Stars or Standards? A review of motorcycle protective clothing from the southern hemisphere

There is plenty of advice to be found in general terms with regard to protective clothing for motorcyclists, but when it comes to the performance of individual products the picture is less clear.

Are those £150 gloves really safer than a £50 pair, or are you just paying for a product that has the look of racing kit but not the performance?

Hence, the RAC Foundation was very interested to hear of an initiative in Australia to develop a star-rating system for protective clothing for motorcyclists. Therefore, the Foundation commissioned this short report from Dr Liz de Rome, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Australia – which sets out some of the issues about the choice between absolute standards and relative ratings that have been weighed down-under.