One of the things I take a lot of pride in is the safety of our students. Whether its a STAR school or a JP43 Training 1on1, I can’t help but notice what people wear on the track. I do realize that budget determines what a lot of us buy but how much is your health  and safety really worth? Bikes have become so much easier to ride with all the electronics and gadgets that we can put on them. But they still haven’t made a bike that I know of, that doesn’t have the ability to unceremoniously spit us down the road. The sad truth is, it can happen to any of us. So how prepared are you? 

I am fortunate to be going on my 8th year with Dainese – arguably the best company for rider safety and innovative products. Dainese were the first ones to put knee pucks on suits and that was obviously only the beginning. When you see what is available to the consumers now it is mind blowing. With the introduction of the D-Air suit, buying a regular leather suit seems almost laughable. The D-Air not only inflates and protects you in case of accident but it also can collect data from your day at the track! How cool is that? Now you can download your bike’s information and your leather suit’s info also. 

“From my father’s suit he wore in the 70’s to the D-Air suit I wear today, leather racing suits have come a long way.”

“Rider safety has never been better so make sure you pick a suit that gives you the best possible protection.”

The D-Air has a system that detects when things may be going a bit sideways for the rider and will inflate the airbags to protect the riders body. The data that has been collected from riders all over the world has shown a huge decrease in injury, specifically the broken collarbones that until this suit were common place. The suits still have all the hard protective gear that they have always had externally. Maybe the coolest thing though is the suit’s ability to trace our lap times, speed data, telemetry, acceleration data and line choices. 

I have had my D-Air since October of last year and thankfully I haven’t had to see how well it works. I have downloaded the info from it though, and can tell you the technology is so cool. The boots, gloves and back protection are something I have gotten used to with Dainese and, simply put, I have never worn anything better. 

Now I know you all are thinking that this is a huge plug for a sponsor of mine. It is and it isn’t. What I am trying to do is get you to look at what your’e wearing and ask yourself if its good enough? Maybe instead of putting more money into your bike lets spend a bit on quality equipment because the technology has come so far and there are some pretty cool things out there these days. 

Last year we hosted Dainese Days – we had a great 2 day STAR school that included some very influential people in the social media motorcycle world. Dainese brought them all out and what an amazing two days we had. Weather was perfect, everyone came with an open mind and left better riders. It was so great to be partnered with Dainese and I am hoping we can do something like this annually. 

STAR has events coming up in April and May. Our May date is a weekend which will definitely interest some of you. I hope to see you all soon and make sure the gear you choose will be worth the money you’ve spent and keep you safe.

Ride safe, 

JP

PS…..Id love to write my next column based off of a suggestion from any of you. Please feel free to write in and let me know if its ok if I use your name. Thanks again.