It definitley feels like the overpants are probably my biggest time offender... they are a recent addition for me so maybe I'm being a little too gung ho about wearing them for every ride. I did buy them mostly with the thoughts of my hour commute ride to work, and then the long weekend rides.

Maybe like Stretch and Dveldtf4i, I could forego the overpants for the short around town trips and just do regular jeans. I'm definitley not pushing any limits on local surface streets anyways Just casually crusing. I'll give it some thought...

I really appreciate everyone's input... Thanks!

 

Having to put on gear has never been an issue with me. I wear it all but leather pants and it maybe takes 2 minutes tops not counting pulling the bike out of the garage and what not. My bigger issue with not being able to ride is my gf not wanting to take the bike somewhere because the helmet will mess up her hair :-/

 

10 minutes to gear up?

I can throw my riding pants, boots, and jacket on in ~2 minutes max, then just put helmet and gloves on as I'm starting the bike up...

3 minutes for all my gear, all leather...

 

This is off topic, but I had to respond to daniels... I know how you feel! Ever since I got my bike I have been trying to whiddle away at my girlfriend about riding with me. Ideally it would be her on her own bike and me on mine so we could both have fun, but I would definitley settle for her on the back (maybe not of my CBR, she's not a "back of a sport bike" kind of woman) but maybe I could rent a nice goldwing for a weekend trip or something. I was able to get her to sit on the back of a 2013 Goldwing at the Honda dealer the other day and she actually said the words "Wow, this is really comfortable, I could see myself doing this", which was AWESOME to hear.

BUT... after spending the rest of the day milling over my "next step" to get her on a bike, I came to the sudden and sad realization of EXACTLY what daniels said... I quite literally can not imagine her accepting "helmet hair"... she spends far too much time worrying about how her hair looks as it is... So I am thinking I may never get my wish of riding with my girlfriend...

And just to be clear... she is an awesome girlfriend... so if that's the only worry I ever have, I still have it pretty good I'd just like to have the cake AND eat it!

 

staying off topic, don't worry she'll ride. my (now wife) girlfriend when we first started dating was terrified of motorcycles. she had gotten thrown off one when she was young (like 7 or 8 yrs old), and she told me "no, i'll probably never go on there with you". 2 weeks later we were taking weekend long trips to places on the back of the bike with nothing but a back-pack packed full of essentials.

those are some of my fondest memories - trips with her on the back of the bike. it's REALLY fun if you can find another couple to go with. girls need girl time, guys need guy time to just sit out on the balcony of cheap hotel and drink cheap beer.


don't worry, she'll eventually get on the back of it with you. just make her feel like you know what you're doing. confidence is everything. take her helmet shopping. even previous girlfriends to her loved when i'd take them shopping for their own gear. tons of girly colors and tons of designs - plus it's one of the shopping trips most guys will be able to stand.

 

I wear chaps, so it really only takes changing into my boots, to prep for a ride.
I roll with all leather-jacket, chaps, gloves and Sidi boots.
So getting fully armoring up, only takes a couple of minutes.

Very seldom, but I do, I'll hit the streets without my chaps.
As others have mentioned, strictly "low speed/short jaunts".

So, to answer your question...technically, I don't live ATGATT and don't let it prevent
grabbing a "quickie". But, generally, I always ATGATT.

Ern

 

O I love my wife, she don't give a crap. She'll be all dolled up and be like "hey it's nice out can we take the bike!".... Why yes dear, we most certainly can!

 

She calls the rear seat her princess perch lol

 

I have to say mostly ATGATT but I`ve gone to the grocery store about 1km away with just the helmet and shoes but it did have that "wtf am I doing" feeling, felt naked and insecure. Mostly shop trips and other short runs it's the Volvo that gets to go. My main problem with the gear is that I live in an area that's peppered with lakes, big and small, and even though the temp rises to +25-30c at midsummer it can still be below 10 and foggy in the morning, and I absolutely HATE being cold when Im tired so finding what to wear can sometimes be a bit of a challenge... Apart from my helmet allbof my gear is of Finnish brands which do help a lot cause both my SWEEP jacket and pants has thermal lining and rain layer that can be individually zippered off and the sleeves split all the way to the armpits revealing a vet mesh and the shoulders have vent zippers both front and back as well as there is a pair in the pants too below the pockets so as long as I'm moving im good, but you can imagine with all the zippers and layers, the gear is not light at all, feels like a bulletproof vest when you're in the shop line waiting for the grandma in front of you to collect the heap of coins for the third time from the floor so the answer is mostly ATGATT or the car with little exeptions at town, at long trips its all in all the way.

 

Yeah my girl actually loves to ride(first time I took her out I had to pull over because I thought she was crying, turns out she was just giggling lol) but depending on where we are going, her "looks" always trumps taking the bike. If its going to a friends house the bike is fine but going out to the city or something means we are taking the car. I missed a lot of nice riding because of this but overall its just a nuisance. Still get a ton of riding in otherwise.




lmao I am so stealing that