I had a friend go down riding two up with another friend. Suppose to be a light ride so the driver only put on gloves and helmet, passenger only a helmet. They got pushed off the road by another driver, we down on a gravel shoulder at 50-60. Driver missed one day of work because of road rash on his knee and shoulder, and a nice friend to help him clean out his wound on his back. The passenger went to the hospital and missed a weeks worth of work. When they went down the first thing that hit the ground was his hands, He then tried to stop himself with his hands, He did say that he picked his hands back up after a second but the damage had already been done. Both hands had rubbed down to the muscle at the heel of his hand. Most any job you have you are going to miss work for a good chunk of time if you can't use your hands. I almost always wear all my gear, I almost always wear a jacket, helmet, and gloves. Every now and then I will take a short ride around the neighborhood with out the jacket but I always wear a helmet and gloves.