Minimum Clothing Specs

[Pathos]

Although I don't want to spend to much I want to spend too much I would like to know what is the minimum you should be wearing in the city and on the open road.

Some people say jeans are enough while others will say everything should be from a bike shop.

Are jeans enough in town? I know they won't survive but will they save your skin? Is denim better than cotton? Many jeans from the shops (including mine) are cotton nowadays.

I suspect that a pair of decent boots are needed wherever you go in case your feet get caught under the bike.

Is my $150 cyber helmet really good enough for open roads or will something more expensive protect me better at those speeds?

How thick should your leathers be? Mine will be alright for around town but possibly a waste of time in the country.

[Zapf]

Jeans only last a few meters of road if you end up sliding on them. Which you'll if you fall. Also they have got NO armor. So expect damage of some sort to knees.

There are dress leathers and there are motorcycle leathers, difference being thickness. MC leathers are usually at lease 1.1mm or thicker, dress leathers being much thinner.

I have binned at 60~70k's, rolled / slided in full race leathers on the road and walked away. I doubt I would have walked, or let alone lifted my arm if I was just wearing a helmet. Can you imagen landing on the road with your arms in front of you elbows 1st, then your knees, and then rolling and scuffing both your hips then sliding to a stop on your bum?

Usually if things can happen then they will happen. So buy the best protection you can afford as you'll be paying for it one way or another. E.g gear or medical bills and lost in income from not working.

Re helmet, anything with DOT will be ok. But you can get better, Snell 2000 rating would be best. And you can ones up with that rating for around $2xx

.... oh and re jeans, they actually grip onto the road and then end up ripping into your skin. so while the pair of jeans might still have some resemblence, you skin would most likely be rubbed into your jeans. Not trying to scare you... but its just plain stright real life.

[WildBoarMouse]

Check this out... it's an interesting site. Some good stats in there too about where riders are most likely to be injured. If you really have no choice but to go with the minimum amount of gear, then possibly and idea to cover the main spots.

Ride Forever - gear
Ride Forever - where you're most likely to sustain injury

[bear]

...Is denim better than cotton?

Denim is cotton.

Yeah, I agree that the rideforever website is a good place to start.

[Waylander]

You peaple are pushing it a bit far arnt you? I doubt he will be riding around at racing speeds and having wrecks that are so serious that without any kind of gear what so ever he will break every bone in his body.

That and sometimes you just can't afford decent leathers that doesn't make himan idiot. Some is better than none so you don't need to go all out and get yourself a $2000 set of racing leathers and helmet and stuff. Jeans will work fine in the city and even on some country road aslong as you don't go too far over the speed limit.

Had a wreck a few months ago and I was just wearing jeans, nothing more than bruises to my legs. Sneakers is a definate no-no but you don't have to get alpine star boots either. As I said in another thread a good pair of work boots that have good support of the ankle will work fine. The helmet you definatly want to get the best you can but if that is only some cheap dot approved Vega something or other it will protect you.

Jackets don't need armour but the leather should be thick. I've got myself just a simple stitched cowhide jacket and it works just fine in my wrecks. I didn't hit any solid objects though and that is where the armour comes in.

So you don't need to have fancy gear and all but you do have to have proper gear. If you want I can meet you somewhere in town and we can see if your gear will be allright.

[TonyB]

My standards have changed over the years as I've gotten older and 'wiser'. These days I will not ride anywhere without my boots on. I'll ride into town in my jeans and jacket, but I don't feel comfortable doing it. For all other riding I wear two piece zip together leathers with CE armour, armoured gloves and obviously a helmet. I need to get a back protector.

There's plenty of leathers on trademe, plus Wildcatlgf is doing another order

[unhingedlizard]

having had my fair share of spills I find my minimum these days is daggin jeans, boots (either heavy work or sportsbike boots), leather or paddock jacket, helmet (ya think?) and gloves.

Got a two piece suit to but looks a bit funny on the TDR.

[SuperDave]

I would say that a pair of good tightish jeans would be alright for just commutinng/town riding provided you are not flying around being reckless.

I would stress though that you should wear a decent helmet, leather jacket and gloves as well as motorcycle boots or at the least boots that have angle support. This is what I ride when I am rididng to get somewhere as it is not practical to go to school etc in a full one piece leathers - which is what I wear when I got out for the sole purpose of riding.

[Sparky Bills]

Mate,
Jeans will not protect you whatsoever in a crash.
I see people wearing moto x pants on road bikes too..
These only make things worse in a crash as the melt to skin!

Best bet for you would be Draggin Jeans (or similar), boots, gloves, jacket and helmet.
There are plenty of options for you, Give me a PM if you have any other questions.
I have to admit, that i dont always follow my own rules. but I can also say that i have never crashed when not wearing protective clothing. And walked away from nearly all of them. (does crawling count? )

Have a think about it.

[bugjuice]

Jeans will work fine in the city and even on some country road aslong as you don't go too far over the speed limit.

the speed limit isn't going to save you. If you come off, you come off. My bro caught gravel on an open road. The road was a 100 zone, he was doing 80. I did the same corner in front of him at 1xx.. He flew off, and his leg ripped thru a 2x4 post. His leg (6 months on) is still broken. He was wearing his full leathers, and thick jeans over the top, with decent boots on. His jeans have a kick-mark where his shin and foot wrapped so far round the post, it kicked him on the same leg. If he wasn't wearing leather, his leg would have just plain ripped off.

It's not the speed that determins how much it hurts. It's the sliding and stopping (often into something) that hurts.

TradeMe often has a decent array of cordura stuff. I use it all the time, 2pce set. I paid new prices, the jacket and pants were about $600 together, which isn't too bad. I've seen similar gear on TM for $100 each. Same for boots and gloves. That's around $400 for your body protection. Many shops are doing good deals on helmets. The HJC-C14 (?) is around $170. A full face helmet that many people here have and swear by. If you can, even buy a back protector. I always ride with mine on.

Go save a little and buy something that'll save you from years of skin grafts, broken bones and steel inserted places, limbs lost, scars that look like something from Nightmare on Elm Street. It's not a case of if, it's when. You will fall. You will slide and tumble. You will want the most protection at the time. You won't know when it'll happen until it happens. You want to take that chance? If anything, just remember the poor peeps who have to come scrap the 30 metres of skin and bone you just left behind..

With a 2pce suit, you can take the jacket off and walk around in the pants. If they're big enough, you can put trousers/jeans underneath, so when you get where you're going, you just slide off the pants without having to get changed. I do it every day I ride to work. There's really no excuse. No matter what bike you have, or how fast you go. Sometimes it's not even your fault, and a lot of the time, you don't even see it coming. And that's just in the dry

[vifferman]

ALL my crashes have been at low speed, around town. Jeans are fine? Puh-leeease! First major-ish crash, I was wearing a leather jacket, open-face helmet, no gloves, jeans, and.... uh... jandals. Well - it was the middle of summer, and I was only going to visit a friend. And it was Christmas Day, so there was little traffic around.

I T-boned a car, and luckily (?!??!) somersaulted over it (no sliding). Ended up with multiple grazes / contusions to my feet, 9 stitches to a ripped-up knee, no damage to my hands or other parts of my body, apart from a bit of a graze where the leather jacket rode up. Didn't hit my (new) helmet. I was very lucky.

Had I been wearing boots, and leather pants zipped to my jacket, I would have had no injuries at all, despite my bike being totalled. But, that was how I dressed then. I wore boots only if I was going dirt-biking, and gloves if it was cold. I wore my leather jacket almost always.

Since "those days", I wear a full-face helmet, almost always wear gloves, always wear a jacket (current one has two layers of armour in elbows and shoulders, built-in back protector), always wear boots, almost always wear leather pants.

Subsequent crashes have all resulted in only bruising, except for two where I "was only going a short distance, and it was only around town", so I was wearing slacks instead of leather pants. Both times, my pants were wrecked, and I was lucky to have only minor grazes to my knees. By the way: I've heard that skin grafts cost around $1000 per square inch...

My most serious crash (apart from the first one), I was wearing full gear, including leather pants with Knox armour, and boots with plastic armour in the toes, heel, shin, and both sides of the ankle. I mention this because my leg was squashed between the car that side-swiped me, and my bike. No broken bones (though a possibly cracked or bruised heel bone). In jeans and shoes, I would've more than likely had a badly broken leg / foot / ankle. Even so, I had to have a few weeks of physio, my heel hurts when the weather changes, there's a numb area on the inside of my knee, and the circulation in the lower part of that leg isn't as good as it was (slight 'compartment syndrome').

Look - I didn't PLAN to have any of these crashes. It's all very well to say "it's relatively safe around town, or under 100 km/h", but the reality is that most crashes occur around town, the traffic's denser, and the risk of an accident is higher. And the road is VERY hard and unforgiving.

Buy the very best gear you can afford. If you can't afford to protect yourself, or can't be bothered wearing gear, then you need to question if you can afford to be on a bike.

Helmets: I have hit my head only once, in the 8 or so times I've crashed/fallen off on the road. This was at an almost standstill: the bike had stopped, with a locked up front wheel, and I was pitched off, and hit my head as the bike went down. My first thought was "That really hurt!" I was actually shocked at how much it did hurt, as the impact wasn't particularly hard. I think part of it was that the impact point was where there was least padding / impact absorption on the helmet - right where the visor pivot was. This, unfortunately, happens to coincide with one of the places where the skull is thinnest - the temple. There was little visible sign of an impact on the helmet (AGV Vento, a $350 polycarbonate helmet), but I had mild concussion for 3 or 4 days! I am never buying another injection-moulded helmet, and I will look very carefully at the padding inside the next helmet I buy, to ensure there is adequate protection.

Another point is the weight. My current helmet (X-Vent) is made of mixed fibre-reinforced resin, and feels noticeably lighter than the previous one, despite the ticket saying the weight is about the same. Previous to the X-Vent, I've twice had minor whiplash when falling onto the road without hitting my helmet, as my head has been subjected to rapid deceleration at the point of impact.

They (whoever "they" are) say: "Buy a $50 helmet if you've got a $50 head". Personally, my brain is so &*($%#@ that $50 would be vastly over-capitalising my head, but you can't buy a decent $7 helmet. And having spent a lot of time visiting Waikato's Head Trauma Ward (or whatever it's called), I don't want to risk becoming a semi-vegetative 'person', so the next helmet I buy is going to be a goodun.

[XP@]

Stand naked in front of a mirror (at home behind closed doors please).
check out this photo (Warning: gore)
Look at yourself and decide which body parts you can afford to loose.
Put your clothes on and beetle on down to your local bike shop.


If you have been a regular customer, you may be able to pay off over a few of months. For them it could well be worth it because the better the gear you have, the longer you will keep coming back.

Another point to note, is that household insurance will cover your bike gear. so the next time you need any it will be a few years away or will be paid for by the insurance company.

[Waylander]

Bugjuice you'll note that I said that they work as long as you don't hit any solid objects and going slow may not save you a wreck but it will help.

[bugjuice]

Bugjuice you'll note that I said that they work as long as you don't hit any solid objects and going slow may not save you a wreck but it will help.

I noted lots of things, but decided not to pick
I understand what you're saying, but you don't have a choice of what you hit, else I'd go for the pillow factory every time. If you want to wear jeans, then don't go above 20kph. That way, you've got a pretty good chance of not being beat up too much. Still can break bones tho. Falling off a roof is less than that speed, and you can still break bones..

Just hate to see good flesh wasted.

But on the other hand, it helps natural selection.. think about it..

[Waylander]

Hey I understand and agree with getting true biker gear and all dont get me wrong, part of the reason I asked for your boots BJ. I just think some of you are wrong to push Pathos here into spending more than he can afford on gear right off. Get the best you can afford for now and start saving for better gear down the road. Something is better than nothing.

The way some of y'all talk here makes me thing that perhaps your better off in a cage becouse you're worried about every little thing that might get dammaged.