[phoenix.rider]

I have been riding for 10 years mostly on a small capacity bike for the day to day work. In March'21, I bought Gixxer SF 250 (entry-level sports tourer) and with greater power comes greater safety. So I started investing in Gears as well.

The most important gear is your helmet. Buy a well-certified helmet (I have Axor Apex, ECE and DOT certified). Once you buy your helmet, you can start to purchase other riding gear like jackets, gloves, pants and boots.

So, let me tell you my experience of buying riding gear and maybe I can put a better perspective on how to approach purchasing your riding gear and how to get proper fitting gears because this is a very good investment for riders.
This post is mostly about jackets and gloves because I bought them recently.

For most beginners, the journey starts online. Start searching products online, watch Youtube videos, read blogs and post on gears. From there you will get a proper sense of the type of gear, different brands.

Where to purchase gears?

There are two ways to buy any gear. Either you can buy online or you can buy in-store.

I think in-store experience is the best because the investment you are making is your life-saving investment. You should go to the store and try these gears because they should make you feel safe and comfortable(looks should be the last priority).

Another and very important aspect of the in-store purchase is salesperson helps you a lot in choosing the right gear. When I was researching gears online, I was only witnessing products from popular brands like Rynox, Biking Brotherhood but when I went into the store, the salesperson presented me with other brands as well which are also the similar quality.
The salesperson also helps you with suggesting the right kind of product for you. He/She can guide you in telling what things you should check when trying the gear because they have a lot of experience with customers and they know what could be the pain in future that customer misses when purchasing the gear.

Choosing the type of gear:-

For any gear, one should decide for which purpose he/she will be using that and it will define the kind he/she should purchase. Most beginners are looking for gears that can be used all year. For jackets, all-season jackets are best for beginners because they are mesh jackets with winter liners(can be used in winter with 2 extra layers). For gloves, one should go with summer gloves because they can be used with decathlon winter gloves in winter.

Size and Fit:-

The size and fit of riding gears are completely different from normal clothes. You can't buy XL Jacket because you wear L or XL shirt or hoodie. for checking size and fit the best method is to go in-store and try which is the best fit(can be explained by salesperson for different gears). For Jacket, keep in mind if you are planning to use that jacket in winter then put on innerwear, a shirt/t-shirt and a sweater and then wear the jacket on top and check the fit. For gloves, take decathlon fleece gloves and then put on the gloves and check the fit.
Wear the gears, sit on your bike and check whether they are comfortable and are not causing any hindrance in functioning. For example, in gloves check whether you can reach all the switches or not.

After you have selected the gear, tried it, checked the fitting then it is your choice whether you want to buy that online or from the store itself.

I will be reviewing the Jacket and Gloves once I have used that for quite some time.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Mod note: Let us use this thread only to share anecdotes and notes to make it easier for beginner riders to make the right decision on riding gear. For product discussions, comparisons and queries - please stick to our exhaustive (260+ pages and counting) thread on riding gears - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/ride-...hread-261.html (The Riding Gear thread).

Thanks for the thread! I'm glad you invested in riding gear and hopefully more members do so too. The existing thread can be quite overwhelming for someone trying to buy their first set - hence jotting down some simple tips from my experience, to add to your points.

Useable life -

In my experience - I could just drag the gear (jacket and pants) for only 5 years. The jacket looks horrible (will explain in the next point why!) and the pants have stitches coming out in the wrong places, probably also indicating it won't remain intact in terms of a crash. Changed them! Would be good to consider riding gears as a recurring (and not one-time big money!) purchase (like I did - Mistake #1)!

Selection of type of jacket and material -

I bought Dainese and still made a blunder in selecting white fabric (My mistake #2)! Only took a couple of rides for the jacket to start looking horrible. One can always say that the dirt is a matter of pride for riders etc - but frankly, I couldn't throw that jacket out earlier only because it was an expensive Dainese with good protection levels!

Darker colours (black, grey, brown, etc) with good reflective inserts for increased visibility would be my pick going forward. A white Dainese looks the best of the lot - and the reason why many newbie riders opt for it (including me! ). The same stands true for red, blue, etc - though may be not to the same extend.

Leather is another material that looks very good but is not very useable given our hot weather conditions. May not be a good idea for your first and only jacket, especially if you are from the hot and humid parts of the country.

The importance of riding shoes -

Many new riders (including me) pay the least attention to shoes and postpone it for the last. I used to ride with a pair of thick Woodland shoes for a long time. But after using a proper pair now - I feel it should have been purchased a long time ago. Having a good riding shoe gives a LOT of confidence - The ankle especially feels well supported with minimal chances of any twisting or muscle strain happening - especially when using heavier bikes.

GoreTex and similar materials also do a good job of keeping the feet dry even during heavy downpours. Worth the extra if it falls around your budget.

Indian v/s foreign brands -

Interestingly, I feel the Indian brands (like Rynox, Viaterra, etc) have progressed a lot in the last five years. Five years ago - I remember the Indian brands having a lot of rough edges where the skin is in contact and also the general quality felt very much inferior to imported brands like RST, Alpinestars or Dainese. Looked cheap too!

While the imported ones may still be superior, I find the Indian brands are excellent options now. In case you are on a tighter budget -can definitely opt for them. If you want to upgrade it later when the budget improves - two options are available - 1. To upgrade the armour inserts alone or 2. Throw out the protective layers on the jacket and use a dedicated body armour (eg: Forcefield body armour) with the jacket outer layer.

PS: Also do check out some of the re-branded stuff from Royal Enfield (details can be searched in the main thread) that are good VFM - I hear!

Rain protection -

Rain inner liner = useless IMHO! Unless you are into short runs, you can't wear the liner ahead of time and will be baked inside if you wear it well ahead of the rains. I would prefer ones that can be worn over the gear.

Don't buy the expensive add-on liners of these expensive brands if you are on a budget. Decathlon ones work just fine at a fraction of the cost. Utilise the budget for another protective layer.

[abhi7013]

Perfect timing for the thread. Having bought an Interceptor recently, i needed a jacket for day to day office runs which isn't too bulky. They had a mesh type of jacket for hot weathers which seemed to weigh lighter once the pads were removed. I use it this way for office runs and add the pads for long rides.

Bought gloves from them as well along with a lemon green rain coat from Rynox. I hate the colour but that is the only shade it's available in. Haven't got the chance to test it as rains ceased in Bangalore from the time that i bought it!

Riding shoes are way below my list similar to other guys. This is mainly because i haven't yet gone on a single ride yet apart from daily commutes and plan to buy one based on how frequent i travel.

Right now dealing with a severe neck pain that am getting riding the interceptor and a handle bar riser is becoming the most significant need.

[abtyagi]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Selection of type of jacket and material -

I bought Dainese and still made a blunder in selecting white fabric (My mistake #2)! Only took a couple of rides for the jacket to start looking horrible. One can always say that the dirt is a matter of pride for riders etc - but frankly, I couldn't throw that jacket out earlier only because it was an expensive Dainese with good protection levels!

Darker colours (black, grey, brown, etc) with good reflective inserts for increased visibility would be my pick going forward. A white Dainese looks the best of the lot - and the reason why many newbie riders opt for it (including me! ). The same stands true for red, blue, etc - though may be not to the same extend.

You just need to remove the protectors and give a simple bucket wash and rinse. Wash instructions are given on labels. Really easy.
Lighter colours works so much better in hotter conditions in my personal opinion. My first riding gear was all black.

As the OP has called out the ubiquitous helmet being the most essential. The second most important gear IMO is jacket & gloves, in all my visible experience I have always seen your elbows hitting the ground either first or the palm. Even at the slowest of pace.

I always use under armour/Nike etc compression tees/tights as base layer. You can choose for weather as well. Works brilliantly. They help with fatigue as well.

On the RE gear, the very first batch was made by revit. Whoever got it was just lucky to get that deal.
I use their gloves, for commutes and occasionally for rides, really well made for the price.

If you’re buying Rynox if possible buy from store. I bought a adventure riding pant. And sizing was inaccurate, and costed me additional 1000 bucks to ship back for exchange.

[Doc_nerd]

The proper riding gear should include
1. Helmet: Any ISI certified one should do good. For the serious big riders their choice is limited ( ISI certification issues). Always get a helmet strap with a D ring lock as it is the most fool proof in case of a crash. And also a helmet with a sun visor helps a lot in our sunny conditions.
2. Ear plugs: yes, you heard me right get a decent pair of ear plugs they cost nothing but will surely help you in not loosing your hearing ability in the long term. This is especially true for big bikes / any bike capable of doing more than 100kph consistently.
3. Gloves: You need your hands to ride your bike and also to earn. Buy, a decent pair of gloves which has good padding in your palmar region as it is the region that will first come into contact in case of a fall.
4. Jacket: always go for a jacket with good back, shoulder & elbow protection(padding) and which allows free flow of air. Leathers are for riders who dont mind the sweat.
5. Riding pants: Go for a good pair with shin, knee & bum padding. Nowadays we are getting kevlar lined Jean pants with good padding.
6. Boots: A good pair of riding boots will help in preventing foot & ankle injuries. An embedded steel toe gaurd will go a long way in protecting your toes.
Optional
7. Balaclava: helps in preventing your sweat from seeping into your helmet lining. Also helps in sliding your helmet without bending your ear lobes.
8. Neck tubing: helps in soaking your neck sweat & also feels comfortable.
Always check the fitting of your riding gear before you buy. You dont want anything uncomfortable when you are riding.

Nowadays we are getting good riding gear manufactured in our country at affordable prices . GOOD RIDING GEAR PROTECTS YOU IN CASE OF A FALL. INVEST IN IT.

[aargee]

Pls allow me to share my experience on the below; for the sake of keeping a little interesting conversation, I'm going to take a less different route more of practical, more of realist view rather than staying on conventional wisdom:

Some disclaimers

• Even if fully suited, one cannot walk out of any mishaps unscathed
• Wearing the best riding gears money can buy cannot protect from any misfortunes on road
• The only purpose of wearing riding gears are to MINIMIZE the catastrophe
• No one can guarantee that wearing the best ones can keep you alive all the time or wearing a cheap ones are path to doom
• Even wearing a minimal or economical (note the word) riding gears are better than not wearing one
• Choosing to wear one or not is every individuals preference, but for sure, very very sure, it's a highly addictive; the feel of fully geared & riding through a highway (or SH if that's your preference), gives you that invincible feeling!! But don't let that feeling deceive you!!
  Always buy riding gears that suits the Weather that you'll be riding most of the time, not for the purpose of ride of a lifetime

In a nutshell, riding gears are almost like an insurance; having one pinches the wallet, but not having one is a constant threat to life. Unlike insurance, when we walk out of a mishap, we realize the value of them

Helmet
Ideally a helmet's life is not more than 5 years is what most reviews say. Why? They say, the inner shell (more in the technical videos below) don't last forever; which means, every 5 years the helmets needs to be replaced & when unused, I'd rather stay quiet because for reasons unknown, I've been pondering why an object that remains unused tend to deteriorate faster than medium to high usage. So, its no brainer that the best protection the world can offer has to protect what keeps us alive!! Best of the best comes does not come with best of the price & the cheapest of them helps only to evade the law. To me the toughest decision is to strike a balance between both. And like I said in the beginning, this is a process to be repeated every 5 years not a one time decision of life.

https://youtu.be/wF-Ft8FG2Mg

https://youtu.be/9d8MALEJCHg

Jacket
Somehow I'm not a fan of leather because I believe man made fibers (Cordura & Carbon Fiber) are much stronger than leather. Higher the density, stronger the material; 1000D is superior to 500 or 600D. For the basic introduction, leather, mesh, textile are my preference than, if, any other materials in the market; no not even carbon fiber. Leather needs no introduction for riding in cold places & most expensive; between mesh & textile, mesh allows more air ventilation than textile. Summer & mesh is must; and these days there're all season jackets which is basically a mesh or textile jacket that comes with 2 inner lining; one for keeping you warm & other for protecting from rain. Talking about rain protection, here's a superb & practical article on how to choose rain gears. A leather jacket is like a baby that needs constant care & attention in form of protection from moisture even when the modern day ones needs minimal care. No matter leather or man made material, the primary objective is to provide abrasion resistance. So how does the impact on fall handled? Through armors!! The purpose of armor (used usually at shoulders, elbow & back; sometimes have kidney & chest protectors inserts as well) absorbs the high energy on the impact of a fall. Why only these places? Those are the lessons learnt from MotoGP & other R&D centers of riding gears manufacturers. Life of most armors are anywhere from 3-6 years depending on how much they're used/unused & most of them claim CE certified & more on it here. Some leading brands like Knox are renowned to make superior levels of armors that can be bought separately & inserted to your existing jacket. This means, your jacket can probably over live it's OE armor. A mesh or textile on the other hand are like grown up adults that can be (ab)used all through the year; ofcourse a cold weather & mesh or even textile jacket freezes one to bone (even if the temperature around is 20 degree). While the warm liner keeps your body warm during the ride, chillness enters our body primarily through ears & fingers in hands & legs. Ears are protected from helmet, what about the fingers? That's the job of gloves!!

Gloves
Short, gauntlet, leather, mesh, Goretex, with or without knuckle guard, protection offering all possible joints, seasonal (rain, snow & summer) there're different varieties with variety of prices & variety of protection. On a hot weather, leathers are super uncomfortable while offering their best protection & they're the common ones as well. It's very difficult to conclude that full gauntlets with knuckle protection offers the best protection & short mesh gloves are least because every rider, riding style & even the mishaps are different & no one knows when, where & how the impact occurs. Unlike jackets, there's no all season gloves, unfortunately. Even the acclaimed dry star Alpinestar isn't comfortable in summer, atleast in TN summers. From my experience, they didn't last long as much as SPG or even Fieldsheer. So how does one choose the gloves? For anyone starting out, try wearing the gloves in a store & then opt to buy rather than even trying out a friend's gloves. Why? Because as one wears the gloves, it wears off adjusting to their hands. So a fresh out of factory gloves is the one to try & see if it suits. These days, even with online purchases, if the tags remain intact, one can avail return or replacement policy if the fit is imperfect.

Shoes
Short, long, water proof or even goretex are plenty of choices to select from. Again, there's no one shoe that can be used all through the year, although I've used Roam from A* in super hot summers in TN keeping my legs soaked in sweat & semi dry during rains. One problem to note is like the rain gear article, water certainly will seep through the upper portion of the shoes causing the legs to be soaked in water. If you're riding for over 8-10 hours with legs soaked, pls be assured the skin to be peeling (atleast twice in my case) off after the ride. This is the reality of rain boots, but don't let that deter you from buying one as it's absolutely worthy of riding through rains. Even the same size in different brands matters a lot from my experience, so one SHOULD try out the shoes before buying one for prolonged usage. Short shoes, if that's your thing, should be good enough if your journey is going to be a mix of riding + a little amount of walking because the long/touring boots offer little to almost no comfort in walking but leaves you a misconception of invincibleness even with road roller over your legs!! This is why they offer the best protection on ankles & toes making them move only few mm here & there inside. But whatever shoes one buys, a good pair of SOCKS are must, must & must!! No wearing shoes without socks. If possible, choose a Coolmax or equivalent fabric material

Riding Pants
Like jackets, mesh, leather, textile & even Goretex materials are available including all season with 2 inner liners consisting for cold weather & rain protection; and like jackets, if one needs to stay dry in rains - use car!! Period!! No amount of protective riding gears can save anyone from the wrath of Nature. All other points mentioned for jackets are applicable for pants as well. But a special note has to mentioned on Kevlar, that's more popular with riding pants than jackets. This man made fabric (which is used as bullet proof material once) is now serving as a good abrasive resistance material with riding gears. The original Kevlar's are very expensive (remember they stop firing bullet) & are used as protective material at reinforcement points such as knees to minimize the impact of mishaps. A cooler looking jeans made of kevlar will make you look normal when you enter the coffee shop unlike an astronaut who jumped off a shuttle!!

Extras & Good to Have's

Balaclava - Whether it keeps one stay cooler or not, keeps the stink away from helmet for a little prolonged period than using helmet directly on head + helps wearing a good quality helmet - easy-in, easy-out; helps to keep the ears straight after wearing as well. If the fabric is Coolmax, sweat absorption & soaking sweat is relative less. Since its helmet, opening the visor & letting some cool air in helps to keep off sweat a little, sweat soaking is much unlikely compared to wearing a rain boots in summer.

Chest & Kidney protectors - As the name suggests, these armors do their job; but if there's a question whether one absolutely needs or not - it's good to have as much as protection as possible; but again it becomes like individual's choice whether they need to have additional insurance on house, fire & natural calamity!!

Bionic armors - Helps to look like an alien out of the planet!! Personally, to me, wearing a bionic armor reveals a lot about the person; I've not seen anyone in the riding circle seen wearing one until now, so unsure how much protection it offers.

Some FAQs

• Do I need to change helmet every 5 years? How do I know when to change?
  Yes, good to change, but we never know what might happen or how much protection one gets after a fall
• Do I need to change armors every 5 years? How do I know when to change?
  Armor inserts tend to break into several pieces, which is when the armors needs to be changed
• Do I need to change gloves, jacket & riding pants also after XX years?
  If the jacket is not torn or holed anywhere, any single place, then it can be put to prolonged usage
• How about boots & how to select them?
  Boots tend to get worn out which is when they're to be replaced. It's better to buy a boot covering ankle covering the tibia as well rather than short boots. But if you're someone who walks after reaching a destination & don't want to carry sneakers, then short boots is preferred.
• Do I need to get a mesh, textile or leather jacket?
  Thumb rule is leather is expensive offers best abrasive resistance, mesh & textile slightly less nevertheless than leather; if you think wearing a leather jacket with kevlar jeans looks like a cool person, go for it!! Identify what matters more - cool looking or hot weather or less maintenance or most importantly budget friendly. That should get you narrowed down to some form or other
• What type of gloves to choose?
  More protection or less protection? More - Gauntlet, not doubt, less - short gloves, budget friendly - mesh & other types.

[Romins]

Some tips for monsoon rides:
Wear a surgical glove inside the leather gloves, it will keep your hands dry and clean. Also it protects from cold winter.

If you lost the water proofing ability of riding shoes, apply candle wax on the shoes liberally and use a hair dryer to melt it. The wax will close the pores and it will give you another couple of months of life. You need patience for this process.

I usually wear a long plastic cover over the socks, so that my feet will be dry and avoid dead skin after 8hrs of ride.

[warrioraks]

Though not exactly riding gear, I would say invest in good quality leg guards. One of the most under-rated things to have. For some reason, even experienced riders don’t give it the attention it deserves.

[Pferdestarke]

Why should one invest in good quality riding gear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_xhHlLLJMI

The following video shows how exactly the protective gear fends the rider during a crash. Very cleverly highlighted the points of impact, areas prone to grazing and how it's taken care of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPvOomaFR2g

After watching these two videos, I can't think of budgeting small and cheaping out on riding gear. Will definitely invest in good gear henceforth.