Leather Motorcycle Racing Suits
What to look for
You do not need to pay an outrageous amount of money to get a good leather racing suit for track days!
Unless you are a professional racer who takes things to the edge at a very high speed, purchasing a leather racing suit for track days or even just riding around shouldn't require taking out a second mortgage. There are many racing suits that are less than $600 and many that can be custom made for less than $1000.
Motorcycle Racing Suits in Leather are required at most tracks for safety. The leather should be at least 1.3 mm cowhide but perferrable 1.4-1.6 cowhide. Fieldsheer produces a racing suit with tough but lightweight kangaroo skin. Kangaroo skin is as tough but about 1/2 lighter than cowhide. One or two piece racing suits are allowed at most tracks, however, each track has their own guidelines.
Racing suits come with a variety of options. Since most racers race in the summer heat, perforated leather is an option to allow maximum air flow for cooling. Speed Humps located on the back of the suit allow for aerodynamic flow of air over the helmet and down the suit for better performance. Various color schemes are available to match your bike or your team.
All the racing suits should come with hard plastic CE (European standard) armor in the elbows, shoulders and knees. A spine protector may be integrated into the suit or the suit may allow room to wear a spine protector underneath.
Most racing suits have Velcro Pads in the knee area for attaching knee pucks or sliders to slide across the pavement when taking corners.
Since Safety is the main reason to wear a racing suit, wearing one when out on a nice day ride is also perfectly acceptable, especially if you may take corners at a high rate of speed. Mountain roads make good trips and a racing suit will make it that much safer.
Finding a racing suit to fit you is not too hard if you are of average build. Most suits have standard, off the shelf sizes ranging from chest size 36 to chest size 50. If you are outside this range, getting a custom suit may be more in your range. Most regions of the country have custom suit makers. They can measure you and custom make a suit with all the bells and whistles for about $2000.
Many online stores have a different method of getting you a custom racing suit for usually less than $1000. Be warned, the leather may be thinner and if anything breaks, you are on your own to get it fixed. Online stores will ask you for measurement information. It is best to go to an experienced tailor to get measured for a racing suit. The online store will give you specific measurements for your tailor to get. Once you send the measurements to the store and pay for the suit, the store will forward the measurments overseas to their manufacturer. Most suits are made in either Pakistan or Asia, because the cost of leather and production labor is so much cheaper. Once the measurements are received by the manufacturer, the style, colors and even wording are made into your custom suit and expressed shipped back to you. Normally this takes 3 weeks or less. The suit should fit you perfectly with elbow, knee and shoulder pads in perfect position with your joints.
Remember, safety is the reason to wear a racing suit. Although costs vary, you may just find that a leather motorcycle racing suit may have saved your life or months worth of pain and rehabilitation.
