Bought your first motorcycle? Congratulations: you have many years of fantastic freedom ahead of you, but only if you look after yourself and wear the right gear on every ride.
What riding gear do I need?
You’ve bought your first motorcycle and you can’t wait to get out on the open road, feeling the wind in your face and with the freedom to go wherever you want to. But, before you do any of that, you need to make sure you are properly protected so that you can continue to enjoy two-wheeled life.
The range of biking apparel is bewildering these days: you can tailor your apparel as finely as you tailor your bike purchase depending on how you want to ride. For the purpose of this article, however, let’s just deal with the generalities to get you on your way.
The first - and most obvious - thing you need is a helmet. Even if you are not required to wear one by law, you have to ask the question: why wouldn’t I? You can survive a bike crash even if you’re not wearing a jacket or pants but it’s almost inevitable that a crash without a helmet will be fatal.
It’s your head, for goodness’ sake! It’s the most important bit of you and the most fragile, so protect it. You can opt for open face or full-face helmets and there are pros and cons to each.
An open face helmet always looks cool, unless you’re on a superbike when an open face helmet just looks silly. But on any cruiser or classic bike, an open-face helmet is the business. Use either goggles or sunglasses to protect your eyes.
The big problem with an open-face helmet is that there is absolutely no protection for your face if you go sliding down the road, face down. You have no idea how abrasive even the smoothest tarmac is until you’ve gone sliding down the road at 30mph. At faster speeds, it’s murderous. And having no chin or jaw is not a good look.
Full-face helmets are by far the safest and not only from a protection angle, either. Wearing a full-face helmet on a long journey reduces rider fatigue massively by insulating you from wind, dust and noise. They can be a bit claustrophobic and stuffy in hot weather but the new breed of clip-face helmets solves that problem by having a flip-up chin bar that you can raise when riding slowly or through a town.
A helmet should fit snugly but not too tight. With the helmet on and the strap done up, you should be able to grab the back of the helmet and, when pulled up and forward, it shouldn’t be possible to pull it it off. The forces generated in an accident are surprisingly high and a loose helmet will almost certainly be flung off, leaving you unprotected.
Which helmet fits best is an entirely personal thing: what fits your mate, might not fit you. One brand can be great for you, while another is uncomfortable. For example, I have never been able to wear Arai helmets, whereas Shoei fits me like a glove. You’ve just got to try as many on as possible to find the one for you.
Manufacturers recommend that you replace a helmet if it is dropped onto a hard surface or if you have an accident where you hit your head. In the case of the latter, there’s nothing much you can do about it other than bite the bullet and replace it. Many insurance companies will now let you insure your riding kit, taking that pain away. In the event of dropping it, obviously the best thing to do is not drop it in the first place. Never leave your helmet sitting on your bike when it is parked: rather put it on the ground next to the bike. If you’re carrying it, do the strap up and carry it it with that.
Gloves are essential. Think about it: what’s the first thing you do when you fall? That’s right, you put out your hands to break the fall. It’s the same when you fall off your motorcycle so wear a pair of gloves. Leather or fabric, they’re both good and the best will have armoured knuckles and plastic pucks on the palms to offer more protection.
In hot countries, it’s tempting to ride wearing the bear minimum of clothing but just don’t! What was said about helmets applies to your body as well: the abrasion of sliding down the road can remove your skin in a flash. What’s more, modern riding gear often has built-in armour for impact protection.
Leather has been the default material for bike jackets for decades and with good reason: it has great abrasion resistance and you can look Marlon Brando cool at the same time. But there are a few drawbacks. Firstly, leather isn’t waterproof. Ride through a rain storm and you can find yourself several pounds heavier as the jacket has absorbed water. Riding wet water seeping through to the skin is not only uncomfortable, it is dangerous as it distracts the rider. In those conditions, you need all your wits on your riding and the behaviour of other road users.
Secondly, leather is hot in summer and cold in winter.
In recent years, the proliferation of man-made fabrics has revolutionised motorcycle apparel. Hard wearing, attractive, endlessly adaptable for any type of riding, it can be breathable and waterproof at the same time. Because it is thinner and more flexible than leather, armour at the shoulders, elbows and back can be easily incorporated without everything getting too bulky. Many jackets and pants have zip-out layers - one thermal, one waterproof - and any number of zips and flaps that can be opened to give ventilation when it gets really hot. New fabrics offer ever better abrasion resistance, rivalling leather.
For your legs, denim is OK but leather is better. If you have to wear denim, buy a pair with kevlar fabric sewn inside the denim: it offers no impact protection but will protect your skin for a lot longer in the event of a slide and they’ll be cooler to wear in hot climates.
What about your feet? Buy a pair of boots that offers ankle protection. If you’re riding on the road, the boot doesn’t have to be stiff to prevent the ankle flexing too much but off-road and adventure boots reach almost to the knee and are designed to stop the ankle flexing or rotating too much in the event of a spill as well as protecting the shin.
There are now quite a few bike boots that offer protection while still looking casual enough for you to wear into the office or a restaurant or bar.
As with everything in life, the more you spend, the better the product. With your motorcycling gear, buy the best you can afford. In the case of helmets, there is legislation in place for the minimum performance of a helmet in the event of impact but still a $1000 dollar helmet will be infinitely better than a $100 helmet. It’s the same with every piece of riding apparel: the more expensive, the better it will perform and, crucially, the more comfortable it will be and the better it will fit and look.
The secret with all this is surviving the unexpected to ride again another day. Once you start riding, you won’t be able to stop so do everything you can to make sure you don’t have to.