And so it is with motorcycles.
We have come a long way in terms of protective wear.
Jackets and pants have CE armor built in as a matter of course. When I was a young man it was a bit of foam padded into the shoulders, elbows and knees, and stitched into a few rolls to provide very limited impact protection.
Jeans are available in all manner of designs incorporating Kevlar reinforced fabric and leather segments and ventilated gussets and God knows what.........
Last time I fell off wearing jeans they were a pair of camel colored Levis cords, and I was on my mate’s RD 350, and it tore the arse out of them in about a nanosecond and rendered my left buttock to the texture of mincemeat.
So after a bit of a hiatus being married and having kids and being browbeaten into not having any toys of my own, and getting divorced, and then being in another expensive and unsatisfactory relationship, and then coming to the realization that I’ve been a mug and I’m a hundred $K down the crapper, I got smart and started to please myself for a change.
So instead of riding other blokes’ toys, I got myself a bike and kitted up.
- An interim textile jacket from Starider along with some Kevlar lined jeans. They are made to a price and if you’re looking to save some bucks they are a good product.
- Some leather jeans from a site on eBay. They came from Pakistan. They, too are OK for the price. Next pair I buy will be a heavier leather, as I’m not sure how long these jeans will hang together if they meet the bitumen suddenly. Having said that, that cut was good and they fitted very well.
- A pair of DriRider Nordic boots from Pitmans Yamaha. They were well priced, and have kept the wet out, but the leather on the top of the foot has started to fall apart at one of the crease lines. I won’t go down the DriRider path again.
- Various gloves from Peter Stevens discount store here in Adelaide (thanks, Daniel). Most gloves look fancy but the workmanship and assembly is rubbish, so I treat them as disposable items and refuse to pay full price for even the so called quality names. So when they start to fall apart I don’t feel too bad about throwing them away and starting anew.
- A GT Roadmaster jacket from Jackson Racing in Rosebud Victoria. Martin Harvey is the man to talk to there, and he was unfailingly helpful, and quite prepared to put me straight at one time when I totally screwed up some measurements. This jacket is without doubt the best I have ever owned. Forget your Walden Miller and Mars products. This bloke’s gear is superior to them all – it’s a heavyweight item – which means lots of thick hide. Great wind exclusion, and excellent overall construction and fit. And quite stylish, too, for the more ‘mature’ gent like me. A mate who buys a new jacket every 18 months or so because he lives in them and ends up destroying them rates the Jackson Racing item as “outstanding”. I'm going to buy a perforated summer jacket from them in the next month or two. Oh, and Martin is a Guzzi rider and enthusiast, too, which means he’s no motorcycling dilettante – you have to have staying power to be a long term Guzzi owner.
Of course, the above opinions are my own, and others with differing experiences of the abovementioned products are free to post their own comments offering endorsement or rebuttal. I have no commercial relationship with any of the above companies or manufacturers apart from the retail purchases described.