Hey friends, riding season is upon us again so we’re refreshing some older (but still helpful and informative) articles to help you all get ready to ride. Bits and parts of this article have been published throughout the time we’ve been online. This is the advice we dished out on some riding gear for riders no matter if they are veterans, intermediate or beginners. Here we will also lay out some advice on gear and explain why you should never wear regular jeans on a bike. We have split this article into two parts making it easier to read.
Just getting started riding motorcycles? Here’s everything you need to know about riding gear—helmets, jackets, gloves, boots and such—in one digestible package.
One of the most frequent inquiries we get here at AMERiders isn’t about which motorcycle to buy or how to learn to ride, but what gear to buy and wear once you’ve accomplished all that. Here’s the info you need to make smart decisions, to be more comfortable, safer and, hopefully, save some money in the process.
Why You Need Good Gear
Last time we checked, the fastest human in the world is Usain Bolt. During the 100-meter sprint, he peaked at 27.78 mph. If he were to fall going that speed, he’d likely sustain serious injuries; the human body simply didn’t evolve to go any faster. Which is why even falling off a horse (Guinness World Record top speed: 43.97 mph) can lead to death.
Riders that are Beginners Pay attention! On a motorcycle, you’re going to be traveling much faster. Even around town, you’ll be hitting 50 mph or more and, on the highway, you may find yourself exceeding 85 mph. Your skin, bones, and organs were not designed to withstand impacts at those speeds.
Then there’s the question of abrasion. As a general rule of thumb, figuring the average road surface, you can expect to lose one millimeter of flesh for every mile per hour you’re going over 30 when you crash. So, at the top speed of that horse, you’ll have lost 1.4cm (or more than half an inch) of skin and muscle. Where on your body can you afford to lose that much? And that’s at only 44 mph. What if you crash at 70 mph and lose an inch and a half? We’re talking serious, life-threatening injuries from abrasion alone.
Then there’s the weather. What if it’s kinda cold out? Even at, say, a 50F ambient temperature, windchill at 55 mph is going to make it feel like it’s 25F. In other words: from the kind of temperature in which you might need a light sweater, to the kind of cold where you want long undies and a down jacket. Getting wet would compound that much further.
Gear can even help when it’s hot, by better allowing your body’s natural evaporative cooling effect to take place. Under constant wind blast, the sweat is blown off your skin too quickly for it to have a cooling effect. Put on a (summer) jacket, helmet, boots, gloves and pants, however, and your body is free to cool itself as designed.
Luckily, mankind has achieved through science what evolution has failed to provide: clothing that protects you from accidents and the elements, and makes riding an easier, more comfortable experience.
Helmets
According to a study published by Dietmar Otte, 45 percent of all impacts to motorcycle helmets occur around the face, in an area not covered by open-face or three-quarter-type helmets. You really, really, really want to be wearing a full-face helmet. As an added bonus, they’ll keep the wind out of your eyes and bugs out of your teeth, too.
Helmets typically have a five-year life. After that, the glue and whatnot used to bond layers of the EPS impact absorption material (precisely tailored densities of Styrofoam) may begin to degrade, impacting safety.
Like the crumple zone in a car, helmets are also designed to destroy themselves in a crash, thereby dissipating the energy that would otherwise be transferred to your head. Sometimes a helmet can experience a crash without external signs of damage but still sustain unseen effects. To ensure that your helmet is fully capable of protecting you, always buy a new helmet and treat it like a baby. Beginners here is a break down of helmets.
Types of helmets
Street helmets look like this. Along with full-face lids—which are the safest by far—thereise also all manner of smaller, open-faced helmets. While the latter provides ample protection for the top of your head, they’re not the best at protecting your face.
Dirt helmets look like this. You wear them with goggles. Yes, they do protect your face, but that pronounced chin may exaggerate torsional forces in a crash. They’ll also be noisy and unstable at highway speeds. Choose the right helmet for the kind of riding you plan to do.
To be legally worn on the road in America, a motorcycle helmet must be marked with a DOT-approved sticker. You’ll see those affixed prominently on the back.
That’s just a minimal legal standard, though. Two other certifications compete for your dollar by promising greater safety, both voluntary in the United States. “ECE 22.05” is the European Union’s legal standard, while there’s also something called Snell, which is popular with a number of large helmet manufacturers.
The shape and size of every person’s head is unique. You need to find a helmet that fits you perfectly; sizes and shapes vary heavily between manufacturers and models. To determine your shape and size, visit a large brick-and-mortar retailer and try on every helmet you can. You’ll know one fits when it evenly holds your head all the way around, with no pressure points. Put it on, grasp the chin and try to rotate the helmet while resisting the movement with your head. The helmet shouldn’t be able to rotate independently of your scalp. It should fit snugly, but not be too tight. (Note that a new helmet can often feel very tight, though)
Other considerations to bear in mind are weight, noise, and aerodynamics.
Jackets
A jacket covers the other stuff on your body that’s fragile and important: arms, back, ribs, organs – all that fun stuff. You absolutely must choose a motorcycle-specific jacket for purposes of both safety and comfort. Fashion leather jackets and similar are not made to withstand either the wind-blast or crashes that real motorcycle jackets are built to deal with. Beginners here is some information on Jackets and types.
Motorcycle jackets fall into two categories: leather and textile. High-quality textile materials like 1000 denier Cordura are able to resist abrasion as strongly as leather, while typically coming equipped with Gore-Tex or other water-resistant membranes capable of keeping you dry in bad weather. Leather helps you look the way you’d expect a classic “biker” to look, though, and jackets made from it typically last (a lot) longer and fit more closely to the body. Textile jackets are often more affordable.
Both motorcycle-specific leather and textile jackets come with all sorts of features you won’t find elsewhere: seams are doubled up multiple times to protect the stitching from abrasion and increase strength against bursting; they’re designed to fit snugly in high-speed wind blast; they can seal out cold air or let in cooling air via vents. They should also have body armor — impact absorbing material that cushions your most vulnerable parts in a crash.
In order to be effective, that armor should come with a CE safety rating. You want it on the elbows, shoulders, and back. Some jackets also fit chest protectors to protect your ribs, heart, and lungs – again, look for that CE rating. Many jackets cut costs by simply including a piece of foam in place of a real back protector. Often, there’s a pocket shaped to fit a real back protector sold by the same company.
You want the jacket to fit snugly but leave your arms free to articulate fully. Consider the style of bike you ride and choose a jacket cut to work in its riding position. For example, sportbikes require you to hunch over, requiring some extra articulation for a jacket to be comfortable with them.
Then, think about what kind of weather you’ll most frequently be riding in. Jackets made from mesh, perforated leather, or with lots of zip-open vents are good for warm weather but not the cold or wet, and vice versa.
Some jackets feature zippers around the bottom, enabling them to connect to a pair of riding pants – forming a suit. Doing so better seals out the elements and helps the whole thing stay on in a crash, but those zippers often require matching tops and bottoms from the same company – sized correctly – to work.
Pants
Beginners we can’t say this enough Regular denim jeans will not protect you in a motorcycle accident.!!
Jeans that are either made from or include Kevlar panels offer slightly more abrasion resistance, but are still a compromise, offering nothing like the protection of a true pair of riding pants.
Like jackets, pants are available in leather or textile materials and should be equipped with CE-rated armor in the hips, shins, and knees. They should fit snugly, but be comfortable and allow full leg articulation. Try them on a bike, or stand in a riding position close to that of your own to determine if they’ll work.
If you want to zip pants to your jacket, make sure the manufacturer advertises the compatibility of the pair. Identical names are a good hint here, but look a the circumference of the zipper (Does it wrap fully around your waist or only partially?) for a good idea of whether it will work. Again, you’ll typically need pants and jacket from the same manufacturer.
If you don’t want to wear riding pants at least use chaps!
Boots
Most street bikes weigh more than 350 pounds. Frequently, they’re much heavier. You’ll need to support that weight and your own through your legs, ankles, and feet on slippery, uneven, unpredictable surfaces. For that reason alone, a sturdy pair of boots with oil-resistant, non-slip soles and good ankle support should be considered a minimum.
Your feet and ankles are also vulnerable in a crash, so you’ll want to protect them. To see what will happen to your feet in a crash in a given pair of footwear, grasp them by the toe and heel, then twist. If the result doesn’t look like your foot would survive intact, then it probably won’t.
Beginners in a riding boot, you want soles that prevent that twisting. Frequently, that’s accomplished with a metal plate running through the sole. Strong heel and toe boxes also help lock your feet in and reduce the force of impacts to those areas. Armor over the ankle and shin protects those areas.
Any boot considered for riding a motorcycle should lace tightly to a point above the ankle. Anything less and it will likely fly off in an accident, offering zero protection.
Conclusion
Riding a motorcycle exposes you to extreme risk, variations in weather, and requires your full concentration and physical ability. Luckily, motorcycle gear is available that can keep you safe in a crash, comfortable in any weather condition, reduce fatigue. As such, it should be considered a necessity when riding a motorcycle. Factor its cost into the overall price of purchasing a bike. There’s no such thing as not being able to afford good gear; reduce the price of the bike you’re buying until you can afford to buy the helmet, jacket, gloves, pants, and boots necessary to ride it. Our hopes is that this article and its concluding one this Friday will help our beginners with their riding gear.
Friday we will give you the conclusion to this article.
~And as always…
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
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