Posted: 8/20/2008 6:54:22 AM EDT
| Leather chaps, gay or no? They keep the wind off but wont save your ass in a crash. A bit easier to get in and out of than overpants for fat bastards. Still, I just cant get over the Village People image in my head every time I see someone wearing them. |
| Leather Bib Overalls from Stone Lake Leather Works are an option that I am considering. |
| They may not save your ass but will save the skin on your legs. They also do a fair job of keeping the wind from robbing you of heat. Nothing like hypothermia to low response time. Obviously they are part of the Cruiser uniform they function well for the time they were designed. There are so many better options though |
| They may not save your ass but will save the skin on your legs. They also do a fair job of keeping the wind from robbing you of heat. Nothing like hypothermia to low response time. Obviously they are part of the Cruiser uniform they function well for the time they were designed. There are so many better options though |
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A few people here appear to be intimately familiar with the gay subculture but don't know shit about motorcycles or crash protection. Chaps have saved peoples legs from having to be amputated. Keeping your legs intact and in working order is smart. Even loggers wear them to keep the chainsaws at bay. |
Leather pants are much better protection. Most chaps are more about fashion than protection. Feel the thickness of the leather compared to what loggers use, or a motorcycle roadracing suit is made of. |
They are more to protect against the cold than they are against crashes. I hate wearing them but they do keep the chill off. |
Oh wait... 
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 If you think chaps are going to save your ass you need to rethink. REAL chaps (as in heavy leather) may help, Leather pants, armored jeans, armored riding pants, etc will help. Most people buy the cheapest ass chaps they can find because they think it goes with their beer gut and Harley shirt. A thin layer of leather is next to nothing. So besides looking like quite the homo they are pretty much useless. |
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I have fully armored riding pants as well as chaps for hot weather. Armored pants offer the best protection when you wear them, but sometimes it's too hot and the choice is blue jeans alone or with chaps over them. Chaps are better than nothing. No, they probably won't save your ass, they don't cover it very well. But they will protect your legs from road rash while blue jeans would let the asphalt grind though. There is a guy on this page of testimonials that says: "The jacket and chaps kept me from getting road rash. I also believe that the chaps allowed me to keep my right leg. I ended up with a three C fracture of the femur, broken rib, smashed foot and a ruptured T 11 vertebrae. My helmet kept me from a closed head injury or worse." Chaps are not my choice for high speed sportbike riding and when I had one I put on the armored pants many times when it was damn hot because I wanted the extra protection. Now that I am a slow Harley rider chaps are a huge step up in protection from just blue jeans in the summer. They are light to medium protection and sometimes that's enough to save your hide. |
Sure, I'll be wearing leather pants and be warmer. Actually at -5 I would be in my truck, but if I was on 2 wheels for some reason, I would also be wearing electric heated gear. |