My first year of bike gear had a certain style to it, it also happened to be the least expensive stuff I could lay hands on. After the no-name boots and pants I did a second round of gear buying as the summer began. The Alpinestar boots and Macna pants I got were next level, but this year I want to expand my kit to include a more traditional biker look; it’s time for the leather jacket and an alternate helmet.
Since everything else is technicolour, textile and sport-bikey, I’m going for more traditional looking gear this time around. When I’ve eventually got more than one bike I’m hoping that a range of gear lets throw a leg over anything and go.
This time round I’m looking for an open faced helmet for the short commute to work and a leather jacket. My current choices were found on Canada’s Motorcycle, Motorcycle Superstore and Leatherup.ca.
I’ve been looking for a classic motorcycle jacket that does the vertical stripe thing. That look is surprisingly hard to find. Short of going to a Pakistani garment manufacturer directly (along with the perils of ordering that way), they are surprisingly unavailable.
The flat black G-Max helmet is inexpensive and simple. The Shark Soviet looking helmet is cool and expensive. I’ve got gauntlet gloves and mesh gloves, but a pair of black leather gloves would be nice.
Since I started riding I’ve been finding that jeans are handy if I suddenly want to take the bike out. A leather jacket would be a causal but convenient way to quickly get out on two wheels. The full-on textile armoured jacket and pants still do the job for intentional longer rides, but for quick jaunts the leather and denim thing would mean just throwing a leg over a bike, not to mention not looking out of place on a more classic ride. Getting on a Bonneville with the textile race wear looks a bit out of place.
LLeatherup.ca‘s prices look reasonable too. If they get back to me about the weird sizing on that jacket, I’ll be ordering shortly.
