We are already aware that donning safety gear is essential when we ride our motorcycles because we know that we are not wrapped around by a steel cage.

However, the equipment we wear need to be protective, or more specifically, need to adhere to certain standards in order to provide protection. Good news is, there are standards in place.

 Europe is the leader in setting safety standards for motorcyclists’ personal protective equipment (PPE) and these standards have been adopted as the United Nations’ standards for worldwide adoption – the ubiquitous CE mark. The European standards body, Committee of European Norms (CEN), has a technical committee (TC162/WG9) dedicated to motorcycle PPE.

The first standard, EN 13595:2002, was published in 2002. However, this original standard covered the use of professional riding gear. It has since been revised and there are now standards for almost every piece of motorcyclist PPE. These standards represent testing methods that are measurable and replicable.

Do note that the EN 1621-X:XXXX standard has been superseded by the EN 17092-X:XXXX since 2018. However, you can still find new garments that use the previous EN 1621 standard for their protectors.

There you go. However, this is not an exhaustive list nor explanation. We shall delve into each in coming articles.

Continue to 'What does CE-Rated Protection Mean? (Part 2)' here.