My first bike - what to wear?

Im 25yrs old & decided to start riding. I just purched a 99 Honda Aero 1100 & waiting for it to come in. In the mean time Iv signed up for the riders saftey course. My question is what do I wear? My friends all ride sport bikes so they all have the bright colored full faced helmets, leather jackets, & motocross looking boots. I know "crusiers" are a bit different but I do believe in protecion but I dont want to look silly out riding. Thanks for all the help  

One man's opinion, for whatever it's worth...

White helmet that fits tight... it's more visible than most any other color and will loosen up to fitting snugly in the first 5,000 miles. Helmets are easily damaged and disposable. Polycarbonate shells have the paint on the inside, so you can see if the shell was damaged when you dropped the helmet. Other material shells are painted on the outside, so you can't see when the material is damaged. ($75, 3/4 helmet with universal visor is fine)

'Natural' color leather roping gloves that fit very snugly... The tan colored dye all over your hands, doesn't look nearly as bad as other colors do when you take the gloves off.

Lace up, heavy leather, high topped, work boots... Black doesn't show shifter stains like other colors does. Leather soles will slip on asphalt, so don't wear anything with leather soles.

Well padded, thick cowhide over the rest of your body is as good as anything else that's available for a decent price. Denim only protects your skin from hardshelled insects, not pavement. Double stitched seams are good, double stitched and glued seams are better. Single stitched seams come apart when you hit the pavement, although they will probably hold together long enough if you are only moving at 35 mph or so. Fashion leather (thin and soft) is no better than denim.

Textile riding pants and jackets are fine around town, but none of them will stand up to sliding across the pavement at highway speeds. All of them require several layers to protect your skin, even in town. All layers can be open weave to allow much air flow in slow traffic or behind a windshield. A polyester outer layer is best, nylon melts with friction and Kevlar has very poor abrasion resistance if it's coated to be stiff enough to resist being deformed by the wind.

Knitted Kevlar middle layer, over semi rigid bone, joint and spine protection panels, is as good as it gets, whether it's under leather or polyester.

Leather must be kept oiled and protected from rain. It's organic and fungus will eat it if it gets wet. A good rain suit is absolutely necessary if you wear leather. Leather boots and gloves are replaced every year if you routinely ride in the rain, so don't waste money on expensive designer boots or gloves.

regards,
Joe  

A further note on the gloves...

Smooth leather with a little motor oil worked into it, will stick to the rubber of the handgrips, significantly reducing forearm and hand fatigue. I've never found any other glove/palm material that does that.

Knitted Kevlar 'glass handling' gloves worn as inner liners will provide additional protection under thin leather gloves, but then the leather gloves need wrist fasteners to keep them from coming off your hands on the pavement.

regards,
Joe  

another after thought...

I wear a cheap heavy cotton work shirt, over my leather jacket. It gives me something to sew patches and reflective tape to and I can just dump it in the washing machine when it gets coated with road dirt and bugs. If you don't like the colors or designs on whatever you can find for protective gear, it's easy enough to cover it up.

regards,
Joe  

LOL! Way to scare the kid into thinking he's going to die if he falls.  All good advice though.  

Only thing I might suggest to the above is that years ago, there was a study done that required people to pay attention to some people playing basketball, counting bounce passes,etc. They had a woman dressed in white walk out to the middle of the basketball court, open and twirl a white umbrella, close it and leave. They also had a guy walk out dressed in a red gorilla suit. 20% of the participants saw the woman in white, but 50% saw the red gorilla.
The study seems to indicate that white is the most visible color, but, not the most noticed.
I'm not sure, but, I wear a bright red helmet.  

Scare the Kid? I hope not, but crashes are always painful. The better your skin is protected, the less painful they are.

I was just trying to cut through the advertising hype, marketing lies and general cruising glamour, by providing some practical information.

regards,
Joe  

When my niece went for her 1st ride, she complained "do I have to wear all this stuff", and her mom answered, "you don't have to cover anything you don't want to keep".
It sometimes makes me wonder about my chaps. :-)

With high quality mesh gear(jackets and pants), you can be more comfortable, cooler, and safer while riding with the sun beating down and temps in the 90's than you would be in the classic T.  

Advice... What I said above is pretty much just information, rather than advice.

I'd advise always wearing boots, gloves and helmet with face shield. Beyond that, I'd advise always wearing long sleeves and long pants, preferably stuff that won't melt against hot exhaust parts. That's pretty much the absolute minimum I wear myself, no matter how short, hot or slow, the ride is going to be.

As a new rider, your most common dangers will be sunburn and hearing loss :-)

Seriously, keeping all the skin covered and wearing earplugs are important if you want to enjoy long term riding and the rest of your life as well. The first time you go riding with a group and stop in some quiet little restaurant for lunch, you'll be amazed when you pull out your earplugs and find everyone else in the group is yelling at each other from three feet away and none of them can hear what you are saying. Wind noise is very bad for your hearing. I always wear earplugs if I'm going to be riding faster than 35 mph and I can hear better than people who don't, when we get off the bikes, despite my significant hearing loss from guns, jet aircraft and drugs over the last half century.

The next most common danger is something in your eye. Since helmets are designed to have plenty of air flowing through them for cooling and defogging, wrap around sunglasses or driving glasses are handy even inside a full face helmet. If you ride behind a windshield, you will find the air flow inside the helmet is severely reduced, eliminating any need for the glasses, but then you'll have fogging problems on the inside of the faceshield in chilly weather.

After that the dangers spread out, but dropping the bike at slow speed is pretty common. Places like in the yard & driveway, gas stations, parking lots, traffic stops... New riders get into trouble quickly, simply because the bike is much more stable at 70 mph than it is at 7 mph, so they try not to ride slow if they can avoid it. At dead slow speeds, the bike is heavy and unwieldy, until you get used to balancing the lean angle against the steering input and that will take a lot of practice and time at slow speed maneuvering. Meanwhile, you will be finding yourself trying to muscle it back upright when you miss the balance point. Sometimes you will fail and down it will go. Denim (jeans and jacket) will do a fine job of keeping your skin from being abraded in those situations and that's about the absolute minimum protection I would advise wearing. When you drop the bike in those situations, it's not unusual for your head to hit something, like the curb, the car next to you, the toolbox setting on the floor in your garage..., and that is exactly what the helmet is designed to totally protect your brain from.

I still recall all the hoopla when Jay Leno fell over on his Harley, stopped behind a bus, and hit his head on the curb. The resulting concussion changed him from a "I never wear a helmet" guy to an advocate for "always wear a helmet" overnight :-)

I've been shot, stabbed, had broken bones and lost some hide sliding across pavement. The pavement abraded skin was the most painful by far. The patients I've talked to that were recovering from 3rd degree burns seemed to be in similar pain.

As far as looks are concerned, you'll probably end up dressing similarly to the people you ride with. I'd advise starting out with the attitude of "Dress for the fall, not the ride."

Here's a club that's AMA affiliated and the folks here do a lot of riding, compared to most riders. Take a look at some of the pics.
http://sandollarmotorcycleclub.com/

regards,
Joe  

Sloowpoke your points on in information. Your correct in the road abraded skin injury is the worst. I picked up a guy 14 years ago. I was working for an ambulance company at the time. The guy was riding around 35 mph. When he hit a patch of sand and lost it. He did a low side slide. But he was wearing nothing but his helmet for protection. He had loffers on for shoes, shorts and a tank top t-shirt. The shirt was ripped off him. Then his shoes fell off. When his shoes came off his toes wear ground square and flat. When he got to the hospital they scubbed him to get the dirt out of the road rash. They removed close to 2 lbs of sand. To this day he still has pebbles of sand come out.So protection is the number 1 priority.  

In 1984, I was 18 years old,and worked for a Honda dealership,and was pretty confident in my riding skills.
  As I was getting ready to leave for work on my brand new Yamaha RZ350, I put on my sunglasses. I was wearing a t shirt,jeans,and sneakers. My younger sister scolded me for not wearing a helmet,so I decided to put it on, with sunglasses in my back pocket.
  Less than a half mile from my rural home, I went over a small hill, hit a patch of loose gravel at the same time i was shifting into 4th gear(speed approx.40mph). The bike began wobbling(hard) and down I went. I slid about 60 feet,narrowly missing a mailbox with my body. When I got back up on my feet, my t shirt was mostly gone. The knees and back pockets of my jeans,were gone. Every knuckle of my ungloved hands were raw and bleeding, as well as my arms,wrist,back,and knees. My right sneaker,gone. The faceshield of my Arai helmet as well as the right temple area were seriously ground into.
  My dad took me to the ER. The Dr. who treated my roadrash told me something I will never forget.He said, "There are 2 kinds of motorcyclist's. Those who have been down, and those who will go down. Congratulations, you made it."
Ever since that day, I am anal about safety gear. You never know what lies just over the hill, but it's great to ride.  

Crash stories now?  Again... way to scare the kid into thinking he's going to die or loose a limb if he crashes.  If you ride smart, pay attention and think about safety, you're less likely to cause yourself any problems.  As for the clothes, it's not a fashion show. All the stuff sportbike riders wear is perfectly fine to wear on a cruiser.  It's your skin you're trying to protect.  

I think bottom line "advice" dress for the fall, and enjoy the ride.

BTW, the voice said as I fell, "you don't get absolution just because you went, down... you can always do it again".  

I guess, it depends on what you like. If you like bright colors, then it tells me you're very lively, and you're probably in need of stuff from Jafrum, or Leatherup, or xElement etc... I know a couple buddies which have bought stuff from retail shops too, but just make sure the price is right. To start with, the safety equipment gets the first priority and then the rest of the "bells and whistles"  
Motorcycle Jackets Pro | www.motorcyclejacketspro.com

BTW, I was getting my bike inspected last weekend, and I heard someone yell "HEY BUMBLEBEE!!". I knew they were talking to me.
Back in 2001, I started riding with yellow and black on my jacket. I was told it was the ugliest thing they'd seen. My response was "yeah, but you saw it a half a mile away".
Now, wearing the same jacket, I feel conservative. Fortunately, the jacket is almost 10 years old, and needs to be buried w/ honors, and replaced with the "new yellow".