Noob Gear Questions

rinckley · Two Stroke Sniffer Joined: 22 Mar 2012 Karma :

Hi,
I've been looking on the forums for a while now, really enjoy it.
Hoping to start riding very soon just wondered if i should be spending a certain amount on gear like helmets and jackets for them to be safe enough or are they all ok?

Thanks

pinkyfloyd · Super Spammer Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Karma :

Where helmets are concerned they all go through the same tests to allow them to be sold in the UK so anything you pay for is cosmetic. More money = more comfort and noise reduction, lighter, etc.

More important than price for the helmet is fit. Make sure it fits correctly. Better to wear a £30 helmet that fits properly than a £300 one that doesnt.

As for gear. Gloves are important as its natural to put your hands out when you come off the bike and they add good protection against the wind.

Boots are recommended but you dont need to spend a fortune, an old pair of work boots, DM's etc would be fine, just make sure the laces are all out of the way of any moving parts and cant get tangled in the foot pegs. Its a bugger when your lace loop gets wrapped up in a foot peg. Leads to all sorts of falling over. Embarassed

The rest of the gear, recomended but not essential. Just get what you can afford as you can afford it.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
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axix245 · L Plate Warrior Joined: 22 Mar 2012 Karma :

i hope you found everything on this forum.Big welcome to the bike's community

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Teflon-Mike · tl;dr Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :

Have you done your CBT yet? If not dont spend any more than you have to until its done.
Hat, gloves and maybe some water-proofs is all you really need to do your CBT, 'sensible' out-door clothing for the rest.
You'll get a lot of advice during CBT on 'gear' and what to look for and whats important / worth while, & its rather disheartening for an instructor to be sat with all that advice to offer, looking at a room full of students, half of them in Rhino or Akito 'My-First-Motrcycle-Outfits'; that probably AREN'T actually all that useful or good value!

HATS

EazyDuz · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Karma :

I'll offer my budget advice, incase you are interested.

Box BX1 helmet, had mine for 6 months. Around £35-40 delivered from Ebay (make sure you try one on in a store first) 4/5 stars on SHARP tests, basic helmet does the job well, comfortable...

Gloves, basic ones can be found on Ebay for £15-£20, though they arent particularly well made, mine werent anyway, so i'd spend £30+ on a decent pair that will last.

Boots, mine are similar to these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AKITO-WATERPROOF-MIAMI-MAX-LEATHER-MOTORBIKE-BOOTS-9-/360414872863?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Boots&hash=item53ea66851f

Mine were a tad cheaper though. Again, cheap but has good ankle protection and most importantly they are waterproof and comfortable.

Jacket, really cannot fault this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOTOR-BIKE-JACKET-CORDURA-JACKET-WATER-PROOF-/250901383214?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Clothing&var=&hash=item3a6ae3482e

water proof, countless pockets, fully armoured, comfortable with removeable thermal liner...

trousers, ive never purchased proper motorbike trousers, i just have these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mens-Motorcycle-Black-Kevlar-Jeans-Armoured-Classic-Cut-/270743102602?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Protective_Clothing&var=&hash=item3f098be48a

Came off my bike once with these on, fairly low speed. Have a pea sized hole in the jean, but not the kevlar underneath, they have a few scuff marks also, which would probably have been on my skin had i not worn them..

I still use all this gear and it all works well.

Hope this helps
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rinckley · Two Stroke Sniffer Joined: 22 Mar 2012 Karma :

Thanks for the advice.

At the moment i have nothing at all so i'll be building up when i can afford to buy things Smile

Sako · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 Feb 2012 Karma :

save up and buy yourself a decent set of 2 pice leathers, will last a long long time and give very good abrasion resistance too, the benefit of buying leathers is that if you choose to do trackdays later (which you will!) you have the gear to do it.

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Dilyan · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Karma :

Thanks for the SHARP website reference pinky Karma

. Very useful Thumbs Up

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lozzypop1 · Certified MILF! Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Karma :

I always put a helmet on, then firstly try twisting round it from side to side, any movement and it's a no-no.
Then I drop my chin to my chest, and try to pull the helmet off using the back of the lid - up and over so to speak, again... Too much movement, (more than a centimetre - or so) , it's not a good enough fit.
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temeluchus · World Chat Champion Joined: 01 Oct 2008 Karma :

A brand new helmet should be snug and if anything very slightly uncomfortable. It will break in very quickly, like a pair of good boots. A helmet that is bought comfortable will become loose quickly.
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pinkyfloyd · Super Spammer Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Karma :

recman · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 Mar 2012 Karma :

I'm gonna jump in here although as a newb I'm probably out of my deapth.
All I've been doing these past few weeks is visiting dealers and bike gear outlets in search of a helmet that's both comfortable and will let me wear my specs. Usually the ones that fit the bill are more expensive but to be honest if it does the job, I'll pay the price.
Also, Ive tried on quite a few jackets and trousers ect, but again the most comfortable have usually been mid range to top end stuff.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a gear snob but at the end of the day, I'm going to go for what fits and what I'm comfortable in. Wink

pinkyfloyd · Super Spammer Joined: 20 Jul 2010 Karma :

My point exactly. You pay extra for the added comfort. My Duchinni hemlet I do find comfortable. It is a tad heavy and a tad noisy on the motorways but it fitted me better than the more expensive one I tried on.

My leather jacket is a £90 one from Fleabay and has all the CE protection of a £200+ RST one, double and triple stitched in places but it does take a wriggle to get the arms sitting comfortably, but that could be because I have had to order a large jacket because my guts grown and I have short arms.

My leather trousers came from a stall at Brighton (no not those kind of leathers) cost £60 and again have the same CE armour in them that the more expensive ones have. Dont get me wrong. I'd love to own a high spec set of leathers but if truth be told I cannot afford them so I have the bare minimum and.... and heres the secret, I try my best not to fall off.

The flashy high price leathers will protect you exactly the same as my cheapo's if neither of us fall off. If we should come off my leathers have met the minimum requirements. They will hold together for as long as the test has required. I'm happy enough with that. At the end of the day I didnt buy them to look good, I bought them to protect me.

If you want to spend your thousands on high spec gear then fair play to you but you are deluded if you think that just because it cost more it is better. Its nothing more than brand name consumerism and its everywhere and in everything we buy.

My clutch and brake levers cost me £36 inc delivery, they have been on the bike well over a year and apart from sun fade they are performing the same job as the £120 pazzo ones. They havent broken yet.

We eat Tesco own brand beans, oddly enough they taste the same as Heinz and they cost 40% less, but over the years we have been conditioned into thinking the Heinz is the better through advertising etc, truth is people will pay over the odds for a brand name when for the most part all you are paying for is the name.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

Sako · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 Feb 2012 Karma :

jetski · Scooby Slapper Joined: 26 Mar 2012 Karma :

I'm also a complete noob when it comes to leathers but no noob when it comes to brands. I agree that just because it costs more doesn't guarantee you any better quality, although it's usually a rough indicator. What I will argue with is there being no difference between Levi jeans and matalan jeans, there are a world of difference. Maybe not worth the extra cost for some, but the quality difference is obvious... Heinz and Tesco own beans are massively different. If you can't taste the difference that says more about you than the beans. Oddly enough I prefer the taste of Tesco beans as I find Heinz too salty lol. The other thing that was mentioned was that the 2 products in question will have gone through the minimum safety requirements... "minimum" being the key word right? Surely it's possible for one product to just scrape through the safety test and another product to have its capabilities way way past the "minimum" requirements.. therefore your paying for "extra" safety.

If I took a junior school intelligence test I would pass (well I would hope so) and if Steven hawkin did the same test he would pass but that doesn't suggest we have the same IQ does it?