Was encouraged to share my story here too, so here goes:

So essentially I left my pinlock insert out of my helmet for a few months this summer and it got some dust on the in-between portion of the insert. In my infinite wisdom I used a glasses lens cleaner and a glasses cleaning cloth to clean it off. Well immediately the layer on the same side as the silicone bead wrinkled up and the insert was effectively useless at this point. Fantastic. I threw it in the wastebasket and promptly ordered a new one as it should be illegal to use the RF1400 without one at any temp below 65F as it is the foggiest helmet I've ever seen by a country mile.

When I went to empty my wastebasket a full day later the wrinkling was completely gone and I now have a totally usable insert again and a new one on the way. Just thought some of yall should learn from my rollercoaster of an experience.

Moral of the story, don't use liquids on that part of the visor, but if you do letting it sit for a day might bring it back

Had a little oopsies over the weekend. 70mph lowside. All the gear did its job and I walked away with mostly just scrapes, bruises and friction burns.

The Gear:
Helmet: Alpinestars SR-7
Jacket: RST Tracktech evo 5
Pants: RST S-1 leather/mesh pants
gloves: RST Tracktech (previous gen)
boots: Alpinestars Supertech R

The bike:
2026 Tuono v4 factory, Pirelli super corsa SPv4

What happened:
Right hand turn, high lean angle, maybe around 45 degrees, gave it juuuust a hint of too much throttle while exiting a double apex and unloaded the front tire before standing the bike up sufficiently. Right forearm and right knee impacted first. Right arm drug behind me, rotating and pulling my torso and my face straight into the concrete. I slid momentarily on my side until one of my boots caught traction and sent me cartwheeling across the pavement then off the paved surface and well into the grass, during which I smacked both hips, ankles, and left hand.

Injuries:
Friction burn on right forearm and basically entire forearm from wrist to elbow is one giant bruise, road rash on right knee, bruised left bicep and left wrist, sprained and bruised left index finger, bruised left shoulder, big bruises on both hips.

Notes per gear:
Helmet: R7 was a champ, despite smashing the right side of my face into the concrete, head face and neck all good. Did its job and will need replacing

Jacket: despite the hits, looks pretty good. Will keep it, clean it up and continue to use it. Lvl 2 forearm and elbow padding came in clutch here, just wish it was the newer D30 stuff. Side note, the red areas were painted with Angeles leather paint and even they held up well.

Gloves: Tracktech Evo's lived up to their reputation. Right glove knuckles and outer wrist protector got ground down bad as that is the initial impact area. If you look at the left knuckle on the outside, you can see the TPU knuckle protector broke from me hitting something. No doubt why that finger is messed up, but the gloves obviously protected me quite well. Absolutely no damage to the inside of the palms at all. 100% will buy the new generation as a replacement

Pants: The S1 leather/mesh pants were obviously the weakest link here. You can tell the pants rotated on my knee after the initial impact, wore through the leather down to the padding in 3 places, then burst the seam where the leather and mesh meet. This caused some fun road rash on the top of my knee. However, the lvl 2 hip protectors were a god send and absolutely did their job. I smacked both hips quite hard while tumbling and for sure would have worse injuries with lesser or no pads there.

Boots: another standout. despite taking clear hits and tumbling all over the place, feet ankles and shins are good to go. 100% sill usable. Yes they are the most expensive boots on the market but I have NO DOUBT these virtually prevented any foot/ankle injury I would have gotten.

TLDR: Gear works. Wear it. None of this gear is particularly expensive except for the boots and all of it held up relatively well and did its job. I'm fairly active in this community and always recommended these gears, and with this proof, I will continue to do so and wear it myself.

Also bought this pair of gloves, I gotta say, it fitted perfectly. It feels like it was tailor made for me, hand and fingers in perfect proportion.
But its leather is not as soft as the alpinestars go pro I have.
Anyways, looks great and premium. Besides that, it’s beautiful!!

Coming into summer in Australia I’m looking at getting a mesh jacket either dainese or another brand. Are minders mesh jackets as protective as a leather jacket? And are they really that much more comfortable in summer? Any recommendations also would be appreciated

I just wanted to share this with all of you. Dainese has just released a new electronic airbag for just €350, offering Level 2 protection for the chest and back. This might be the start of a new era in the motorcycle gear world, IMO.

It's also just 780 grams and really compact, can be worn both over and under a jacket. They've even managed to create a system that uses your phone as the battery. Also it can deploy up to 3 times

Maybe it doesn't offer as much protection as other systems, but for many riders like me, it might be the ideal airbag

Coming into summer in Australia I’m looking at getting a mesh jacket either dainese or another brand. Are minders mesh jackets as protective as a leather jacket? And are they really that much more comfortable in summer? Any recommendations also would be appreciated

Bought this Joe Rocket summer mesh motorcycle jacket. It's got armour but not convinced this is properly slide proof or slide rated. Anyone run anything similar?

I think at this point most folks know that cycle gear/revzilla (the stores) has their own in-house brands. Sedici, Street & Steel, Bilt, Axial, etc.

I rarely hear about anybody going down in this gear. Wondering if there is an ominous reason, perhaps those who go down don't make it out? Or if it's just not really talked about all that much?

Has anybody here gone down on this gear or know somebody who has?

Anyone have experience with the gear's durability and overall how it holds up in a real accident?

I'm in the market for my first motorcycle (an ADV) since I live in an area with hundreds of miles of trails and forest roads. That said, I'll still need to spend a decent amount of time on the highway getting to and from those trails.

I'm narrowing down my bike choices, but I'm pretty lost on riding gear, especially jackets and pants.

I've seen everything from armored compression suits worn under regular clothing to full leathers and various textile jacket/pants combinations. I'm not really sure what's appropriate for the type of riding I plan to do. The other challenge is that stores in my area are relatively sparsely stocked, so there's a good chance I may need to order something online

I'd like to balance protection, comfort, and practicality. I'll probably lean more toward off-road riding, but I still want enough protection for highway travel.

For those of you who ride a mix of pavement and dirt/gravel roads, what type of gear would you recommend for a beginner? Are there particular styles or features I should prioritize - or avoid?

Right now, I'm trying to understand what gear makes the most sense before I start spending money. Would greatly appreciate any advice...

Silk Road Supply is still a team of three, myself, my girlfriend and my best mate. We're up against the giants, and when you've put it all on the line it's daunting. Designs, sizes and fit keep me up at night, wondering if we made the right choices.

So, to ease the stress on our shoulders, we decided to share it in public and open source our R&D to the community. Let you guys tell us what which styles interest you, what annoys you, what were doing poorly, and we’ll go from there.

So, for me personally, I was fed up with black denim skinny jeans, so when we built our own brand, the first thing I wanted was straight-leg off-white pants. We quickly learned that we need to add 34" legs to our styles next year and that we must start work on a womens line.

A few things we're not so clear about:

• Would you rather more colour options or different styles of jacket?
• Are you interested in waxed cotton jacket at all?
• For jeans, do you prefer a washed denim jean or an unwashed raw style?

Does anyone own this jacket? How does it perform in spring, summer, and autumn?

I’d mainly use it for weekend rides up into the Romagna Apennines in Italy, as well as for some summer trips, possibly to the Alps or further north. (No off-roads, I own a Suzuki SV-7GX)

I’m not sure whether to get it with the standard hard back and chest protectors or go with the Tech-Air 3 V2 Canvas airbag worn over the jacket.

I initially looked at Dainese, but I’ve read quite a few comments about their quality declining over the past few years, so I started looking at what Alpinestars has to offer instead.

Any feedback or personal experience would be greatly appreciated!

XS oos but S is in stock,

I believe theyre the same shell? Can I buy S and replace the padding or something?

Hey folks.

A button on my Richa jacket has broken. Does anyone know if this is fixable?

Hi, I'm a 17 year old rider, I ride a recently purchased new to me 2017 Honda cb500f, I ride to school almost every day I can find an excuse to, even in wet conditions "for practice". I have riding shoes, some triumph and alpine star ones, they are fairly nice, but the laces don't have anywhere to go so I have to struggle to thread the loops through the lacing, they are also fairly worn, as when I was learning I'd often throw a foot down too early and slide it as I was braking. But as I wear them to school and just in general so often I'd like motor shoes rather than the large boots, I also wear them throughout the day when I ride my bike as I feel is fairly common to not carry extra shoes let alone change into them as you ride. But my 18th is coming up and my family is making me make a list and I thought a good pair of shoes that either have an alternative to laces or something to keep them from catching on the bike and also something that can handle walking around and not kill my ankles and I was hoping I could ask the community for assistance.

The first cold front of the season is here in Texas, and I haven't really shopped for warm gear yet. Will I be warm enough for a 45-minute ride each way to breakfast in 50-degree weather at the start of the ride and be in the upper 50s by the end on the way back home? Mostly backroads, doing 45- 70 mph.

Mostly worried about the top half. Bottom half Revit AA Jeans which are pretty thick jeans. Hands I have heated grips to go with my gloves. Also have a balaclava to help keep my neck warm.

Pando Moto UH3 Shirt with a 6 oz flannel shirt on Top of that and then First Manufacturing partially perforated leather vest. Not wearing the Pando Moto Skin Base layer in the photo, and yes, I know I'm a big goofy guy.

Hello!

Do any fellow ladies have the same issue with finding gloves in the right size? My hands are pretty small, and I'm not sure how many pairs I've tried on, but all of them have a thumb or index finger that is way too long.

Does anyone have recommendations for other brands I should look into? So far, I’ve tried: RST, Dainese, Alpinestars, Held, Oxford, and Klim.

I am starting to lose hope of finding a well-fitting glove. Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated!

Had a Sedici strada 3 for a little over a year and a little over 6k miles now. Finally got annoyed with the wind noise even with earplugs in (I ride a naked bike), so decided to get the Shoei RF1400 and the difference in fit and sound is night and day. The Shoei fits way better in my opinion, and with the visor closed it's definitely miles ahead in terms of noise and wind reduction. Granted there is a big price jump, not knocking the strada 3 as it is a good helmet for its price point. Weight wise they are very similar. I know some people dislike the padding in the Shoei, and prefer the more silky fabric in the strada 3 but in my opinion the padding in the Shoei grips my face better and is less prone to sliding against my face as in the strada 3. That's all for now 🫡

I wore a Ryzer 330 and I really love the fit around the face compared to almost any other helmet ive worn but it did not have enough room front to back on the noggin... would either of their other budget lids help in that area?

XL

Does anyone here know of any pants with a short inseam option?

I got a very nice jacket (like new) but the shoulder armor had been removed. I bought the latest D30 LP2 shoulder armor for it. Here's the deal: it's a Dainese jacket and it uses Velcro for the shoulder armor, not a pocket for the armor. I've tried using self-adhesive Velcro on the D30 but it's like silicone? (not sure of the plastic type) and adhesives don't stick to it. So far, neither the "manufacturers" (ICON and Fox) provided any support (oh, it's made specifically for our gear--no, it's not, it's the exact same D30 LP2 that everybody is selling) and a message to D30 has yet to be responded to.

So: have any of you managed to do this? What exactly did you use to attach the Velcro?

And this bit is great: I also contacted Dainese to see if I could buy the shoulder armor from them (the don't show it as an item for separate purchase on the website). Response? Sorry, we don't sell any of the components that aren't seen on the website. All they have are some of the exterior aluminum shoulder sliders.

Go figure.

Does anyone have both of these gloves or have experience in them? I'm looking to shell out for a really good pair of track gloves and Held seems to have a good reputation online for being durable.

I've been riding without any ear protection all season and recently bought the earpeace 26 db plugs. I wore them for the first time and could hear every little noise and shift inside my helmet and input was just overwhelming? Within minutes I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack and had to take them out. Has anyone else had this experience? Do I need a lower decibel protection? A different brand or style?

Edit: I would just wear plain foam ear plugs except I want to be able to still hear my cardo!