Integrity disintegrates

I have been wearing my brand new motorcycle jacket for the past three months. Then, I had a fairly big crash in it. A crash that could have broken bones and all of that sort of thing. Thanks to the jacket, and the full complement of protective gear (Joe Rocket riding pants, cheap but obviously effective Rs 800 motorcycle boots from Japanese discount store) I survived without a scratch.

In the process, I tore a fair gash in the jacket, stamped the nylon weave into all of the plastic armour, and found a few areas on arm of the jacket that looks a bit worse for the wear. I looked up, thanked the jacket maker and have continued to use it since. Despite the gash. Yesterday, the most absurd thing happened. I tried to wash the damn thing. And guess what, all of the areas that were worse for the wear are sprouting hairy halos like some inspired godman on coconut oil. What looked like minor scuffs on the morning after the crash look like war zones and some of the deeper scuffs have completely given through and you can see the armour/arm through it. My five figure jacket is coming apart.

Which means that like a helmet, you need to check after each crash whether it still has the strength and the ability left to effectively protect you. The thrice crashed Alpinestars isn't an automatic bodyguard anymore. Then I did some research. And came up the word ripstop. Which is fabric designed not to unravel. Most riding jackets (textile) are not made of ripstop, luggage is. And once the nylon finds a hole to run out from, like unruly school children, that's exactly what it will do. Horror of horrors, I found a minor gash in me pants as well. So now I'm double worried. Although, the pants don't seem to unraveling, just gashed, that too in a non-critical area (seam around the pocket). In any case, that means a round of money collection to buy more kit

Those who found the microscopic inspection of my riding kit offensive or disturbing, take two aspirin and sleep over it. If you found in interesting, get to a shrink. Instantamente. The rest follow me.