I know that the MN bike season is over for this year
I was wondering if anyone wanted to share their experiences about carrying when riding a bike.

How do you carry? Location; how secure is the firearm, etc?
What kind of equipment do you use? Holster type? Firearm type?
What should one watch out for?
Any anecdotal information? Weapon fell out of holster..? Bad weather solutions? What to if you come off the bike/crash, etc?

Please see this thread. http://www.twincitiescarry.com/forum/vi ... c&start=15

I carry my Kahr PM9 2 ways on the bike. If I am wearing my leather jacket I will usually carry OWB with a Fobus paddle holster. If no jacket on I will pocket carry with a pocket holster. I have never had a problem carrying either way, the fobus has really good retention but I do not know if it would stay in if the bike goes down.

I'd recomend using a trailer. Motorcycles are often to heavy for me to carry.

i carry my s&w m&p .40c in a comp-tac c-tac, outside the shirt and under the vest. my wife carries her taurus pt-140 in a bianchi black widow with snap strap. we rarely ride without our cg s. i also have a magnetic tank bag designed specifically for a gun, made by datona gear. holds the gun well and stays on the bike well but not very quick to get at your gun if you need to do so. i have also used a shoulder rig in years past. probably the most comfortable option but a bit conspicuous if you take your jacket or vest off in real hot weather.
we've never had a problem with dropping our cg s. if it won't come out when i sit in a chair or in the car, it's not going to do so on my bike.
we don't worry about what will happen in a crash while carrying. heck, we don't worry about crashes. if we did, we wouldn't get out of bed at all! (no need for bad "out of bed with wife" jokes, dale!)

Thanks all,
I always wear a Joe Rocket mesh jacket, boots and a helmet. I've got so used to it that I feel naked if I ride without that gear. I almost always take off the jacket when I stop.

I don't drive agressively. I don't weave in and out of traffic or lane split. However, I have had several people try to run me off the road. I've had pickup trucks stop in front of me and then spin their tires and spray me with gravel. I usually just handle it by backing way off and letting them get ahead. I'm not willing to argue with a cage. My main concern is if someone got real persistent and decided to have some "fun" but was not satisfied with me backing off. Some of these lonely So. MN back roads don't see much traffic on the weekends.

The funny thing is that they have no idea who I am as the helmet, jacket, etc make me pretty anonymous. Just makes you wonder some of these people are thinking. I do have a cell phone but the cops might not be close if push come to shove.

I was thinking of carrying with an IWB holster but I was concerned about the gun falling out. Was wondering if anyone was using a thumb break strap or is it unnecessary. I've recently got a permit and have never carried on the bike.

I most always carry in a Blackhawk CQC holster. I carry a Glock 27.

XD SC in a CQC for me too. Don't care if people can see it. I'd rather make sure it doesn't go skipping down the road behind me.


MM

I like a shoulder holster under full leathers. Generally zipped up during the ride and unzip down to the waist at stops. XD40 in a Falco shoulder rig.



Outside of full leathers it is usually a Makarov in a IWB with a thumb break.



I have been through two highsides and three lowsides in my years of riding (some of which were very, very aggressive). I don't believe the guns would have created any bigger threat of injury than the other gear such as cell phones and pocket clutter.
If you are concerned about taking your jacket off and thus open carrying, you can tie a sweatshirt or Long sleeve T around your waist higher than what of your piece is exposed above your belt, or hang a handkerchief over the grip, or carry your bucket under your arm over your piece. Generally folks are used to seeing riders with gadgets attached and won't be too discerning if they glance it incidentally.

Great!

I had a spill on 494 over by MoA a few months ago. No idea on just how the transition went between sitting on the bike panic braking until the front wheel locked up to try and keep from being stuck in the bumper of the SUV that cut in front of me and laid on their brakes, to travelling on the road, sans bike. The Joe Rocket Phoenix gear saved my butt, literally, as the very next thing I remember after hearing the front tire start to squeal and thinking "This isn't going to end well", is sitting upright with my legs sticking straight out in front of me, sliding sideways. Reflexively put my hands down and started to push against the pavement like I was going to stand up until the "Hot, hot, hot!" sensation as the gloves burnt through made me start thinking again.

The seat of the Phoenix pants was almost burnt through.

The gloves were toast.

The jacket had little burn throughs of the outer mesh near both elbows and fraying on the back.

I came out with two little bits of road rash on my right hand, a little waffle pattern burn near each elbow and was stiff and sore here and there for a few days. I'd've probably needed skin grafts if it weren't for the riding gear. That stuff worked!

So did my holster.

Galco Silhouette thumbsnap that I had OWB on the belt of the jeans, IWB of the Phoenix pants, hung onto my H&K P7M13 (a notoriously hard model to retain in a holster due to the short slide for the holster to hold onto and the concentration of weight in the pistol's butt trying to lever it out) and the DeSantis double mag pouch on the other hip also did its' thing through the whole deal. In the past, I'd occasionally used a Thunderwear rig over the jeans, under the Phoenix pants to carry a P7PSP, a couple of spare mags and a folding knife...until I got to thinking about just where I'd have that stuff poking into me in a crash, especially one that doubled me over with any force. Glad I'd changed my carry mode on the bike before finding out the hard way.

As an aside, the state trooper that showed up a few minutes after in response to someone's call about the spill was very perceptive, cool and professional about me being a permit holder when I started to breach the subject of wanting to take my jacket off and what he'd see when I did.

I did a little cutting on a CQC holster to accommodate my Subcompact XD. At the time Blackhawk did not make a shorter holster to fit the subcompact. With a little patience and some fine sand paper it turned out quite well.

Love to see it Bud. Post a pic & instructions for me please (Maybe in Holsters)

With my pistol inside I took some depth measurements with a scale and then transfered this measurement to the outside onto masking tape and then cut along this line with a coping saw and smoothed the edges with some fine sand paper and then emery paper. I'll try to add a picture. Note: the holster is already cut down in this picture,I was just showing how I set it up.The angle of the flash makes it appear that the cut area is much lighter but it in fact isn't. It came out rather smooth.This is my Sub compact 40 cal. in the holster.

Thanks again all who replied to this thread.

Molasses, My JR Atomic jacket is very similar to your Phoenix jacket, it just has perforated leather on the shoulders. I'm really glad to see that it worked and that you were able to walk away from that spill. I'm seriously going to consider the Phoenix pants. The waffle pattern burns that you mention; that was through the elbow pads?

Macx, that Falco rig with the XD looks real good.

I will consider a holster with some kind of retention as I don't want to have to tell the troopers that I lost my gun somewhere if I take a spill.

I wouldn't ride without retention, personally. I crashed a bike this last summer while carrying. I don't remember most of what happened, just the death wobble (read: going wayyyy too fast) and then waking up in the ditch. I was carrying a colt commander in a milt sparks vm2. I had a fair amount of road rash and I banged my head pretty good. I had no idea where I was. A guy stopped to see if I was ok and let me borrow his cell phone. Some other folks that lived down the road stopped to see if I was OK, too. That's when I realized my pistol wasn't in the holster, I just about had a heartattack. It was in the ditch about 10 yards back with my spare mag.

The pistol and the rig I was carrying it in got some road rash, too. The steel reinforcing lip on the holster was smashed in and I couldn't reholster, so I tucked it SOB because a lot of people were stopping and it was awkward having a pistol in plain sight. The sheriff arrived right about the same time my ride to the hospital did. He didn't ask if I was carrying and I didn't feel obligated to share. I was in a fair amount of pain, he offered to meet me at the hospital and I agreed. I disarmed on the way there.

It was a painful and expensive lesson.




The scuffs on the pistol are harder to see, I'm rather bad with cameras. There's a good scuff on the right rear of the slide, behind the rear sight. Also, some scuffs on the mainspring housing near the bottom, and some on near the muzzle. The front sight is all scratched up, too