Leathers on the road

Poll: Leathers on the road

Total Members Polled: 172

Never ride without them: 49%
Wear them for longer rides but not local ones: 33%
Thought about them but prefer decent textiles: 12%
Purely for racers and posers: 7%
Author
Discussion

fredd1e

781 posts

219 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
I swing either way and sometimes both at the same time

Spanna

3,732 posts

175 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Leather jacket. I do have a textIle one, but biking is only a fair weather thing for me now as I don't need to commute so that doesn't get used.

I'm never on a superbike or riding quickly either, so it's jeans on the bottom half.

DazzaDoom

180 posts

162 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Always ride with them, BUT, if i had to go to work and back every day on the bike id probably just wear jeans, leather jacket and boots. (like i used to)

Herman Toothrot

6,702 posts

197 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Leather jacket, kevlar jeans - so I suppose I wear leather every time I ride..

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
twizellb said:
y2blade said:
Usually Leather jacket and a pair of denim jeans. With bike boots, gloves and helmet.
This but usually with trainers,
I was of the same mind until while wearing hiking boots broke my right foot in a stupid low speed spill in the wet.

Not saying that is a preachy way, it just pissed me off that my ONLY break in 30+ years happened in such a stupid accident.
biggrin



Go Big or Go Home

GTIR

24,741 posts

265 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Local, leather jacket (and Draggin jeans sometimes), gloves, anything else two piece leathers. I don't own power ranger one piece. They are ghey.

Rick448

1,677 posts

223 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Leathers if I'm off out for a blast. Textiles if I'm going somewhere where I need to sit around when I get there. Eg visiting friends and family. If I had 2 piece leathers I would probably wear them but I don't have any.

daimatt

799 posts

234 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Textile jacket and kevlar jeans if I'm going to work or popping to the shops.
I used to wear my leathers all the time but felt a bit silly walking around town in them.
for focused hoonage it's all leather baby









and when my 'clients' pay the extra for the feel on their skin wink

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
GTIR said:
Local, leather jacket (and Draggin jeans sometimes), gloves, anything else two piece leathers. I don't own power ranger one piece. They are ghey.
Agreed yes
Power-ranger suits are proper ttish on the road

moto_traxport

4,235 posts

220 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Depends on mood. T-shirt and flip-flops through to £1k of Dainese power ranger, body armour etc.

Always wearing the full monty when I fall off so that either means I'm just lucky (if you were bottle fed as a child) or means something else slightly more in depth (if you lunched on the real thing).

Dr Jekyll

Original Poster:

23,820 posts

260 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
I always thought the safety advantage of leathers was just protection from abrasion when sliding along the tarmac rather than from impact. So for a road rider like me whose accidents are likely to be low speed they weren't really relevant. Do they really protect from impact better than textiles?

moto_traxport

4,235 posts

220 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
I always thought the safety advantage of leathers was just protection from abrasion when sliding along the tarmac rather than from impact. So for a road rider like me whose accidents are likely to be low speed they weren't really relevant. Do they really protect from impact better than textiles?
Generally a survivble road accident is a slow speed body armour thing rather than a high speed abrasion thing.

Howevers leathers are better - they hold the armour in the right place, They don't grip so hard at first impact which induces torn stuff. They keep you in roughly the same shape and all together in one bit.

If you were pay me lots of money and jump out of a car as often mentioned on racing commentary I'd definately pick tight fitting race leathers with body armour rather than an anorak with some hard foam in it.

Road crashes don't generally happen on a straight piece of road and all your kinetic energy gets used up fast so anything better is than nothing in a crash.

Or don't crash or take excessive risk of course which is what I was trying to say before.

Rick448

1,677 posts

223 months

Tuesday 24th April 2012
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
I always thought the safety advantage of leathers was just protection from abrasion when sliding along the tarmac rather than from impact. So for a road rider like me whose accidents are likely to be low speed they weren't really relevant. Do they really protect from impact better than textiles?
I'd suggest that textiles with body armour fitted will protect as well as leathers for impact. But as you say leathers will protect better for abrasion. You don't have to be going very fast to need good abrasion qualities. Especially if you end up under the bike sliding.

Mike600F

1,049 posts

155 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
Herman Toothrot said:
Leather jacket, kevlar jeans - so I suppose I wear leather every time I ride..
+1

but zip in leather trousers if i'm hooning it.

Leather trousers do make the kevlar jeans feel like knit-wear though - anyone had an off with kevlar jeans and can report how they fared?

mr wiki

373 posts

205 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
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There was an abrasion test done a few months ago in ride mag, I'll post a snap up when I get a second

mr wiki

373 posts

205 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
As I said, in Ride mag last year, done in a lab, abrasion test.

Tesco Jeans - 0.16s
Levis jeans - 0.56s
Textiles - 0.71s
Woven Kevlar - 1.39s
Knitted Kevlar - 3.07s
Leather Jeans - 4.74s




mr wiki

373 posts

205 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
bloody thing, god knows why its upside down. smash

Efbe

9,251 posts

165 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
arghhh, my neck!!!!!!!!

TimmyWimmyWoo

4,305 posts

180 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
Textile jacket (HG Master one with woven kevlar bits in it) and textile trousers most of the time.

If it's summer then I'll wear a leather jacket and kevlar jeans, or my textile jacket and kevlar jeans. I have some Triumph leather trousers with kneesliders, but I tend to ride like a tt and spill tea over strangers with them on.

RizzoTheRat

25,084 posts

191 months

Wednesday 25th April 2012
quotequote all
That ride mag report is a little bit miss leading though as it doesn't give the spec of the "textiles". I can't find the report but I've seen a comparison of cordura where the thinnest spec wasn't a lot better than denim but the heaviest gave a better abrasion resistance than leather.