What to wear?

[Ken4004]

You mean you wouldnt use full Belstaffs?

I haven't got about a thousand pounds for what used to be despatch riders staple, I just about FLED from their shop in London's Spitalfields market!   

I bought my leather trousers and jacket off ebay and had them 20 years now, both Scott leathers in really good condition when I bought them .
I think the jacket was around £50 - £60 and the trousers were around  £40.
I thought it was worth trying them out as I could always re sell them if I e Ed other didn’t like like them or they didn’t fit but luckily enough perfect in both respects.
Both had very little wear do a bargain so there’s no need to skimp on safety .

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

1976 Heat Wave, for me that was a great year, I met my future wife.
The spring fed  pond next to my parents house completely dried up for the first time in the memory of the farmer who owned it.(He was in his nineties)

Everyone's lawn was brown, hose pipe ban, car washes were closed. Everyone's car locally was covered in dust.
Don't remember wild fires, probably as at that time farmers burnt fields of  stubble.
We didn't blame global warming allegedly man made, no TV warnings about not swimming in the rivers or sea, did we have more common sense back then?

[florence]

I wear leathers, gloves, armoured trousers and bike boots even if I just go to the village to go to the shops.  Last Friday when I came home from riding to work, 40 mile round trip, my shirt under my jacket was completely soaked and getting trousers off was very difficult.  I would not consider riding in anything less and simply put up with being hot.  The heat isn't really any trouble when in motion and much more fun than when it is raining, foggy or icy as it will be again in a few months time.

[Laverda Dave]

My choice of attire on days like these (and I'm out on the RE Interceptor at the moment, just stopped off in Burnham Beeches for a bacon bap and a latte) is a pair of Red Route denim jeans for bikers with AA hip and knee armour (about £100 three years ago and purchased from J&S) and a light grey Oxford Arizona Air jacket (A rated) cost around £140 last year with a AAA rated back protector that was another £35. The jacket is a godsend, fits like a glove and allows plenty of airflow. I don't feel the back protector as it's the latest lightweight type and not the heavy, solid inflexible plastic of years gone by. Boots are short length Daytona and fitted fine straight out of the box with no painful breaking in.
I wear all this gear but the thousands of half witted scooter riders that swam everywhere in London ride in shorts, tees, flip flops and no gloves and that's just not in summer either!
As for Scott leathers, they unfortunately folded a month or so ago with the owner saying it was because of the cheap leathers now coming in from the far east.

[Ken4004]

Thats a shame about Scott leather shutting down , another great British icon goes to the wall, Scott leathers had a great racing heritage.

I used to have a blue Lewis Leathers  Manx style jacket with a 38 in chest which I wore 40 years ago when I was a bit slimmer.It was in the loft for years when I grew out of it and I forgot it was up there, anyway decided to sell it on EBay a couple of years ago and didn’t realise how collectible it was.
I put it up for auction and got £175 for it from a guy in the states, if think I paid £100 for it in the early eighties, which makes me think that my Scott leathers might become valuable if they are no longer in business, you never know !

[Athame57]

1976 Heat Wave, for me that was a great year, I met my future wife.
The spring fed  pond next to my parents house completely dried up for the first time in the memory of the farmer who owned it.(He was in his nineties)

Everyone's lawn was brown, hose pipe ban, car washes were closed. Everyone's car locally was covered in dust.
Don't remember wild fires, probably as at that time farmers burnt fields of  stubble.
We didn't blame global warming allegedly man made, no TV warnings about not swimming in the rivers or sea, did we have more common sense back then?

Sometimes it was hotter in UK than Gibraltar where I was stationed as a young soldier. No, we didn't blame global warming or climate change, or Franco either! When in the history of this plane did the climate stand still?

[TrickyMicky]

Oh Yes, Lewis Leathers. My new wife and I had matching outfits. Yellow Sportsman jackets in horsehide, nice soft leather jeans from Rivetts of Leytonstone along with soft leather 3/4 length boots, and Everoak Grand Prix helmets.   If the photos attach(!!), it's 1975, looking at new housebuild, new CB750 (GME 1N). The other photo shows that the jacket is still available, but Holy S--T, I paid nowhere near that for the new 750.

[TrickyMicky]

OOPS!! 2nd pic should have been this.

[Laverda Dave]

I've still got my Kett leather jacket I bought when I was 17 and first started biking on my CB160. It was a 38inch chest, a bit on the small side now considering I do a daily workout with my Bullworker (although sometimes I do struggle to get it out of the box) 😳. Some things you just can't throw away.

[Eldrick]

I literally teach my CBT students
"Dress for the slide not the pride - Gear up before you ride!"
I am aghast that any rider would go out in shorts and T-shirts let alone a mature rider.

[Otis]

Eldrick, that is precisely the reason I provoked the discussion in the first place.

You are absolutely right and wise to educate young riders but I personally have had some nasty spills on a bicycle in my earlier days. Nobody ever criticises a cyclist for wearing shorts and a tee shirt but every motorcyclist is immediately considered "insane". As a now mature motorcyclist I spend much time along the coastal road between Chichester and Brighton. Very very rarely is it permissible to exceed 30mph and most journeys are less than that. Whilst I try to balance protection with enjoyment I sometimes feel that the default position of protection at all cost is just symptomatic of today's nanny agenda. I sincerely believe that there are times and places whereby enjoyment and comfort should outweigh the dogged necessity to protect.

[SteveD CB500K0]

1976 Heat Wave, for me that was a great year, I met my future wife.

Me too!

Our first date was 1st June 1976. We went down the pub on my CB125S. If I remember correctly I wore a Wrangler denim jacket and jeans. She wore a rather fetching off-the-shoulder sundress…

Been married 45 years in August. 


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[Otis]

1976 Heat Wave, for me that was a great year, I met my future wife.

Me too!

Our first date was 1st June 1976. We went down the pub on my CB125S. If I remember correctly I wore a Wrangler denim jacket and jeans. She wore a rather fetching off-the-shoulder sundress…

Been married 45 years in August. 

What a fabulous story and huge congratulations; I'm just a year behind you



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[Eldrick]

I believe the following to be factual;
30mph is 44 feet per second, sliding up the road with just your skin for 2 seconds will get down to bone.
Some roads are smoother that others so you may be lucky, I personally would not take that risk. Also, with the cyclist, I do think they are mad to be wearing lycra, both as a fashion statement, (who wants clothes that tight  ) and as any form of protection.
Sometimes, we people need protection from ourselves.

[Otis]

I believe the following to be factual;
30mph is 44 feet per second, sliding up the road with just your skin for 2 seconds will get down to bone.
Some roads are smoother that others so you may be lucky, I personally would not take that risk. Also, with the cyclist, I do think they are mad to be wearing lycra, both as a fashion statement, (who wants clothes that tight  ) and as any form of protection.
Sometimes, we people need protection from ourselves.

I totally get where you are coming from but I have to say that I have avoided riding my bike in recent weeks because the misery of discomfort far exceeds the misery of sitting in an air conditioned car in traffic. I want to be Freeee!