The topic of motorcycle gear and our recommendations for staying comfortable and safe continues with Part 3 of our Free Download: "Motorcycle Gear Advice."
Continuing our focus on motorcycle gear, here's another portion of our tutorial on how to choose the right products and stay as safe and comfortable as possible in your motorcycle travel. Remember, you can always download the entire document here Free Download: "Motorcycle Gear Advice."
This document focuses mostly on the 'adventure riding' type of motorcycle travel but the principles discussed apply to all types of motorcycle riding. We think it's a fairly unique look at creating your own combination of motorcycle gear to handle the widest variety of climates while offering the best protection possible.
Part 2: Innovative Padding Solutions by Alpinestars
As you’ve probably noticed, most motorcycle jackets and pants come with some basic padding built in. Is that your best or only option though? For reasons of a) better protection, and b) greater comfort under the hot sun, we think you should wear a separate body armor system like those in the Alpinestars Bionic series.
To understand why, first take notice of the soft foam padding included in your jacket and pants. Sure, each pad will absorb impact considerably, but will these foam pads always be in position when your elbow or knee hits the ground? Remember: We said in the part about "staying warm and dry" that your motorcycle gear should be loose enough to allow for layers to be worn underneath. As such, that “looseness” allows the elbow, knee, and shoulder pads to twist out of the way just by wiggling them with your hands. Now imagine how much those pads might shift out of place in a high-speed impact situation with much more force, and you might agree those built-in pads are not something to depend on.
By removing the original foam pads from your jacket and pants, you can replace those pads with the Alpinestars Bionic gear and vastly improve protection. The Bionic gear is meant to be worn as a first layer (well, outside your underwear and base layers) and therefore is fitted so that the pads stay in place in the event of a crash. Try on a properly fitted Bionic setup and attempt to wiggle the elbow, shoulder, and knee pads out of place: You’ll feel the difference!
In addition to fitting better and staying in place, you’ll find that the hard shell exterior of the CE rated pads that come in the Bionic series offer a far superior level of impact absorption than any foam pad can ever claim. Furthermore, each pad in the Bionic series tends to wrap around your elbows, shoulders, and knees far better than other pads do, offering superior protection from multiple angles of impact. As was witnessed in the motorcycle crash shown on this link, wearing this padding could mean you simply get up, brush yourself off, and keep riding! (The rider was wearing the Alpinestars gear shown on this page and walked away without injury.)
As a bonus to wearing a separate armor system like the Bionic Jacket, we are not obligated to wear a full heavy jacket with padding built in just to stay protected. Think about it: Under the hot summer sun, aren’t you tempted to skip the riding gear? While RIDE Adventures will never condone riding without full motorcycle gear, a nice compromise might be to just wear your Bionic armor jacket and leave the outer shell and insulation off while you ride. Protection against skin abrasion will certainly be reduced, but at least your skeleton is protected in this scenario while you ride and stay cool with full padding on and in place.
Hello Riders!
Our Free Whitepaper Download about Motorcycle Gear and our explanation what we use as motorcycle tour guides is now available on this link. Just to give a preview of some of the items we discuss in the document, here's a clip from the part about Waterproof & Abrasion Resistant Outer Shells & Innovative Padding Solutions:
First: Some Typical Mistakes Riders Make
- Buying a jacket and pants that claim to be waterproof, but aren’t in actual use
- Buying a jacket and pants that are waterproof, but wearing them without the neck, wrists, waistline, or ankles completely sealed off (then blaming the riding gear)
- Choosing gear that has a waterproof liner on the inside, thereby designed to let the entire outside to get soaked and extremely heavy
- Wearing non-breathable waterproof gear, and sweating inside to the point of being cold and wet inside anyway
- Assuming that if a jacket and pants come with padding built in, that’s the best protection
- Buying jackets and pants that are too small for them, not allowing extra layers to be added or a “heat pocket” to exist within their outer shell
- Believing that you need to wear a “jacket with padding” in order to stay protected, and dealing with all that insulation under the hot sun
- Enjoying heated electric gear, and accidentally depending on it
Looking back at this photo from the recent AltRider "Conserve the Ride" event in Pennsylvania, I'm reminded of how often the question arises: "Aren't those riding pants hot?"
Your dual sport motorcycle helmet is probably going to stink eventually, which of course is considered "proof of adventure" for some.
Mounting your motorcycle might mean it’s time to let everyday worries and concerns drift away behind you. Be careful how far you’re taking this though.
As Rob Piddington of Sensorcom Ltd. recently explained in Adventure Bike Rider Magazine, the 100 decibels of wind noise & buffeting that is typical inside helmets at 65mph is enough noise to cause permanent hearing damage after just 2 hours of riding. This is of course an “approximation,” as aerodynamics, helmet fitting, riding conditions, and many other factors go into creating those in-helmet sound levels.
Aside from parking our motorcycles permanently, or never enjoying the speed that they are capable of, the best thing we can do to protect our hearing is to use earplugs.
“But those custom earplugs…..they’re so expensive!”
Yes, compared to over-the-counter options found at most major drug and hardware stores, custom-made earplugs are extremely expensive (often over $200 per pair.) With a typical price of $3 per dozen for the cheap drugstore options, the purchase or potential misplacement of custom earplugs might be too much for some riders to digest.
In a recent visit to Dr. Earnest C. Riley, an Otolaryngologist near Atlanta, GA, we were informed that many of these cheap over-the-counter foam and plastic earplugs offer the same 15-25 decibel reduction of the custom fit earplugs that his office sells. Provided they are fitting properly, (sealing off the ear canal fully) these disposable foam earplugs can be re-used repeatedly, but should of course be swapped out for new ones when they become dirty or a factor in potential infections.
On various motorcycle forums and blogs, riders have reported that the “1 thing they can’t ride without” is their pair of custom earplugs. Recognizing that custom earplugs are probably more comfortable than the over-the-counter options, it’ll be up to each of us to decide their value when purchasing. Might be worth your time & money to try the cheap version first though.
On the long list of “important things for successful and enjoyable motorcycle riding” is your physical endurance. All prods toward maintaining strength, flexibility, an agility through physical training aside, this post is about staying hydrated.
The hours and miles can slip by quite quickly on the bike, and before you know it, the combination of excitement, heat, air circulation, and not stopping enough to sip from a water bottle can have you physically dehydrated. As any physician would tell you: Being dehydrated slows your mental and physical reactions, and adds to the number of factors that could lead you to injury.
