A long time ago a biker friend said: "If it's too hot to wear my leathers, it's too hot to ride my bike." Strong words, coming from a man who didn't have a car - but he was right.
Riding without protective gear is as irresponsible as unprotected sex - and can be just as deadly.
Yet we all say: "I'm only going down to the café," or "I'm a careful rider," or "It's too hot for leathers."
We all think that sort of thing happens to other people. So did 20-year-old SA Superbike rider Gareth Agnew, who has been racing motorcycles for eight years and, as he admits, should know better.
That's why he agreed to motoring.co.za publishing his story - and these pictures - as a graphic warning to the inexperienced, that they will learn from his lesson and escape the pain.
On September 24 Agnew, a motorcycle technician, went to work in his car without his motorcycle helmet or gear. During the day he worked on a 1981 Kawasaki GPz550 that had been back several times for an intermittent misfire.
It was important that the bike be checked under running conditions so Agnew reluctantly borrowed a helmet from his boss and went out on the N1 to test the bike at cruising speed - but wearing only jeans and a T-shirt.
As he shut the throttle for the first time, at about 100km/h, the front suspension compressed, the bike wiggled once and simply spat him off. Agnew still has no idea why.
He hit the road with his left hand and forearm, then skated across across the tarmac on his stomach before his right hand and wrist went down.
He also suffered road rash on his knees and ankles.
He remembers feeling the outside of his left palm being ground away against the tar and thinking: "This is serious."
After about 10 minutes of waving his bleeding arms in the air he managed to stop a motorist, who called his boss and an ambulance.
The medics treated his wounds as they would a major burn and took him to Durbanville Hospital where the emergency room doctor cut away the skin around the wounds and applied fresh burn shields.
There followed the most painful two weeks of his life as the wounds had to be scrubbed raw, twice a day, to prevent scabs forming - a process that took three hours morning and night.
Agnew admits the only way he could handle it was to clench his teeth on a balloon, saying the grazes on his stomach, although shallower, were actually the most painful.
Doctors initially feared he would need skin grafts on both hands and a wrist but within five weeks fresh, pink, incredibly sensitive skin had grown over all the open patches, thanks to the twice-daily scrubbing.
It's worth it
This is not intended as a horror story, but as a cautionary tale. Agnew's extraordinarily high pain threshold helped him to recover more quickly and completely than most but others, he said may not be so lucky.
If one rider remembers to put on his jacket and gloves, if one parent of a scooter-riding schoolgirl insists their child wears decent gloves and a stout denim jacket on her ride to school, then reliving his pain to tell the story will have been worth it.
"You have to prepare, not only for the unexpected," he said, "but also for the inexplicable.
"I'm glad it was me and not the bike's owner."