In my experience every major racing sanctioning body imposes acceptable age limits to critical safety items such as helmets, seat belts, window nets, the seat itself if made from carbon, driving suits, etc. . I would think that the age and condition of leathers, whether SCTA legal or not would be equally if not more important to the "all leather" rule. Unfortunately most leathers do not come with a date of manufacture so I see this as impossible to police. If we are truly trying to improve the safety of this system there needs to be a definitive, qualitative inspection standard for leathers, perforated ,Kevlar, or all leather.
I believe that if it were important to have all leather construction than organizations such as AMA, FIM, and the like would have implemented similar rules, these organizations see many more incidences in daily operation than the SCTA ever will. I am all for the safest possible approach however nobody has yet proven to me that all leather is safer, both from abrasion resistance ( Kevlar is more abrasion resistant) or from heat in the event of a fire ( Where Nomex is the clear winner) . We are trying to kill two birds with one stone and this is the inherent problem. If I were to write the rule it would look like this:
All motorcycles pilots must wear a safety suit that conform to the following:
Leather or Kevlar construction is mandatory, leather must be a minimum of 2mm thick, 1 or 2 piece suits are allowed, 2 piece suits must zip together a continuous 360 degrees around the riders waist. Stretch panels are allowed in non critical areas such as arm pits, back of the knee and inside the elbow. Perforations are allowed.
All safety suits must be of good construction and be in good condition with no frays, cuts, loose seams, visible damage. Worn suits must conform to the 2mm thickness rule regardless of wear. A suit manufactured within the past 7 years is recommended due to the deterioration of leather and stitching.
A full body nomex undergarment must be worn at all times, there are available for fewer than 200 dollars at any racing safety equipment manufacture.
Supplemental crash protection is recommended in the form of hard padding in the shoulders, elbows, and knees. Back protectors are strongly encouraged.
Helmets must be within the current Snell model (I think 95 or higher but may be wrong)
Aerodynamic "humps" on the riders back fall under the class and category of the motorcycle ridden ( they don?t do anything regardless, in most cases the air is going UP the riders back, they aren?t big enough to keep the airflow attached anyway)Jusy my opinion
This rules package will allow people to have freedom of choice in how they want to protect themselves and still keep some consistency in the safety standard. It will also reduce the costs of having to get a set of all leather construction leathers made (which I just had a 1300 dollar "all leather" set made by Bates). There will always be the people that don?t care about safety and because of their ignorance rules are implemented that effect the rest of us that work very hard , and spend a lot of money, making our machines safe, testing them at increasing speeds to determine stability, and buying the best safety equipment available. In the end a sanctioning body should not punish the many to protect the few.
On another note every major sanctioning body in the US now mandates some sort of head and neck restraint for car drivers, does SCTA have a similar rule, I just figured while we were talking safety that we should not limit the impositions to motorcycles. Let?s spread the joy and include the car guys too.
Just my opinion
Nathan
