Back protector and other safety gear

My mom is kinda like a safety nazi so she's making get like hardcore gear for my bike. I was wondering if any of you have spine protectors and how often do you wear them. Also, I see a couple of guys ride around on the highway (dallas freeway) with like a full suit on. I don't know if that's really neccessary or not. What's your opinion on it.

Go outside, run as fast as you can and then throw yourself on the ground as hard as you can.

Now imagine doing it at 70+ mph wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

I'm all for free choice when it comes to wearing whatever you want, but I wear full alpinestar leathers, a Knox Ricochet spine protecter (imagine slamming into a car/curb with just a piece of leather to protect you), boots, gloves and of course, helmet.

It's all too easy to become hamburger meat on the roads, so protect yourself. A broken bone may take a month or so to heal, but skin grafts take years.

I know alot of guys who brought spine protectors for the track. Most of them said - I spent all this money on it, I'm going to wear it everyday. Even in the most minor incidents it's handy.

i was looking at just an alpinestar spine protector for 108, but my mom was telling me to get the S-MX bionic jacket.


btw peg when you say alpinestar leather
do u mean like one of their two-peice suits like this

Dress up to go down. It's not a matter of IF you will, it's when you do. Find a style you like and then go for it. Alot of the new mesh/textile jackets have a protector on them and come with a zipout liner for hot days.

I wear a JR Phoenix4 jacket, reinforced jeans, GPgloves, sturdy boots, and OFCOURSE a helmet.

Nobody wants to go down. Hell, most think they never will, but the fact is that some accidents are caused by things that are out of the riders control. In otherwords, you might not even be the reason you went down. Doesn't mean it WON'T happen, cause it will.

$1000 leather suits are nice. They are great for protection of rash and such. The price difference is not alot between 1 and 2 piece suits either.

How much money are you looking at spending?

Beleive it or not, EBAY has some killer pricing on protective wear and bags. I also sport an ICON squadpack for taking things to and from. $75 shipped on ebay compared to $125 in some places. That is just a little insight to the deals that can be found.




You can also get some sort of combo like this.

You can mess with the color combos aswell and it will show you what you choose. Pretty nice deal.

I don't know anything about SMX gear. My concern with alot of the flashy gear is that it's crash once at best type stuff.

Alpinestars, teknic, Joe Rocket, Sidi... the list of big names goes on...

BTW - the close out section of newenough has some fantastic deals... $399 for a somewhat ugly teknic 1 peice suit. Leather and good enough for track days. There's a nicer suit for ~599... around here suits that I'm interested in range from 1000-1600. You do get what you pay for... but keep an eye out on Newenough - they have some killer deals. Price shop with your dealer if you want to. Personally I buy as much as I can from my dealer, I just can't afford to pay 600 more for a suit through them. That's about the only item I wouldn't buy from my dealer.

quote:

Price shop with your dealer if you want to. Personally I buy as much as I can from my dealer, I just can't afford to pay 600 more for a suit through them. That's about the only item I wouldn't buy from my dealer.

Agreed, it's always good to get in with the dealer or ATLEAST the parts guy.

my mom gave me about a 1g allowance on gear and stuff. Pretty much it'ld pay for itself if i was to go.

what's the sizing on these gear's midnight. Are the same as your average casual clothes or is it a bit bigger/smaller?

Yup - spend some time in the bike store... make sure they know you and always be nice to them. If you do, you get discounts and the extra bit of help getting parts. Heck I got some free header wrap the other day - it was left over from his track bike.

Hi,

I wear a two piece Alpinestars GPU suit. I tried on a number of different brands - Furygan, Teknic, Dainese - but the Alpinestars just 'fit' me better. I went for the two piece for the versatility - I commute every day with them and ride pretty much each weekend, and it allows you to not walkaround like a hunchback when you seperate the jacket from the trousers.

Make sure that you try out the leathers by actually sitting on a bike (either yours or one in the shop) to get a feel for how the sit. They will be baggy around the arse area when you're standing, but taught when you're actually on the bike.

And they should be tight - like a second skin. If they flap, that means more abrasion can be caused in the event of an accident.

I think the body armour jacket might be overkill to be honest - with the addition of a spine protector, your shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and shins should be protected with a good set of quality leathers. Although I know a few riders who also wear a chest protector.

Also get yourself a decent helmet, most will tell you there's no difference between a £49 and £499 helmet - but I know what I'd rather have my head in (an Arai RX-7 Corsair, actually..!!).

yeah that's what I was thinking of too with the armor. I was just gonna get an alpinestar suit (like the one i posted above) at my dealer. A couple people i talked to said that the bionic jacket isn't too much of an overkill, if you go down on the highway it'll get you through a lot better than a suit, and the spine protector is removable if i don't want to wear the bigo thing around at all times. I was just want to see what everyone's opnion on it is before i spend about 300 on it.

Basically mate the key thing is that you feel safe in what you're wearing. If you'd feel safer in the bio-jacket - go for it. I know people who feel safe in just a jacket and a normal pair of jeans. Each to their own!

One piece of advice that has stuck with me is to get quality gloves - I spent £100 (about $150 US) on my gloves as the last pair I had (at around $40 US) actually fell apart after 4 months riding. Seeing as how these are generally the first thing to hit the ground I'd invest wisely in a good pair of gloves (I use Clover RS-3's for summer, Alpinestars Jet Road Gore Tex for winter).

i'm gonna try to talk my mom into just letting me get a textile jacket and a spine protector. Along with a good pair of gloves. thanks for the help.

leather
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do u guyz ware full lather all the time? what about when u go to work or store?

Yup. Full leather, everytime. If it's a small trip down the road, I'll wear my jacket, Hood jeans (similar to draggin' but with armour built in), gloves, boots etc. Unless it's raining hard or extremely cold - then I wear my thermal, armoured textiles.

You have to be prepared for the unexpected. Sure, you may be a competent rider, but the idiot who pulls out in front of you from a junction, sending you careening down the road is always going to be an occupational hazard of riding a bike.

But hey, wear what you want when you ride - just don't expect any sympathy when they're digging gravel out of your wounds (which could go septic) and you spend the next few years getting skin grafts from cadavers.

PEG...leather gloves...about these? what do you guys think


http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/item.aspx?style=26843&department=106&Division=1#

or

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/item.aspx?style=11731&department=106&Division=1#

or

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/item.aspx?style=5420&department=106&Division=1

PEG how much did you spend on the Arai RX-7 Corsair? do u have a website to check out the helmet?

Hi,

I don't really trust those types of gloves, simply because they aren't manufactured with a 'cuff.' See the link below for the differences.

See here for Clover RS-3

The reason for this cuff is a) additional wrist support b) to cover the sleeves of your leathers (if you slide in a crash these may roll without gloves, so the cuffs act as buffer).

All major manufacturers make these standard of gloves - the ones you listed are for town riding / stunting mainly.

As for the Arai, check out this link - http://www.arai.com/ I paid £370 for mine (about $500 US). Best money I ever spent, it's a fantastic helmet.

arai or shoei which one do you prefer peg?

hmm... well, there's really no difference between the Arai and Shoei in terms of protection, both are to the highest standards. The fits are different though - for some reason, the Arai just 'fit' my head better. So for me, Arai gets my vote. However I have heard that Shoei's are far quieter than Arai's, but that doesn't matter to me as I wear ear plugs.

It's best to try on a range of helmets at your local store with someone assisting you. That way you can get a feel for the fit of the helmet, and you can be assisted in determining the right size / brand. (Don't buy online for your first helmet...unless you've gone and tried them on.)

Good luck with it...