Put simply, your clothing is your protection. When you are in a car you are surrounded by a metal cage with a bouncy castle (the airbags) inside. On a bike, your clothing is your only protection in the event of an accident. It is also your only protection from the weather.
In the event of an accident, you need protecting from both impact (the forces involved when you hit the ground or another object) and abrasion (as you slide along).
Protection from Impact.
This is where the armour in your clothing does its job. To be sold as “protective” armour must meet CE approval standards, and these will be marked both on the protective pads themselves, but also on the labels attached to the clothing when you buy it. Make sure there is CE approved armour at the points where your bones are close to the surface and you have less of your own padding – particularly knees, hips, elbows, shoulders and back. Back protectors now have to meet much more stringent standards and so many jackets either don’t have them fitted or have simple pads that are not claimed to be protective (and won’t be!).
Protection from Abrasion.
Your tacksuit bottoms will not offer any protection from abrasion as they will be torn apart almost the instant you start to slide. Your skin and bone offers very little in the way of abrasion protection either, and hurts like hell when it tries to. Wearing the right gear, all the time, is the only sensible way to go.
Kevlar offers the best abrasion protection, followed by leather then cordura-style textile clothing. Normal denim jeans are better than nothing, but not much as sliding along normal tarmac at 30mph with wear through them in less than 2 seconds!
Protection from the Weather.
Let’s face it, you’re hopefully not going to fall off your bike every time you ride (if you do, please contact us for some more training!), but you are going to be exposed to the weather. Again, your clothing is your only protection from the elements.
If it’s cold and wet, you need to stay warm and dry, which means plenty of layers including an outer waterproof one. Leather is not waterproof so you will need an over-layer over the top. Textile jackets with a Gore-Tex type lining are great as they often have some room underneath for a warm fleece.
But when it’s warm and dry the tendency to ride without an outer layer of protection is greater, and that’s a big mistake, for the reasons above. So now we need clothing that will help keep us cool, which means removable layers and even some vents to direct cooling air inside.
Motorcycle clothing has developed to a very high level over the last decade or so, with really good high quality gear available at affordable prices. So there really is no excuse to be unprepared!