It seems normal nowadays to wear “technical gear”  while riding a motorcycle or a scooter: even bicyclists today wear protective helmet and “ad hoc” clothing.

We can still cross path with motorcyclist wearing short pants and flip flop or riding along the coast in bathing suit , but generally speaking the education of bikers made gigantic progresses in the last 15 years and “passive safety (helmet, gloves, armoured jacket & pants, boots)” are quite common.

This was not the case 34 years ago when I first came in contact with the Aerostich suit thanks to this article of Steven Thompson on Cycle World appeared in May 1986. I read it, I thought about it again and then I started a long search (without internet) on how to order . I have been wearing Aerostich since covering hundreds of thousands of miles facing the same prejudices Mr. Thompson complained about.

Even today, when “exiting” from the one piece suit revealing normal clothes in a public place I can feel prejudiced looks. On one side the old idea that you should not wear special “unfashionable” gear and that one should stay on Steve McQueen (if conservative) of Marlon Brando (if rebellious) fashion.

The new prejudiced looks come from bikers of the last hours (or last decade), the first-users-of-tech-gadgets searching for “more extreme adventure gear”. They look at Aerostich as a “old technology” without knowing that the company has introduced hundreds of changes and innovations in the same looking suit.

Still, forget these bigoted looks and exercise the freedom of wearing what you think protects you better: as Mr Thompson said “you don’t get that freedom by talking about it. You get it by exercising it”

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By Paolo Volpara

"Si sta come d'autunno sugli alberi le foglie"