Motorcycle clothing

As most of you will know I have been using the same old black leather jacket that I bought when I was about 17 or 18 which makes it about 45 years old. The summer zip has shredded and I can't get into it anyway. The winter zip is still OK. Whilst it has a certain period charm it really needs an imperviousness to cold and wet that only the young have.

Feeling rather flush I invested in a set of Hein Gericke goretex stuff recently which is truly excellent on the keeping warm and dry front but being a self confessed poser I still felt a bit stylistically challenged. I had been very tempted by some Ducati leather jackets at Pro Twins in Godstone. Jo who is always up for a shopping expedition persuaded me to pay a visit with intention to purchase. We then got treated to the how to screw up a sale treatment.

The very nice guy who sells parts handed me over to the guy who sells bikes and clothing. Like anyone else buying I wanted really to be alone to browse and try on. Using the sales guy to provide information. Finding a jacket I liked I started to take the armour out. I hate this stuff and these jackets were to some extent fashion items and all that armour crap ruins the look of them on. Over comes "sales" guy. "What ARE you doing?" he enquires aggressively. I explained that I wanted to try the jacket on without the armour to see how it looked and felt. He grumpily acquiesced to this but hovered all the time I was having debate with Jo on whether to buy or not (she was less keen than me). I then took jacket off and he then pounced on it saying "I will put it all back together now" and took it away for re-assembly. This really pissed me off because I still had not made up my mind whether to have it or not. So out we stomped.

Went over to P&H Motors at Crawley who have a bit of Ducati stuff and got a nicer jacket at a cheaper price.

Finally; helmets. Why are some helmets nearly £300 and some £30? I accept that it is a safety device but they are all made to BSI standards. Has anyone ever seen any objective testing that says the really expensive helmets are more protective than a cheap one? I accept that my preferred option, open face, will be less protective than full face. As a life long purchaser of cheap helmets my observations are:

1. The visor always gets ruined long before the helmet wears out then it is a devil of a job to get a replacement and I often get a new helmet because the visor has gone.
2. Generally I have always found cheap helmets comfortable enough and 'do the job'.
3. From an aesthetic point of view I think a nice simple black or silver open face looks a lot better (if a helmet can look good at all) than some garish Shoei thing.