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Do you wear ATGATT?

Chestnut

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Seeing pictures of some post-gravel gear tonight reminded me of a site I saw a while ago.
RockTheGear.org
Read this girl's story, you may reevaluate your riding apparel (or rather lack thereof).
 
There is a lot of good riding gear out there. But as the heat increases in the summer, more of this gear gets left behind. I don't care how good of a rider you are or you are not, stuff just happens. Stuff happens to all of us. So, the heat or the hide, that choice is yours.0.jpg

SmileyAuh.jpg

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Many years ago my wife and I were riding on the NC mountains in full leathers (before the fancy fabric suits were common) on our BMW and we passed a couple on a Sportster. They were both very tall and thin with sunburned arms and legs in shorts and sleeveless shirts. I told Mrs. Beemer that it looked like 300 lbs. of Alaskan king crab to me. She, a RN working as an operating room supervisor at the time, said "I hope I am not on-shift when they come in."

I was in a rest room once and an American Brand rider looked me up and down real good and said "If I was afraid to ride the damned thing, I'd just get a car." I thanked him and left.

I see "no fear" and I think "no sense".

Dress for the wreck, not for the ride.
 
for me, the helmet and leather jacket ALWAYS. Here in so cal you get used to putting the jacket on LAST especially when temps go above 90 deg. F, I still wear it, and would wear BOTH if it were 100+. (Any hotter than 110, and you should really stay home.)

Pants are problematic. I have chaps, and wear those sometimes when I know it's going to be cold, but pants are my weakness and where i've had my worst cases of road rash. The chaps seem good because I can take them off when I get to where I'm going. (Stow them where? Haven't worked that out yet. Helmet is in the frunk. I'm considering using a slender cable lock to go through one jacket arm and secure that under the seat before closing it... like Honda thought we could with a second helmet...the hook is there...go and look! soo is a very small cable.))

When I'm going to spend most of the my ride time on an Interstate, I wear the full one piece riding suit (Tourmaster) with the built in elbow and knee pads. (hard plastic armor) It's easily the most expensive piece of clothing I've ever worn.
 
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All the gear, all the time. In summer I don't put the jacket on until I'm on the bike and ready to move off and I open every vent I can to let the air circulate as much as possible but I still wear helmet, gloves, boots, jacket & trousers. I had a few accidents over the years and I wasn't expecting any of them until they happened.

I see so many riders here who don't even wear gloves it's astonishing - I've seen what the tarmac rubbing the leather of my gloves did and wouldn't have liked for that to be my bare hands.
 
I used to wear jeans when riding for fun, m/c pants when commuting because my work pants will melt if they hit a hot pipe. I got used to the m/c pants and I still have to admit I don't wear them all the time, but most of the time I do. I've only gone out once without my jacket (black, leather), and I felt naked. Now I've got a cooling vest for the heat. Now if only I can convince my husband to put some clothes on when he rides. He has the same 'where do I put it' conundrum, since he has no luggage on his bike. And so work area he can decorate with gear.
 
I have chaps, and wear those sometimes

Likely better than nothing, but chaps were designed to stop a horse's saddle from pinching the rider's leg and to provide grip when jumping or maneuvering. Maybe some protection riding through brush and briars. The American Brand riders took them up (along with TOTALLY useless duster coats and whips) because they want to look like Iron Horsemen. Just about every time I have fallen off, I have skidded where the protection of chaps is most obviously missing. If I don't land there, I intentionally try to roll over on my back to get as much surface area on the ground as possible and to minimize the chance of facial injury. A good pair of lightweight M/C riding pants is as easy to put on and take off and almost as easy to store. In addition to lacking "seat-of-the-pants" abrasion protection, most chaps lack knee and hip armor. Abrasion is only one element of the protection that riding gear should provide. The other is impact protection. The inside knee in a low-side accident is often the first point of impact with the ground. In a high-side, I believe that God is in charge of what hits first. I know at least once when a lack of knee armor would have proven very hurtful for me. I was very thankful of the torn cordura on top of the left knee of my Aerostich Roadcrafter one day in New York on my ST1100.

When I'm going to spend most of the my ride time on an Interstate, I wear the full one piece riding suit (Tourmaster) with the built in elbow and knee pads. (hard plastic armor) It's easily the most expensive piece of clothing I've ever worn.

Until you crash, at which point it will be the cheapest piece of clothing you have ever purchased.
 
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I was in a rest room once and an American Brand rider looked me up and down real good and said "If I was afraid to ride the damned thing, I'd just get a car." I thanked him and left.

Thats it! “Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.” :cool:
 
Likely better than nothing, but chaps were designed to stop a horse's saddle from pinching the rider's leg and to provide grip when jumping or maneuvering. Maybe some protection riding through brush and briars. The American Brand riders took them up (along with TOTALLY useless duster coats and whips) because they want to look like Iron Horsemen. Just about every time I have fallen off, I have skidded where the protection of chaps is most obviously missing. If I don't land there, I intentionally try to roll over on my back to get as much surface area on the ground as possible and to minimize the chance of facial injury. A good pair of lightweight M/C riding pants is as easy to put on and take off and almost as easy to store. In addition to lacking "seat-of-the-pants" abrasion protection, most chaps lack knee and hip armor. Abrasion is only one element the protection that riding gear should provide. The other is impact protection. The inside knee in a low-side accident is often the first point of impact with the ground. In a high-side, I believe that God is in charge of what hits first. I know at least once when a lack of knee armor would have proven very hurtful for me. I was very thankful of the torn cordura on top of the left knee of my Aerostich Roadcrafter one day in New York on my ST1100.

I'm thinking about THESE to start. (Tour Master Overpants)
They're meant to be worn over pants and taken off once you get there. Storing: If I can cable lock the jacket, then the pants wouldn't be any more difficult.
tmop.jpg
 
Strat: I recommend mesh. I have a similar pair with thigh vents, and riding around in San Diego during the summer my pants are soaked when I'm done. Most come with some sort of zip in liner so you could use it all year in this area.
 
Strat: I recommend mesh. I have a similar pair with thigh vents, and riding around in San Diego during the summer my pants are soaked when I'm done. Most come with some sort of zip in liner so you could use it all year in this area.

I'll see what Jafrum has in mesh.
Thank you.

Yep, my favorite brand in mesh! HERE.
 
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I do.
:p

It just takes 1 nasty but not deadly fall to bring people to their senses.
I was in normal jeans and 1 silly raincoat when I got "burnt".... I was on my brand new KDX200 and it happened on our 10th month together.
Gloves....I could not eat or write properly with all my skin gone from the hands.
:(
 
I do.
Gloves....I could not eat or write properly with all my skin gone from the hands.
:(

OOhhhhh Happy, I'm so sorry. That made me think twice. Do you wear gloves with the finger ends cut off? I imagine you're a fan of the full glove now. Did you recover?
 
I wear a mesh two piece suit from Rev-it. It seems better built than the tourmaster jacket which I had prior. Short story I wear all the gear 99.8% of the time. Only on the rare occasion that my wife gets on the bike with me to go out to lunch in town will I ride with the jacket and jeans combo. Rest of the time I wear it all the time.

Long story, is that was the condition for me getting another bike after taking a spill on the last one I had. It was about 107degs that day. Had my tourmaster mesh jacket and jeans on with a pair of steal toed work boots. When I went down about 55-60mph, the jeans wear gone in an instant. Also the the mesh jacket not being secured to the my jeans like they should have been secured to a matching pair of pants, rode up and exposed my back. Then I rolled over when that hurt too much and slid on my stomach where the mesh jacket let in all kinds of gravel and other road debris to give me some more nasty road rash on my stomach. The good thing about the jacket was the padding, as I'm confident that I would have shattered my left elbow without it! It was only bruised BADLY. I spent 4 days in the hospital being treated as a burn victim basically, since I was lucky enough not to have broken any bones. Just had second degree burns on about 10% of my body. After that I was of work for a couple months until my skin grew back. My wife had to help clean my wounds and change my bandages for weeks.

So YES, I'm a firm believer in wearing gear when riding. I cringe everytime I see some one in shorts and a tee shirt riding a motorcycle. I wouldn't wish road rash on my worst enemy.
 
Yes, gloves. My hands are my livelihood, so if I let the pavement shred them life would get real hard, real quick. Not to mention the independence lost at not being able to dress or feed myself.
 
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