Cost of you protective gear

[siobhan]

At almost 5'9" and 125lbs, my size is never easy to find in America! I usually have to shop online for well-fitted clothing.

Skinny, skinny, tall people should look at Rev'It. It's a Dutch company and sells mainly in Europe. The cut is very "euro". That said, none of their pants fit me (at 5'11" and 135) as they're too short. The link is to Revzilla in Philly. Great shop, everyone rides, great customer service. I visited and walked out with nothing and that was ok with them, even after spending an hour trying on tons of different pants and sitting on the store BMW for fit.

Since you'll be commuting, you may want a one-piece like the Olympia Stealth suit or an Aerostich Roadcrafter. Zip on, zip off in seconds. Get them used as you'll pay big bucks for new.

Now is the time to buy as the deals are really good. A lot of manufacturers allow the resellers to offer discounts of 10-15% at this time of year on non-closeout stuff. And Motorcycle Closeouts (formerly New Enough) is one of the cheapest places to get gear. They have excellent customer service and the employees ride.

[teabow1]

So what's a good Denier count to have? I'm looking at some closeout stuff from Corazzo and one item is 600 Denier. Is that considered normal range? I want to establish a Denier range so I can figure what's considered normal, below average, and above average.

And, I see some items are labelled as CE approved Level 3 armour. What does that "Level" mean? How many levels are there?

Thanks for all this information! It's all very helpful. Next Friday, I take my MSF course Very excited!!

[ericalm]

Well… 600 is a mid-weight. As I said, not all 600D (or 800 or 1000) is created equal, though. I have a 600D Corazzo Tempeste and it's great and survived two crashes. (It tore at the chest pocket at some point. It may have been open during crash #2.) Neither of those involved serious slides, though.

CE armor is certified to meet certain EU standards. Level 3 is the highest, intended to offer the highest amount of impact protection.

Armor can only do so much, though and the force of impact has to be absorbed somewhere. The secondary purpose of the armor is to offer additional abrasion resistance for those vulnerable joint and other areas.

Also, the back armor in many jackets with CE in the elbows and shoulders is not CE. Back armor can be very bulky and can have a big affect on fit and comfort, so some jackets had more flexible and thinner foam. You can always upgrade it.

[teabow1]

At almost 5'9" and 125lbs, my size is never easy to find in America! I usually have to shop online for well-fitted clothing.

Skinny, skinny, tall people should look at Rev'It. It's a Dutch company and sells mainly in Europe. The cut is very "euro". That said, none of their pants fit me (at 5'11" and 135) as they're too short. The link is to Revzilla in Philly. Great shop, everyone rides, great customer service. I visited and walked out with nothing and that was ok with them, even after spending an hour trying on tons of different pants and sitting on the store BMW for fit.

Since you'll be commuting, you may want a one-piece like the Olympia Stealth suit or an Aerostich Roadcrafter. Zip on, zip off in seconds. Get them used as you'll pay big bucks for new.

Holy!! So there IS an online store in the U.S. for people like me! YESSS!!! Yeah, close to 5'9" and 125lbs with about a 31" inseam and 29 - 30" waist (used to be 28" but all that inactivity lately...!!). I do have shorter arms than someone of my stature though, but who cares...not fitting for a suit!

[cdwise]

I've got a variety of gear but what I ride with most:

Nolan N43 Trilogy $169 - getting a helmet that fits your head = priceless

First Gear Mesh from New Enough (now Motorcycle Closeouts for $79, three seaon jacket on closeout, bought an armored jeans jacket from Jafrom for my son on sale for $49.

Gloves, I've used bicycle gloves through Alpinstar at prices ranging from $8 at Wal-Mart to $49 at various places.

Pants, mostly jeans or canvas but I've also used overpants from Jafrum and New Enough (above) with armor from $49

Boots, mostly what I already had but bought a really kewl pair of boots at the Lone Star Rally in Galveston for $99. I'd have bought them just to wear even if they weren't riding boots.

[michelle_7728]

Gerbings heated gloves $299
Scorpion EXO-900 $279
Scorpion Fury women's jacket $319
Armored pants (on sale) $100

...and probably around that much again in gear I bought prior to this, before I found what I wanted.

But like Tocik said:

Cost of my protective gear: still less than my life is worth!