What do you normally wear for gear?

[BrianShaw]

Just curious what most of you normally wear for a ride in the Canyon? Are you all in full leathers?

[06xbss]

Minimum I wear for any ride is helmet, armored jacket, race gloves, heavier work pants(carhartt type) and riding boots.

[DriverDave]

^^^Same, but with kevlar riding jeans.

[BrianShaw]

Maybe I need more gear. I have helmet, Padded mesh jacket, danner boots, street gloves and jeans.

[Sully]

^^^ Same for the most part, but not the jeans.. lol.. Altho, I may wear a 2 piece leather suit on a blue moon, a 1 piece leather suit on a leap year.

[BrianShaw]

I was a little disappointed when all the shops I went to in the area did not sell much, if any at all, riding pants. I was thinking about getting a set of less expensive leathers. Maybe somthing like these: http://www.topgearleather.com/produc...dings-2pc.html

[BlueDog]

I was a little disappointed when all the shops I went to in the area did not sell much, if any at all, riding pants. I was thinking about getting a set of less expensive leathers. Maybe somthing like these: http://www.topgearleather.com/produc...dings-2pc.html

Have you already gone to performance cycle on Broadway? All sorts of Kevlar jeans, leathers, etc...

[BrianShaw]

No, I guess I just went to the wrong places. I will have to check it out this weekend.

[Jmetz]

[BlueDog]

Well, guess I need to go buy new leathers now. Thought I was being unique...

[Aaron]

I wear full leathers and race boots every time I go out. I haven't handled a crash yet where the guy told me he expected to go down today.

[BikesRider777]

I wear full leather jacket. Racing gloves because my trade involves heavy use of a keyboard.
Have been wearing sidi Vertigos and drayko kevlar jeans, though I just bought some leather dainese pants...the kinds without sliders. Might wear those or the kevlar jeans depending on who I'm riding with.
I also wear padded shorts after my buddy went down and said his padded shorts were the best part of his wreck. I can imagine rolling on bare hips isn't much fun.

I wear textile pants if I'm just riding to work, but only cause I happen to have an old pair.

[One-ops]

Rocking the two piece helmet race gloves and boots and under armor and Gonna try the back protector in my street stuff.

Never had the padded shorts that would be good to try. Hell might make the seat more tolerable on longer rides.

[Clovis]

I wear full leathers. Accept no substitute. Take this advise from someone who rides 15,000 to 20,000 miles every season and has crashed multiple times.

Leathers can go through multiple crashes and be repaired, plus they offer greater protection. Textiles are a one time use item.

Depending on selections available at local stores, you may have to order online (sportbike track gear, motorcycle super store, revzilla, bike bandit, all are great online shops with free shipping).

Here's my list:

Helmet: Shoei RF1000 (discontinued now, replaced with the RF1100)
Jacket: Alpinestars MX1 or ICON Motohead leather jacket. This is the only ICON piece of gear I endorse. It's a great versitile leather jacket with a warm, removable inner liner and closeable vents. I use this for my all around jacket and jacket when it's cold in the mornings. I've crashed twice in it, worked great.

Pants: Alpinestars leather track pants
Gloves: Alpinestars GP Plus gauntlent gloves
Boots: Alpinestars SMX plus non vented boots (don't get vented, they just let water in).

A couple of notes. Pony up the $400-600 for a Shoei or Arai helmet. They do not protect any better then a cheap ICON, Bell, Shark or whatever but they are lighter and have better aerodynamics. This makes a world of difference after a few hours of riding as the cheaper helmets will lead to rider fatigue and a sore/tired neck.

Get leather pants. I had a low slide in 2011 and another in 2012 where my leg was trapped under the bike as we went sliding down the road. In both cases I was able to pop back up, pick my bike up and continue riding. My leathers with their giant knee protectors built in held up and left me without injury and road rash. I grinded the leathers down to the internal armor and stopped the abrasion there.

However if I was in jeans and possibly even textiles I would have major road rash down to the bone and likely broken my knee, foot and ankle.

Get boots that go up mid calf and offer ankle protection such as the SMX plus boots.

Quality gear is expensive but will save your skin and it's cheaper then a skin graph!

Helmet $400
Jacket $400-600
Pants $400
Boots $300-400
Gloves $150

Clovis

[Drano]

Riding around town I always wear at least a helmet, jacket, boots, and gloves. If I am hitting the canyons I wear riding pants with the rest of my gear or a 1-piece leather suit. My jacket and pants are textile.

Your first priority is to get protective gear. As Clovis said, leather offers the highest level of protection and durability, but it's expensive. Textile offers more than adequate protection, greater comfort, and a lower price tag. You can easily find a textile jacket and pants for the roughly the same cost as one leather item. So, consult your budget and get what you can afford, but most importantly, get a full set of gear.

[BrianShaw]

Thanks, I just picked up a used pair of Sidi Cobra Boots and a new pair of tourmaster quest pants (better than jeans and can use them for overpants for work). The pants are textile and have some knee and hip padding. I will pick up some better gloves next week. Looking at Alpinestar GP gloves.

My jacket is a tourmaster intake jacket, mesh with textile elbos and shoulders. Does have elbo, shoulder and some back protection. Current gloves are firstgear textile street gloves with carbon on the knuckles.

I have a Bell Star Helmet and retireing my Arai XD, 9 years old.

When I have more money and my riding gets faster, full leaters will be on order.

[VryfastRR]

Around town: Helmet, leather jacket, race boots, gauntlet gloves.

Canyons: 1pc leather suit.

I crashed a few years ago wearing a textile jacket and I might as well have been wearing a t-shirt. So much road rash. I won't go around the block without the above minimum.

[3point5]

following the trend, a pair of vertigo boots, a set of leather pants that I usually wear jeans under, jacket, gloves, and the helmet. Pretty excited, going to get a new helmet towards the middle of may...

I also have a old Northface backpack that has an internal structure, more often then not I ride with it (even if I'm not carrying anything) because it restricts my head from whipping back.

Here's my list:

Helmet: Shoei RF1000 (discontinued now, replaced with the RF1100)
Jacket: Alpinestars MX1 or ICON Motohead leather jacket. This is the only ICON piece of gear I endorse. It's a great versitile leather jacket with a warm, removable inner liner and closeable vents. I use this for my all around jacket and jacket when it's cold in the mornings. I've crashed twice in it, worked great.

Clovis - in your opinion, what's the issues with Icon's jackets? I have their Pursuit and and the Daytona - I prefer either of them to the Alpine Start that I have. The Alpine Start isnt bad at all but I think the Icon's are better...

[UHATEIT]

I feel naked without having gear on so I always gear up even if it's hot.

I wear: Scorpion full face helmet, speed and strength leather gauntlet gloves, vertigo boots, and either a joe rocket leather or a joe rocket textile jacket. I probably should invest in some actual leather riding pants.

I will say I did crash last August, while not a drastic high speed fall or massive slide, but the Joe rocket leather jacket held up so well you actually can barely tell ti went down, leather holds up great! Minimal scrapes on the helmet from my head hitting the ground. But my hip bone was bruised up pretty bad and made it hard to sleep/sit/walk for about 2 weeks and that was with a minimal fall! So I would recommend some riding padded pants or leather pants, that probably would have helped me a lot better.

[Rabbie303]

Until I got my leather suit, I wore a MotoGP textile jacket with armor (of course) Scorpion helmet, cortech full gauntlet gloves, xelement racing boots. Sadly I didn't have any riding pants so it was just jeans and I always feel sketched riding to work. For weekend riding in the canyons or whatever, it's leather suit, with the previously mentioned boots, gloves and helmet.

[asp_125]

If I'm just out for an easy day: helmet, race gloves, race boots, textile jacket, carhartts or ballistic nylon riding pants.

May throw on a leather jacket for faster days. Once in a blue moon my full leathers.

[GMR]

Swimsuit, tanktop, sandals and Oakleys

just kidding, I always wear a full-face helmet

Bought textile jacket and pants, have worn the jacket a few times but haven't yet used the pants. Dickies and Carhart do make good solid jeans if you don't require knee pads. duluth trading company also makes firehose pants, indestructible

[JKOL]

Around town gear:
Aria corsair v or bell star carbon helmet
RS Taichi gmx motion perforated jacket with shoulder, back, and elbow/forearm protection
Alpinestar SMX plus vented boots
Knox handroid gloves
And jeans

Canyon gear:
Everything listed above but replace jeans with textile riding pants with hip and knee protection and add Knox cross knee guards

[Clovis]

I like ICON leather jackets. The rest of their gear however is crap in my opinion. It's marketed towards the stunting crowd and designed more around style rather then protection.

My complaint with the alpinestars mx1 jacket is the sleeves are short if you're tall.

following the trend, a pair of vertigo boots, a set of leather pants that I usually wear jeans under, jacket, gloves, and the helmet. Pretty excited, going to get a new helmet towards the middle of may...

I also have a old Northface backpack that has an internal structure, more often then not I ride with it (even if I'm not carrying anything) because it restricts my head from whipping back.



Clovis - in your opinion, what's the issues with Icon's jackets? I have their Pursuit and and the Daytona - I prefer either of them to the Alpine Start that I have. The Alpine Start isnt bad at all but I think the Icon's are better...