riding gear

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M

micah

Senior Member
just wandering what type of leathers/jackets, gloves, and helmets everyone uses?
looking for some good brands, i know of the main ones like icon, alpinestars, shoei, shit like that. im justw ondering what good brands are and what the shitty well marketed brands are. i dont wanna wind up with the "apc" of gear just because its marketed well.
 
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dont have a jacket or a helmet anymroe, but thats basically the jacket i had.

Sold it a year or so later for 300 bucks. I was happy. Who woulda known that i would want a bike again....i did, im not gonna lie.
 
Brand doesnt matter anywhere near as much as fit.

Go to the local bike stores and try everything on. If it fits good buy it. if it doesnt fit well try something else.
As far as brands go if the bike store carries it then it should be fine.

Most of my stuff is Joe Rocket.

Helmets are the same way, who cares what brand it is (cheaper brands wont be as comfy as higher end brands) the main thing you want is a nice snug fit.

Just remember, depending on the year and model each brand and each model from each brand is made different so an 2005 model SL3 jacket in large might not feel anything like an 2006 model SL3 jacket,

once again the name of the gear game is to try on everything over and over, and as always snug is better then lose. Last thing you want is for your gear to either pull off or twist around your body when you crash.


BTW I have a SHOE-I RF900 helmet.
2 joe rocket jackets, 1 summer and 1 winter.
I have 1 random brand leather riding jacket for cool days.
I have some joe rocket riding pants,
Joe Rocket racing boots.
and IICON gloves.

And as always, if its too hot to ride with your gear on its too hot to ride.
 
do NOT buy Icon, everything about them sucks. I had a helmet from them, It saved my head, but the fit and quality sucks. Alpinestars, Arai and Shoei make good stuff, as does Joe Rocket. First Gear makes some nice jackets, AGV and Suomy make nice helmets. Tour Master also seems to be of good build quality. If you want some SICK leathers, go Dainese... it's expensive, but kagaroo leather jackets feel soooooooo nice.

Just saw jeffies post, I second everything he said about fitment of gear. Icon does suck though, the only thing I ever liked by them were their Ti full gauntlet gloves, they fit nice. I had some of their mesh gloves, and they pretty much fell apart on a low speed low side I had on some wet pavement (cold d208gpa's do NOT like getting wet).
 
MikeBergy @ May 31 2006 said:
Quoted post[/post]]
do NOT buy Icon, everything about them sucks. I had a helmet from them, It saved my head, but the fit and quality sucks.

Just saw jeffies post, I second everything he said about fitment of gear.
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I've never heard of anything bad about IICON at least no more then any other random brand.

And you said it yourself the fit sucked well... whos fault was that? I know a few people who love their iicon helmets. quality is a price issue not a brand issue. if you buy a cheaper brand well guess what?

IICON helmets IMO are a tad bit better then HJC. and speaking of prices and quality my Shoe-i helmet is only $250.00 MORE then the icons.

its like buying a honda civic and bitching that its not up to par with a BMW.

I had some of their mesh gloves, and they pretty much fell apart on a low speed low side I had on some wet pavement
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Most everyone I know of that gets in a crash with any mesh products no matter what brand all have the same outcome, they fall apart. Pavment > mesh. in most cases they protected the rider more so then if there was nothing at all but bottom line, Mesh (no matter what brand) is a 1 maybe 2 out of 10 when it comes to protecting you when sliding across the pavment.

Bottom line is IICON junk? IMO no, its a great product for the price range they offer their stuff at. If their helmets were 400-500 bucks then I'd say they were junk but since they're in the 150-250 range...........
 
Shoe-I thats what helmet i had. 8 months with my YZF-600 and i didnt lay it down one time...but i never drove more than 10 Miles a trip on it.
 
pros and cons of leather over textile jackets?

i live in florida so its always hot, but i wont be riding that often and half of it will be at night so im not too worried about the heat issue. the a/c in my car hasnt been blowing cold for like a year and it doesnt bother me enough to get it fixed.
 
jeffie7 @ May 31 2006 said:
Quoted post[/post]]
I've never heard of anything bad about IICON at least no more then any other random brand.

And you said it yourself the fit sucked well... whos fault was that? I know a few people who love their iicon helmets. quality is a price issue not a brand issue. if you buy a cheaper brand well guess what?

IICON helmets IMO are a tad bit better then HJC. and speaking of prices and quality my Shoe-i helmet is only $250.00 MORE then the icons.

its like buying a honda civic and bitching that its not up to par with a BMW.

Bottom line is IICON junk? IMO no, its a great product for the price range they offer their stuff at. If their helmets were 400-500 bucks then I'd say they were junk but since they're in the 150-250 range...........
Click to expand...

Okay, sure for the price range. It's the old you-get-what-you-pay-for cliche. Point being, it wasn't so much the fit that bugged me, as it was the fact that the visor retainers felt cheap and loose after a couple of months, the seal around the neck wasn't great, the seal around the visor wasn't great after about the first month, the vents felt cheap and loose after a while, and the 'venturi' vanes on the top started to come loose. But you do get what you pay for I guess. bottom line, I could have spent 250 dollars on a low end shoei and had a better helmet than the 250 dollar icon I bought. It is the APC of gear imo. Granted, they only make gear, and not other bike parts, so that is a good thing.
 
i used my textile jacket for the colder weather, since your in florida you might look at the joe rocket mesh jacket
 
^ i have the joe rocket UFO mesh jacket for warm days. With the liner out air really flows through it, while it still has the same elbow, shoulder, back protection that the other jackets have.
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I also have the joe rocket supermoto gloves and soon to have some joe rocket riding pants
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for shoes i always wear at least a nice pair of over the ankle leather work boots/shit kickers what ever you call them

My helmet is a pos HJC, it fits good but its heavy, crappy ventalation, lifts of my head at speed, and overall not that good imho

i love my buddies Arai helmet, its so light and so much more comfortable, im also looking into getting an AGV ti-tech helmet

for gear try newenough.com ridegear.com kneedraggers.com, they will be cheaper then in the shops, but go into the shop first and try on what you are going to order
 
icon does have some cool ass looking leather jackets, joe rocket seems ot have a partnership with corona.
i might just end up getting stuff from triumph with the bike, there stuff looks good.
 
when i rode i had a plain leather jacket, and usually steel toe boots...
after i sold my bike i got a good deal on a fully armored joe rocket jacket, so now i just need another bike
lol
 
I've got 2 HJC helmets, the one I ride with is an 06 CL-15 session that's comfy as hell, really quiet (for an HJC), and vents pretty well. With the new 06 models HJC pretty much fixed everything that was shitty about the older ones (poor ventilation, visor flipping up)...it's not as light as my Suomy was, but it's a lot lighter than a lot of other helmets on the market.

I've got 3 different jackets, a cheapass Joe Rocket mesh jacket that's pretty much a football jersey with some padding, a badass Alpinestars TZ-1 leather jacket, and an old FirstGear textile/leather jacket that I don't ever wear because it's uncomfortable as fuck.

As far as gloves, I've never worn anything other than Alpinestars SMX gloves. I usually wear jeans and regular-ass shoes, but when I'm going out on twisties I usually wear boots. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate racing boots, they're uncomfortable as fuck.

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when i first got my bike i always wore tshirts, jeans and sneakers (helmet of course). When i saw a friend get road rash over about half his body...i started wearing the jacket...that shit sucked...he was in the hospital for like 2 weeks (helmet cracked in half, but definitely saved his life).
 
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