Riding gear, motorcycle edition: learn me

Now that the KZ is mostly reliable I've been learning to ride and to ride it. I am using my track/autocross helmet, mountain biking gloves, a heavy leather riding jacket given to me by a friend, jeans, and sneakers. I don't have a lot of cash to spend on gear. I'd like a less heavy, preferably non-leather jacket. Better gloves? Should I get bike specific riding boots or use my hiking boots? Are sneakers okay? Are jeans heavy enough? I don't want to be one of those t-shirt, flip flop, shorts wearing riders. Just seems unsafe to me. Suggestions.

Jeans - unless they've Kevlar lined - are a road pizza recipe. Bike specific boots (at least good ones) are usually designed to protect your feet from a crushing force if you bin it and the bike ends up on your foot.

I'd look into protective pants, gloves and boots, in that order. Well, possibly gloves first, then pants.

The jacket will have to do until you can afford a better one, but at least it should offer some protection. If it doesn't have a back protector, consider getting one you can strap on under the jacket.

You can find used gear online at various sources. 

The minimum is full face helmet, leather gloves, some kind of boot the goes above the ankle and some type of abrasion resistant pants.

Road rash are burns.........going to the burn unit will be the worst experience of your life.

Your problem is easily handled affordably. I've bought at least half of my gear used for half to a quarter of new cost. FB Marketplace, Craigslist are good places to find stuff as in my experience there are very few buyers on there. I've also snagged a lot of kit from the flea market on advrider.com. The one thing I wouldn't buy used is a helmet simply because they can age out and getting a proper fit is something that needs to be done somewhere you can try on a variety of brands and models.

I don't get hung up on brand names. A lot of Harley gear is very good quality if you can find something without a giant eagle on the back or lots of sequins. Over time I have developed a fondness for certain brands over others. I like Joe Rocket jackets and Alpinestars boots but the fit may be different for your body type in a given size. HJC helmets used to fit me but the last ones I've tried didn't work. I'm now using BiLT helmets from Cycle Gear because they are the only ones that fit my weird egg head properly.

Cycle Gear is a good place to shop for new. A lot of guys will pooh-pooh them because what they sell is mostly their own branded stuff but my experience with their gear is it is actually pretty good and the prices can't be beat. I've bought multiple pairs of gloves there and they have held up well. I had a crash last fall and the BiLT helmet held up just fine as I slid along the pavement.

A lot of stuff like jackets is sized to Euro standards so you'll need to Google a comparison size chart to find stuff that fits you. Online reviews can also help tell you if a brand's sizes tend toward larger or smaller.

Jeans are absolutely no protection. I bought a m/c specific pair at Cycle Gear that cost me over $100. They have built-in knee protection and I believe are sewn with something more than just denim. I still don't feel they would offer much abrasion protection beyond my knees. Plus jeans are miserable in hot weather. In summer I wear 'mesh' pants with protection and for cooler weather I wear 'overpants' that are sized to pull over regular pants. I think I bought both used or on closeout for well under $100 each.

Though leather is probably best I went down wearing a Triumph branded 'adventure' jacket and the fabric barely wore through on the part I slid on. MC specific gear is designed to handle that. I actually got abrasions on my skin from the clothing sliding across it when I fell but nothing from the road itself.

As I ride mostly old or retro bikes I was toying with getting an open face helmet to be more 'in style' with the bikes. Then I crashed. Nah, not doing that. Full face only for this guy as I explain in this video.

Are BiLT helmets any good?

There's lots more I could say about gear but my belief is that it is easily worth the inconvenience to buy and wear. The stuff is made for the task, the clothes are cut to fit you while you ride, etc.  Most all of it is very good quality and will last you for years. The only products I've had trouble with were boots (Tourmaster) that were garbage within a year due to poor quality materials and soles that came unglued.

Tom1200 has it with the boots; ankle coverage is very important.  Got motorcycle specific gloves.  They should have some kind of strap across the wrist that you tighten after putting them on.  The dinkiest little strap can hold your glove on fine, but if you can grab your glove and pull it off, so can the asphalt.

ddavidv has a very common remark on the textile jackets, "the fabric barely wore through on the part I slid on."  At road speeds, Leather gives you multiple crash protection.  My very first down left a three foot skid mark from my knee (first foot jeans blue, next two feet knee red) and the coloring on my leather jacket got scuffed.  A little leather conditioner and from ten feet away you could not even tell it went down.  Over the years I have had a few downs; I have never worn through my leather.  The textile companies will tell you that means my gear could have been thinner and lighter. I prefer still having protection after I get back on and ride home.  ddavidv's jacket likely had multiple layers in the area that wore through, so it may have been fine.  I have seen plenty worn through in single layer areas to prefer leather.

Helmets are designed to withstand very specific hits.  If your track helmet is a SA helmet, you have the bonus of fire retardant materials, but the shell may be designed to hit the inside of a car and not the six foot fall to the road.  I have had a pretty dramatic crash in a top tier helmet with no injury; I have brain hemorrhaged in an almost top tier helmet.  Both incidents had helmets with DOT and current Snell ratings.  I am now a helmet snob.  I wear Shoei, but that is easy for me, I have a Shoei head.

Yes, multiple fabric layers and to be fair my off was not at highway speeds. You can't beat leather. Still, motorcycle garments are (mostly) built to a higher standard than anything else you'll pull off a normal store rack.

As hot and humid as it gets around here leather just isn't happening for several months of the year. If I'm miserably hot and have sweat dripping into my eyes my safety is compromised. It's all about the level of risk we are willing to accept.

I ride Alpine stars head to toe, with Shoei helmets. I ride Ducatis and japanese street bikes only. Been wearing same gear since 1997. Never let me down. I ride same gear year round. With the vents open in the helmet, and the zippers in the jackets, as long as I am moving, totally doable. 

Of course given lane splitting is legal here, hardly stopped around here for very long. 

I put 16k-19K miles on my 2 wheelers a year, last 21 years. 

Of course when I am in IL/MO, all the helmet less, shorts/wife beater bikers look at me geared up and point and laugh. I am ok with that. 

The only gear I would never buy used is a full faced helmet. Ever. You never know what was done to it prior. Don't get hung up on helmet name brands. I use Arai because it fits my head. If an HJC fits you well, buy it. You might be better off paying a premium buying a helmet at an actual store. Guessing on size and mail ordering is a gamble the first time. If the helmet is comfortable, you won't think twice about wearing it. Too big or too small and you'll be miserable. 

Once you figure out what (non-helmet gear) size fits you, then buy it used. Upgrade or add as nessesary. I've got a mismatch of Sliders gloves,  Icon mesh pants with knee pads, Fieldshear leather jacket, Alpinestars boots, cold wear pant/jacket combo from BMG. All of it second hand. 

Look here under  "MOTORCYCLE:"

shopgoodwill.com 

Motorcyclegear.com has some decent deals too. I picked up a mesh Rev-it jacket for summer riding for just over $100 I think. I added the back protector too. I'm not sure what your budget is but I thought that was a pretty good deal. 
I recommend at the very least a full face helmet, snell if you can, motorcycle specific gloves with wrist coverage and more than one layer of leather in the palm, and a decent jacket. I haven't been down so maybe I'm just ignorant but that is my minimum for riding more than around the block. 

Another relatively new rider here.  I’m also a Shoei full faced owner-modular actually as I like the ability to flip up the while face portion of the helmet but still having full face protection.  I like Alpinestars gloves and fully recommend CE rated footwear which has ankle protectors and reinforced fitness for crush resistance.  I like my TCX boots a lot.  I’ve been looking at riding pants but now use Kevlar reinforced jeans from Duluth Trading.  I have two leather riding jackets-summer perforated Dianese and a HEAVY Fox Creek with lining.  Both have armor pockets and I interchange the armor inserts in the back, elbows and shoulders.   I also use a Cosmo Connected helmet mounted brake and running light.     I don’t want to get run over from behind and this gets the other drivers attention for sure.   I’m sure I get looks and laughs from the hardcore motorcycle guys but that doesn’t bother me.   At this point in my riding I’m ATGATT.

I shop at MotorCycleGear.com and cyclegear.com as well as the web guys like Revzilla, J&P Cycle, and Dennis Kirk for new stuff.  

cyclegear.com as well as the web guys like Revzilla, J&P Cycle, and Dennis Kirk for new stuff.  

FYI that Cycle Gear, J&P and Revzilla are all now owned by the same company. I used to work there. Definitely great places to shop and the Revzilla customer service is some of the best you'll ever get.

Buy used or closeout. It's amazing to me how many guys buy new gear and use it literally 1/2 dozen times then get rid of the bike and sell the gear cheap.  I just got a pair of TCX waterproof sport riding boots that retail for almost $300 CAD for $100 on FB Marketplace.  Literally used for 1 hour.  I got my 3-in-1 jacket and pants locally at the Honda dealership on closeout/discontinued sale for less than 50% of retail.  I just got a spare helmet online last week (Fortnine, a Canadian treasure IMO) for 40%off that was just a paint scheme on closeout, the helmet is still current production.

I rode across my very small town ONCE in a t-shirt and sneakers and helmet.  I couldn't wait to get home and gear up, it just felt so wrong.  If you're patient and watchful good gear doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg... see what I did there???? hahaha