First, the bad news if you’re planning on updating your motorcycle gear: You can bet on spending at least $1, 000, probably more. Yes, it’s expensive. But the right gear is so important that it should be the first priority for your budget. You can have just as much fun on an older, less powerful motorcycle. But with gear, there is a non-negotiable base price for stuff that works. Besides, the comfort, safety, and mental clarity you get from buying the right gear will pay you back in riding fun. It’s also usually cheaper than hitting your health insurance’s deductible.
We’ve purchased most of our gear online, usually from Revzilla, which we link to several places below. But if you’re near a good shop, it can be worth the trip to ensure you get this stuff in the correct fit. Different brands of helmets, for example, accommodate different head shapes. And finding the right one in a store the first time is easier than dealing with return labels. Among our favorite establishments: Union Garage (New York), See See Motorcycles (Portland, Oregon), Scuderia West (San Francisco), and Dainese D Store (Los Angeles and New York).
Here, we give specific recommendations for the essentials, with actionable advice for how to shop for and wear each piece of equipment. We focus on gear that’s substantial enough to prevent injuries but subtle enough to wear in public without looking like a Star Trek extra. Most of this gear we’ve worn ourselves while riding, and anything we haven’t, we relied on our familiarity and experience with motorcycling to make sure they earned their spots on this list.
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Helmets can cost 50 bucks or thousands of dollars, but price doesn’t directly correlate to safety. Any new helmet from an established company (Shoei, AGV, Bell) with a Department of Transportation certification sticker will meet industry-regulated crash standards and protect you—other certifications like Snell and ECE are so contentious and confusing that understanding them isn’t worth most riders’ time. Stick to known brands, and you’ll be safe. Spending more than $150 or so gets you into helmets that are lighter, quieter, and are generally more comfortable than entry-level models. If you’re on a budget, Icon’s Airform is a solid value. You can opt for an open-face, 3/4, or half helmet, like you might see people wear on Vespas. But on motorcycles, the majority of head injuries from accidents happen around the jaw, which makes the case for buying a full-face.
Replace your helmet after a crash, drop, or five years. Why five? After that time, the adhesive that holds it together and helps it correctly dissipate the force of an impact decays. For that same reason, you should never buy a used helmet. If you can, visit a shop to try on different brands. Some fit different head shapes better than others.
Unless we’re testing competitors, this is the helmet we reach for. Its vents are effective at regulating airflow and easy to open and close with gloves. The dimensions provide an exceptional field-of-view. And it comes with a visor system (call “Pinlock”) that’s almost impossible to fog up. But the 1400’s biggest advantage over other, more expensive helmets we’ve tested is its aerodynamics. Small raised sections on the sides help break up passing air, reducing drag, while the oversized cheek pads and an included chin cover block noise from reaching your ears. It’s so effective that the RF-1400 is one of the only helmets we’ve tested that, below highway speeds, is so quiet you can wear it without earplugs. Other, less expensive helmets will do the job, but the RF-1400 justifies its price.
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For an upgrade, we recommend the AGV Sportmodular. The flip-up visor and chin bar design is more popular in Europe than in the United States, and the Euros are onto something. It’s surprisingly convenient to open the face when you want to talk to friends at a stop light or need a wider field-of-view to negotiate a tight parking spot. The carbon-fiber shell offsets the flip-up mechanisms’ extra weight, making the Sportmodular exceptionally light (just over three pounds) and comfortable on long rides.
If you don’t ride, blocking out noises like car horns and engines can sound like a bad idea. But a good pair of ear plugs will still let you hear everything you need while blocking out wind noise, which will make you miserable on a long ride and could permanently damage your hearing.
Disposable plugs like the Laser Lites—while not made specifically for riding—are excellent because they block a lot of noise, and the bright colors make them easy to find in the depths of a bag or on your bike seat. Being disposable also introduces a hygienic aspect, since you’re not meant to hang onto them forever and let them build up crud.
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For reusable earplugs, we like the Motorsport. Unlike disposable earplugs, which can make your ears feel uncomfortably blocked, these have a filter to let in specific sound pitches. You can hear your helmet intercom and sirens, but wind or exhaust is muted. The cone design can still be uncomfortable for some ear shapes, but these fit most people well enough to be all-day comfortable. Just remember to wash them with soap and water between rides.
When you fall and instinctively (though in futility) try to catch yourself, your hands will likely hit the ground first. Motorcycle-specific gloves have reinforced palms and knuckles to absorb the impact, and slide on the pavement. That means that, rather than gripping the asphalt and likely hyperextending or breaking your wrist, your hands slide with the rest of your (protected) body until you stop. Spending above $100 generally means you’ll get those, plus ergonomic stitching that preserves your dexterity. Make sure your gloves have a wrist strap, which keeps them secured if you go down.
We like Racer’s High Speed gloves for the quality of the leather and stitching, which has an ideal balance of protective rigidity and flexibility so you can work the throttle and levers. More importantly, Racer’s lineup prioritizes palm sliders. Besides helping protect against hyperextension and dissipating impact, those bits of plastic are comfortably incorporated into the design, so you don’t notice it while riding.
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The idea behind this unusual design is that 2.75-ounce deerskin, stitched with as few seams as possible for fewer weak points, provides better protection than carbon-fiber armor, which can fracture and cause worse injury. We haven’t crash-tested a pair of these gloves yet, but the reinforced palm is confidence-inspiring, as is the D3O knuckle armor in this particular version. And, as other reviewers have concurred, these are the most comfortable gloves we’ve ever tested. The leather feels like a second skin, and our test pair has improved with use since we started riding with them in early 2020. Except for when the temperature drops below freezing, this has been our go-to glove.
Your choice here is leather or textile. Leather is heavier and, arguably, more protective—pro racers wear leather one-piece suits, and chances are that even after a wreck, leather equipment will still be in good enough shape that you can keep using it. Textile is lighter, less expensive, and won’t cook you as you’re sitting in traffic under the summer sun. Whichever you choose, you’ll ride more confidently if your motorcycle jacket has armor—padded inserts for your back, shoulders, and elbows.
Most armor is heavy and doesn’t breathe well, but companies now sell alternatives made with special plastics that make them thin, light, and porous. D3O is the best-known example, sold in jackets from companies like Klim and Aether. In D3O armor, the molecules are pliable when at rest, so a back protector can flex with your posture, and a glove’s knuckles conform to your grip. But when those molecules are subjected to a certain threshold of force—say, during a fall—they bind into a rigid structure that diffuses impact. Companies like Dainese, REV’IT, and Alpinestars have their own armor that’s also flexible, breathable, and certified by Conformité Européenne (CE), which is similar to a helmet’s DOT approval. We haven’t crash-tested D3O or similar armor, but we believe in the CE ratings and its use in other fields, such as the U.S. military.
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Airbags that inflate around the rider’s torso in a crash have existed for decades, mostly in professional racing. Now, companies like Dainese and Alpinestars are selling self-contained airbag jackets that can fit underneath any motorcycle apparel. Unlike older models that have a tether attached to the bike to trigger inflation, the Dainese Smart Jacket and Alpinestars Tech Air 5 System use gyroscopes and accelerometers to detect a crash and deploy automatically. Because the airbag is thicker than armor, it can actually absorb an impact, rather than simply diffuse it.
While we would prefer to ride with an airbag versus without one, they’re expensive. Besides the $700 starting price, if yours deploys, you have to send it back to Dainese or Alpinestars to refill the brand-specific argon canister and reset it. This costs $250 (Dainese) and $300 (Alpinestars). One lower-tech alternative is the Helite Turtle 2. Unlike
For reusable earplugs, we like the Motorsport. Unlike disposable earplugs, which can make your ears feel uncomfortably blocked, these have a filter to let in specific sound pitches. You can hear your helmet intercom and sirens, but wind or exhaust is muted. The cone design can still be uncomfortable for some ear shapes, but these fit most people well enough to be all-day comfortable. Just remember to wash them with soap and water between rides.
When you fall and instinctively (though in futility) try to catch yourself, your hands will likely hit the ground first. Motorcycle-specific gloves have reinforced palms and knuckles to absorb the impact, and slide on the pavement. That means that, rather than gripping the asphalt and likely hyperextending or breaking your wrist, your hands slide with the rest of your (protected) body until you stop. Spending above $100 generally means you’ll get those, plus ergonomic stitching that preserves your dexterity. Make sure your gloves have a wrist strap, which keeps them secured if you go down.
We like Racer’s High Speed gloves for the quality of the leather and stitching, which has an ideal balance of protective rigidity and flexibility so you can work the throttle and levers. More importantly, Racer’s lineup prioritizes palm sliders. Besides helping protect against hyperextension and dissipating impact, those bits of plastic are comfortably incorporated into the design, so you don’t notice it while riding.
Plank Variations: How To Switch Up Your Typical Plank
The idea behind this unusual design is that 2.75-ounce deerskin, stitched with as few seams as possible for fewer weak points, provides better protection than carbon-fiber armor, which can fracture and cause worse injury. We haven’t crash-tested a pair of these gloves yet, but the reinforced palm is confidence-inspiring, as is the D3O knuckle armor in this particular version. And, as other reviewers have concurred, these are the most comfortable gloves we’ve ever tested. The leather feels like a second skin, and our test pair has improved with use since we started riding with them in early 2020. Except for when the temperature drops below freezing, this has been our go-to glove.
Your choice here is leather or textile. Leather is heavier and, arguably, more protective—pro racers wear leather one-piece suits, and chances are that even after a wreck, leather equipment will still be in good enough shape that you can keep using it. Textile is lighter, less expensive, and won’t cook you as you’re sitting in traffic under the summer sun. Whichever you choose, you’ll ride more confidently if your motorcycle jacket has armor—padded inserts for your back, shoulders, and elbows.
Most armor is heavy and doesn’t breathe well, but companies now sell alternatives made with special plastics that make them thin, light, and porous. D3O is the best-known example, sold in jackets from companies like Klim and Aether. In D3O armor, the molecules are pliable when at rest, so a back protector can flex with your posture, and a glove’s knuckles conform to your grip. But when those molecules are subjected to a certain threshold of force—say, during a fall—they bind into a rigid structure that diffuses impact. Companies like Dainese, REV’IT, and Alpinestars have their own armor that’s also flexible, breathable, and certified by Conformité Européenne (CE), which is similar to a helmet’s DOT approval. We haven’t crash-tested D3O or similar armor, but we believe in the CE ratings and its use in other fields, such as the U.S. military.
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Airbags that inflate around the rider’s torso in a crash have existed for decades, mostly in professional racing. Now, companies like Dainese and Alpinestars are selling self-contained airbag jackets that can fit underneath any motorcycle apparel. Unlike older models that have a tether attached to the bike to trigger inflation, the Dainese Smart Jacket and Alpinestars Tech Air 5 System use gyroscopes and accelerometers to detect a crash and deploy automatically. Because the airbag is thicker than armor, it can actually absorb an impact, rather than simply diffuse it.
While we would prefer to ride with an airbag versus without one, they’re expensive. Besides the $700 starting price, if yours deploys, you have to send it back to Dainese or Alpinestars to refill the brand-specific argon canister and reset it. This costs $250 (Dainese) and $300 (Alpinestars). One lower-tech alternative is the Helite Turtle 2. Unlike
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