Motorcycle outfit: a little guide on how to protect your self

Despite what some might think, choosing the right pieces for your motorcycle outfit is really important. What you wear does not only show your personality, but it also protects you from most of the dangers involved in riding a motorcycle. Let’s see together the gear that helps keeping riders safe.

Helmet

Unless you live in a country or a state in which wearing a helmet is not mandatory, the first thing to get in order to ride a motorcycle is a helmet.

It is easy to think that helmets are studied to “only” protect your head from hits but, that is a little reductive. In reality, helmets also also protect from wind, rain, insects, road debris, and noise pollution. Also, modern helmets stream music, GPS, and smartphone integration.

Technology did not only make this element of your motorcycle outfit connected, it also made it safer: most modern helmets provide superior protection compared to helmets from 10+ years ago thanks to the use of advanced materials, such as carbon fiber, and new safety mechanisms (such as MIPS, multidirectional impact protection system) that take full advantage of computer-assisted design.

Jacket

Jackets play a key role in your motorcycle outfit. Lately they became a fashion piece, but their design was created for its function long before it caught on with the fashion world.

The original leather bikers jacket was an adaptation of the bomber jacket worn by early pilots: leather is a great insulator and is very durable.

Nowadays leather is only one of the many options that riders have when looking for the perfect jacket. Textile and mesh jackets have become very popular because of their lightness and their versatility. Fabrics allowed companies to take ventilation/protection ratio to extreme levels, allowing riders to stay relatively cool even during summer rides.

Jackets did not only improve in the choice of materials, but they also improved in design. That is right, today is possible to get purpose-built jackets: each motorcycle segment (racetrack, off-road, cruiser etc.) is characterized by a unique riding posture and each one of them has its own challenges and risks. So manufacturers have created purpose-built jackets to meet the needs of each different type of rider.

That brings us to the most important point of this paragraph: there is no such thing as “the perfect jacket”. It is important to know that there are certainly top-quality jackets for every type of rider, the secret is to find the one that best meets your specific needs and personal taste.

Pants

Motorcycle pants are basically the most underrated piece of a motorcycle outfit. I’ve never understood why, they are simply wonderful and well, saved my legs once so… I might be a bit biased.

Riding pants offer protection in the case of an accident, provide cover from debris and the environment in general. Regular denim jeans are not your friend when it rains, or on hot days. Nowadays there are winter and summer or, if you do not want to have 2, double season pants (not optimal…They are very good in the winter, not so good in the summer).

As per the Jackets, there are pants specifically designed for the motorcycle genre each rider rides. There is never going to be one perfect pair of pants but there are pants that meet your specific needs and personal taste.

Gloves

As all the other items in a motorcycle outfit, gloves serve two main purposes: protect your hands in the event of a crash and protect your hands from the environment. To accomplish these functions, a quality pair of gloves must:

• Be made of durable and robust materials that offer superior puncture and abrasion resistance.
• Be made with strong construction techniques that ensure years of long-lasting usefulness.
• Be well-fitting in order to offer maximum mobility and comfort, allowing fingers to bend and air to circulate where needed.

As per the jackets and the pants, a rider’s riding style is the first thing to consider when choosing a pair of gloves. The requirements placed on safety for racing gloves are much different compared to the ones set for low-speed commuting around town. It stands to reason that the gloves you’d want to wear would be different in each situation. However, if you are like me (I use racing also for my road riding and commuting), there is no harm in “overbuying” if it makes you feel more comfortable and safer. Just make sure to not do the opposite. The motorcycle segment is important but the season in which you use the motorcycle is important too. Nowadays it is possible to get heated gloves (how cool is that?) for the winter and ventilated gloves for the summer so, plenty of options to meet everyone’s needs.

Boots

Including tech boots into the motorcycle outfit is something that always creates animated discussions into the motorcycle community. People tend to believe that motorcycle boots do the same job as any other footwear can do. It is not entirely true; motorcycle boots are designed to protect riders from the most common injuries that a rider suffers in an accident: impact and abrasion.

Motorcycle boots are made of multiple layers of material, padding, and armor studied to reduce the damages that an impact does to a rider’s feet, ankles and legs.

In addition to these safety features, motorcycle boots are equipped with a sole that provides good grip for stopping and launching. Enhanced grip that also plays a key role into keeping a proper and safe position on the motorcycle.
Of course, as per all the other components of a motorcycle outfit, there are a wide choice of boots that are meant for a specific motorcycle segment and for specific weather conditions.

Our tour of the elements that compose a motorcycle outfit is over. This does not want to force the use of the gear mentioned in the article on anybody. It is more of a guide for who wants to know what purpose each piece of apparel has.