There is some great looking motorcycle clothing on the market these days, but believe me not all of the motorcycle clothing offers as much protection as you think. In Europe, for motorcycle clothing to be lawfully sold as “safety” clothing, it has to pass a series of European standards, which are pretty lengthy but are available on my website. The standards cover the clothing’s performance in abrasion, tearing and impact tests, and when they have passed; they are sold with the CE mark. However, no such regulation is available in the USA, so what should you look for?

Protection in the right places…

Not many people realize that most motorcycle injuries occur below the belt. Your legs and feet are extremely vulnerable, so make sure that you wear a decent pair of high boots and some protective pants. The pants should be reinforced at the knees and hips; ideally they should attach to your jacket by a zipper. Boots should be thick leather, with a sole that can flex with the foot but has a resistance to crushing across the foot.

Traditional material for motorcycle clothing is leather, but thick nylon and other synthetic materials work well too. Kevlar reinforced jeans are better than normal jeans .Normal jeans last 0.6 seconds in the European standard abrasion test, while protective motorcycle pants will last 5 seconds or more. You don’t really want to be ripping your skin open within less than half a second of falling of your bike do you? Thought not. Read the rest of this entry »

Choosing the right Motorcycle helmet can make a difference….

….literally between life and death. But how does an ordinary guy in the street make an informed decision about what kind of helmets give the best protection? There are so many makes, models and styles. Not to mention DOT approved, Snell approved, ECE approved! It is enough to make you go goggle eyed when confronted with so much information.

Tests have shown that it is perfectly possible to suffer a fatal injury falling off a stationary bike if you hit your unprotected head on the kerb, so clearly choosing the right helmet is important.

But which one?

Wouldn’t it be easier if someone just said, “Look, when you are in a crash, you need to protect this part of you head, because this is the part that is most likely to get hurt”…

Well that’s what I thought. But it wasn’t that easy. The kind of information you need to make that kind of call requires someone, somewhere to look at a whole bunch of motorcycle crashes, look at the motorcycle helmet damage, assess where point of impact occurred and put the information into a form that allows ordinary motorcyclists (like you and me) to make a decision for themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Shopping for second hand motors using the internet has never been so easy. With lightning fast connection speeds, a massive range of cars to choose from and even more quality websites to look at, the odds really are stacked in favour of the buyer. So log on and prepare to go bargain hunting!

The first thing you need to do is type a search into Google. If you already know the make and model of the car you want, go ahead and put that in- something like ‘used Audi A4’ will bring up a good selection. On the flip side, if you just want to browse for a bit, put in a more general search like ‘used cars UK’. You’ll have to look through a few more results, but at least you’ll have some idea of what’s out there.

When a list of results appears, unless you know of a specific site already such as Carsource, try to stick to the first page. It costs a lot of money for websites to be on the first page, so you can be pretty sure they will be big companies. And to make a lot of money they need to sell a lot of cars- large sales mean happy customers and that in turn means reliable motors. So whether you’ve searched for ‘used cars UK’ or ‘second hand Mercedes CLK’, stick to the first page for the best deals.

So if you’re looking to get a new car and don’t want to spend all your money, a second hand motor should be your first thought. Using the internet to look for one is so easy, and the prices are so low it’s almost criminal. All it takes is a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse- so what are you waiting for? Get online and get searching!