Gear 101
Feel free to use my tips to share with your fellow riders. Or if you’re a member of a riding group or club, it’s a great piece of information to share at your next meeting/event!
Also check out my detailed overviews when it comes to shopping for each piece of gear:
Boots: http://gearchic.com/reviews/boots/
Gloves: http://gearchic.com/reviews/gloves/
Jackets: http://gearchic.com/reviews/jackets/
Pants: http://gearchic.com/reviews/pants/
If you’re new to riding or new to wearing gear, it doesn’t matter whether you riding a motorcycle or scooter. The risks are the same and you are equally at risk of injury on either type of bike.
If you’re saving up for either kind, you should consider saving up a portion of your bike purchase for gear too. At the very minimum, you should look to spend the following, and these are for mid range gear options:
- $250 on a helmet (full face)
- $200-$400 on a jacket (textile and/or leather)
- $100 gloves (full fingered, leather)
- $200 boots (protective)
- $200 pants (abrasion resistant)
These numbers are in my opinion, the minimum you should expect to spend on basic gear. Yes, THAT much! Riding is a risky sport. Let’s be honest here, you are on a 2 wheeled vehicle, out in the middle of traffic, between cars and trucks that have steel bodies, airbags and every other safety feature imaginable to keep them from being injured. What do YOU have? Nothing! Except gear. Aside from rider education, learning the basic emergency techniques/skills that you need to minimize the risks, gear is all you have to protect Yourself. So consider increasing your budget to increase your chances of Not getting seriously injured while riding.
But, I also know that as a rider who also commutes across town at most, say 3-5 miles, it’s much more difficult to dress fully head to toe. I’m probably one of the few percent who actually do. I feel naked without my jacket, overpants/riding pants, boots and gloves on. So if you can’t bring yourself to wear overpants for such a short trip, all other parts are a must. There are a ton of options out there, and if you spend some time shopping I know you’ll find something that works and fits your budget. (If you can’t, please contact me, I’m here to help)
Depending on the kind of riding you’re doing, you’ll find a variety of options out there (more for men than women, unfortunately). Everything from textile, ventilated pants for summer to fully waterproof, insulated pants for winter, to full leathers (1 piece, 2 piece, perforated, non perforated) to textile/leather hybrids for different temperatures. There is something for everyone.
Many gear options are also being made for the commuter in mind too. Not everything is for sportbike riders anymore. Now you can find everything from scooter friendly gear (articulated ideally for upright riding and a short reach) to commuter friendly options too, to dual sport/adventure riding gear. Companies such as GoGoGear, REV’IT, Dainese and AlpineStars are making really simple, casual friendly looking gear (for men too!) that doesn’t make you look like you just got off your scooter/motorcycle.
Before you start shopping, don’t forget to follow my 5 shopping rules:
Shopping Rules
1. Always judge proper fit on a motorcycle
2. If it’s too comfortable, it’s probably too big
3. Try on everything until you find the right shape/fit
4. Fit, then budget
5. Leather should start out snug so it can stretch and break in
Real Curves
This is for the women who ride that have curves, in all the hardest places to fit. I hope that my website will help you figure out what fits and what doesn’t and what should fit where. It’s also for those of us who LOVE to ride the twisties and ride them every chance we get.
Do you like to push yourself into increasing your entry speeds? Do you like to push the envelope with your exit speeds? I love it and I’d never do it without being fully dressed, head to toe.
Real Women
We are the real women who ride! We are NOT what you see in movies when you see women on motorcycles. You’ll never see us riding a motorcycle without a helmet without any gear! You’ll never see a short korean woman riding a sportbike (not 2 up) in a movie.
You’ll never see an average sized woman (12+) fully dressed, in full gear, riding a Harley. (Yes, these women do exist). There are new women learning to ride every day and More and more of us are learning how to ride.
I’ve been hearing over and over again that women are the fastest growing segment in the motorcycle rider/owner community. Some say 15%. Some say 25%.
What’s the real number? I don’t know. But I do know that our ranks are growing and you’re going to see women you never imagined on a motorcycle out there, in some cases, riding across the country. In other cases, riding across other countries.
Real Gear
Many of us ride motorcycles everyday, we’re breaking stereotypes. We’re not all bikers and we’re not all racers. We’re everything in between and more. We value ourselves so much that we’re willing to invest some real money into our gear and wear it everytime we ride.
We want and need gear that protects and performs just as well as the men’s, if not better! (We are the driving force of 99% of the households in America, aren’t we?) When you start shopping, you’re going to see so many options, many marketed specifically for women.
There’s been a horrific trend of “marketing” products to us without anything in mind except how it looks. It’s hard not to be drawn to something because of the way it appears. But, when we start shopping for gear, we must draw a line in the sand and realize that not everything is mean for riding and that Safety and Protection MUST be our first priority.
Real Gear has a few key qualities that makes it something for riding (and crashing) in. Let’s be honest, we’re buying gear in order to protect our bodies, in the case of an accident (which we can NEVER predict – e.g. Getting rear ended while stopped at a red light back in ’09, or being cut off by a driver who turns left in front of us!). So let’s try and prioritize ourselves for a change instead of putting our needs in the backseat above our friends/family.
So how do we define Real Gear?
1. Protection
Body armor is first and foremost. Typically you’ll find elbow and shoulder armor in a jacket, modest hip foam and knee armor in pants, and some reinforcement on your boots (ankles, toes, heel cup, outside of the toes). If it has no pockets for removable armor, it might not be meant for riding in.
However, there are a few exceptions to the rule such as Vanson. Some of their jackets don’t come with armor and it’s up to you to pick out the right armor. I’ve only seen this happen in a couple of high end jacket such as Vanson and Dainese and sometimes it’s model specific. If it’s a textile jacket, what kind of abrasion resistant material is being used to help with heat resistance? (Hint: Polyester burns quickly. Try Cordura® or Ballistic Nylon). If it’s leather, why is that leather jacket better than another one? Is there something unique about the way they’ve treated the leather to make it perform better under the stresses of heat and abrasion or impact?
Here in the US, you can make anything and call it motorcycle gear and then sell it. Who’s to say what’s really protective and what isn’t? Unfortunately, that responsibility falls to the rider.
2. Articulation
The easiest way to tell if something is designed and manufactured for riding is if it’s more comfortable while riding. It sounds backwards, but ideally something will fit you better on the bike than off. That’s fully zipped, buttoned and cinched. It should be awful standing up in front of the mirror and far more comfortable on the bike.
You’ll find that the arms are a little longer so you can reach forward, it’ll feel tight between your shoulders across your bust, there should be enough room across the back of your shoulders so it doesn’t feel like you’re pulling against the seams. The arms will have a precurved look to them, while on the hanger, pants might be higher in the back than in the front, and boots will kind of look like a ski boot, slightly bent forward with some accordion fold above the arch to accommodate your ankles bending forward.
Some gear is going to be more comfortable in one riding position than others, so don’t be surprised if you find that it works on one style of bike (e.g. Dual Sport) and not another (Sport), since they can require slightly different types of articulation.
3. Function
What kinds of things has the manufacturer added to make the jacket functional and make your ride more comfortable? Do they have you, the Rider in mind? Hopefully someone spend a few some time on the bike, actually riding in the gear to test out how it performs in real riding conditions.
One of my jackets has a zipper that zip opens from the bottom to the top so that the pocket doesn’t open up easily while riding.
My boots have fully adjustable velcro panels at the calves, so I can make them more snug when I wear textile pants and then looser when I wear my leather pants (which taper at the ankle so I can wear them inside the boot).
Maybe your textile jacket has vents in key spots up the arms or across the chest to provide useful airflow. On a lot of women’s jackets, you’ll find adjustments on the sides of the waist and sometimes in the back.
No matter what you ride, gear is key. No matter what you ride, I hope you wear something that fits you, works for you and most importantly, protects you.
I hope some of this will help you find The One, whether its the perfect set of gloves, boots, a jacket or pants.