Another brand of mc clothing is Aerostitch. Works well for regular riding and that rare unfortunate occasion when you fall/get knocked down. Have used the suits for long tours in the rain without a drop inside, have used from 19 deg F to about 112 deg F. Like everyone else pointed out having the gear doesn’t do any good if you aren’t wearing it properly. Full coverage helmet that FITS, and clothing which can be abraded, unlike denim which just shreds.
I own the motorcycle forum advrider.com (Adventure Rider), which has many times the traffic of slowtwitch. I love to hang out on both.
I’m always shocked to see how many wrecks and deaths are reported here. We don’t see anything like that at ADVrider.
Motorcycles are perceived as more dangerous by the public because the young males who ride crazy on street rockets crash and die a lot. And Harley riders don’t wear much gear and drink a lot. But guys like Rich who ride big visible bikes with all the gear do better than bicyclists do.
I should know. I’ve ridden my motorcycle for 35 years to places like Alaska and Belize without a scratch. Last year I had a desperate helicopter ride to Stanford emergency room with fractured skull, pelvis, and more other stuff than you want to know about from a car running me and my bicycle over on a quiet country road. I wish that were the only time a car creamed me on my bicycle.
I had motorcycles from the age of 9 through 22 and rode mostly dirt, but also on the road from ~17. I crashed a few times and broke some ribs once all off road. On the bike I’ve had similar injuries but I’m biased right now… I know two people have had serious motorcycle accidents in the recent history. One died and the other crashed and suffered a serious brain injury. Hopefully he will be able to come home to his wife some day. I also have a neurologist friend that said if I saw the seriousness and frequency of motorcycle injuries he saw I’d never ride on the road again.
If you are going to ride be alert and careful, and always wear a helmet.
I even stay away from crap product (like those friggin’ cheap Korean helmets)
Funny thing is, there was a very significant test done for the June 2005 issue of Motorcyclist magazine. They found that current Snell standards are making helmets too rigid, therefore transferring more energy to the head in a crash. The helmets that transmitted the least force were only DOT or an EC standard compliant, and the best of the best were $100 helmets from China and Korea. Better than Arai, better than Shoei, better than Schuberth, etc. Based on that article, I bought a Z1R for $90, the very best of the tested helmets. When it’s 3 years old, I’ll probably replace it with a $150 or so non-Snell helmet, as the Z1R has really cheap shield fitting hardware that I’ve already had to replace. But it is comfortable.
The rest of the gear doesn’t have to be all that expensive either. Granted Aerostitch is the shit, but you can get decent mesh or fabric jackets with EC-rated armor for $100 to $150. Decent boots for <$100, good gloves sometimes for <$50, so $300 to $350 all in. Check out newenough.com, they have some really good deals, and mesh jackets are on sale right now at your local shop. So no excuse not to get fully kitted up.
Brian
I don’t think it’s a good idea to do both. You need to take yourself out of one of these risk categories…bicycles or motorcycles. I have been riding motorcycles for 27 years and I have been riding a bicycle seriously for about 8 years. I feel safer on a bicycle. I have a motorcycle for sale if you are interestsed:
