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I really won't be doing over 30 or 35mph. Do I really need a $400 motorcycle jacket or should I go for something else? Maybe something slimmer/more lightweight? What does everyone use? Any reccs on pants? Was thinking about just getting some motorcycling jeans.

Are you in the USA? If not where? It would help us to answer your question(s) if your location was listed in your profile Will you please add that now? Easy directions are below my post to complete yours.

My opinion: proper ATGATT for weather conditions/season at all speeds. A fall is a fall. Hel-lo pavement! A helmet every ride, that goes without saying.
(For those that are not familiar with the aforementioned letters: "all the gear all the time")

Welcome Aboard!

Not sure where you're getting the idea of a $400 jacket. Most of the major players in the market are $150 to 180…

I do a lot of city driving, and it's all in the Florida sunshine so everything I have is geared toward cooling off. The Joe rocket air mash jackets are great, so is tour master, and if you're going to get good protection, it's not going to be a lightweight jacket. I would email the guys at Revzilla, tell them your situation, and ask them to recommend a few things. I find their advice to be spot on.

WhiteNoise wrote:Are you in the USA? If not where? It would help us to answer your question(s) if your location was listed in your profile Will you please add that now? Easy directions are below my post to complete yours.

My opinion: proper ATGATT for weather conditions/season at all speeds. A fall is a fall. Hel-lo pavement! A helmet every ride, that goes without saying.
(For those that are not familiar with the aforementioned letters: "all the gear all the time")

Welcome Aboard!

I am in Chicago, I just updated my profile.

I'm also an ATGATT rider. I wear riding versions of gloves, jacket, pants, boots and helmet every time and I've recently started adding some hi-vis to the mix.

My fiancee went down at about 20 and had quite a bit of road rash where she wasn't wearing riding gear (it was hot, so she skipped riding pants and her regular jeans did very little to protect her knee and leg).

Cube wrote:I'm also an ATGATT rider. I wear riding versions of gloves, jacket, pants, boots and helmet every time and I've recently started adding some hi-vis to the mix.

My fiancee went down at about 20 and had quite a bit of road rash where she wasn't wearing riding gear (it was hot, so she skipped riding pants and her regular jeans did very little to protect her knee and leg).

Minimum amount of riding gear for me. It spoils the fun.

Don't ride motorbikes for fun if you are a snowflake. If it's a poverty thing that is different.

I will give you an example in contrasts. In September of 2015 my wife and I were riding on a back country road where the speed limit is 45 mph. A truck in front of us crossed the center line (because he was texting while driving) and he hit a small van head on. The guy driving the small van is still not back at work.

As for my wife and I, it is a different story for each of us.

I had all of my gear on including my $200 Tour Master mesh jacket and my mesh riding gloves with protected knuckle area.
She had a reflective vest on and her riding gloves. We both had helmets on.

She went into the ditch. I bailed from my bike and roller quite a distance down the paved road. My bike stopped a few feet from the forks of a large equipment trailer towed by the truck.

I walked away with some bruises. My wife went to the hospital for a broken and dislocated shoulder. The rebuild cost for her was $75,000... plus a new set of gloves. The bikes had a lot of broken panels but nothing I couldn't fix. The cost for my medical was $2,000 for the Emergency room to check me over and declare me fine.

Tell me which way you would like to go to the hospital and I will tell you what equipment you should wear when riding.

Mel46 wrote:I will give you an example in contrasts. In September of 2015 my wife and I were riding on a back country road where the speed limit is 45 mph. A truck in front of us crossed the center line (because he was texting while driving) and he hit a small van head on. The guy driving the small van is still not back at work.

As for my wife and I, it is a different story for each of us.

I had all of my gear on including my $200 Tour Master mesh jacket and my mesh riding gloves with protected knuckle area.
She had a reflective vest on and her riding gloves. We both had helmets on.

She went into the ditch. I bailed from my bike and roller quite a distance down the paved road. My bike stopped a few feet from the forks of a large equipment trailer towed by the truck.

I walked away with some bruises. My wife went to the hospital for a broken and dislocated shoulder. The rebuild cost for her was $75,000... plus a new set of gloves. The bikes had a lot of broken panels but nothing I couldn't fix. The cost for my medical was $2,000 for the Emergency room to check me over and declare me fine.

Tell me which way you would like to go to the hospital and I will tell you what equipment you should wear when riding.

Can you remember when riding was fun?

I started with some Aerostitch khakis since I need to look "business casual" at work. Since I got the removable kneepads for those, I added their dungarees for non-work rides (same kneepads fit both pair). They are nice, but a bit warm in the dead of summer. This season I sprang for a Joe Rocket Ion mesh pant for warmer summer rides, and they are really comfortable.

I lucked out getting a Rev't three-season mesh jacket a couple of years ago. without the liner, it is cool and comfortable (at lest if you are moving). With the liner I'm good down to about 40 F, and can fit fleece or down under if I really need to go ot colder than that.

If you watch the sales at Revzilla you can do pretty well, but don't overlook your local shop in the dead of winter. They might be eager to sell you something when there hasn't been a soul in for a week. You don't need to spend $400 on a jacket, but unless you are very lucky, you will probably be around $150-200. If you consider the amount you will save on bandages, pain, and suffering, it doesn't seem that bad.

I get my gear on ebay and Craiglist, I highly recommend Firstgear. The stuff lasts forever. Not saying try it on at the store and than online buy it but you get the point.

You you,

I can remember when riding was fun. Now I take the bikes out alone just to give them exercise. Sometimes my wife wants to ride but then remembers that she has other things to do. I hope I can convince her tomorrow...or the day after...etc. I don't know if she will ever see riding in the same way that she use to. Crashes mess with the mind of new riders.

I have been in a few crashes and still love riding, but I am not a new rider. I put many many miles under my belt before my first crash. If you can walk away, it was a good crash. It teaches you something, like don't be so cocky.

you you wrote:Minimum amount of riding gear for me. It spoils the fun.

Don't ride motorbikes for fun if you are a snowflake. If it's a poverty thing that is different.

Full gear is the minimum for me, I find I'm more relaxed wearing it so I enjoy myself more. Yeah, it's hot sometimes - but I'm still happy to have it if something happens. I've seen firsthand how much it helps in even a slow speed crash.

However, to each his own. If you feel ok wearing shorts and flip-flops then that's your choice. You won't hear me laughing (because I'll have my helmet on ).

some months Thailand can reach 98F deg F temp, and wearing ATGATT will surely feel like being baked inside an oven.

Minimum for me is helmet, gloves, cool RS taichi jacket, and shoes
to be honest, i don't wear riding pants going to work..it's just too hot in Thailand..though i have a knee protector below my work pants (which I sometimes too lazy to wear)

Now those are real knee protectors!

When I had my accident I did not have any riding pants, so I had my jeans on plus some knee braces I purchased at a drug store. They worked perfectly, though the jeans were shredded.

I've been wearing a pair of Scorpion riding jeans and I find they aren't much warmer than regular jeans as long as I'm in motion. I also added a cooling vest this summer, but that won't work for everywhere.

I got all my first gear (helmet, jacket, winter gloves) at:
https://motorcyclecloseouts.com/
They seem pretty good for riding gear and are a little cheaper than the other big websites. I try and buy all my gear if I can from one place. So now I usually go to revzilla, they have easy price matching format.