Biker Gear
Based largely on the advice of Ken Berger, I now have a set of new protective gear for use with my motorbike in Vietnam. When in San Francisco, I bought new gloves, boots, a jacket, and pants.
The Frank Thomas jacket is lightweight and has some mesh for ventilation. It has internal armour for arms and elbows, padding for the back, and external steel guards for the shoulders. It is rather lightweight, but better than the alternative of nothing. The jacket really needs more mesh for the Vietnamese climate.
The SMX Alpinestars gloves also have quite a bit of mesh, with carbon fibre knuckles for extra protection (turns out they were made in Vietnam). The lightweight and relatively discrete Italian Dainese boots have an exoskeleton steel joint around the ankle, a lot of carbon fibre, and steel toes.
My pants, by Iicon, look like regular jeans, but they have an internal abrasion resistent aramid layer for added protection. Aramid is used primarily for balistic rated body armor, and as an asbestos substitute. There is also a scarey skull on the back pocket should that prove insufficient defence.
I still have my locally bought Vietnamese helmet, but hope to upgrade that someday too.
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