So, I'm getting ready to drop $400 or so on my first riding gear. It's important to me to wear protective gear, even in the dog days of summer. With that in mind, I've settled on a few mesh items. Feel free to offer your opinions!

I'd especially like to hear from the shorter, heavier riders, like myself. I'm a short 5'6" guy with a bit of a gut. I'm worried about proper fit.

Here's what I've kind of narrowed my list down to:

Jackets:
1) http://www.newenough.com/street/closeouts/bargain_basement/fieldsheer/high_flow_2_mesh_motorcycle_jacket.html - Price is definitely a plus here. At $69 for a fieldsheer jacket, that's tough to pass up.

2)http://www.newenough.com/street/protective_apparel/mesh_jackets_and_pants/fieldsheer/congo_air_mesh_motorcycle_jacket.html - Another fieldsheer product. this one looks a little more substantial and stylish to me. I am under the impression that fieldsheer is one of the best brands out there. Do you agree?

3)http://www.newenough.com/street/protective_apparel/mesh_jackets_and_pants/first_gear/2010_rush_mesh_motorcycle_jacket.html - I like the high-vis yellow of this product.

Pants (again, comfort and fit in 90 degree weather is of utmost importance):

1) http://www.newenough.com/street/protective_apparel/mesh_jackets_and_pants/first_gear/ht_air_2_mesh_motorcycle_overpants.html - The sizing of this product is nice (38 waist/30.5 inseam).

2) http://www.newenough.com/street/protective_apparel/mesh_jackets_and_pants/alpinestars/a_10_air_flo_motorcycle_pants.html Again, fit looks good (39 waist/30.5 inseam).

My buddy who is a long-time rider says I really need some good riding boots, but I feel fine in tennis shoes. Maybe he's right, though? I have a nice pair of leather riding gloves and two helmets (one half, one full). As far as accessories, the bike came with a windshield and engine guard. I added a tank bag and plan to add a luggage rack and saddle bags very soon so I can do a few camping trips this Spring.

I've just about decided on #2 for jacket and #2 for pants, btw.

I can't be much help as far as choices between what you linked to. All I can say is that I have a mesh jacket of some kind, and am very glad I do when it gets hot. Any one of the ones you show would probably be fine in the long run.

I've never tried mesh pants. Let us know how those work out.

Personally, I would never ride in sneakers. Leather hiking boots at a minimum if it's really hot, otherwise calf high motorcycle specific boots. You want to protect your ankle bones

I don't know much about the gear you've tagged, but I second the comment on the sneakers. They don't offer any ankle protection from hot pipes and will get soggy in weather. I recommend Alpinestars Ridge waterproof (I think that's what they are called.)

I wear Tourmaster Caliber pants for extended trips, but I've fallen back to jeans for most local rides. I have an icon Motorhead jacket.

IMHO it's a personal choice. Some folks have already said that they wear motorcycle boots every time. As a veteran rider, I wear motorcycle boots in the bad weather, & leather trainers the rest of the time. That's what I feel comfortable in. Some folks say "all the gear, all the time", whereas I wear my heavy retro leather jacket in bad weather, & jeans and a T shirt the rest of the time. As the saying goes, "you pays yer money & you takes yer choice". By all means take advice, but ultimately wear what YOU want.

Having said that - When the 4x4 sideswiped me last year, & the bike went down, I was glad it was cold & I was wearing my jacket.

Sound like conflicting advice? It sure is, so I think that the real answer is to wear what feels right for YOU!

I feel gloves and some type of boots a must.

Having said that, I have seen the highway up close and personal.

ATGATT for me.

Personally would never ride in sneakers, is things don't go to plan, you want to give yourself the best level of protection that you can be comfortable in...if its any help, I ride in workboots, jeans & chaps, a mesh jacket and leather gloves. Stick with the full face helmet, cause I can attest to hitting stuff with your head (birds, gravel, stuff thrown up by cars in front) isn't fun, but at least the full lid stops it from making a mess of your face.

On that note I've only been riding now for 4 months, and have clocked up 10,000 kms in that time, so still a noob when it comes down to it. So whatever you feel comfortable in I guess. But the little bit of extra gear isn't even noticed once you get moving.

#1 for the jacket
#2 for the pants.
Now go to the close out section and look for some boots. You do need to protect the feet, they have so many smaller breakable bones. Don't be afraid to spend money on your gear. You can't buy back your health once it is gone due to a mishap. ATGATT.

It's your feet, so wear what you want, but realize that the tennis shoes do not offer much protection at all.
When I started riding again I was wearing my leather safety shoes with the steel toes, but my wife told me that I looked stupid and needed to go buy some boots, she said, if you are going to ride you need to look the part, so I did. The Harley Davidson boots I bought are about the most comfortable footwear I own, they are even better than tennis shoes. After riding and walking all day my feet feel better than they do if I wear tennis shoes, having said that, the zippers on these things are crap and I've had nothing but trouble out of the zippers. I actually went to Harbor freight and bought a hand held leather sewing kit, found some brass zippers and sewed them in myself, real pain in the neck to do but they work! I also now own a pair of Milwaukee "Trooper" style boots which are very nice and have great zippers, but aren't nearly as comfortable as the Harley's!

FWIW the zippers on the Alpinestars have been fine (20 months plus.) (Bear in mind we ride 12 months out of the year out here.) My wife has Harley boots - but no zippers.

i also have harley boots, they rock and the seem to set much more comfortably on my foot pegs than any other shoes or boots i have. they are comfortable also.

out of the jackets you have listed there i like the yellow one. i had that kind of style jacket before but it just did not suit me so i sold it and got something else a little less motorcycle racer, sport bike looking i might just go back to my old leather coat tho.

I have the FieldSheer Congo textile jacket (http://www.kneedraggers.com/details/Fie ... 52550.html)- a little different from the Air Mesh one that you're looking at (#2), but I imagine they're pretty comparable other than material. So far I love it, though being a n00b I have very limited experience. Mine is heavy and warm enough for me to wear in the current 40ish degree weather we're having right now, but has a zip out liner that I think will make it just right when we hit our summer temps in the low 80's. Not sure how *anyone* rides with protective gear once it gets into the 90's, but then again given the choice of sweat or become road pizza, well, that's not much of a choice, is it??

I've not yet decided on the footwear yet, so currently am wearing 6" steel toe work boots.

Best of luck to you-

Memphis Tennessee, 107 degrees and humid as it gets where you feel 30 lbs heavier from all the humidity and your sweaty and sticky as you can get and these sport bike guys are wearing full heavy duty racing suits and full face helmets, all i could do is think how can they stand it.

i prefer barefoot and wearing nothing but speedo's when its that hot ok ok not really but i do go out in my harley boots jeans and a t shirt and nothing more and no i don't need you all to tell me how dangerous that is or any thing else along those lines.

when its not really hot outside i wear my icon strong arm jacket with armor when it's not too damn hot out. that armor is nice it can take a beating from what i can tell, had some one punch me in the shoulder pads a few times a little harder each time and i never felt any thing. http://www.revzilla.com/product/icon-strongarm-13-jacket mine does not have any patches on it, i kind of wish i would have got this one, it's rockabilly looking.

SC, remember, you are in Vermont, as Danny pointed out, it get's a little warmer down south and there's always the risk of overheating to the point of passing out which also leads to crashing, so yeah, when I'm bundled up for Winter riding I am wearing a lot of protective gear because it keeps me warm not just because it would protect me better in a fall. Like Danny, I tend to drop the gear proportionally as the weather gets hot, and yes I've ridden in jeans and a T-Shirt when it's near 100 degrees around here. Like Danny, I always have on my boots and maybe unlike Danny, I don't ride in shorts (ever burned your leg on a motorcycle exhaust?) well, that's another story. Basically my personal belief is that the gear will keep you from getting scraped up in a fall, but it probably won't save your life in a collision if your wreck is bad enough to kill you without the gear. If you want safety, drive a dump truck, death rates per million miles driven in a dump truck are about 1/4 that of cars which are 36 times safer per million miles driven than motorcycles. I'm fully aware of the fact that I'm putting myself in harms way every time I ride my bike and no amount of safety gear is likely to save my life in a severe crash, might make the corpse less scraped up, but won't save me from dying. It will however keep most of my hide on me in the event of a non fatal crash and that is definitely worth considering, but don't be fooled into thinking it will keep you from dying in a severe crash. I guess what I'm saying is that it's a choice everyone should make with good information. Some riders will decide that it's to limiting and destroys the reason they ride in the first place to have on a lot of safety gear, others will decide that they'd rather have on everything available no matter how much it cost and how restrictive it feels, most of us fall somewhere in the middle, but it doesn't make us idiots, just people exercising their right to choose what risks they are willing to take in life. I mean lets face it, some people are such big risk takers that they will even ride in a Toyota!

hahahah, i always ride in my boots, they go half way up my leg, and they have more sole height witch is nice since i am short and when the ground is on a big crown (the street is curved a lot) i can stilll touch both feel flat on the ground with my boots, instead of one foot flat and one foot on my tippy toes when i wear tennis shoes, i intend to get a new seat that will lower the seating height too,

FYI - denim isn't worth a shit when you're sliding down the road. It is cotton and has absolutely no abrasion resistance. Everyone wears jeans though, not usually riding pants, but for a jacket? The armor on the elbows and shoulders won't keep the skin from being rubbed off your back.

I suppose this is what I wear gear for. It's not that I'm afraid of dying, for I have made peace with my maker in that event. No, I wear gear so that I'm not spending a week in bed picking gravel out of my butt cheeks, elbows, and palms. If there's one thing I've learned in my short 36 years, it's this: pain hurts.

it has a layer of armor in the back also.

When I was in Tenn back in 07 it was very hot and humid. This is what I wore:
JR Alter Ego riding pants
Mesh jacket
Armored leather riding gloves with perferations for air flow
Full face helmet
Tall protective riding boots

That said, yes I was hot. Not as hot as I have been on other rides but not totally comfy either. The mesh gear allows air flow without direct sunshine on your body. Air flow naturally stops when you stop but that applies to any clothing. There is gear out there that will be comfy enough and still offer protection in case of an incident. Buy it, wear it, stay healthy.

I grew up in southern Alabama and unfortunately remember all to well the feeling of walking out of an air conditioned building only to be jumped by Mother Nature who then proceeded to wrap a wet, microwaved wool blanket tight around my nostrils and mouth, strangling me- oh, wait- that was just the humidity hitting me! Seriously, though- I am very glad not to have to deal with the kind of temps that folks have mentioned in this thread. Not sure what I would do in those situations- and happy to only have a week or so in August here in VT that it may become an issue!

What I'm hoping for with protective gear is to keep my skin (or at least most of it) attached to my bones. Water Warrior asked in my "Introduce yourself" posting what it is that I do at my hospital- welp, I'm an ICU RN, which means that I've had many chances to examine up close and personal the ground beef on a stretcher that is a biker post-accident. I don't mind so much the dying risk of motorcycling- we're all gonna die someday, like it or not- but I'd prefer to keep all my outer layer intact until such time! Which, really, is why I'm on a 250 to start with, why I'm heeding the advice of my betters, why I'm actively taking steps to learn how to ride "Proficiently"- why, in effect, I'm ignoring 33 years of Testosterone influence on my brain. ;-)

I forgot to say in my OP, zenbutcher, that I'm a short fellow at 5'4" with a bit of a potbelly, and the Fieldsheer jacket fits just right. There's straps for adjusting sleeve and hip width that really work to individually fit it well.

Every time I ride I wear chaps,cycle boots,and leather jacket.I do not wear gloves in warm weather.I don't feel comfortable without my gear on.I cannot wear different boots when I ride because my controls don't feel right.

I always wear gloves, because the first thing to hit the pavement will be my hands. They also have the thinnest and most sensitive skin.

If no other gear, always wear gloves. And protective eyewear.

Great responses. thank you all so much for the input!

Oh, by the way, I ran across this jacket at a local motorcycle shop. It just might do the trick for $160...http://www.olympiamotosports.com/airglide/airglide.htm

Take a look at Leatherup.com or newenough.com. I have bought a bunch of brand name stuff that's quite good at Leatherup and it's half price or less from what you are looking at - like a fully armored leather jacket with removable liner for $69, and a lighter textile fully armored jacket for $49 for the summer. It's like if it says motorcycle or boat on it, the price doubles or triples at some places. And if you watch for sales, sometimes you get great bargains. A number of us on here bought a $400 Firstgear heavy riding jacket with 2 removable liners for $99 including shipping.
I just recently bought an excellent pair of tough textile cold weather overpants (full side zips) with CE knee and hip armor, quilted lining, and totally waterproof/windproof, online for $39.95 from MotoDirect.
Spend a little time looking online, you'll be surprised what you can find.