DISQUS

To follow up on Jason's post about gear:

ATGATT (all the gear all the time) is the motto to live by if you want to survive. A -fullface-helmet is a must since most head injuries from a fall occur to the jaw area. DOT approval is a must, many are now also SNELL rated. An expensive helmet will be both, but so will an lesser-priced one. The former will have better ventilation and a thicker no-fog shield sometimes, but don't feel the need to spend $700 on a bucket when $200-300 will offer the same protection. Just make sure it fits. If you've got squirrel cheeks, it fits.

Textiles will melt easily upon sliding, and you will slide on pavement that will act like coarse sandpaper to your gear. Leather allows the skin of another animal to be destroyed instead of yours. Textiles will melt into your skin in a long slide. Try to remove it from the wounds. It's not fun. Cordura nylon is a possibility though if you need to use textile. Armor is good, be it soft or hard.

Leather gloves. Nothing else. Full fingered. High cut boots, preferably leather, above the ankle. Waterproof will make you happier in inclement weather. Good tread is required to stay upright at oil-slicked toll booths in the rain while you fumble for coins. Armored riding pants are great and kevlar-denim blends are now an option. I also wear a hard backplate inside my jacket for spinal protection. I've t-boned a car. I know what pain is like. I wish to not endure it again, or mitigate it if unavoidable. I was ATGATT and still severely injured. ATGATT saved me from worse.

Shamless plug: Check out my (now-defunct) motorcycling podcast for 2 years worth of two-wheeled fun. http://www.thetwistedwrist.com

The Road is an excellent choice. My son, 4 months old at the time, gave it to me for my first father's day. I think my wife helped him pick it out though. It's a moving story that any father should find worthwhile.

A most excellent article. I played blindside flanker in high school and for my city team (winning the region that year), and was elected captain in HS as well. And although my first dislocation happened in a practice, and has fallen out almost 10 times since, I love the sport even though I can no longer play. The sport is big here in Canada, though that could be due to our strong ties back to the Commonwealth. Much more fun than American Football.

Funnily enough, I sort of back up my photos TO Flickr, at least some important ones. I had originally put them on a dedicated external hard drive. Then one day I had the great idea of defragging said external drive, and the drive's table of contents got fried, rendering the drive useless, along with 4 years of photos.

They're still there, I've seen them when I slaved it to a Linux setup, but was unable to do anything thanks to the NTFS partition of the drive. So it sits here on my desk, waiting for the day I find a utility that allows for proper recovery.

So it can go both ways. The Cloud can also be used for backups. Mozy.com is one service that seems reputable.