On 6/01/2011 1:38 AM, Theo Bekkers wrote:
wrote
On Dec 31 2010, 10:48 am, wrote:

Which reminds me...

...the protective value of lycra must be just about nil, compared to (for
example)
the old woollen bike shorts you used to be able to buy or shortened army
pants,
or even King Gee workshorts.

Isn't it time lycra was banned?

T.

From personal experience I can tell you lycra is surprisingly robust
in the event of coming in close contact with bitumen. I'm sure, there
are more robust material/garments, but I can tell you that some
clothing such as denim jeans that looks and feels far more robust than
lycra only lasts about 3 secs when hitting the bitumen at 50km/h. Cant
comment on old woollen bike shorts, never worn them; King Gee work
shorts would be similar to jeans I imagine, and very uncomfortable to
ride a bike in.

Lycra is smooth and has a slippery surface. Denim has a rough surface and
is, I would think, much more likely to grip the road surface than allow you
to slide along it. The extra deceleration you get whilst sliding in denim
will remove the denim from your body. It then becomes painful.

Thankfully, I have not slided much on the road in denim and the times I
have hit the ground, I have been fortunate to have glancing contact with
bitumen, denimwise of cos. But then, I ain't going at 50kph either -
more like 10 to 20 kph max.

Also, I am not very smart sometimes becos I might use my face to break
the fall (not a voluntary act here) or my reflex action is to use my
hands (yes, my thumb is slowly getting better after about 9 mths (?),
thank you)

At the lower speed crashes I have had, I dont recall ripping any holes
in my denim although one can sometimes see the threads being abraded
somewhat.

I may be wrong.

No, you are not wrong - it is still painful even if you don't rip holes
in denim