Interesting Facts:

A bike is stolen every 18 minutes, 75% are stolen from their owner's house.

The Honda C90 is the best selling motorbikes at around 35 million as of November 2002, end-to-end they would stretch 4 1/2 times around the world or half way to the moon, since 1966, on average, a C90 is made every 30 seconds.

Why Do We Ride?

Riders choose to ride for a wide range range of reasons, including cost effective transport, traffic congestion, environmental reasons, fashion, ease of parking, convenience, to name a few.

Travelling by motorbike can reduce journey times by up to two thirds.

Up to eight motorbikes can fit in the same parking space occupied by one car.

Attire:

The term motorcycle leathers describes leather clothing worn by motorcyclists for two reasons, to protect them against the consequences of falling off their bike, and to provide additional weather protection that normal clothing would not offer when travelling at speed. A well-protected motorcyclist will wear boots with heels that fit on motorcycle pegs and provide good ankle support, leather pants or chaps to protect the legs, a leather jacket to protect the trunk and arms, gloves and a helmet with eye protection.

Originally motorcycle leathers were adapted from tank corps gear immediately following World War I. Dusters, which tended to catch in the wheels, were switched for short coats. Wide-pegged breeches were worn by some motorcycle police (and are still worn in Belgium) and by dispatch riders in World War II, but were largely abandoned in the post-war years, because of their Nazi associations.

Currently there are two major styles of motorcycle leathers, the tight colorful suits, based on traditional one-piece motorcycle racing leathers, which are worn by cafe racers and others following the European style, and the somewhat looser black leather trousers and jackets decorated with studs worn by American bikers. The latter style, the jackets in particular, are also worn by people who like the style but do not ride motorcycles. The classic American motorcycle jacket with epaulets and diagonal zipper, made famous by Marlon Brando in The Wild One, (1954) was invented in 1946 by Ross Langlitz, of  Portland, Oregon, and is still hand-made by his heirs today. Leather chaps, adapted from cowboy gear, were used by American bikers starting in the early 1960s.

A lot of modern leathers have armour on the inside at critical impact points such as elbows knees and the spine. The armour ranges from high density foam to foam backed hard armour. It is designed to spread the impact point to minimize injury.