Lots of people say they don’t have the money for good riding gear.. I say you just don’t have your priorities straight…
Well, ok, you're right. I guess I could find leathers that fit, or I could have some made. Then as I lose my weight/fat and it gets too baggy to wear I'd have to buy more, and more until I get where I wanna be. Yeah, I could get a set of gear now, but I can't get another set every 3-4 months as needed for the next year. I'm not going to take that kind of financial loss in it. I'll stick with my FirstGear mesh jacket, ICON and SIDI boots, and Teknic full gauntlet gloves for now. I'll replace the jacket with a decent mesh/textile option as I shrink out of it.
The great thing is that when I mentioned to my Dad that one of my fitness/health goals was to get to my ideal fit weight and size so I could buy and wear a set of full leathers when I ride, the first thing out of his mouth was, "When you get where you want to be, I'll buy you whatever kind of leathers you want. I want to help you but I don't know how. I can give you an incentive like the leathers you want though.". Ummm, woooooohooooo!
So, other than pants, I'm usin' "gear", I'm just not in the best gear, and not exactly full gear. God willing, I promise you that next ridin' season I will have reached my goal and I will be postin' pics of me in my brand spankin' new leathers. Once I get 'em I ain't ridin' without 'em. Until then I'll do a little compromisin' and accept a little risk. I'll also try and ride like I've got sense and try to minimize the chances that I test what gear I've got.
BT - you and anyone else that is trying to go through a transformation such as losing a lot of weight I agree is an exception.
And yes, I agree it would not make any sense to go out and buy a brand new set of leathers every few months. But how is this for an idea.
My first set of leathers that I ever bought I had tailored for me. This was like back in 1983. The pants that I bought I wanted to fit tight, I always kind of had this idea that the tighter the fit, the better chance you might have of limiting compound fractures.
Anyway, how is this for an idea, look around and see if you can find someone that can and is willing to tailor leathers.
A jacket is nto going to change a whole lot, regardless of how much weight you lose, if you are losing weight through exercise and lifting weights, your chest size is probably not going to get much smaller, you waste will get much smaller, but that wont prevent you from wearing a good jacket.
What that leaves is pants. if you can find a decent pair of leather pants, and maybe have them tailored every few months, you might be able to get off with buying a pair of pants now and a jacket, then every few months, plopping down maybe $40.00 to have the pants tailored smaller.
Then once you reach your ideal weight, get the one piece suit you want, and after you get that, sell the jacket and pants you had been wearing.
Keep in mind BT, losing weight and getting into shape is a life style change, it is NOT something you want to happen right away.
Not only can a huge change over a short period of time be a shock to your system, the faster you lose weight, the more chance you have of having baggy skin. You need to drink lots of water to keep the skin properly hydrated so it will shrink properly over time.
Ok, here are some leathers I just checked out for you. I am not sure of your size, or I would be more precise in my looking for you..
Here is a jacket that is normally $259.00 on close out sale for $119.00 the sizes they have in stock however are 40 and 48
http://www.newenough.com/teknic_thunder_jacket_page.htm
Here are some first gear pants, size ranges from 32 up to 40.
Normally $324.00 on sale for $159.00
http://www.newenough.com/firstgear_flightline_pants_page.htm
Anyway, these are just examples of this one web site and what they offer. I am assuming that you might be larger than a 40 waist at the moment.
If you can find someone locally that will tailor pants for you at a reasonable cost, this will also help you in maybe purchasing a used set of leathers. As long as you can find a pair that fit now or are larger, you can get them tailored down.
BT - As I said, someone as yourself who is trying to lose weight is an exception, because no one wants to throw money away and I understand that. Hopefully maybe the option I mentioned might be something that could work out for you.
If you are going to look, start with your local tailoring shops. The person that did it for me was a small business owner, they were not a large business. But they had the right machine, it just requires a heavy duty sewing machine with a heavy duty needle, aside form that, tailoring leather pants down is no different that tailoring regular pants, they measure you, remove the seam from the leathers, cut them and sew them back smaller.
If you give me you size and want to go that route, I will even keep my eye open in my area for good deals on leathers. Used, local stores etc.
Let me know if I can help dude!! And keep up the good work on losing the weight!!
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