My friend is a policeofficer in inner city Liverpool. You can imagine its no country lane beat...

Naming no names, many officers use their BIG Maglite torces as very affective weapons when dealing with violent unsaviouries as they don't need to fill in paperwork for using it as opposed to about 20 forms for drawing their truntion.

These things are BIG and HARD and can be used as a Cosh (and are) in many self defence classes.

Obviously, its just a torch, but one that can break bones and certainly the skulls of drugged up crims. Fits nicely on your luggage, is waterproof and is always handy around camp and kept next to your sleeping bag.

As the base is screwed on, you can replace it with many headache making extras like in this picture.

You can also get a Police 6-Cell version which is the real deal peacemaker !!

I'm crossing Africa next year and hoping that my shaved head Scouser appearance while wearing body armour and wielding a large maglite will be enough to put anyone off.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Not a bad call, although kinda big to carry on the bike. I usually carry a min-Maglite but the effect is probably not quite the same...

Well, its the price you pay for a little piece of mind and at least you can use it for a decent torch too. Plus, it will gain no attention from police/military.

Obviously any weapon is totally useless unless you personality to use it..

Carrying guns, machetes and knifes as protection is useless because if someone calls your bluff, could any of us actually bring ourselves to stab or hack at someone ???? I don't think I could unless my life was being seriously threatened.

The best advice would just to have nothing really worth stealing and keeping valuables well concealed..

No fancy camera or cash is worth your life at the end of the day. If you get mugged, let em have what they want if you're out numbered or outgunned.

Get insurance.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Agreed, I think it is the best suggestion so far, but I'm still not sure I'd bother to carry one.

This is getting about as much attention at that thread a few years ago from an American asking advice about carrying a gun (but without the character attacks for even thinking of asking that question )

Frankly, I would let them have my stuff. I don't wanna lose my life defending things that are replaceable. But if it comes down to defending your life... use any and everything you can, even if it lands you in legal trouble!

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Japan touring information

A smaller maglite that is just longer than the width of your palm, held inside your fist, and brought down onto something that'll hurt them with the end just proud is quite effective I'm told?

Or similarly;

Kubotan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Did a Kubotan course when I was still into my kick-boxing.

A cursory effort as it was a day course just for kicks (excuse the pun). However, I can say that to use it effectively you would need to be well-rehearsed in pressure points and have a very good degree of hand eye coordination to make it any more effective than a punch: you need to be just as close.

Me? At the first sign of trouble I leap for the nearest log and, within seconds, whittle it into a life-size replica of a Desert Eagle handgun.

Works everytime I imagine it...

In the half-light of dusk I just hope they can't see the grain of the wood down the barrel....

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Very Interesting thread.

I did a Krav Maga course which was very interesting and exhausting. Theres a lot you can do with a simple object such as a pen or maglite. Knowing how to disarm someone and get out of strangle holds is very useful, especially when I spend a lot of time walking back from nights out. They take this into consideration too when they teach you; realising you may be drunk when counter attacking so they make you dizzy before a sparing session and then you take on four blokes/lasses.

This being said, if a guy with a pistol held me up at a cash machine and I was with a group of people I would proabably let hime get away with it knowing that I was responsible for any stray bullet.

On your own against street scum and crack heads with knives is childs play, out in the sticks with god knows who pointing an assult rifle at you is a different matter. Your best weapon is your mind; a crack head isnt gonna want to shoot you in the middle of a city, but a bloke in the middle of the desert probably would given half the chance.

If I'm honest, I would say that was a very unwise assumption to make....

I can think of far more shootings in cities than in the country side and a crack-head in need of their next fix is about the most desperate, unpredicatble person you could come across....

__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

You can get an easily fitted handle designed to turn a maglite into a police baton, I suppose so a man on the beat doesn't have to carry both. So issued as a weapon to some forces I believe.

Pepper spray is sold in the truckstop on the N10 just south of Angouleme in France quite openly, about 6euros for a small can, or about 10 for a big one. A seriously big no no in the UK however, and I don't know about any other country?

Friends of mine in the UK police say its not an ideal weapon for several reasons.

Some people are immune, so your assailant may be perfectly fine and coming at you covered in the stuff.

The wind could blow it all back on you and not where you wanted, will you consider your position in relation to the wind before release?!

The nozzle is not well designed to indicate where its pointing. Bearing in mind the state you may be in when needing to use it, many people have ended up spraying themselves at close range, making the robbers job considerably easier while laughing at you immobilised on the floor
Even if you manage to discharge it where you want with the intended effect, the chances of you being entirely unaffected are slim because it goes everywhere, so being able to see to ride off may not be possible!

The general suggestion is to practice first! Waste a can or two at a target seeing if you can use it, and what its effect on you is. Even a small bit may make you in no fit state other than sitting in the shade using a lot of water to ease your burning eyeballs!!

I think a big stick is a good plan myself, other than handing over whatever they want so their mates just round the corner don't need to come and help him.


Congrats on such a huge weight loss too!!!