Riding Gear

The helmet gets all the attention, but a crash rarely lands only on your head. Your hands go out to break the fall, your shoulders and elbows hit first, your ankles roll, and your skin meets the road at whatever speed you were doing. Riding gear—a proper jacket, gloves and boots—is the layer that decides whether a low-side is a bad day or a hospital stay. The good news is that the protection now comes built in to gear you’d actually want to wear: CE-rated armor at the impact points, abrasion-resistant shells, and weatherproofing that means you don’t have to choose between staying dry and staying protected.

What “CE armor” and the ratings actually mean

The single most useful thing to understand before you buy is CE certification, because it is the one objective protection standard on the spec sheet. Two European norms cover most road gear. EN 1621rates the armor—the hard or foam protectors at the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and back. Level 1 armor passes a lower impact-transmission threshold; Level 2 transmits less force and is the higher rating. EN 17092rates the whole garment for abrasion, tear and seam strength, from Class A (the lowest street rating) up through AAA (the highest). When a jacket says “CE Level 1 shoulder and elbow armor, EN 17092 Class A shell,” that is a real, checkable claim—and when a maker doesn’t state the level, we write “Not published” instead of assuming. Our ATGATT guide explains the armor levels in plain English and why the back protector is the piece most people forget to buy.

Jackets: match the gear to the weather you ride in

There is no single “best” jacket, only the best jacket for your climate. A mesh jacket flows air for hot-weather riding but offers no rain protection. A waterproof laminatetouring jacket keeps you dry through a downpour and, with a zip-out thermal liner, stretches across three seasons—at the cost of being warmer in peak summer. A leather jacket is the abrasion benchmark but is heavy and hot. Our best motorcycle jackets roundup splits the picks by climate so you buy for how you actually ride, not for a photo.

Gloves and boots: the parts people cheap out on

Gloves are the most-used and most-skipped piece of gear. Your hands instinctively brace in a fall, so a hard knuckle protector, a leather or reinforced palm, and—on a full sport glove—a gauntlet cuff that covers the wrist are worth having. Touchscreen fingertips are what make a good glove something you’ll actually wear every ride. Our gloves roundup compares sport, summer and urban options on CE level and cuff length.

Boots protect the ankle—a joint that rolls and crushes easily and heals slowly. A good riding boot adds a TPU ankle brace, a reinforced heel and toe, and a sole that won’t deform, while still being walkable enough that you’ll wear it off the bike. Our boots roundup ranks sport-touring and short sport boots on protection and how comfortable they actually are on foot.

How we compare gear

Every piece is judged on the same things: its material (leather, textile, laminate, or mesh), its armor(which protectors are included and to what CE level), whether it’s waterproof, and a live price. We don’t claim to have crash-tested anything—nobody honest has—so we compare on the published certifications and construction, and we say plainly where the cheaper option is the smarter buy. If you’re starting from nothing, the first-gear checklist is the place to begin; it builds a full head-to-toe setup one piece at a time.