Did you know?
Effective motorcycle gear can prevent injury and hospitalisation if you crash. However, researchers have found that more than 25% of protective clothing worn by Australian riders is poor quality and can fail under crash conditions.
So, how do I choose gear that is safe?
When selecting gear for your ride, it can be difficult to know how safe it is and how it will perform in a crash. Motorcycle clothing sold in Australia is not required to comply with a minimum standard of protection.
In the past, you may have had to rely on knowing the material it is made from, the price, advertising, standards from overseas or word-of-mouth to help you choose. Now, MotoCAP performs evidence-based testing of gear to inform riders about its safety, breathability and water resistance.
Why use MotoCAP?
Independence
MotoCAP is supported by government and private road safety organisations across Australia and New Zealand. This allows MotoCAP to randomly select gear and purchase it for testing and rating, independent of industry. Industry can commission a rating of a specific garment, but MotoCAP remains impartial. MotoCAP gives industry no control over the ratings process and publishes the commissioned rating without input from the manufacturer, regardless of the result.
Get bang for your buck
MotoCAP testing has found no relationship between price and performance of gear. Riders can use MotoCAP to select garments with good protection at an affordable price.
MotoCAP is for Australian and New Zealand riders
There are standards for motorcycle clothing in Europe (e.g. EN 17092), however these have been developed for European riding conditions. The EN 17092 abrasion test is based on an asphalt road surface that is the predominant road type in Europe.
MotoCAP uses an abrasion test which has been scientifically shown to behave the same as Australian and New Zealand chip seal roads. Chip seal is four and a half times more abrasive than asphalt. MotoCAP provides advice for Australian and New Zealand riders about gear that will protect them when riding in Australia or New Zealand.
The difference between asphalt and chip seal road surfaces can be seen in the pictures below.
Stars are better than standards
European standards apply a pass or fail and only tell the buyer if the garment passed a minimum level of protection, not by how much the garment has passed. Whereas MotoCAP applies a star rating system where products are tested and ranked according to their precise protection and breathability capabilities. Riders are fully informed of the performance to each test criteria and therefore can make the choice of the level of protection they wish to ride in.
The graph below shows the variability in performance of clothing rated to the European standard when evaluated with the MotoCAP test protocol. Given this large range of performance for standard-certified gear, we recommend relying on MotoCAP rather than standards to know how much protection the gear will provide.
MotoCAP buys what riders buy
The garments used in MotoCAP tests are bought anonymously from stores and local online outlets available to riders across Australia and New Zealand. Riders can be confident that what they buy is the same as what was tested in MotoCAP. Gear tested for standards is provided by the manufacturer and may be a pre-production garment.
You can directly compare all types of gear
All garments of the same type (jackets, pants and gloves) are tested using the same test methods. This enables direct comparison of the protection and breathability of garments regardless of the materials they are made from. For example, a pair of denim pants with a three-star safety rating will have an equivalent level of protection as a pair of leather pants with a three-star safety rating (noting that the scores for the individual elements of protection may be different).
