What gear do you guys wear?

I currently wear a jacket from Australian Bikers Gear, jeans from the same place (kevlar), boots and gloves from Aldi.
The gloves and boots are on their last legs though, so was wondering what gear you guys wear which wouldnt look out of place on a cruiser.

Whatver you want is the only real answer to that! Some guys always want the best protection, armor plating etc. whereas I'm a cheapskate so just ride in ordinary jeans, trainer style biker boots, and a textile jacket with some armor. One day I'll get caught out!

Depends, I have got a leather jacket with armour in it that I wear. I normally wear leather trousers and separate knee armour, but I also have Kevlar jeans and a full set of textiles. I have summer gloves, fully armoured gloves and big thick gloves. I have 2 pairs of boots (Sidi Rain's and a pair of Prexport touring boots). I just realised, this biking malarkey gets expensive!!

Hmmm, I mostly wear a leather jacket I've had for the past 20 years (JTS I think?), I've also got some leather pants that don't quite match the jacket that I've had for a similar amount of time, I've just bought a Frank Thomas 4 in 1 Textile waterproof jacket (2 years ago) for crappy weather and I'm hoping I get another 18 years from that coz it cost me £70!, I've also just purchased a pair of Textile pants for crappy weather for £35 but they make my bum slide about in the seat! so hopefully they'll be knackered in 10 years and I can make a better purchase, Gloves? Gardening ones seem pretty cool during summer, Boot's? I've just got a pair of Prexport sommatorothers for £70 and they seem pretty good so I wear them most of the time, If I had anything decent? my kids would borrow it and pinch it!

Must confess I did not wear protective clothing often on the cruisers - ordinary denims, Docs and a thin leather jacket in summer. The sensible gear did not look right to me. On 'ordinary' bikes  at speed I wear the lot including chest armour and full sports leathers. Cruisers just meant cool gear to me - not sensible I know but just seemed right.

Must admit I feel the same as John....... the full works just wouldn't feel right on a  cruiser. I wear normal jeans (bad I know), boots and either a leather jacket or a Weise textile; on longer trips I have a pair of kevlar jeans.

Kevlar combats, either a leather Belstaff style jacket, an old Wolf plain black leather or a Black barbour with a kevlar hoodie underneath.  Footwear - steelies or a pair of these Revit Bleekers

" />

Glove - these which I stained myself - cost about £15 

" />

Helmet - either a Shark Raw in matt black, a Bell 500 in matt black or a matt orange Momo open face.  And a pair of shades.

The thing I love about crusiers & in particular, bobbers, is that most anything - apart from racing leathers, work well.  I've even been out in an old Navy pea-coat with a hoodie underneath

I like those boots Katsd.
With regards to not wearing protective gear. I always want to just wear shorts and a t shirt when riding to the gym (only 2 miles away but mostly 60mph roads), but i bottle it because even a fairly low speed off could break bones, give road rash or severe burns from the pipes.
My main complaint with full gear is heat in the summer. I heard of a guy who bought some kind of vest which you put in the freezer overnight and keeps you cool for hours at a time. Might have to look into it.

I wear jeans and Jean jackets,

The heat in summer is the main reason I ditched wearing leather jeans.  I have a Fieldsher mesh armour jacket which I bought years ago - basically a mesh jacket with armour fitted - great when it;s really hot, feels like you're wearing a t-shirt.

I only ever used to wear jeans till a mate offed his Jota about thirty years ago - spent fours hours down the local A & E watching the meds tweezer denim fibres from his knees & arse & scrub gravel from the palms off his hands as he hadn't been wearing gloves.

Leather jacket with protectors, kevlar jeans the same and Spada 'chopper' type boots most of the time. Unless its cooking off course then its either a kevlar hoodie or a leather waist coat and Cat boots instead, only the kevlar jeans are consistent.

those Revit Bleekers too! They only seem to be available in black from the USA though? 

Altberg boots that I've had for too many years but still aren't worn even halfway & I can wear them all day(& have) if needed. Akito adventure jacket which I'm wearing on the DR400 now as I have a new Weisse textile jacket, Hulvarson gloves or Aldi ones on the DR400 & a choice of helmets from a Caberg flip front, HJC flip front & a Stealth dual sport helmet on the DR400. Also have several leather trousers/jeans to choose from or Bikers Gearbox textile trousers.
Don't go out without proper gear on even in the summer as I've seen too many folk skinned, literally, after coming off!

katsd wrote:

Helmet - either a Shark Raw in matt black,

How do you find the Shark Raw Dave? I've fancied one for a while but can't quite pull the trigger at around £200 

The Raw is good, but to be honest it's not £200 good ( I paid less than that at a show).  It's very comfortable & gives good visibility through the visor, which doesn't mist at all.  

On the downside, it's a tinted visor, so if you're going to be out after dark, you're knackered.  You can't raise the visor/mouth cover & ride cos above 40 mph, it'll try to rip off the top of the lid.  So all you can do is remove it completely & wear a pair of clear glasses.  Which is a pain in arse to do as it's fiddly - consequently, if I know I'm going to be out after dark, I wear a different lid.

 Despite what they tell you, it's almost impossible to lift the visor one-handed, so you always leave it down - which is no bad thing, as the helmet looks pants with the front piece up.  The other problem I had is that after very little usage, the elastic on the visor straps had stretched to such an extent that if I did a life-saver shoulder check, I'd have to re-position the visor on my eyes.  I spoke to Shark at last years show & they admitted there was design fault & supplied me with a new pair of re-designed straps.

It looks the dogz & scares the crap out of small children & Post Office counter staff of a nervous disposition.  I don't regret buying it as I still wear it - but to be honest, nine times out of ten I'll pick up the Bell 500 Custom - it's much more comfortable - & paired with a pair of simple, black framed shades, looks fantastic.

" />

Cheers Dave   they do look the dogs   but at around £200 I was expecting a better review, I'll have a look at the Bell 500 instead 

It's definitely a case of "style over function" - I'm well impressed with the Bell - the range of colours is great & you get a really good helmet bag that resembles a bowling bag.  Mines going on ebay as it's too good to use !!

The more  protection you wear the less skin you lose, should the worse happen.

I agree - however - there is always the theory of Risk Compensation Factor, which is that the safer you feel, the more risks you sub-consciously take.  Ergo - I am wearing a full set of racing leathers, I am highly protected, so I can take more risks as the danger to myself is less than if I was just wearing my shorts & t-shirt.  I am aware now that was my mind-set when I used to ride the Katana.

Why take risks????

Youth & stupity !!!

Lowey wrote:

Why take risks????

Riding a motorcycle is taking a risk, walking down the street is taking a risk, driving a car is taking a risk, life's all about taking risk, it's how you manage those risks that keeps you safe.

simbo wrote:

Lowey wrote:

Why take risks????

Riding a motorcycle is taking a risk, walking down the street is taking a risk, driving a car is taking a risk, life's all about taking risk, it's how you manage those risks that keeps you safe.

You are quite right in saying this Sim, it is unnecessary risks I refer to, I have taken many risks in life some have turned out in a positive way others not. Why take an unnecessary risk with something you cannot replace your life?

Exactly !!!  At the age of 21, your perception of risk is completely different to that at the age of 51.  Not only your perception of risk, but also the consequences of your actions on others.  At the age of 21, I had no dependants, & my loss, whilst it would have (possibly) upset others, would not have been a great loss.  Now however, I have a wife, four children - one of whom is severely Autistic - two grandkids & a business.  Nowadays, I take no unnecessary risks, as I know that should something happen to me, the impact on a lot of other people who I care about, would be enormous.  

That is one of the reasons I moved from a sports bike to a cruiser - the nature of the machine compels you to slow down & does not lead itself to risk taking.

Nicely put, stay safe.

And to you too !

I like to wear my cotton long johns under my leathers or textiles even when it's hot, it stops the nylon linings sticking to my legs whilst riding.

Now there's a picture I can't get rid of !!!

Just bought some new jeans, Bull-it Covec, Sportsbikeshop £89.99, blurb from the website:



Covec Laser4 is a liner inside Bull-it jeans, Laser4 is also the name of the range. The Laser4 is a laminated unique construction offering superior strength to similar weight aramids. Covec material has zero moisture retention and does not absorb moisture, as such does not degrade like high performance Aramids of a similar construction and weight. The Laser4 is tested 2 to 3 times greater for abrasion resistance using EN 13595-1 than other Aramids of a similar weight and construction. The Covec Laser4 jeans have a low thermal conductivity which prevents heat transfer, yarns such as Dyneema have high strength but the high thermal conductivity is likely to encourage skin burns from road friction, as is the case with Polyester and Nylon based materials. In comparison to many materials used in motorcycle jeans, Covec Laser4 has all the attributes required including high cut strength exceeding EN 13595 testing during development. Other materials that class themselves as high-abrasion resistant have limited other qualities and would by comparison have considerably lower cut resistance.

http://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/204453

Always protective boot's and mostly kevlar apparel, all year around.

I don't really do protection, I only do what the law says I have to.
I would happily ride in flip-flops & shorts if I could. Mind you I suppose it was very lucky that I had to wear a helmet when I had my RTA, otherwise I wouldn't of been wearing that either.

Mr Intruder wrote:

I don't really do protection,

So that's why you have 8 kids! 

Hmm never thought of it that way, maybe the law on bikers wearing protection should be harsher.

Is that why it's called "helmet" protection then ???

Open faced matt like the bell with davida goggles unless I am doing distance speed riding in which case my trusty shark s800 black night!, any jeans but I have bought a pair of kevlars for the france trip and my waxed barbour, I still have my arlen textile which I might wear to france but its not really "cruiser".
Safety is objective, I know you have to factor in the other idiots on the road but if you are hyper aware like most of us who ride and drive and even cycle! you should know what to be looking for, no amount of ppe is going to help if your hit by a truck or a drunk driver. When they introduced the helmet law and even the seat belt laws its true the amount of ACTUAL fatalities dropped BUT the number of accidents increased, I think I am bullet proof there for I cannot die...............

hawktheslayer wrote:

Open faced matt like the bell with davida goggles unless I am doing distance speed riding in which case my trusty shark s800 black night!, any jeans but I have bought a pair of kevlars for the france trip and my waxed barbour, I still have my arlen textile which I might wear to france but its not really "cruiser".

I'm shocked! I was expecting your attire to resemble this.

CLOSE!! just working on that awesome tash

I should of wore one of these for protection.  

That's a nice 'Waterproof' under suit Dave, does it come with 'Armour' for bedroom activity's?     link?

Last Season Due to funding.
HJC Convertible Helmet. Open faced unless It was pissing down.
Jeans
My Dads 15 year old Leather Gloves
Any HiTops I had
And the coolest Jacket I have ever bought. Also the reason I had no money lol. 

http://www.fc-moto.de/Ed-Hardy-Born-Leather-Jacket

This Season +
New Kevlar Jeans
New Weise Cowboy Boots

have worn a belstaff for 30 years on  and off textile armor  jacket for summer g mac flip helmet textile trousers or jeans shott leather pilots jacket which I found covered in muck but the label caught my eye so went back to ditch and carried it home it stunk. but its like new when I cleaned it up fits great.a few leather jackets still with me as cant bear to chuck note to shadycowboy you for the nw200 maybe we could meet up

Whatever I wear has to offer protection. Having been knocked off at 60 mph, suffering concussion and a ripped right index finger tendon, and then while out of it for three hours waking up in hospital in my pants and realising that the medical folk cut off all of my clothes to ensure I had no hidden injuries. So I always go out with clean pants .  Knee elbow, hips  and shoulder areas of my gear was in shreds and the protection pads were seriously gouged but I was ok other than my hand. I was wearing good thick leather gloves but they were not armoured and were no help when the bike landed on my arm and hand.  What I wear now: leather or textile Jacket and trousers with appropriate armour. Full face flip up helmet. Leather gloves with knuckle and finger armour. I also wear a Knox back and chest protector. SIDI boots.
However expensive the best protective motorcycle gear is, it'll still be cheaper and less painful than a skin graft.
I've seen how ineffective Kevlar jeans can be although on the other hand nothing will provide total protection against all risks.
I have loved and ridden motorcycles for over fifty years and I always will as long as I can. But things happen, suddenly, out of the blue and I want to be as prepared as I can be.

Do any of you guys wear a balaclava under your lids during winter or colder days? I find them very good for keeping warm.

Lot of sense there Tom  and Sim.... are you wearing a Burka now ?

yorky wrote:

Lot of sense there Tom  and Sim.... are you wearing a Burka now ?

I find it keeps my hair neat and tidy too 

I'll wear a "Buff" over my mouth & nose - ain't got no hair to keep tidy anyway !!

Ditto (but I have got hair . )

Shave it off & grow a beard - it's liberating  !!!

Balaclava for me. But it does cause steaming up unless you have Pinlock and then it's ok.

oldtom wrote:

Whatever I wear has to offer protection. Having been knocked off at 60 mph, suffering concussion and a ripped right index finger tendon, and then while out of it for three hours waking up in hospital in my pants and realising that the medical folk cut off all of my clothes to ensure I had no hidden injuries. So I always go out with clean pants .  Knee elbow, hips  and shoulder areas of my gear was in shreds and the protection pads were seriously gouged but I was ok other than my hand. I was wearing good thick leather gloves but they were not armoured and were no help when the bike landed on my arm and hand.  What I wear now: leather or textile Jacket and trousers with appropriate armour. Full face flip up helmet. Leather gloves with knuckle and finger armour. I also wear a Knox back and chest protector. SIDI boots.
However expensive the best protective motorcycle gear is, it'll still be cheaper and less painful than a skin graft.
I've seen how ineffective Kevlar jeans can be although on the other hand nothing will provide total protection against all risks.
I have loved and ridden motorcycles for over fifty years and I always will as long as I can. But things happen, suddenly, out of the blue and I want to be as prepared as I can be.

A very sensible approach oldtom, things happen in a spilt second and mostly with no time to react.

Another point - make sure you're always wearing your kecks - mightily embarrassing having your leathers cut off in full view of everyone revealing you go "commando" !!!!