Everyone knows money doesn’t grow on trees, and as such, life holds that some needs inevitably get fulfilled while others are put on the back-burner. Perhaps too often then, for motorcyclists, safety equipment takes a backseat to more glamorous purchases like an exhaust pipe, suspension upgrades, or accessories. After all, safety isn’t loud or proud, sparkly or shiny—and spending money on it usually doesn’t feed our egos. However, Investing More Cash On Motorcycle Protective Gear Improves Confidence and most definitely Safety, and AMERiders agrees.
Safety is bisected into two categories: “active safety,” the technologies (and skill sets) that help us avoid getting our bike and ourselves hurt; and “passive safety,” the equipment that protects us once the day’s gone all sideways. Active safety begins with rider training, risk assessment, and control skills, and it extends to bike features like traction control, ABS, LED or HID lighting, and more. Even bright clothing contributes to active safety.
LEARN TO RIDE SAFER WITH MORE RIDE SMART TIPS
Except for Honda’s optional Gold Wing airbag and old-school accessory “crash bars,” motorcycles, unfortunately, offer precious few passive safety features. This department is instead covered by the apparel industry, whose advances have ironically outpaced those of bike builders. Witness the latest helmet technologies that better attenuate energy from common glancing impacts; neck, wrist, and knee braces for dirt riders; and microprocessor-controlled airbag vests, jackets, and race suits.
Probably no one budgets exclusively for safety upgrades, but if you did, what would you buy? Here are four ways spending a couple hundred to a few thousand dollars can improve both confidence and safety.
TRAINING Google “motorcycle rider training” and the discipline you’re interested in (dirt, street, track, adventure, etc.), and zero in from there. From $200 to $2,600 should buy you from a day to nearly a week of advanced skill building.
MAXIMIZE GRIP. Whether on dirt, street, or track, when you need grip you need it instantly—not whenever that hard old rubber feels like working. Hence, invest from $120 to $400 per pair of new dirt tires and $150 to $600 for street rubber. This also includes your boots. Ensure that your boots have the right tread because if your boots don’t have tread no matter how much you pay for your tires, that bike can go over because you slipped. So this is one-way Motorcycle Protective Gear Improves Confidence and most definitely Safety.
UPDATE YOUR LID. Ensure that your helmet fits properly. we explained in our series of Helmet information in the past two weeks. A good helmet can protect your head and prevent brain injury as well.
GET AIR. Various firms now offer airbag-equipped vests, jackets, and road racing suits. Equipped with an accelerometer, microprocessor, and inflator, the gear senses when you’re getting pitched and inflates to protect the upper body. Prices range from about $600 to $4,400.
~And as always….
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
and
Let AMERiders agrees that Protective Gear Improves Confidence And Safety.
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