Just street siding, not the track: Knee Sliders or NO Sliders?

[EvilSteve]

Agreed.

Having said that, a polite, respectful attitude will do a lot more good than sliders would do bad IMO. Not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know.

[GLantern]

Im not saying im dragging my knee though.  Im just stating that it gives me the maximum amount of ground clearance when i can hang completely off the bike without worry of hurting my knees from a lack of pucks.  And the more clearance you have the more maneuverability you have in an emergency to the inside of the turn.  Its not about going fast in my opinion just leaving lots of leeway for the unexpected, thats what i was taught in the total control class anyways and i agree with it.  And i have dragged my knee at 15mph easily.  But we all have our personal preferences.  Go with what you like just because i do it doesnt mean you have to.  The pucks just give me peace of mind knowing that if i need to i can go all the way over. My 2cents   

[silentbob]

I wear em around the office.  It makes for interesting conversation.

Seriously, I have two sets of lowers.  The race ones with sliders and I wear them on the street and the track.  The other pair are made to zip on over my pants and they don't have provisions for sliders.  I wear those when I commute to work.  If I am going on a weekend ride in the canyons, I wear the race leathers with sliders.  There is no way I am going to pry those things off just for appearance sake.

[Big Troubled Bear]

Having watched a video of John Mcguinness doing a 130 mph average lap of the Isle of Man TT and never getting his knee down makes you think that pucks are worthless for normal road riding

[ScottRNelson]

Having watched a video of John Mcguinness doing a 130 mph average lap of the Isle of Man TT and never getting his knee down makes you think that pucks are worthless for normal road riding

And you consider a 130 mph lap of the Isle of Man "normal road riding"?

I have to be careful not to go riding after watching any Isle of Man videos.  It makes me want to ride at insane speeds. 

[Uncle Mofo]

if you dont own anything other than a sport bike (any type of cruiser) you probably dont know what they are either.  And cops dont know what they are.

 

[SaltLick]

 

i worded that wrong, i meant if you have never owned a sportbike, you probably wont know what the pucs are for.

[sdlrodeo]

Having watched a video of John Mcguinness doing a 130 mph average lap of the Isle of Man TT and never getting his knee down...

I was just reading an article on John in the July 08 UK Superbike rag. Pretty good read. He talks about rythym vs flat out speed. That is more of what I chase when I'm out for a ride: rythym and being in the moment.

That being said, I have a two piece suit. I do track days. I raced a YSR (kx60 powered) in TX MiniGP. If I wear my leather pants on the road, I don't take off the pucks. Too much effort. Most times, I wear textiles on the road. Another good thing about pucks is you can actually put some of your weight on your knee to sort of create a triangle with the front and rear contact patches.
FWIW.
Steve

[fasterblkduc]

No offense intended, seriously but why in the world would one care about how someone else looks at you? When I ride the twisties, I wear my race leathers, always. I don't think I have EVER looked at someone else's gear to see if they scrape their pucks or not...why would I care? I stop for lunch on my weekend rides (usually six hour rides), and go to sit down restaurants. I get all kinds of looks and I could care less.

Quick story...I was riding with my wife when we pulled into a gas station. We start chatting with a couple who were much older (our parents generation), who pulled in on Harleys. They ask us, "aren't you hot with all that gear on?"  What happened next was a very bizarre, surreal conversation where we end up lecturing our elders about not wearing gear. It was strange. But they wanted to fit an image and wearing protective gear was not part of that image. I did not intend to lecture because again...I don't care what you wear. It just came across that way. But they are so concerned with their image, that they won't wear gear   They are SQUIDS!

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but who cares if you are wearing pucks on your knees or not? Ask yourself if you want to ride or worry about your image.
Guys, I'm really not trying to be harsh here. Emotion doesn't transfer well on the internets!

[55Spy]

pucks sometimes out of laziness...no other reason.

[NuTTs]

All my leather suits have 'em.. I'm not going to take them off for a 2 hour sunday ride to get back home and put them on again.

It kinda looks weird dressing up in my leathers with worn pucks, race boots (very worn, held together with duct tape), helmet, gloves, b/p, etc.. on a GS1200Adventure. 

Some of the roads i ride on, yeah I do use my pucks.. that doesn't mean I'm out racing. You CAN get your knee down at slow speeds also, not that I do (often) on the road.

[Capo]

It is not unknown for some folks to apply their pucks to a grinding wheel so that others will think they are getting their knee down.

[sh]

It's funny how wrong perceptions can be.  Consider the worst case wheeling riding squid careening down the highway and the veteran track rider wearing full gear out for a weekend cruise.  Most people would look at those two and say they both have a death wish.  If you asked them who was likely the more aggressive rider, I bet they would pick the guy armored to the teeth.  If you asked them if he was wearing "pucks" they'd have no clue what you were talking about.

I think you should just wear what you need.  They general public already considers you to be a danger regardless of what you are wearing.

[Statler]

I leave them on the suits that have them just because I'm too lazy to take them off....or even to consider it.  (pretty lazy).


My personal experience with being pulled over seems to be the opposite of you guys.   Every single time the officer has commented that I should slow down, but it's obvious that I'm not a novice and am wearing the right gear...so no ticket today.    This was frequent in Florida when I commuted daily and has happened several times up here in MD too.

Of course in FL nobody else was ever wearing a full leather suit so maybe it was a heat pitty thing.

[Holden]

53-week bump...

wouldn't a puck act as extra armor and protect your proximal fibula knee from an impact? how could more protection ever be a bad thing?