Riding Gear
It is no secret that bikers are style conscious. Just look at the dollars spent on motorcycle customizing. Each type of biker values different looks, with the cruiser crowd favoring flashy paint and chrome, while sport bikers opt for high performance exhausts and mini turn signals. Adventure tourers look past pure fashion in favor of function by fitting aluminum panniers and GPS. Whatever the riding genre, bikers share the common bond of identifying with their motorcycle and the style in which they ride.
While it is easy to focus on the bike as fashion statement, riding gear is equally important in completing the appearance. Fashion guides a lot of our riding gear buying decisions. In the early days of biking, everyone pretty much wore the same type of riding gear. Leather bomber jackets became the gear of choice after WWII for their durability and availability to the many veterans who became bikers after returning home. As the decades passed and bikes became more specialized, riding gear evolved to better match differing riding styles.
Cruiser riders continue to choose traditionally styled riding gear to match their traditionally styled bikes. This consists of a black leather jacket and chaps, perhaps with shiny buckles and a dash of fringe, engineer boots and black gauntlet or open fingered gloves. Head protection most often consists of an open-faced helmet, either three-quarter or half-coverage, or the novelty beanie helmet.
Touring and sport-touring riders tend to favor practical gear that includes a sturdy, protective jacket and pants with abundant pockets, reflective material and vents for comfort. Their riding boots are chosen for comfort over long miles and for walking. They often choose full-fingered gloves with decent protection and full-coverage or flip-up helmets to protect their head.
Sport riders look to their racing heroes for styling cues where snug-fitting, brightly colored jackets or full road-race leather suits are the norm along with heavily armored boots and gloves. They choose brightly colored full-faced helmets, often with racing influenced flashy graphics. The advantage these riders have it that their chosen line of riding gear offers maximum protection.
Stunters who demonstrate acrobatic skill seem to revel in their risk taking lifestyle and thus, might don little more than a tank top, baggy jeans, and sneakers. Helmets seem to be optional, but more and more are wising up to the benefit of this fundamental form of protection.
Riders who treat biking as pure transportation or casual recreation often opt for whatever outerwear they have around. They can be seen wearing non-biker-specific clothing, including fashion leather, lightweight jacket, work boots or sneakers and work gloves. What helmet they choose depends on their level of commitment to safety.
Of course, the above descriptions are type casts and not all riders fall neatly into these categories. There are cruiser riders who wear light-colored jackets and full-faced helmets, sport riders who wear black leather and open-faced helmets, stunters who don full protective gear and commuters who spend money on biker-specific apparel. But, the reality is that matching riding gear with a specific motorcycle and riding style is a huge motivator for what riding gear is worn. Fortunately, there is good quality protective gear available in all styles to match the type of riding you do.
Anita
6 comments:
Good article. Tried a moderen jacket recently and i will never go back to old fashion leather again. You explained things I have experienced, and I've read your other blogs. I'm going to go look at some hi tech protective riding pants to match this jacket..
thanks
Ron Cheetrix
I see first hand though what happens when a rider goes down on a bike and is NOT properly geared up. Working in an emergency room will teach/show you alot and in my case has changed the way I dress when riding my bike. Novelty helmets are a thing of the past for me. May look cool, feel cool, but when you're dead, paralyzed or a vegetable from a brain injury who cares. Sandals/sneakers may be cooler than boots, but when you're on my table and your ankle and foot are laying next to your leg only attached by a thin sliver of skin or one tendon or muscle and your career is over or you will no longer be able to shift a bike, then what. I wear over the ankle boots, tied, even if I were to run up the street to the local store. Fingerless gloves, cool too? Don't think so when you fingers that were uncovered are now DE-GLOVED due to going down and sliding across the road and we are having to decide whether to try to sew the skin back over the meat and bones or to just go ahead and amputate what used to be fingers. How hard is it to ride then without fingers? I see too many times, riders on the road or in my ER with chaps and leather jackets on wearing tennis shoes, no gloves and a beany helmet with these injuries and I ask myself is something missing? MOST injuries to bikers are head and extremities. May sound harsh, sick or gross, but it is the aftermath and reality that I see way to often. Freedom on a bike is one thing, but our bodies, minds and our families are more important.
Thank You, Laura
Great information! Useful and easy to read, I'll be checking back for more tips periodically...
The post on the riding gear is good, especially as I sit here in Rhode Island where there is no helmet law. Tons of bikes (Harleys outnumber the "others" about 10 to 1) zipping along with nothing covering the head.
Most interesting are the riders that have their helmets strapped to their handlebars for when they cross over the state line into Massachusetts. Whatever...
Ron Cheetrix,
Have you thought about Kevlar jeans? A company called Draggin Jeans makes Kevlar lined jeans that are Kevlar lined on the knees, thighs, hips, and buttocks. I have a pair, and although I am partial to full leather armored pants, I must admit that I feel safe wearing my Kevlar jeans.
Anita
Laura,
Thank you for your comments. I can imagine that being in a hospital emergency room, you see your share of blood and gore as a result of people not suiting up for safety.
With our warm Seattle weather I see people riding with flip flops, shorts, tank tops, no gloves, and beanie helmets. I wonder how many of them zoom past me and end up on your ER table?
Anita
Ivana,
A few years ago I did my first ride from Washington to Idaho. WA is a helmet state and ID is a no helmet state. When the group crossed over into ID, we pulled over and only two of us kept our helmets on. Some of the others laughed at the two of us, but this pea brain is mine and I want to keep it safe.
I did a cross country ride a few years ago, and I did change from full leather gloves to fingerless gloves somewhare in Kansas. A rock hit my left pinky finger and I almost lost control of the bike with the pain and blood spurting everywhere.
Even when I ride around Sturgis with friends, I have on my helmet.
Anita
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