Want To Buy Riding Pants In India? Here’s What You Need To Know

Motorcycle riding pants are an often overlooked piece of riding gear. This is most likely since social media would have you believe that you can get away with the much-cheaper knee braces under your everyday jeans. Let’s bust that myth first. As much as knee braces are protective, they are meant only for impact absorption and not abrasion protection. Knee braces are primarily meant for off-road riding where your riding speeds are much lower than on the road, but the crashes can lead to serious impact injuries. Since the speeds are much lower, the need for abrasion protection is much lower. 

On the road, your everyday jeans offer little to no abrasion protection. There are tons of videos on the internet showing how the jeans tear off when you slide on the road. You see, tar or concrete are quite abrasive. To sum it up, don’t wear regular jeans with knee braces while riding, buy a pair of riding pants. 

Now, if you are going to buy a pair of riding pants, here’s what you need to know . First and foremost, there are different types of riding pants: Riding jeans, textile riding pants, and leather riding pants. 

Riding Jeans

Riding jeans look and feel like your everyday jeans, but good riding jeans are made out of thick material that’s also abrasion resistant. More expensive jeans can also have a kevlar inner liner for extra protection. These will also have protection pads for knees and/or shins, and hips. Some pants also have a provision to add a tail-bone protector. That said, riding jeans are meant for super short rides or commutes – places where you’d want to wear something quickly, and not as elaborate as riding pants. They look quite casual, and don’t make you stand out in the crowd like proper riding pants will. 

Textile Riding Pants

These are what most of our road testers will wear for everyday shoots – photos that you will see in our road reviews. These can be made out of different kinds of textiles – all abrasion resistant, and with good quality protectors. Some pants can also have mesh patches to allow ventilation, since thick riding pants can feel quite hot, especially in traffic and on sunny days. Some riding pants can be waterproof as well. In this case, they won’t have mesh areas. Irrespective, they offer a good value for money – more protection than riding jeans, but more affordable than leather pants. 

Leather Riding Pants

Leather riding pants are the most expensive of the three, but they provide the highest abrasion protection. These can be made of different kinds of leather and be perforated for ventilation or non-perforated for insulation. Either way, you’d feel quite hot in them in Indian weather conditions, especially in traffic. But if you can get past this and get used to the warmth, you can have the best pants money can buy. 

Crash Protection

Once you decide what kind of pants you want, ensure that the pants are certified for motorcycle riding – look out for CE (Conformité Européenne) certification tags. They will have a motorcycle symbol on them. To put it simply, CE is an European certification standard, which also certifies motorcycling gear. Apart from the pants themselves, the protection pads are also certified – CE Level 1 and CE Level 2. Level 1 pads provide less protection than Level 2, but they are cheaper as well. That said, you can always upgrade to better protection even after you buy the pants, since most of them have removable protectors. 

Fit & Size

Then comes the part of getting the pants that fit well. Riding pants should fit snug – not too tight, not too loose either. If it’s the first time you are buying pants, we suggest you visit a shop and try out different sizes to see which one fits well. It is important that you have the right fit. Loose pants might feel comfortable, but they won’t be able to keep the protectors in place when you crash – making them useless. On the other hand, if the pants are too tight, you might not be able to move around on the bike, or worse, get on the bike to begin with. Pants that are too tight will cause discomfort to set in quicker, and take the fun out of riding. You don’t want either of that. A point to note here is that sizing criteria can vary as per brands. Most brands offer sizes like S, M, L, etc, while some international brands offer numbered sizes. Do check out each brand for what they offer. 

BikeDekho Says

If you aren’t sure of what you want to buy, we suggest checking out different pants online and short-listing what fits your budget. Once you shortlist, see if you can try out these pants in stores. The sizes are not the same across all brands, just like what you’d have experienced with regular clothes. For example, one brand’s size M might fit you well, but with another brand  you might need to go a size up, or vice-versa. If you cannot visit a shop, or if the pants you want are only available online, check with a vendor if they will exchange the pants for a different size. That will give you some peace of mind. 

This can be overwhelming if you are a first-time buyer, but let us assure you that riding with right-fitting motorcycle pants makes your riding experience so much better. And remember, ATGATT – all the gear, all the time.