Four-year-old helmet, borrowed jacket, work gloves
You are getting ready for a Sunday ride and your kit is a mixture. Your helmet is a fibreglass full-face bought new four years ago; last weekend it fell from the pillion seat onto asphalt while you were packing, and there is a scuff on the shell but no visible crack. On the shelf stands a second helmet bought at a flea market, one size too large, with an unknown history and a cloudy visor. Your textile jacket fits, has CE Level 1 shoulder and elbow armour and an empty back-protector pocket, and the seam under the right armpit has begun to open. Your gloves are thin leather work gloves with no palm sliders. Your boots are stiff hiking boots with long laces. The forecast is 26 °C and sunny. A friend suggests riding in a t-shirt and shorts 'because it is only 40 km of country road at 60 km/h'.
1. Which helmet do you wear, and how do the drop, the age and the fit each affect the decision?
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A helmet is built to absorb one impact. The shell may look untouched, but the energy-absorbing liner can be compressed or cracked by a fall from pillion-seat height onto asphalt, and an empty helmet still carries its own mass into the impact. Most manufacturers state that a helmet should be replaced after any impact, and after roughly five years of use, because sweat, UV and cleaning agents degrade the liner and shell resins. Your own helmet therefore has two strikes against it: an impact plus four years of use.
The flea-market helmet fails on fit and on history: a helmet one size too large can roll off the head in a slide, and an unknown past may hide a previous impact. The answer is a new, correctly sized helmet with a current approval marking such as ECE 22.06, cheek pads snug, and the strap tight enough that the helmet cannot be rolled forward off your head. A cloudy, scratched visor also destroys night and low-sun vision, so replace it.
2. What is wrong with the jacket and the t-shirt plan at 60 km/h?
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At 60 km/h a rider who comes off slides for tens of metres, and textile abrasion protection only works while the outer shell and its seams stay intact. An open seam under the armpit is exactly where the jacket will burst on first contact, so it must be repaired or the jacket replaced before it is relied on. The empty back-protector pocket means no spinal protection; fit a CE-rated back protector, ideally Level 2 for open-road speeds. Level 1 armour is a reasonable minimum, Level 2 is better if you ride at 80–90 km/h.
A t-shirt and shorts give roughly a metre of sliding before skin is gone. Heat is not a reason: mesh and ventilated jackets are made for 26 °C. Wear the jacket fully zipped - an open jacket acts as a scoop and can also inflate and lift - and zip it to the trousers if the jacket has a connection zip.
3. Explain what you do about gloves and footwear, and why it matters more than it looks.
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Hands reach the road first: a rider instinctively puts an arm out. Work gloves have no palm slider, no knuckle protection and stitching that fails at low speed, so the palm and wrist take the abrasive load directly. Buy motorcycle gloves with a CE rating, a hard palm slider, knuckle armour and a wrist strap that tightens so the glove cannot be pulled off in a slide.
Hiking boots grip a footpeg but have a soft, flexible ankle, no crush protection and long laces. A lace looped over a lever or peg at a stop is a stationary drop, and a boot that comes off in a slide leaves the ankle exposed. Motorcycle boots give reinforced ankles and heels, an oil-resistant sole and either no laces or a secured lace garage. Add earplugs for the wind noise on a 40 km ride; hearing damage is cumulative and unnoticed until it is permanent.