a helmet.
At 16 you're invincible, and beer/cider/meths/fags/weed is a higher spending priority than decent kit.
When you see a rider on a sub-year-old 750 race-rep Suzuki wearing a cheap plastic plastic helmet (retailing at a whopping £35 at the local expensive bike kit emporium), trainers, shorts and a vest in the summer, you realise that not all of the 16 year old scooter kids grow out of it or crash enough to learn the value of protection. I can only hope that if the Suzi-pilot crashed it was at a near standstill in traffic. He was heading out towards the nice fast country lanes where you can easily hit the legal limits and then some if you don't mind the risk of hedges or oncoming traffic... Not seen him round recently, thinking about it :(
( evilstevie misses the Orange Place of late, Wed 9 Jan 2008, 13:54, Reply)