Motorcycle Clothing Safety Standards
Not all motorcycle gear is created equal. Personal protective equipment, PPE, like jackets, gloves, chaps, helmets, and boots are manufactured to help keep motorcycle riders safe in the event of a motorcycle accident. Like most consumer goods, some are manufactured to meet higher standards than others. But what level of quality is necessary to protect the average motorcyclist?
What Protective Clothing Does
Protective clothing is intended to protect your body during a motorcycle crash. Specifically, protective clothing limits the amount of damage caused by sliding along the road when your bike hits the ground at high speeds. Road rash, or the scraping of skin, muscles, and even bone along the pavement, is a serious source of injuries for motorcyclists involved in an accident. Not only does road rash create serious injuries for the rider, but it also deposits stones, dirt, debris and bacteria deep into tissue that can lead to serious infection and medical complications after the crash. Road rash can complicate the repair and healing of fractured bones and can require skin grafting and multiple surgeries to correct.
Protective clothing also protects the motorcyclist from burns from the exhaust pipes of the motorcycle and any other vehicle involved in the crash. This can be especially helpful in instances when a rider is trapped beneath wreckage for a period of time until rescue personnel arrive and can free him.
What Protective Clothing Does NOT Do
Protective clothing does not shield a rider from the impact of a motorcycle accident. It does not prevent fractures and cannot protect your internal organs from the impact of a high-energy crash. If you collide with an object or another vehicle, or if you are thrown from the bike, protective clothing may limit your surface injuries, but it will not prevent serious, life-threatening injuries from occurring.
The only exception to the rule is in the case of helmets, which are designed to protect the head and face from fractures and the forces of impact that occur during a crash. Helmets significantly limit the amount of brain damage sustained during a motorcycle accident and should be worn at all times when riding.
Because protective clothing is limited in the amount of protection it realistically can provide in the event of a crash, many riders consider protective clothing to be optional, and while some may choose to wear goggles, glasses, a leather jacket, chaps, and a helmet, motorcycle enthusiasts in general seldom use full protective clothing. However, those who cringe at the thought of their skin grinding along the surface of the road or enduring hours of being trapped under a burning exhaust pipe, tend to opt for more protective gear rather than less.
Outside of the CE (Conformite European) standards placed on protective clothing, there are little restrictions or standards for what passes as motorcycle personal protective gear. In fact, many experts abroad have voiced concern and outrage at the lack of standardization for PPE for motorcyclists. This lack of standardization has led to a lapse in production standards that truly fails to do bikers justice in providing the quality of protective gear possible with today’s research and technology. Most manufacturers are content to provide CE approved clothing, and nothing more.
This leaves safety-conscious motorcyclists to pick and choose for themselves in locating high-quality PPE clothing that provides maximum comfort, safety, and function. Visit a motorcycle accessory specialist near you to discuss what options are available to meet your individual safety needs.
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