Motorcycle Riding Essentials: Here’s What You Need to Have
Are you an experienced motorcycle rider in need of new gear? Or are you just getting started with this fun sport and in need of essential motorcycle riding gear? Either way, we’ve got you covered. As a responsible motorcycle rider, you certainly need protective, as well as stylish and comfortable gear –boots, luggage, gloves, helmet, jacket, pants; you name it.
Riding a motorcycle will expose you to extreme and dangerous risks, so here are some of the most important riding essentials that you need to have:
- Boots
- Luggage
- Gloves
- Helmet
- Jacket
- Pants
In this post, we will be talking about everything you need to know about gears when riding a motorcycle. We will also be providing you with a detailed discussion on why they are important.
Why Do You Need Good and Protective Gear?
When choosing great motorcycle gear, two of the most important factors to watch out for are comfort and safety. Not only do you need to be protected from dangerous crashes, harsh weather, as well as injuries, and abrasions, but you also need to be comfortable while wearing them. Therefore, your chosen gear should not prevent you from moving freely.
Imagine yourself riding a motorcycle at the speed of 27.78 mph on a 100-meter race. If you were to fall at that speed, you would be likely to sustain some serious abrasion and injury, or worse, death. It is considered beyond our strengths to survive a risky crash without even a scratch. This is where motorcycle protective gears come into play.
Inevitably, you are going to go a lot faster when you are riding a motorcycle. Even if you ride around town, you will find yourself hitting the 50-mph mark. On a highway, on the other hand, you might even find yourself riding at more than 85 mph. As you may already know, your bones, organs, and skin are not designed to survive impacts at those given speeds.
In the event of a crash, expect to lose at least 1 millimeter of flesh for every mile per hour that you go exceeding 30 mph. So, if you crash at the speed of 70 mph, how much skin should you expect to lose? This is where we need to reiterate the importance of wearing the essential motorcycle riding gear whenever you ride your bike – to prevent life-threatening and serious abrasions.
Weather is another factor that needs to be considered. You might be wondering: What if it’s cold outside? Even when it feels like 50F outside, the wind blast might make it feel like it’s 25F out. Therefore, you need to have the appropriate apparel for any kind of weather, whether you only need a light jacket or a leather jacket.
When it’s hot outside, wearing a protective jacket can also be of great help, especially because it allows your body to use its natural evaporative cooling effect. When you are riding at great speeds, you can expect the wind to just blow the sweat off your skin. With this, even when you put on a jacket, boots, helmet, pants, and gloves, your body can still cool itself.
What are the Motorcycle Riding Essentials?
Thankfully, humanity has achieved to come up with protective clothing that prevents accidents while providing an easier and more comfortable ride. In this section, we will be discussing one by one the motorcycle riding essentials – from boots, luggage, and gloves to helmets, jackets, and pants. Who knows, you might even save a life when you have the knowledge about these protective gears.
1. Boots
When riding a bike, you need support for your ankles, feet, and legs, especially on uneven, unpredictable, and slippery surfaces. For that matter alone, a strong and sturdy pair of motorcycle boots that come with non-slip soles and great ankle support should only be considered the minimum requirements.
You would certainly want to protect your ankles and feet, as they are the most vulnerable in the event of a crash. To check what happens to your feet during a crash in any given pair of footwear, try grasping your toe and heel and then twisting them. If you don’t think that your feet will survive intact, it should also be assumed that they totally would not survive a crash.
When looking for a great pair of riding boots, you would want to get one that has soles that prevent twisting. Generally, this is achieved by the utilization of a metal plate that runs through the sole. In addition, strong toe boxes and heels lock your feet in place, thereby reducing the impact on those areas. Lastly, it should be laced up tightly to a point just above your ankles.
2. Luggage
A great set of motorcycle luggage has the potential to become extremely useful. You can totally use it when you go on a tour or when you need to move things from point A to point B or even shopping. While saddlebags are normally the way to go, you should not limit yourself. Luckily, you may increase its capacity by using a tail bag or a tank bag.
3. Gloves
You need your hands to do things, and unfortunately, they’re also the first ones to touch the ground in a crash. In order to protect your hands, a great pair of motorcycle gloves are considered essential. When choosing motorcycle gloves, go for those that can fully cover your palm, fingers, your wrists, and the back of your hands.
Retention straps found on the wrists should be there for the gloves to stay in their place. While this is a minimum feature, you should also consider looking for gloves that are sturdy, strong, and made of abrasion-resistant materials, as well as protected stitching. Lastly, you would also want armor, specifically for the knuckles.
4. Helmet
According to studies, at least 45% of the impacts to helmets happen around the face, specifically in the area not covered by a three-quarter-type or open-face helmet. Using this information, you would certainly want a full-face helmet, as they keep the wind from getting into your eyes, as well as bugs from getting into your mouth.
Helmets generally have a 5-year lifespan. After that period, the glue and everything else that keeps the bond intact will begin to deteriorate, therefore, decreasing safety. These helmets are designed to destroy themselves in the event of a crash, wherein they dissipate the energy that would otherwise be shifted to your head.
You need to be aware that even though the helmet could experience a crash without any scratches or any sign of damage, it can still sustain unseen effects. To be sure that the helmet is capable of protecting your head, you need to buy a new one from a well-known manufacturer and protect it in any way you can.
5. Jacket
A motorcycle jacket covers important and fragile parts of your body, including your back, arms, and ribs. When choosing a motorcycle jacket, you must take into consideration both comfort and safety. It should be noted; however, that fashion jackets do not necessarily protect you from crashes or wind blasts.
Motorcycle jackets can either be leather or textile. High-quality textile jackets can resist abrasion, just like a leather jacket. Some, on the other hand, can help you stay dry even in rainy weather. While leather jackets would give you the classic biker look, they do last a little longer and can fit better to your body.
Both textile and leather motorcycle jackets offer features that you won’t be able to find in normal types. You will notice that the seams are doubled up to protect the stitching against abrasion. In addition, they also provide a snugly fit, even in high-speed wind blasts. Both jackets also can seal out cold air, as well as let in air through the cooling vents.
6. Pants
Your regular jeans will never protect you in a motorcycle riding accident. Jeans made from Kevlar panels provide more abrasion resistance, but nothing compares to the protection a real pair of motorcycle pants provides. As with jackets, motorcycle pants are also available in either textile or leather, which also comes with CE-rated armor found on the shins, knees, and hips.
You would want to choose motorcycle pants that fit snugly but still allow full-leg articulation, as well as comfortable. Try them on first to see if it works for you. You also would want to check the compatibility, especially if you plan on zipping your pants to your motorcycle jacket. The best thing that you can do to check compatibility is to see if they are from the same manufacturer.
Conclusion
Whenever you ride a motorcycle, it exposes you to variations in the weather, as well as dangerous risks. Therefore, it requires your physical ability and full concentration. Fortunately, motorcycle gears exist to protect you in a crash. In fact, state laws consider it a necessity. Now that you have learned each gear’s importance, we hope that you will apply this knowledge to protect yourself.
