What the Well Dressed Motorcyclist Wears…

It’s no secret that I wear an Aerostich Roadcrafter suit when I ride my street bikes.  In fact some of my friends believe that I was born wearing one!  But why do I wear it and what else do I wear when I’m riding?  Well, let me explain it to you.

Riding suit – Over the years I’ve ridden with a variety of apparel.  Originally I was a jeans and t-shirt guy with a Frank Thomas leather jacket, a Bell helmet, Fieldsheer gloves and tennis shoes.  Then I became a touch more educated and bought a nice pair of Frank Thomas boots.  Eventually I decided that the racetrack was the place to be so I invested in a full set of Dino leathers.  These eventually morphed into a set of Z-Custom leathers with Carnac boots, Held gloves and Shoei helmet.  For street riding I eventually graduated to the Aerostich. 

So that’s the history but what is the reasoning?  Well, for one thing I along with a number of other folks agree that leathers provide the best protection available for motorcycling.  It’s pretty hard to beat leather when it comes to abrasion resistance and durability.  Most leathers as well as textile suits come with padding and internal protection for impact in the joint areas.  It used to be you had to buy a separate back protector and wear that underneath your suit but now days most manufacturers offer built in back protectors and armor.

I switched to the Aerostich for street riding primarily for convenience.  With leathers you really should have them custom fit and snug enough so they won’t move around when you impact the pavement.  If they are too loose then you run the risk of getting road-rash from the leather moving against your skin during an impact with the pavement or in a slide.  The difficulty with having nice snuggly leathers is that you can’t wear street clothes underneath them.  You’re pretty much limited to bicycle shorts or something really light-weight.  This becomes a problem when one travels everywhere on a bike and chooses not to do a strip down and change upon arrival at say work or a fancy restaurant.

The Aerostich does not fit as snuggly as leathers but it does allow you to wear clothing of all sorts underneath (or no clothing at all for that matter!).  It is a compromise in that it can move around during a crash but the suits are usually built to fit so that any chance of road-rash is pretty slim.  Also I tend to wear layers of clothing under mine which in turn reduces the chance of injury.

I do like the TF-2 pads produced by Aero Design and fitted to the suits.  The foam is incredible at absorbing impact and the hard shells do well to distribute impacts over a broad area.  The back protector is fairly comfortable and appears to provide good protection in the event of a mishap.  Personally I haven’t crash tested the suits but twice and both times were very low speed low-sides.  In both cases there was negligible damage to the suit.

Gloves – In the beginning gloves were just something that gave you a little protection and looked good with your leathers.  Over time I’ve come to appreciate good gloves and extremely good hand protection.  After all, I spend a lot of time typing on the computer, riding, eating, and performing a lot of other activities that require the use of my hands.  I rather like them whole and free of road-rash!

I’m currently wearing a pair of Helimot’s Buffalo 365 custom gloves.  Prior to these I wore a variety of different Held gloves and was quite happy with them.  Unfortunately Held chose to go cheap with the gloves they were exporting to the US and the quality was not quite up to my needs.  Thankfully Helmut decided to go into the business and produce his own design.  They aren’t cheap but then they aren’t cheap to produce, especially when you consider they are hand made in the San Francisco Bay Area!  Still, they provide an extensive amount of protection.

Details include a long gauntlet that allows you to overlap your sleeves and reduce the potential for bare skin in a slide.  The knuckles have foam built into the back of the hand which provides incredible resistance to impact.  I can backhand a brick wall while wearing the gloves and not feel a thing!  The palms have extra layers of deer skin which helps to provide extended abrasion resistance (In my many years of skateboarding it was always my palms that got roasted in a crash…motorcycling is much the same risk-wise.)

You can find a significant array of write-ups on gloves in the various road racing magazines and a lot of them rave about the Held gloves.  I’m not sure how much has been written about the Helimot gloves but in my opinion they are equal and or superior to the Held’s.

Boots – In twenty odd years of motorcycling I’ve worn a few sets of boots out.  From that first set of Frank Thomas boots to my current set of Daytona’s I’ve come to appreciate the fit and feeling of safety offered by a good leather boot.  Along the way I’ve sampled a set of Dino’s, Carnac’s and several pair of Daytona’s.  I must say at this point I will probably stick with the Daytona’s thanks to their durability and quality.

That’s not including my off-road boots.  Those are another beast all together.  No, for road work and racing I like the Daytona Roadstars.  They have a double layer of leather in the upper with a very firm shin guard and great ankle protection.  No, I didn’t pop for the really high-end set with the carbon fiber inner sleeve.  I think those are a bit too much even for me.  I do however have a second set of the Gore Tex version of the Road Stars.  Those are for wet weather and winter use.  I may eventually break down and stick to just the Gore Tex models since they do work quite well even in hot weather.

So what’s different about a motorcycle boot versus a hiking boot or tennis shoe?  Think about it.  A motorcycle boot isn’t built for walking or running.  Its whole purpose is to protect your foot and ankle from damage in a crash.  Having an extra layer of leather or some sort of shin protection up front will go along way in keeping your shin intact in the event it comes in contact with a car bumper or other immovable object.  That heavily reinforced side section will do it’s best to protect your ankle in case it gets trapped between the bike and the ground during a slide or tip over.  A motorcycle boot is purpose built to provide protection rather than walking comfort.  A hiking boot or tennis shoe will vanish in a heartbeat when subjected to the punishment of a crash.  Believe me, I’ve seen what can happen and it isn’t pretty.

Dirt bike boots are even more heavily built and help protect you when you clip a rock at 60 when racing across the desert.  I can’t tell you how many cactus needles I’ve removed from my dirt boots while running around Baja.  You definitely don’t want to walk a mile in dirt boots but again they are built to keep your foot and leg intact during a crash and not provide you with walking comfort.  After all it’s called motorcycling, not hiking!

Helmet – Some people have a Shoei head, other Arai, or at least that’s the way it used to be.  Now days there are so many different helmets out there it’s ridiculous.  But I’ve chosen to stick with what works and for me that’s Shoei.

I have owned a Bell helmet and at least one Arai but over the years I’ve collected a number of Shoeis including several RF200s, a couple of X-9s and now two X-11s.  They just seem to fit right and are relatively quiet.  I do wear earplugs 99% of the time I ride but the Shoei helmets seem to do a good job of noise reduction.

Have I ever “tested” any of my helmets?  You bet!  My Bell to a pretty good wallop when I tumbled over the bars of my GPZ way back when…  My Shoei Vogue took a pretty good hit when I high sided in turn one at Sears Point at 100 plus.  I’ve rashed a couple of RF200s in separate incidents at Sears Point and one particularly nasty low side at Willow Springs.  The end result?  No damage to my noggin whatsoever!

I don’t know that Shoei’s are better than the rest.  I just happen to trust them after the performance I’ve witnessed over time.  I must also interject that I’m a true believer of using full-face helmets only.  No ¾ helmets or beanies for me.  I won’t even entertain the thought of one of those fancy flip-up helmets.  To me they are not as safe as a regular full-face helmet because they have a weak point with the hinge.  The same holds true for my dirt bike helmets.  Full face is the way to go!

Heat – Staying warm while riding can be quite a challenge, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I can go from 50 degree weather on Ocean beach to 70 degree weather at my house (40 minutes away) to 90 degree weather inland.  For most of the year though we see 50-60 degree temperatures.  When you're cruising along at speed this can reduce your core temperature pretty quick so you need to have layers.

I typically wear an REI wind stopper fleece jacket under my Aerostich.  This lightweight jacket really helps to insulate me from the chill wind and works great once I'm off the bike.  My only complaint with it is the zipper up front and how it leaks air in extreme conditions.  I seem to have solved that with my new Aerostich wind stopper pullover.  Like the REI jacket it helps keep wind out but this one is a little less bulky.

For winter conditions nothing beats the heat of an electric vest or jacket.  For years I used a Widder electric vest.  Initially I had the one with the simple on/off switch cord.  This worked ok but I often found myself getting too hot.  Then I discovered the joy of a thermostat!  Whoo hoo!  Now I could dial in the correct setting and be happy all day long.  What fun!  The only thing I disliked was that in extremely cold conditions my upper arms would take the brunt of the cold and I often found myself getting chilled despite having a warm core.

I finally graduated to a Gerbing electric jacket.  No more cold arms.  In fact the jacket combined with the heated grips I installed on my bikes makes winter riding a dream.  It's rare indeed for me to get cold while riding now.  I can't say enough how comfortable the jacket is and how easy it is to regulate the heat.  The only drawback to the jacket is the extra wires hanging all over the place when you wear it without the rest of your gear.  They put cords in the sleeves in case you want to connect electric gloves.  I find these get in the way and I can feel the extra cord along my arm when I put the Aerostich on over it.  Ah well, almost perfect.

One final piece of cold weather clothing is my wind stopper pants.  Aero Design sells them and they are great!  They are full length pull over pants with zippers along the outer seam on each side.  Makes putting them one while wearing boots quite easy.  They work well both on the bike and off.  I tend to wear them around camp a lot and find them very comfortable.

That pretty much sums up my riding gear preferences.  Hope you've found this useful.  As always, if you have questions just drop me a line!

Craig