Is your gear made of the right stuff? You need to check abrasion resistance, cut and tear protection, burst resistance and impact protection.
This is arguably the single most important requirement for motorcycle clothing. Sliding across tarmac or concrete will wear through almost any material eventually.
Your jacket and pants should be able to resist being dragged along a road surface under pressure for at least 4 seconds, ideally up to 7 seconds.
As an indication, 1.4mm cowhide of the type used in bike leathers lasts about 6 seconds. Regular denim jeans about half a second - next to useless.
Gloves should offer 2.5 seconds of abrasion resistance and boots between 5 and 12 seconds.
Nowadays, all sorts of purpose-designed motorcycle clothing is available, using everything from kangaroo and stingray leather through to textiles like cordura and kevlar composites. The key thing is that they are all designed and manufactured to cope with abrasion. Some will be waterproof, too. Normal fabrics and leather are neither.
Proper motorcycle clothing will resist being cut, penetrated or torn by sharp objects. In a crash, foot pegs, wheel spokes, broken glass and any sharp edges from vehicles or road signs all become weapons. Unless your clothing is able to protect you, you can be severely cut.
Cut resistance is tested by striking a blade onto a sample of fabric that has been clamped over a hole.
It’s pointless suiting up in wonderfully strong material if the garment breaks apart at the seams or the zippers fail on impact. To avoid this, the material, slide fasteners and all seams must remain intact during a crash.
Check to ensure all exposed seams on anything you buy has at least one other row of concealed stitching. This helps hold the seam together if the visible stitching is worn away in a crash.
Impact protectors or body armour work by absorbing some of the force of a collision.
European (EU) tests use a 5kg weight dropped from one metre. Think of a sledgehammer dropping onto your knee from a similar height. You’ll feel it, but the correct protector can minimise the damage.
The very latest in impact safety is airbag protection - either in or worn under your clothing - plus ‘active’ armour that is flexible until impacted.
