The best women's motorcycle clothing: find kit that actually fits, with the experts from MCN

Most women who ride motorcycles complain about how difficult it can be to find kit that genuinely fits, so what is the best women’s motorcycle clothing? That really is going to depend on what body shape you have, how tall you are and what your personal style and taste is.

The choice of women’s biking kit is better than ever before, with manufacturers starting to acknowledge the increasing number of female riders and coming up with a wider range of specifically designed riding gear. Getting stuff that fits is vital, not only for feeling good but also for comfort and safety, too; badly fitting kit can be at best distracting and at worst next to useless.

Despite having more choice than ever, finding kit that fits can still be a struggle. You may be short with a large chest, making finding a ladies motorcycle jacket that fits pretty tricky. Tall with curvy hips, making finding ladies motorcycle jeans or leggings a real challenge. Or you may have a narrow waist and muscular calves, creating problems when looking for women’s motorcycle boots. No two riders are the same and this issue is further compounded by the fact that seemingly all brands have their own sizing and cuts, too!

However, the good news is there’s gear out there to suit everyone, and between our kit expert Sandra Barlow at Sportsbikeshop Boston, the hive mind of WoMCN readers and the female riders at MCN, we’ve come together to help you to find it.

Jump to:

• Meet the team
• Women’s helmets
• Long legs
• Curvy hips
• Petite riders
• Large chest
• Narrow feet or wide calves
• How we test ladies kit

The ladies at MCN

Meet the female team

• Emma Franklin – MCN Editor – 20 years riding – 5ft 6in – 43 years old
• Saffron Wilson – Reporter – 13 years riding – 5ft 8in – 29 years old
• Alison Silcox – Office Manager – 20 years riding – 5ft 10in – 54 years old
• Charlotte King – Product Writer – 3 years riding – 5ft 3 in – 32 years old

Helmets

The ladies on the MCN team got together and spoke about what we think is important to think about when looking for a women’s motorcycle helmet, and in all honesty, we were left scratching our heads a little bit. In reality there isn’t really such a thing as a women’s helmet, the most important thing is to go into a store and try on a selection of helmets.

Make sure if fits nicely, feels comfortable and doesn’t move around on your head. A helmet should be a slightly tighter than perfect fit to begin with because the padding will settle down a little after a short amount of use and if it isn’t snug enough to begin with it will become too loose.

A little tip if you have piercings in your ears, especially cartilage piercings, pull the chinstraps out as far as you can to open up the entry space as much as possible, this will help them to not catch. Alternatively wearing a silk balaclava will help the protect your earrings and hair when putting helmets on or off.

The main features that we thought might come into play for a woman when choosing a helmet would be the sizes, weight and design choice. Generally speaking women tend to have a smaller head on average than men so a helmet with smaller sizes available would be ideal for a more petite rider. Emma Franklin suggests looking for a helmet with as many shell sizes as possible, as this way you don’t end up with a larger shell than needed for your head size.

Weight could also be key for a smaller rider as it can be fatiguing on your neck to hold up a bulky helmet on a long ride. So perhaps look for lighter options like carbon fibre, the weight of a helmet should be listed in the specifications or in the paperwork in the box if you go into a store.

Lastly of course, some lady riders do like to wear ‘girlier’ kit to show proudly that they are a female biker, so if this is the case for you, a pretty feminine design could be important. Many manufacturers like HJC and Shark have a pretty good range of pink, purple, sparkly or flowery designs to satisfy the ‘girliest’ of riders.

Best for long legs

Sandra at Sportsbikeshop told us: “Some brands have a different idea about a short leg measurement. In general we know a Short to be 30″, Regular 32″, and Long 34″. However, brands such as Rev’it are 2 inches longer in all their leg lengths so a short would be 32″. We always steer tall people towards Rev’it and this applies to all their garments, even though their general sizing is the same as everyone else they do come up longer in the ladies stuff.”

It’s therefore a good idea to check what the leg measurement actually is for a long leg trouser to ensure that it will actually be long enough for you. If you’re unsure what your leg length actually is you can measure from the crotch area of your trousers where the centre seam sits, down to the lower part of your ankle.

Our office manager at MCN Alison Silcox is a taller lady at 5’10” with a 33 inch inside leg, as a keen long distance rider she puts thousands of miles on kit so that she can write helpful comprehensive reviews. This makes her the ideal member of the WoMCN team to help long legged riders to determine which jeans and trousers fit well.

Best for curvy hips

When you’re seated on a bike for long periods, being comfortable around your middle matters more than ever. Thankfully, a new breed of stretchy-but-protective trousers have been nothing short of a game changer for women riders, as our WoMCN readers can attest.

A higher rise, wide waist band can help to get a comfortable fit and avoid the “muffin top” effect and also reduce the risk of having your lower back exposed. A good set of belt loops or waist adjusters on a pair of trousers also helps to getting a better fit, this way you can cinch in at the waist while allowing a larger size for your hips and bum. When looking at jackets it’s also good to find one with hip and or waist adjustments like zips or adjusting straps to allow you to let out a little more room around the hips.

Reader Debra Jayne Bonser told us: “I’ve got chunky thighs and a big bum, but my Oxford Super Leggings fit really well. They have knee protection and a Kevlar lining, so feel safe, too.”

Best for petite riders

WoMCN reader Stacey Black told us: “I’m 5ft 2in and I’ve struggled to find bike clothing. I’ve currently got Oxford Jeans and Oxford Leggings (which are super comfy), a Held summer jacket which fits perfectly and is flattering, plus a Held one-piece, very nice and comfy, but expensive.”

Similarly to how I explained above in the long leg section, make sure you check the actual measurement of the leg length of the trousers that you are looking at and be sure to check what your inseam measurement is.

The shortest member of the team at MCN is me, Charlotte King, and with a 27.5″ inside leg I have always struggled with the length of trousers and jackets. Jackets would tend to bunch up at the front when sat on the bike due to being too long, and I would end up with too much length in trousers, leaving excess fabric that would be hard to tuck into boots. Hopefully my experience as a petite, vertically challenged rider will enable me to recommend motorcycle clothing that fits the smaller rider properly.

Best for large chests

Sandra from Sportsbikeshop told us: “I find that with some customers with big boobs the poor things end up gravitating towards men’s jackets. They think that in order to get round their body they need to pick a huge size men’s jacket then they find that it just hangs off their shoulders and arms. I send them towards Held, because they really have their sizings lovely.” She suggests: “Look at Held Tourino and Held Ladies 4 Touring. On several occasions recently the ladies have gone out with a size smaller than they expected! They are very generous around the boob area and have very nice waist styling.”

She also recommends premium brand Klim, as all their jackets are very roomy. It’s something that WoMCN reader and professional tour leader Julia Sanders agrees with.

If you are a woman looking for a women’s motorcycle jacket with a larger bust, waist adjustments are key to achieving a better fit and more flattering shape. This way you can opt for an overall larger jacket but have the ability to pull it in at the waist to reduce the amount of loose fabric there is and also give you a feminine silhouette. Stretch panels across the sides, under arms and around the shoulder areas will also help to allow the jacket to stretch and give more room in the areas that you need it, without creating bagginess in the areas that you don’t.

Boots for narrow feet or wide calves

“Boots sold as women-specific tend to be slightly narrower in the foot and calf,” says Sandra. “In general, a size 40 men’s will be almost identical in looks as the women’s size 40, but will be a bit more roomy. I find some women are very adamant that they want ladies gear, which is fine with clothing, however, with boots, if a customer has a wide foot or larger calves they should probably try a men’s size as well. Also, anything with a ratchet or boa system will fit larger calves best.”

So it’s best to look for motorcycle boots with adjustability in back of the calf of the boot to allow for you to let out the calf area if needed. Some boots will have a velcro gusset to allow you to increase the width, some may have velcro straps that can be done up tighter or looser as needed.

As mentioned above some sporty boots will feature a Boa system which is a system where laces are replaced with steel wires that connect to a dial, this can then be turned to either tighten or loosen the rear of the boot, allowing for great adjustability. Motocross boots will have a ratchet strap system where three or four straps run across the front of the boots and can be ratcheted shut to varying tightness, again allowing greater width variation, however this style of boot is possibly overkill for most road riders.

There is always the option of a short boot that doesn’t come over the calf, like a casual hi-top style or a military type boot where you can lace up the boots to your desired tightness. However these types of boots don’t offer as high a level of protection, for the obvious reason that they don’t cover as much of your shin.

How MCN tests women’s motorcycle gear

At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles. We don’t usually test our motorcycle gear to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions, while also being on top of the key safety regulations. That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on.

Each of our female writers has an in-depth understanding of the needs of women bikers… because they are one, and regularly test and review ladies motorcycle kit.

To find out if a women’s product is worth spending your money on, our testers use them in the way you will. That means riding in them in whichever conditions they are designed for.

We test against various objective and subjective criteria, such as the weight of the product, its venting, the quality, how it looks, and of course, which safety ratings they adhere to.

This allows us to give a full overview of which areas each product performs well in. We asses how the products fit: are they true to size, and they comfortable to wear while riding but also off the bike too? Do the products feel like the level of quality matches up to the price, or does it exceed in this area?

If you can’t see a review against an item on this page, it’s because we haven’t tested it yet. These items will only be included if we think they’re important and relevant in the market, and rest assured, we will be working on bringing you a review as soon as we’ve done the miles.

To find out more, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

What our star ratings mean

When we review a product, we award it a score out of five. In the ratings tab of a given product, you may also find more specific scores for the different aspects of a product’s performance to help you make an informed decision. Here’s a guide to what each number score means:

• 1 star – Poor performance in this category or overall. A product with a single star rating has fallen below the expected standard and should be avoided.
• 2 stars – Basic performance in this area or overall. A product with a two-star rating has managed to perform to a barely acceptable level and there is room for improvement.
• 3 stars – An average performance in this area or overall. A product with a three-star rating has achieved a basic level of performance and is deemed adequate.
• 4 stars – A product has performed over and above the accepted averaged in this category or overall. A product with a four-star rating has surpassed expectation and delivered in a particularly impressive way.
• 5 stars – A product has performed at the highest possible level in a particular category or overall. A product with a five-star rating has delivered to the highest possible level, impressing the tester with its performance. We would happily spend our own money on it.

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