The Protective Gear Poll

[Slingshot]

There are a few threads floating around at the moment regarding the stupidity of not wearing protective gear.
I'm interested in how many people wear gear and what level of protection they wear and how often they wear it.

For the purpose of the poll please assume the following:
Wearing a helmet is required by law and is therefore excluded from this thread
Full protection includes Jacket, Pants, Gloves & Boots.
Some protection includes some of the above
No protection includes none of the above.

Don't feel like you have to post but participation in the poll is mandatory

[k14]

I always no matter what, wear my leather jacket, leather gloves, jeans (getting leathers in the next few weeks), back protector (on rides going out of the city) and boots (either my alpinestars racing boots or my leather work boots) depending on the purpose of the ride.

[Big Dog]

Always wear gloves, its not just accident protection but as I am accustomed to wearing them I seem to have less finite control over the er.. controls.

99% of the time I wear a heavyweight kevlar/cordua the other 1% is just around the block when checking an adjustment (ie top speed 25kmph) or I'm wearing the leather because Training Wheels is cold on the back.

85% of the time wear touring pants Too hot for three months of summer unless you are doing a long open road run.

Always wear heavy leather boots but to poor for M/C boots.

But I never wear protection.... not for this kind of ride anyway

[LB]

Always wear gloves - Spidi, have both summer and winter ones. Always wear a Belstaff cordura jacket with armour and back protector. Always wear boots - Dainese. 99% of the time wear Spidi bike pants, armoured. About twice a year I will take my bike to work wearing all the above except the pants - wear jeans. It feels really funny - cold, breezy, exposed.

I can't say I've always worn this good gear, but have always since Day One worn boots and gloves.

[Urban Terrorist]

Always wear Gloves and m/c boots. Depending on the ride and conditions I pick between armoured waterproof jacket and pants, one piece leathers and the traditional black leather jacket/trousers combo.
Every now and then I'll skimp on the trousers and wear jeans.

[riffer]

Always helmet, obviously.

Spool Cordura jacket with kevlar armour.
Dririder Cordura pants with kevlar armour.

Both of these have winter lining, which is out at the moment.

Gloves not so great, just summer weight, which is okay at the moment, but I will need some good ones for winter as it gets real cold in Upper Hutt.

As for boots, I had some jodphur style boots with wrap-around straps and buckles hand-made by Last Footwear Company. Cost about $450, but fit like a glove.

When I have some buck though, I would prefer some leathers. And a decent helmet. I have a brand new Cyber helmet they gave me with my bike. It's okay, but I hope I don't have to rely on it.

[KATWYN]

I wear full leathers with back,shoulder,elbow,knee protectors
in the suit. Proper motorcycle boots. Gloves with those hard lumps over
all knuckles....thats me suited out.

My concern is for the younger (or older ) first time bike buyers that by the time they spend all their hard earned money on buying a motorcycle, there is not a lot left over for the real important thing - bike gear - so in turn safety is compromised. (ie) borrowing a "mates" helmet that who
knows if its been dropped etc and wearing jeans instead of protective pants

I know ACC subsidised this sort of thing (protective gear) years ago and it didn't work out because of people abusing the priviledge, but surely there
must be another way of getting ACC to subsidise and a better way of
policing it to protect riders that don't wear the right gear because of the
shear expense of it.

[Jackrat]

Always wear gloves,Good leather jacket,steel cap forestry boots.
Intend to by a pair of enduro type boots one of these days.
Wear jeans,Prefer open face helmet in summer,full face in winter.
Wear a back brace protector on longer rides,but that is more for comfort than protection.
Best bit of safty gear I have is in my head.

[Lou Girardin]

Vented gear is much more comfortable in this heat and I guess that'd make more people wear it.
Lou

[Andrew]

Full leathers, boots, gloves and a hemet, always a must for me!

[DEATH_INC.]

I pretty much always wear a fully armoured 1 peice race suit,race boots,race gloves,ect.as much as I can get!

[Motu]

Like Lynda,what I wear now I haven't always worn - times change and so do we.These days I wear a Spidi jacket with hard armour and back protector,Armourtech trou with soft armour,my Sidi motocross boots are 23yrs old and I have always worn them,on or off road.I have always worn gloves - but I like them thin...in the old days I would use black dress gloves,if I couldn't get unlined I would rip the linning out,sometimes I would cut the ends off the fingers too(this was long before that was a trendy look) then I started wearing leather MX gloves,now they are some modern,but unlined light gloves.

In 1980 I had my leathers custom made in OZ,but they have badly shrunk and had to give up trying to get into them a few years ago - I hope cordura doesn't shrink like leather....if they had told me it would shrink after 20yrs I would of got a couple of sizes bigger.I sometimes wear jeans around town,but seldom ride in the city,so it's not a common thing for me.Used to like riding in my MX pants,might get some more,but sturdier ones.

[wkid_one]

In 1980 I had my leathers custom made in OZ,but they have badly shrunk and had to give up trying to get into them a few years ago

PMPL - I haven't seen much leather shrink on a cow/deer etc.......me thinks it may not be the leathers that are shrinking but............

I always thought leather stretched with age and use?

[wkid_one]

I know ACC subsidised this sort of thing (protective gear) years ago and it didn't work out because of people abusing the priviledge, but surely there
must be another way of getting ACC to subsidise and a better way of
policing it to protect riders that don't wear the right gear because of the
shear expense of it.

Yeah that is back when ACC used to replace the gear if they cut it off

[SPman]

My concern is for the younger (or older ) first time bike buyers that by the time they spend all their hard earned money on buying a motorcycle, there is not a lot left over for the real important thing - bike gear - so in turn safety is compromised. (ie) borrowing a "mates" helmet that who
knows if its been dropped etc and wearing jeans instead of protective pants

Better to have $2000 worth of gear on a $2000 motorbike, than no gear on a $4000 bike, methinks!