What do you wear when it's hot riding your rocket ?

I have Cortech 'mesh' pants and jacket with all the proper armor built in. They flow air like a soup strainer. Temps higher than 90*F I often add a cooling 'evaporative' vest under the jacket. These work surprisingly well(especially in low humidity climates) and can be had for less than $40.
Alpine Star riding 'shoes' and some well vented as well as armored gloves.

Riding in shorts and T's is not only dangerous physically; but also physiologically because the unfettered, rushing hot air quickly dehydrates the body increasing chance for heat stroke.

Dress for the slide, not the ride!

DJ said:

Dress for the slide, not the ride!

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I pretty much wear all my gear all year round and it gets pretty hot here in Queensland, on occasion, after cleaning the bike or something, if it;s a warm evening I will go out in a tee shirt and open face helmet, for a quick 20 minute run. I feel like I am being a very naughty boy which only adds to the pleasure of riding like that... I can see why people would ride naked (like a tee shirt is any better?) if they could.. but the thought of coming unstuck quickly gets me back to my senses, but it is awesome while it lasts. I figure the % of having a problem is like avoiding a heart attack by only eating bacon once a month

Aerostich Darien jacket, Shoei full face, Alpinestars gloves, work pants, my only faux pas would be my work shoes, and my pants, all of this in Tucson AZ. Someone asked me a while back if I was hot, my response was that the ground is way hotter!

Bedifferent said:

Apparently, we are in a different world here in the USA. Most people wear jeans and a t-shirt. I don't recall ever seeing anyone in full leathers on a warm day. The guys I ride with....it's generally jeans and a t-shirt or light jacket. Some wear a helmet when it's warm and some don't. When the temps drop, then a leather jacket and jeans become more standard. As for me, it's my Tour-master Draft Air 2 and jeans on a hot day. Although I'm sure to be catch hell for this...I never keep the body armor in any of my apparel. I seldom ride without a helmet and generally wear riding boots.

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Yep Same here. Jeans, t-shirt, gloves and boots. Always a full face helmet as its mandatory here.

Lostride said:

I pretty much wear all my gear all year round and it gets pretty hot here in Queensland, on occasion, after cleaning the bike or something, if it;s a warm evening I will go out in a tee shirt and open face helmet, for a quick 20 minute run. I feel like I am being a very naughty boy which only adds to the pleasure of riding like that... I can see why people would ride naked (like a tee shirt is any better?) if they could..

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I often feel somewhat uncomfortably unclad if I nip out without my back protector on. Rather be a bit warm and take a bit of time getting geared up than get seriously hurt due to a lack of protective gear.

a few years back ....... I worked selling Kawasaki motorcycles. I took a new GTR1400 for a pre-delivery test ride. It was a really hot summers day and I thought ............ just going a couple of klms around the block, done it countless times, so I rode off in a full-face, short sleeve shirt, levis and joggers. I fell off taking a right hand bend in the road at about 40 klms/h where some diesel fuel had been spilled moments before. Me ..... broken right foot in 3 places, a hole in my right elbow with so much flesh missing it couldn't be stitched, hideous pain and lots of soft tissue damage. Had I not been wearing my helmet I would have most certainly had a serious head injury as well. Had I put on my riding gear (jacket with armor, kevlar jeans and mid length boots) that I rode to work in that morning, then the injuries would not have been nearly as bad. The GTR ............. was written off. Lessoned learned ....... if its gonna happen, its gonna happen when you least expect it and probably close to home or work.

I guess I understand a free thinking rational person weighing up the odds and deciding to ride without some or all of their gear, but what I don't get is those who allow their pillions (wives, GFs, kids) to get on the back without it ........... see it here in Sydney way to often.

garyclem said:

if its gonna happen, its gonna happen when you least expect it and probably close to home or work.

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Yep, just a few days ago I was two blocks from home after riding about 500 miles that day when a goofball pulls out in front of me from a side street. I missed him by a pretty good margin, but the idiot never even saw me!

All I can say is...this is a scary read! I'm very defensive in my riding, trusting no one. Maybe I'll have to rethink some of my riding gear. Do they make a padded-all Kevlar jump suit?

ant said:

He in the UK the amount of riders that you see on a hot day with shorts and a t shirt seems to have risen..I did see the other day a guy on a Harley wearing just shorts,deck shoes and a helmet.

After seeing some of my mates in my early days of riding motorcycles sliding down the tarmac removing skin and bone....Always and even on the hottest day it's leather jacket,draggin jeans,gloves,boots and the helmet for me.

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i generally ride in full gear, but have been known to ride in a t-shirt on rare occasions....I find that, at least on my bike, there is a control that I can use to help keep things cooler....it resides on the right handlebar, and if i grip it with my right hand and twist towards my right knee, it gets cooler, louder, and life's problems seem to get lost in the wind stream.....