The European Safer Urban Motorcycling group put out a booklet recently entitled “Protective Equipment for Riders” (get the English language version here) which attempts to educate scooter and motorcyclists on the benefits of wearing protective gear.

There’s an accepted acronym among serious riders — ATGATT — which stands for “All The Gear, All The Time.” This phrase means wearing gloves, jacket, pants, boots, and a helmet specially made for motorcycling or scooters.

The real debate for us ATGATT folk isn’t “should I wear a jacket,” but “what’s the relative protection of textile versus mesh?” or “is nylon mesh more or less dangerous than wearing polyester mesh,” or “how long can one reasonably expect to slide in 1.5mm goatskin leather without wearing through to the skin?”

And boy would I love for an independent lab to test my old buddy Wayne’s MotoPort kevlar gear.

I hoped that the booklet by eSUM would address some of these questions. You might think buying “all the gear” to wear “all the time” would be the end of it, but in reality it’s just the beginning. There is a shitload of materials, types of armor, brand name materials, rebranded materials, and exotic stuff out there. My Rev’It Cayenne Pro has ceramic-plated textile in high skid areas. That sounds bad ass, but has anyone independently tested this?

Unfortunately, the “Protective Equipment for Riders” pamphlet only states the obvious: you should wear protective motorcycle gear. I hate to say this, but motorcyclists are in one of two camps. They either wear all the gear, or they don’t. No one really needs convincing, and motorcyclists are do-it-my-own-way as a bunch, and you can’t tell us what to do. We have to make up our own minds to do something. The decision to wear enough gear to be called a Power Ranger may be the result of research, or it might be because someone went down at 25MPH and had to deal with road rash for months.

The eSUM book is basically worthless. It either speaks on deaf ears to those who won’t wear gear no matter what facts are put in front of them, or preaches to the choir who has more detailed questions.

I’d hoped to put together an independent testing lab for motorcycle gear, and maybe someday I’ll do just that. In the meantime, motorcyclists only have anecdotal evidence from those of us unfortunate riders who “live tested” their gear.

Riding in the rain on a motorcycle happens to just about every rider. The difference is that some of us ride in the rain on purpose, while other motorcyclists get caught in a downpour by accident. If you’re the former, here are some tips for keeping your pants dry during foul-weather commuting.

• Gear up. The most important thing, obviously, is wearing waterproof motorcycle gear. You’re going to need:
  • Textile pants with a waterproof liner
  • Waterproof motorcycling boots — regular waterproof boots aren’t a good option because they are usually not tall enough to prevent upspray (more on that in a minute). Furthermore, they may not hold up in a crash as well as boots built specifically for motorcycling. Also make sure your boots have a gaiter on the inside to help keep water out of the openings along the side of the boot. I personally prefer buckles to zippers, but if your boot has a zipper make sure there is a gaiter behind the zipper, too. I wear Sidi On Roads (available at NewEnough).
  • If you are really concerned about staying dry — or you motorcycle during the colder months — you should buy a separate set of waterproof overpants. I own a jacket and pants set of Frogg Toggs Elite Highway (Amazon.com). It makes a huge difference when riding in torrential rain. It is also important for keeping me safe and warm when it’s cold out. You may stay dry when your waterproof textile jacket gets waterlogged, but the wind of riding at highway speeds plus a low ambient air temperature will make you cold in a hurry. It’s uncomfortable at best, and dangerous at worst.
• Tuck your clothes in when going out in public. Fold your pant hem flat against your leg. Put your pant leg inside your boot. If you don’t do this, water upspray from the road my find its way past the various hem contraptions of your motorcycling pants and soak your “real” pants. This is particularly irksome if you are wearing jeans. Demin will rapidly transfer any water absorbed at the hem up your pants. I figured out “the tuck” the hard way after wondering why my knees were wet — it was from my jeans absorbing water on a three-hour ride in the rain.

You’ve had one of these relationships. You were crazy about her sleek figure, how she felt under your fingers, and — not to be too crude — appreciated how well she was put together. You liked her, she liked you, but the timing wasn’t right. She was new in town, you were in transition after a major change, etc etc. You know how it is – like ships passing in the night.

Such was my brief relationship with the Turbine ventilated textile and mesh motorcycle pants from Rev’It. I have lost weight since purchasing my Motoport / Cycleport mesh kevlar pants, and needed a smaller waist. The Rev’It Turbine pants were good (with a few exceptions), but they didn’t make the cut considering my existing stable of protective pants.
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The first half of my ride home from Georgia was great. I was moving along at a good clip, and the sun was bright and shining.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville seems to be the tipping point for bad motorcycle weather. On my trip down, my route south of Fayetteville was completely covered by rain. I guess the northern part of my return trip got jealous and wanted to get in on the “fun.”

It rained non-stop, and hard, all the way home. It wasn’t as bad as my trip down, but it was a soaking rain. Paranoid (and hopefully wiser) from my gear problems on the way down, I adjusted my waterproofing strategy slightly.
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As mentioned earlier, I spent four days on a motorcycle trip to see two of my friends outside of Savannah, Georgia. It’s almost five hundred highway miles, which winds up being between eight to nine hours depending on traffic, weather conditions, and the bike I’m on. My best time was on my first trip on my FZ6 because I had great weather and a very comfortable saddle.

This time I took Raider, my BMW R1150R. In theory, it should have been the best of both of my trips: the comfort of my old K1200LTE touring bike, and the mobility of Cylon. Thanks to the weather and an extremely hard seat, it was really the worst of both worlds.

But I still had a kick ass time. ;)
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The first half of my trip down to Georgia was fantastic. It was cool enough that I wasn’t hot in my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket, but not so cold my hands were freezing. It was overcast enough that I didn’t have to squint behind my Native sunglasses, but not so overcast that I had to worry about rain.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Then the sky opened up. It didn’t stop until I reached Savannah, some 280 miles later.

What followed was a near total failure of every piece of waterproof motorcycling gear that I owned. Am I being too harsh?
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My friend Ghost Rider passed away on July 4th, 2007. The following fall his mother and family put together a benefit ride to Yorktown, Virginia. We did it again this year, this time heading up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The weather called for rain for most of the day. I was not deterred for a moment — I’ve ridden in the rain plenty of times and have specialized gear that goes on top of my protective clothing — but I was afraid the event would be postponed until the next day. I already had plans for Sunday, and didn’t want to miss out. I put on wicking bottoms and top, my Motoport mesh kevlar pants and my Teknic perforated leather jacket. I stuffed my waterproof gear in the side case and motored off to the rallying point: the Starbucks where Ghost Rider used to work, and where we met for the first time.
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I promised Wayne at Motoport I would post his email to me in its entirety. I have only removed my first name from his email. I posted this on advrider.com’s equipment forum, but I am unsure if the post will be allowed to stay because I posted on behalf of a merchant. So I’m reposting it here. I will quote Wayne’s comments, and bold my rebuttal.
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I ordered my kevlar gear from Motoport almost three months ago today. I have returned the jacket twice for alterations, and the pants once. The gear has never come back as I wanted it, and at this point the jacket fits worse than my $150 Tourmaster Transition II jacket. Here’s the story how wanting to resolve a problem with a small-time vendor wound up costing me a little over $650 on a jacket that doesn’t fit right.
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My altered Ultra II Air Mesh kevlar jacket and pants arrived while I was away in California last week. The initial order was very mis-sized, and I had sent the jacket back to have it resized, and the knee armor on the pants relocated.

After almost three weeks of waiting, I was really anxious to give the gear another try. Unfortunately there is going to be a Round Three between myself and Motoport.
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