Different equipment for different routes: what are your priorities?

Different equipment for different routes: what are your priorities?

Different equipment for different routes: what are your priorities?

I make compromises. I wear a mesh jacket when it's a thousand degrees, because it's more comfortable than my leather one. And this is only the beginning. I think most of us take a more flexible approach. After all, we ride motorcycles, so we need to have a certain level of comfort with varying levels of risk.

As a kid, I was extremely adamant because I thought the equipment was awesome. Mick Doohan was my hero and was always covered from head to toe in fresh uniforms. This meant that when I bombed the yard on my dirt bike I wanted to wear all the gear I owned. Huge, bulky road racing gloves, body armor if I had any that would fit, and my dad's second-hand racing helmet. (I used my pocket money to buy a tinted visor.) My dads would sometimes go to a neighbor's house in the summer with an open helmet, and even before I had body hair I would let him have it as if he were betraying the rules of home. How could he wear it? Chin exposed! Is he crazy?

Now, as an adult, I really like a jet helmet, under the right circumstances. I usually only use it for cruising around the neighborhood on my 50cc scooter, but I've grown to love the wind in my face and the ease of being able to talk to a cashier without taking my helmet off. Beyond that, I've noticed a different kind of engagement with people while driving – pedestrians are friendlier and drivers are more inclined to make eye contact – which I attribute to my visible face. I've also noticed that my peripheral vision is much wider. Riding around on a Honda NC750X recently, I realized that my beloved full-face cover blocks my view of the mirrors in my natural riding position, where an open visor wouldn't. It's a trade-off in impact safety, no doubt, but I'd say there are some benefits as well.

What's on your priority gear list?

A guessing game to play with your friends (or in the comments below) is to ask which gear is most important to you. If you could only wear one piece of gear, what would it be? I really hope your answer is a helmet.

After your first choice, what would be next on your priority list? A jacket? Gloves? I think that in the city I might opt ​​for gloves first, because my hands are delicate and always touch the ground first. If the speeds were high, I would go with a jacket for some armor and abrasion protection. Riding breeches would probably be last; I'd rather have regular jeans and good boots than armored jeans with sneakers. Ankles are complicated and important. My personal driving and sensitivity variables are different from yours, and I assume we would all find lists that have similarities but are not identical.

Hearing someone else's point of view can change your perspective or even your priorities. Early in my career as a motorcycle journalist I received a pair of gloves to test from Alpinestars. They were city/street gloves, a full glove design with molded carbon fiber on the knuckles and multiple layers of leather in the impact areas. But they had a glaring mistake: no wrist strap. I'm a road racer at heart, but damn, even if I wasn't, I'd vividly remember that slow-motion crash photo Bruce Brown captured in the original “On Any Sunday,” where a runner's glove flies off as he flop along the asphalt. No wrist strap on a modern road glove looked silly.

A few weeks later I had the opportunity to meet the CEO of Alpinestars and took the opportunity to ask about the strapless gloves. His answer was confident and simple: If people have to tie or tie a glove, they may choose not to wear them at all. Part of his motivation is to sell gloves, of course, but I agree that I'd rather someone wear gloves without a wrist strap than no gloves at all.

Similarly, an old racing friend of mine caught me mocking a rider wearing a decades-old helmet on the road. "Hey, it's better than no helmet at all," he said, and he's right. A cheered-up old Bieffe from the '90s is better than nothing. Much better than nothing, in fact, according to a study of hundreds of used EPS-lined bicycle helmets published in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.

Having a conversation with yourself and/or some riding buddies can be a good way to gauge what you think is important and why. It's also a good way to check in with yourself and make sure your gear choices really match your protection priorities. I might argue that wearing a mesh jacket on a hot day is safer because I'm not distracted by the excessive heat. The truth is, I'm also making a trade-off to be more comfortable and a little less protected.

If there's anyone reading this who wears a factory-equipped outfit with airbags and no items every time they ride, hats off to you. I love my Aerostich, my sport touring boots, and my full-face Shoei. That will always be the kit I feel best with. But I'm not that guy pretending to be Mick Doohan anymore. And even if I was, the last time I saw a photo of Mighty Mick on a bike he was riding a scooter; wear jeans and sneakers.

I've gotten to the point where I think different circumstances allow for different equipment, and maybe so does he.

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