Leather Pants – For the same reason I recommend wearing a leather jacket while riding, I also highly recommend wearing leather pants or chaps while riding. It offers the best protection for your legs. The second best alternative is Denim Jeans. Do not be one of those fools you see riding around in shorts, that it unless you are willing to loose all of the skin and muscle off of your legs in case of a crash!
Leather Gloves – Human beings instinctively throw their hands out then they are falling in an attempt to brace their fall. This too happens in motorcycle accidents. You know what a paper cut feels like, try to imagine how bad you would feel if you had road rash on your hands? Does not sound appealing does it. Leather gloves serve the same purpose as a leather jacket, and leather pants, to protect your hands in case of an accident. They also serve another purpose, to protect you hands from the constant friction and fatigue that is involved in motorcycling generally.
As you know, on a motorcycle you are constantly using your right hand to throttle up and down, and to brake, and you are constantly using you left hand to pull the clutch in and out. Without gloves you hands can quickly feel raw, and fatigue sets in faster.
I use two sets of full leather gloves depending on what type of weather I am riding in. I use a non-insulated light leather pair of gloves for hot and fair weather riding, and I wear full 3m insulated water-proof “Gauntlets” in cold weather. Gauntlets are a style of glove that has a large leather piece that partially covers the forearm over your jacket sleeve. In cold weather that piece of leather really makes a difference.
Whatever type of leather glove you use, I highly recommend that you always wear a set of leather gloves that cover your entire hand while riding. There are gloves that also offer Kevlar protection in the knuckles and palm area of the hand.
You may have seen the half gloves that some people wear. They do work to a certain extent on the fatigue factor, (except for the clutch, and right front brake part.) However, they are pretty much useless for hand protection. I know, I used to wear them.
After my experience dealing with motorcycle accidents as a biker lawyer, I have switched to wearing full hand protection, and I recommend that you do too.
Motorcycle Riding Boots – A good pair of leather motorcycle riding boots is MANDATORY. I recommend obtaining boots specifically designed for motorcycle riding, and are of the type the covers your calf muscle. (Full size boots) There are many types of boots out there. I would recommend a boot that is waterproof, oil proof, with steel toes, and a squared front.
I have personally had many objects hit my boots while riding, such as rocks, road debris, etc. I suffered no damage to my feet because the boots protected me.
Furthermore, everytime you come to a stop while riding your motorcycle your feet hit the ground. Sometimes your feet drag when coming to a stop or accelerating. You use your feet to back out of a parking space and/or to park. Your boots are a critical part of your necessary riding gear.
If you go down, your boots can protect you from having your foot amputated in an accident, and protect you from serious foot and ankle injuries. Everytime I see someone riding a motorcycle in thongs, sandals, or tennis shoes, I would like to shout out to that person; “are you crazy?”
I have seen too many motorcycle accident scenes with tennis shoes laying in the road at the scene of the accident. A good motorcycle boot will stay on your foot in case of an accident; tennis shoes, sandals, and thongs will not.
Another huge advantage to having good motorcycle boots is protection from the weather. Your feet are exposed to the full elements of the weather in which you are riding. In cold weather you will thank god that you have a nice pair of warm boots to keep your feet happy. There is noting worse than having your feet go numb in cold weather because you are not wearing the proper riding boots.
Don’t skimp, go out and get a great pair of riding boots.
Goggles and Eye Protection
If you are a serious motorcycle rider you already know why you should wear goggles or eye protection while riding. If you are a newbie than I will tell you what; if you do not wear some type of eye protection while riding, you are in for a world of hurt and tears.
Eye protection is MANDATORY unless you are superman. Not only does eye protection protect you from the constant wind hitting your eyes, but it protects you from debris and bugs that will hit your eyes while on the road riding your motorcycle.
If you wear a full face helmet you should already have a face shield that will give you great eye protection, but what about those times that you need to flip the visor open while riding?
I always recommend that you wear Goggles if you are riding with an open face helmet or no helmet at all, because they provide the best protection for your eyes period. When I used to ride with no helmet, and/or the novelty helmet (mentioned above), I had two sets of goggles, one for day, and a clear set for night. They may not look as cool as sunglasses, but they work much better, and provide better protection against the wind, road dirt, and bugs. I know this from first hand experience.
With sunglasses or clear lens night glasses, the wind will still bother your eyes at high speed, or if you turn your head to the left or to the right to look at the view. If you are going real fast, a loose fitting pair of glasses will actually start riding up on your face. Furthermore road debris will still get into your eye. They do not provide full eye protection. You may look cool, but your eyes will take a beating, especially on long runs.
If you do wear a full face helmet, I recommend that you wear sunglasses underneath your helmet for day time riding, and clear lens glasses for night time riding. As you know on cold days or nights, your visor will fog up when you are at a stop, and you will need to flip your visor up and ride a bit to clear the fog from your visor. If you are not wearing glasses, your eyes will be unprotected during this time. Furthermore if you have to flip up your visor for any reason while riding, you will want to make sure that your eyes are protected while riding.
I have personally experienced very cold weather while riding with a full face helmet and had the bad experience of having to flip my visor open to get the fog out of the visor, while not having a pair of glasses on for secondary protection. It was not fun!
I recommend UV and Glare resistant lenses for whatever type of eye protection you use. Sun glare can temporarily blind a motorcycle rider, and could lead to a devastating crash. Night glare from oncoming headlights can have the same effect. I once almost drove my motorcycle straight into a curve because sun glare prevented me from seeing it. They do make special lenses with Sun Glare protection.
Hearing Protection
Unless you want to go deaf at an early age, you are going to want to get hearing protection for riding, even if you have a quiet bike. Before riding with ear plugs, I would find myself hearing ringing in my ears for hours after rides, and I would notice that I could not hear as well. I would also get headaches. The condition worsened after time. I realized that I was actually loosing my hearing due to riding without protection.
I am not a hearing specialist or a decibel level engineer, I am a biker and a lawyer. As you all know the wind noise alone while riding at speed is very loud, even if you have a quiet bike.
In regular city traffic the sound of big rig trucks and cars coupled with the wind noise is flat out deafening.
You do not have to be a rocket scientist to realize that riding without hearing protection is probably not a good idea, unless you look forward to wearing hearing aids when you get old, or learning sign language!
You can get custom fitted ear plugs made to fit your ear, or you can buy the cheap foam hearing protectors from any drug store. Either way, I highly recommend that you use some type of ear plug while riding to protect your hearing.
Road Conditions (Beware)
Always be cautious of the road conditions in which you ride. Unlike in a car, the motorcyclist only has two wheels and is at the mercy of the road. I have personally almost crashed due to gravel in the road, and have handled motorcycle accident cases where bad road conditions were the sole cause of the crash. I have personally witnessed motorcycle riders go down due to bad road conditions.
Look out for pot holes, gravel, rocks and debris in the road, water, black ice, and other hazards which could ruin your day. If you see a sign that warns of Black Ice, slow down, way down! If you have ever hit a patch of black ice in your car, you know that you lose complete control of the steering while going though the ice, and that is with two wheels doing the steering in a car. You can imagine the horror of hitting a patch of black ice while on a motorcycle with only one wheel for steering.
In certain parts of the Country Deer and Moose are a major cause accidents and death amongst motorcyclist. These animals are amazing. They will run like heck when you are hunting them, but they will run right into the path of your motorcycle, or simply stare at you in the middle of your lane as you approach them on a motorcycle, especially at night.
They are a real danger. I was once riding from the south Part of the Grand Canyon at night on the only major road out of the park. I observed the Deer and Moose warning signs but did not really give them a second thought until I actually saw one standing by the side of the road. I slowed down after I saw the deer. While continuing to ride along I could actually see the glowing eyes of the deer on the side of the road peering at me as I rode by. Watch out for Deer and Moose.
There are Deer repealing devices on the market that are supposed to scare these animals away. I have no clue as to whether they work or not.
