Besides a helmet what else is a must when riding a motorcycle?

Question

Besides a helmet what else is a must when riding a motorcycle?

Answer 1

Gloves, Jacket, Boots, and Armored Pants if You value Your skin.

Answer 2

a good jacket with body armor, gloves & boots.

Honda CBR rider

Answer 3

A head to put the helmet on?

Answer 4

My husband rides...

I am going to get some thumbs-down for this from the younger people.

I guess black,flaky skin is hot these days. Roadburn sucks.

Anyway...

My husband isn't a kid. He's 27. He wears his helmet, leather motorcycle jacket, leather chaps, and combat boots. He puts a roadguard vest over the top of the jacket most of the time, too. Under the chaps, he wears blue jeans.

He had an accident in 2006. A car swerved into his lane and turned a quick corner.

His apparel saved his life. No roadburn. No cracked skull. Just a bruised ligament.

Answer 5

Nothing else is a must, but if you are sensible, there are other things to wear. A Motorcycle jacket, with armor at the shoulders, back, elbows, and lots of ventilation, purpose-made motorcycle gloves, boots that are at least over the ankle. You may want to consider motorcycle pants/over pants,  with hip, thigh, knee and coccyx protection, and remember ordinary jeans are nearly worthless as accident protection. So basically you want the full Power Ranger look. Its FUNCTIONAL, not Fashionable! Id suggest either the HI-VIZ yellow, or the yellow and black color schemes, since yellow and black as a combination are highly visible, do not chose black alone, unless you are bullet proof, since it doesn't stand out enough.

Other thing as the weather gets colder, long underwear, (jacket liner, or warm sweater for layering), shirt made from a particularly good fabric at absorbing and evaporating moisture.

Note that COTTON is particularly bad, at absorbing and transporting moisture, it tends to just get soggy. (When you do a load of laundry, if your socks are the last thing to dry, change to wool-based socks.  :-)

Wool is a champion at moisture transport, but if the weather is hot, drink MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED, dehydrating just 2% can make you dangerous on the road. You can make more frequent stops than the occasional gas stop, to avoid dehydration, can't you?

Answer 6

goggles, glasses or a mask for your eyes. and dont forget the biker wave.

Answer 7

Is a helmet a must?  I've ridden tens of thousands of miles without.  I think the only must is clean shorts.

Answer 8

Eye protection - helmet face shield or glasses

Answer 9

I wear

Leather jacket

ICON field armor bac protector/vest

Full gauntlet style gloves

Joe rocket boots

Lether sport riding pants w/pucks

Answer 10

motorcycles are legally required to have their lights on 24 hours a day.

Answer 11

the bare minimum would be gloves ,boots, jacket with armor in either textile or leather and for summer a mesh ,leather chaps or riding pants

Answer 12

Legally depends on the State or Country that you are riding in.

Most riders will agree on the helmet, but there are Lot's to chose from.  

Eye Protection - that is eye protection that is IMPACT resistant - those shades may look cool, but will they shatter the first time you hit a bug at 75mph?

Good footwear - boots (with the exception of the tires on you bike and the kickstand your feet should be the only thing that makes contact with the road.  A good pair of boots that go over the ankle in my opinion is a must)

Gloves - One of the other answers above spelled it out, if you fall off the bike be it a 10 mph or higher having gloves on may save your hands.  

pants - Good denim jeans are fine for most rides, if you want to get chaps or other form of protective leg-wear you will thank yourself after a crash.  

Jacket - good quality leather jacket or new high tech armor - either way it's better than a tee-shirt.

Answer 13

LOTS of life ins.

Answer 14

A MOTORCYCLE

Answer 15

Sit round the right way, lol.......waterproof but windproof light but tough armoured flexible clothing and some decent boots and gloves!  otherwise when the weather changes you will regret it when your out and about down the twisties or at that nice summer meeting place.

Answer 16

GLOVES!!!!!! No matter how slow you crash, your hands will be skinned, its instinct to put your hands down when wrecking... I was out of work for weeks because i had my left palm skinned in a 10 mph crash!!! Boots and a minimum of jeans and thick jacket..... the ground hurts.....

Answer 17

Keep your headlight on HIGH BEAM during daytime.   #1 cause of motorcycle crashes is car drivers who don't see ya coming.  You can spend a lot on protective clothing, but all it will do is save you some rash.  Research in Germany by a guy named Dietmar Otte shows that protective clothing and boots and all won't prevent broken bones.  Wear a full face helmet with hard, energy absorbing foam in the chin region (not all just soft, spongy stuff) and a face shield.  Finally, always carry your health insurance card.  If you crash without it, you might get carted from hospital to hospital before you find one that will take you.