Riding Gear?

[BRPjunkie]

Bravo for all the good advice. Full face helmet not only protects you during an accident, but if you know what a stone does to a windshield, imagine that impact on your face. Even bees and other bugs at speed feel like a bullet. 3/4 are better than brain buckets, but in an accident, your face is still pretty exposed with a 3/4. To each his own, but a little bit of discomfort from helmets, long pants, jackets and gloves beats a few months healing from road rash.

 

[scottmanesis]

Not a big fan of mod helmets. There typically is not much holding the chinbar in place and cement to chinbar contact is going to cause that type of helmet to just open in my opinion, it is just a false sens of security and in reality is not any better than a 3/4 other than the obvious bug and rock protection but in a crash I don't see that chinbar doing a darn thing but flipping straight up, also my experience ( i have only owned one of this style and it was a H-D made by Fulmur I believe) it was the noisiest helmet I ever owned.....I have worn it exactly twice.......although it looks really cool.

I hope someone responds about the can am gloves and the waterproofness of them, I too am considering those gloves...for a hundred bucks they seem pretty sweet so I am doubting they are also waterproof, but one never knows.

 

[ataDude]

Not a big fan of mod helmets. There typically is not much holding the chinbar in place and cement to chinbar contact is going to cause that type of helmet to just open in my opinion...

I am a BIG fan of modulars... especially the Nolans and Shoei. I also have personal experience at playing the "crash dummy" in 2002 with a Nolan flip... no problem at all with protection or with the chin not being stable or staying latched.... and it had plenty of "slide and roll marks". Unfortunately, it did not keep my pelvis from being broken in two places... but then, neither would a non-flip.

They have the added convenience of easily "flipping up" at stop signs/lights to cool off or talk.
.

 

[Director]

OK, this is second hand info, I realize, but when we rode to Canada, it was through a bit of rain on the New York side. When we met up in Valcourt, lots of riders complained about the BRP gloves they were wearing and how the dye came off all over their hands (which I saw as they all compared their new fleshtones!)

I specifically remember one fellow remarking, "Yeah, and these are supposed to be waterproof!"

Perhaps someone who actually purchased them could speak to this issue, or, if there is a "pretreating" method (wash 'em first??) before using them in the rain.

After years of trying a sequence of gloves purporting to be waterproof and finding that none of them truly were, I finally bought a pair of Aerostich triple digit rain covers, which are 100% waterproof. Here is a link to them:

http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Triple-Digit-Rain-Cover-p-16447.html

Bruce

 

[barb36jack31]

Got rear ended at a stop light a few years ago. Was rammed by a yellow cab whose driver was was having an insulin shock reaction from going light on his meds. I did a nice long rear somersault (looked at the blue sky above), and landed flat on my back on the hood of a full size Chevy taxi. I then bounced into the windshield, breaking it with my helmet. The driver was shaken out of his stupor and applied the brakes. I was then propelled forward off the hood and slid/bounced a number of feet into the intersection. No one ran over me. Thanks to the great gear I was wearing, I was not injured. A little lame, but nothing serious. Every dime spent on quality riding gear is money well spent!

 

[dltang]

WOW! The visions that just went through my head.....I am so glad you weren't hurt. That is a fall straight out of a movie. A great testimonial for safety gear.

 

[mrb]

Riding gear

Hi
My wife and I both use airbag jackets. They are used by the Japanese MC police and have a small gas cylinder that inflates air splints around you in 0.2sec if you get spat off the bike.
In the images below you can see the inflated air tubes in the jacket and around the neck.
Leather is fine if you are just sliding along the road but when you actually hit something - tree, guard rail, car etc then you need something more.

See http://www.hitairaustralia.com

Hopefully they will never be "fired in anger"

Martin #930

 

[scottmanesis]

I dig the airbag jacket. I agree that leather only does so much, it keeps the rash off....if I hit something I hope that CE Approved armour makes some difference.....the titanium on the knucles of my gloves leads me to believe my knuckles won't get crushed...my boots have a system that supposedly keeps you from superextending your foot in a crash.....I admit to being lazy about pants, sometimes I ride in Jeans but if I know I am going to ride hard I at least wear my mesh with the CE armour in the knees...I wear an Icon Merc Leather Jacket 8 of 12 months, in the extreme heat I wear my Nitro Mesh...both of which have CE armour in the elbows, shoulders and back with kidney support. I would rather be wearing my Icon if I do go down though as there is a big ICON made of rubber where my arms will most likely slide across the pavement, which gives an additional layer of protection before burning down to the leather. I could be wrong and hope to not find out. I crashed the only true sportbike I ever owned and was wearing full leathers when the engine blew on my CBRf3 smokin Joe....I did not get one scratch and I was definitely exceeding the speed limit, hence the blown rod shooting out of the side of !the case! Since then the sportiest bike I owned was my current Interceptor and it took me over 15 years before I felt I would like to ride anything made of plastic...12 to get back on a cruiser and learn to chill out.

 

[barb36jack31]

For ditang - Thanks for your comments. I like your tag line - live your life to the fullest. It's always nice to have someone looking over your shoulder! I have been extremely blessed.

 

[jarhd3]

riding gear

Great everyone is wearing helmets-1st.Not being fancy but practical,agood pair of denim jeans,Doc martins or Emergency one pro fit boots (3/4 ht.or full ht.),in summer,Agood athletic wicking shirt w/long sleeves covered w/a good mesh riding jacket,I use padded mechanics cloves(cowhide),padded cushion soled socks and cotton neckercheef.The jacket has body armor but I prefer to use only the upper half(shoulder and upper arms).Years as a paramedic showed me that most of the injuries in a fall or skid involve the upper body.Impact injuries usually involve lower body,legs ,back,hips etc;.Sometime the expensive stuff doesn't do as well as the basics I found.:thumbup:

 

[patches]

I have the BRP gloves and never had any dye come off of them so far. Had them for almost 2 months now and get wet all the time. Some of the best gloves I have ever owned.

 

[Director]

What you're wearing when you get on, is what you're wearing when you fall off.....

:agree:

Words to live by...literally!

Bruce