I do put myself in similar situations with less gear, just for shorter periods of time, and when I’m closer to home. I don’t wear all that gear when riding in traffic, and arguably the consequences can be much higher when hitting or being hit by a car.
The gear helps when I have much greater exposure (i.e. longer periods of time) to the risks, and part of the idea is when I’m taking a vacation and spending a lot of money to go up to Whistler for a week, fewer small problems will end my vacation early. The gear also helps when I run the risk of exhaustion, which is a major cause of mountain bike crashes.
BTW, I actually do think there’s some truth to the idea that gear increases risk taking. That doesn’t mean that overall safety goes down though, so you have to be careful how you think and talk about it. If injury outcomes are on average lower when wearing gear, then that’s that, it doesn’t matter if people are taking larger chances, the protection is still outweighing the risk.
The gear helps when I have much greater exposure (i.e. longer periods of time) to the risks, and part of the idea is when I’m taking a vacation and spending a lot of money to go up to Whistler for a week, fewer small problems will end my vacation early. The gear also helps when I run the risk of exhaustion, which is a major cause of mountain bike crashes.
BTW, I actually do think there’s some truth to the idea that gear increases risk taking. That doesn’t mean that overall safety goes down though, so you have to be careful how you think and talk about it. If injury outcomes are on average lower when wearing gear, then that’s that, it doesn’t matter if people are taking larger chances, the protection is still outweighing the risk.