The old adage was there are no dumb questions,maybe so, maybe not. There sure are dumb answers though.
Are you one of those guys who have been riding for 30 years and have no patience for anyone who knows less then you?
I see lots of guys riding in a t-shirt, shorts, sandals, and sunglasses with no helmet so all of that leather stuff must be useless.
WTF, it's seems like a legitimate question to ask what motorcycle gloves do that regular leather gloves don't. Also what do motorcycle boots do that regular boots don't do.
This kid is wearing all the gear you need..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=hQEaT1SCUvU&NR=1
I'll take a crack at this one. I wear a pair of unlined Kinco goatskin drivers [work gloves] for most of my off-road riding, and some of my (these days quite limited) street riding. The main reason I don't wear the work gloves on the street much is because I prefer a gauntlet-style glove for the street. Because a thread is better with pictures, these are the gloves I have: I haven't had a street crash in work gloves, but I have gone down many times off-road in them. They are significantly better than what's sold as "dedicated" MX or off-road gloves. I also have a pair of Icon Tarmac 3 street gloves that I use for off-road riding. Honestly, I still like my Kinco work gloves better for riding. The Tarmac's listed for $55, and on clearance for $40, I'm not as happy with them as I thought I'd be. These are the Tarmac's: One thing to watch out for with work gloves is the really cheap ones don't hold together at the seams very well. However, a $20 pair of work gloves is usually pretty decent. When you find them for less than $10, well... I've had driver-style gloves of different leathers over the years, including cow, goat, and deer leathers. Of those, I find the goat skin to be by far the best. Fingertip feel is much better than cow leather, and almost as good as deer leather. However, deer leather seems to get downright slippery when wet, while the goatskin seems to grip about the same wet or dry. If you look at the detailed descriptions of a lot of the mainstream street motorcycle gloves (like the Tarmac's), a lot tend to have goatskin palms as well. Boots are another matter, and you're not likely to get an unbiased discussion on boots here. There is certainly no shortage of threads on boots. If you really want to discuss boots here, I'd recommend asking very specific questions. If you're just curious, you might consider a trip to your local dealer that carries boot brands like Alpinestars, Gaerne, TCX, Sidi, etc. and just try some on. I think you'll quickly see the difference. For me personally, I've got a pair of some of the best work boots available, and they're nothing compared to the pair of dedicated riding boots I've got.
Sorry. Thought you were spoofing. In my opinion, good riding gloves should have a combo of the right materials (mainly abrasion resistance), armor, and workmanship (stitching and such as the best material with a burst seam is worthless). / Similar for boots. Have guys gone down doing 80mph in jean and been fine; yes. Have others gone down going 30mph in the best bmw gear and got torn up? Absolutely. Personally I like to play the odds; I wear gear appropriate for the situation. If someone wants to wear a wife-beater, jeans, sneakers and a plastic helmet; God bless. For me buying good gear is an investment. No more. No less. Not a big fan of doctors, hospitals, pain, being out of work, etc. I've never done it - maybe I should - but I think it would be interesting to take a belt sander - to mimic sliding along pavement - to materials such as denim etc and see how they hold up vs say cordura or another technical fabic with kevlar etc.
No, it's not a stupid question (even if by the looks of things, the OP has edited his original post now, so I can't be 100% sure what they asked) About 5 years back, one of the UK bike mags ("Ride", IRRC) did a glove test. As well as the usual range of motorcycle gloves, they included a few leftfield entries in the form of gloves not intended for motorcycle riding.The first place went to a £600 leather glove, used by some of the Moto GP guys. What was staggering, was that for abrasion resistance, a £5 gardening glove came second. Now granted, "feel", aesthetics and waterproofing were way off and you'd ideally want a second velcro strap on the wrist if you were doing high speeds on the slab, but it appears as though you could modify this into an extremely high performing motorcycling glove for far less than current gloves go for.
Yeah the condescending tone from some to others on this site is amazing and a big reason many of us that have been here for a few years don't post as much as we used to. I wear deerskin work gloves for much of my street riding. They have survived longer than ANY m/c glove I've owned. That right there tells me something.
