Women's Motorcycle Boots

Motostrano doesn't really stock Women's motorcycle boots. Why? because 90% of what's available for women is foofoo junk that really, in our opinion, doesn't belong on a motorcycle, let alone on a person, whether they be a boy or a girl.
Traditional women's motorcycle boots, whether they be by a top name brand or a smaller boot company are traditionally made to be decorative and girly, with only a little thought and design focused on actual protection and rider comfort.
We like our customers. We enjoy them with both feet in good working order. Therefore we like to sell them products that will serve this purpose- protection. You'll see some women's moto boots on our web site (we have to eat) and, yes, some women's boots are sized correctly for the small feet many women have, but not all women are super petite and many women do just fine in smaller men's boots.
We believe there's no reason that women should have sub-par riding boots simply because girls are girly. We believe that a women's motorcycle boot should have the same protection of a men's boot. We believe that a woman's boot should also have the same technical features of a men's boot.
So, with this in mind, we try to stock some of our boots in the smaller men's sizes, when possible. In this economy, stocking very small, or very large sizes, is challenging, but we usually have some on hand for purchase in our store, and our web site is where you can order just about anything.
We do also offer some girly boots. But if asked, we'll steer most women to small-sized men's boots.
Which is why we really like the new ICON Reign Boots for Women. As you can see, this boot differs from the men's boot only in size and foot shape. Built to be more narrow and smaller, this boot shares all the technical features as the men's boot and it doesn't even look diffent.

How To Buy A Leather Suit

A Helpful Guide For The First Time Leather Suit Buyer

Revised 2/11/2011 This essay was written for the motorcyclist in the market for a new leather suit. If you enjoy what you read here or find it useful, please consider purchasing your new suit from Motostrano.com. We appreciate the return business and we enjoy providing you with top service on this important purchase.
If this is the first time you've been in the market for a leather motorcycle riding suit, or jacket, you're likely going into the experience with little information and a lot of questions. Most motostrano customers come to us looking for a suit armed with recommendations and advice from friends, many of whom also have no idea what makes up a good fitting, quality suit. We're not asking you to ignore those recommendations or your own opinions, because they may in the end weigh the heaviest in your decision on what to buy, but take a moment to consider some new information your buddies may not be passing on to you.

Buying A Leather Suit?

A one or two piece leather suit is usually a relatively significant investment for most riders. The cost alone is the reason so many riders don't own a suit, let alone a good quality jacket. It's safe to say that a majority of street motorcycle riders ride with less than ideal riding gear. Given that fact, riding with any real protective gear other than a helmet is a step above the rest. Nevertheless, our opinion is that you should own and use the best quality riding gear that you can afford. Beyond that, your gear should fit your needs, your riding style and most of all it should fit you.
We are often asked what the difference is between the low end and high end suits. It comes down to the amount of features the suit has, the quality of the leather, the quality of the interior of the suit, the quality of the armor (if the suit features any), the type and amount of stitching in the suit. The more expensive the materials and the more time needed to make the suit, will make up the cost of the suit. Like anything, you tend to get what you pay for and poorly made suits will not only protect you less, but won't last as long just during the regular use of the suit.

Features to look for in a suit include:

• Leather type, either cowhide, kangaroo or goat
• Leather thickness and suit weight
• Type of venting and perforation features
• Type of padding and protection
• Type of spine protection, aero hump, or inserts
• Slider type and hardness
• Type and quantity of stitching
• Internal lining, removability
• Insert pockets or snap-ins for back protectors
• Stretch material used

The first thing you need to understand about motorcycle protective gear is that leather, whether cowhide or kangaroo skin, is always more protective than any type of textile (fabric) material currently available. Textile motorcycle gear is light weight and therefore comfortable, easy to get in and out of and breaths well, but there is a reason that no pro or amateur racer today is using textile gear on the track. Textile suits and jackets do not protect riders as well as leather in a crash. Today's suit manufacturers do use textile materials in parts of the suit that rarely experience impact or stress, such as under the arms, the groin and of course in the lining of a suit.

The qualities of leather make it a very difficult material to burn or tear in a crash slide situation. This isn't to say that textile jackets and pants shouldn't be owned and used for regular street riding, but of the two, leather offers more protection. Various types of leather and a wide range of leather thickness is used across all manufacturers.

You can really look at a leather suit as a 2nd, very thick skin, that is worn over your body. Sewn into this skin, in any serious leather suit, will be protective strategically placed armor for even more protection and then stretch panels and liners for comfort and cooling. In a crash situation, the leather protects from impact force that would otherwise tear your skin and sliding abrasion that would otherwise scrape your skin off. Impact armor is there to absorb as much of any impact energy as possible.

Higher end leather tends to be thinner and soft, therefore lighter and more comfortable for the rider, than heavy-weight leather. Thin, soft leather also takes less time for the suit to break-in than heavy weight leather. Thin leather, taken to the extreme may be comfortable, but can also no longer be fully protective, or if it is, is only a 'one-crash' garment.

Leather suits are typically offered in "one piece" and "two piece" varieties. One piece suits provide the best protection of the two types, due to the fact that there are less seams that can be subject to tearing during an impact situation. A two piece suit is slightly more versatile than a one piece suit, since it can be unzipped at the waist and be ridden as a jacket alone. Some manufacturers, such as Alpinestars, offer separate jackets and track pants that can be zipped together to make a full-type suit. Usually, however a riding jacket zipped to a riding pant does not zip all the way around the waist.

Increasingly, hi-tech suit manufacturers such as Alpinestars feature injection molded hard-plastic protection on their suits, combining leather protection with impact-absorbing hard body armor. This brings us to the topic of armor. Body armor is the part of the suit designed to protect the rider's body from hard impact with the ground or other objects. Many leather riding jackets on the market today have no body armor in them at all. The other important part of a suit or jacket is the impact absorbing armor. Higher end suits today use "CE Approved" hard plastic and/or multi-layored memory foam armor inserts at these impact areas. Utilizing hard armor and various types of foam and padding, creates an energy absorbing zone through out the suit, protecting the rider during heavy direct impact crashes.

Protection zones to look at include:

• Shoulders
• Elbows
• Spine
• Hips
• Knees
• Shins
• Chest
• Thighs

Alpinestars' higher ends suits, now offer exterior hard plastic protection in certain areas. This serves to protect the rider even more by putting the protection inserts as the first point of contact with the impact object.

The bare bones distinction between a high quality suit and low quality suit can be said to be the quality of the leather and the quality of the stitching. A high quality well-made suit can withstand the most brutal of slides and still stay together, protecting the riders skin. Lessor quality leather matched with poor stitching is what causes a suit to 'blow up', or come apart on a rider during a crash. It takes a certain amount of skill, learned proprietary knowledge and craft to produce a suit will live up to the task.

Next to protection, what any suit or jacket spends most of its time doing is keeping you comfortable. Mainly, this means that the suit should fit you well, so that you will want to wear it. An overly heavy suit with no venting on a hot day, won't be your first choice when you go to suit up for a day's ride in the street. An overly uncomfortable suit will also have the affect of being a distraction to your riding when you are on the bike. You want your suit to fit as good as possible.

Sizing. Especially when ordering online, sizing questions are one of the first things on people's minds. As a retailer with both a web site and a retail showroom of our products, we don't necessarily recommend that that you go and try on a suit at your local dealer and buy the item from us. Kinda tacky and most motorcycle dealerships don't offer a wide variety of sizes in their showroom for you anyway. Motostrano offers a free exchange return policy on all of our suits, so you can be sure to get the right size. Motostrano stocks suits, unlike other stores who only special order their inventory, so we won't cringe if you have to exchange or return a suit. Our sales associates can also guide you through the fitting process either on the phone or by email and help you select the right product.

Sizing across all manufacturers varies. Some makers size their suits in US Sizes, others in European Sizes. The difference in numbers is that European sizes are 10 above US sizes. So, if you tend to wear a size 42 US jacket, you'd be a size 52 in European sizing.

When we speak to customers on the phone who don't know what size they are, the questions we ask are:

• What's your height
• What's your weight
• What size US suit jacket do you wear
• What's your waist size

Using these questions we can usually get the sizing right in a few seconds. This is, however, as long as the rider isn't exceptionally built in the shoulder, stomach or thigh areas. Some, though few, riders will simply not fit well in any off the shelf suit.

You want your suit to fit as snug as possible, even to the point of being a little constraining. At Motostrano we preach that your new leather suit should at first be border-line uncomfortable when you first try it on. A new suit will give a half a size to a size after a few times of using the suit. Leather gives to an extent to form to the rider's shape and size. First time suit buyers are typically lost when it comes to trying on suits because they want the suit to fit perfectly the moment they try it on. A good fitting suit should be very snug on the few times of use. A perfectly fitting suit has few creases, baggy points and folds, yet is just snug enough to be a little tight on the rider. You shouldn't be able to grab a hand full of leather easily and bunch it up in your hand if the suit is fitting well. The suit should fit as well as possible, like a second skin, tight to your body.

Most first time suit owners try on a suit and want the knee protection and sliders to be up on their knees. Look at this photo of Eric Bostrom with his knee down and slider in full action and you'll have an idea of where you want your sliders to be in relation to your knees. Knee armor should stop at about the middle of your knee cap. Knee, elbow and shoulder amour shouldn't be loose on you.

The other point that first-time suit owners often overlook is that your suit is designed to fit you best when riding the bike. You're not going to use your suit to go out on a date and although showing up at your favorite rider gathering area and posing in a full race suit looks cool, that's not what a well made suit is designed for and we hope that's not playing in your purchasing decision. A race suit is designed to be in the riding position, leaned over and aggressively positioned. It's designed to fit the rider comfortably while riding the bike. We speak with folks all the time who get the suit on and complain they can't raise their arms over their head. Ok- great! you're not going to want your arms flailing over you head if you get off the bike- you'll want some restriction there.

When considering the features of a suit, you'll realize quick that the higher cost suits offer the most advanced features. If you can't spring for the big buck suit, you can still get a quality protective suit that fits, without having to settle for a low end suit that will come part on you while riding, or just plain be uncomfortable while riding. The full range of Alpinestars suits is designed to fit within most riders' budgets and still offer world-class features such as CE Approved armor, soft leather, venting and interior lining.

Another important point to consider is that there are a multitude of suit manufacturers on the market today. A good amount of them utilize the racing scene as a marketing and sales tool for their products. It makes good sense to look at which riders are riding with what suit brand, because these guys have careers and lives to protect and they crash all the time. They want to be around at the finish line, but realize too, that pro racers usually have custom suits built for them by their sponsors. What your favorite pro racer is wearing may or may not be available to the average rider. Suit makers also use their sponsored riders for product testing and product development. Many of the suits worn by pro racers are not yet available to the public, because the manufacturer puts time, money and energy into getting feedback from their sponsored riders for products that are not yet released yet. This information is then taken back to the lab and used to build next generation protection products.

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Close-Out Deals on Twowheelsteals.com - in stock shipped quick, cheap

• Akrapovic Husqvarna TC250 Race Exhaust Your Price: $696.00
• Alpinestars T-Monterey Jacket Your Price: $119.95
• Scorpion Helmet Face Shields Your Price: $25.00

From Our Blog

• How To Buy Supermoto Brakes
• Trail Tech Voyager specially designed GPS system for your bike from Trailtech.
• GIMOTO Customer Leathers - Motostrano is once again serving up great Italian custom leathers with Gimoto...

Customize it, modify it, build it

Motostrano sells only the finest accessories and parts for you and your motorcycle. Started in 2002, Motostrano's goal is to offer the most unique and best quality motorcycle products available to motorcycle enthusiasts. We're not trying to be a fashion store or the next greatest online e-commerce thing. We're just trying to be a cool place to find great motorcycle stuff, stuff you can't find anywhere else and this goes for our web site as much as it does for our retail store in Redwood City. We made Motostrano to be what we would want from a motorcycle store and we've created Motostrano as a place that we'd like to shop ourselves. Our customers are folks who can't leave well enough alone, who enjoy the time and care and planning and execution involved in upgrading, customizing and enhancing their machines with all the imagination and satisfaction that it entails. We are happy to participate in your project.
Motostrano's top brands include Alpinestars, Acerbis, Akrapovic, Leo Vince, Wolfman Luggage, GIVI, STM, Speedymoto, Rizoma , AGV, Kali Helmets, ICON, Arrow Exhaust and Suomy. We also sell bicycles and electric bikes from Felt Racing and Ultra Motor.
Motostrano deals in Sportbike, Supermoto , Adventure Moto, Scooter and Harley-Davidson parts. We have expert knowledge in the protective apparel field and can help you sort through the myriad of options available to you for motorcycle wear. Motostrano is also known as "the supermoto store". That's because our supermoto kits are often a riders first point entry into the world of supermoto. Motostrano also sells supermoto wheels, supermoto brakes and everything else you need to build your supermoto.
Motostrano ships world wide and operates a vibrant retail location that you can actually come and visit and shop. NOTE: Motostrano does not guarantee all products on our web site are in stock, all the time. Some products are made to order. Some products are special ordered from distributors around the United States and also around the world. These products may cause a delay in shipment until they are constructed or received. For time-sensitive orders, we highly encourage you to call for time estimates or availability.

Leather gear from R SPEED

R SPEED LEATHERS at Motostrano


In the coming weeks, Motostrano will be receiving a first shipment of R Speed leathers and riding gear. At Motostrano we take pride in being able to import goods from all over the world to offer to our US customers. In our history spanning from 2002, Motostrano at one time imported Vertemati motorcycles, Sil Moto exhaust and we continue to direct import Rizoma, Gimoto and other brands. R Speed will be another offering of ours, with off-the-rack suits for supermoto and road race, as well as custom designs.

Here are some photos

Some Mouth-Watering Orange/Black Supermoto Wheels

They're hanging right in front of me and it's hard not to like these wheels.

Want some for your bike? order them up here in our supermoto wheels section!

Roland Sands Jackets and Gloves - Motorcycle Clothing Cool Factor

Have you actually ever read a product description on sales literature for a motorcycle jacket? Sure you have. I have. We all have. But have you actually ever reflected on that? Here's one from Alpinestars:

1.3mm top grade leather with extended perforated panels on the front for ventilation. External PU shoulder protectors derived from Alpinestars Racing Development program. MotoGP profile, perforated, back hump for improved aerodynamic and ventilation performance. Multiple external perforated leather panels on chest and back with foam padding inserts. Innovative side accordion stretch panel to enhance fit and flexibility. Functional accordion stretch inserts on elbow and shoulders. Aramidic stretch panels on sleeves. Fixed liner with 3D mesh liner insert on the back for comfort. -- D-ring waist adjustment. YKK front zip closure and YKK semi auto locking wrist closure....."

Blah, blah blah. It's like reading the ingredients of a bag of Cheetos. It's a JACKET, for crying-out loud. A jacket, for boys to use and ride around on little motorized bicycles so they can then pick up chicks better.

Has it become verboten to ride a motorcycle with a simple honest leather jacket? It seems so. And, to buy one of these high-tech wonders of engineering (it's a jacket), seems to also require all kinds of research and development, your's and the manufacturer's, with lots of HD videos with balding buffed guys in tight blue t-shirts doing reviews and product descriptions on YouTube like they really believed there's something special about the thing.

Does it have to be so complicated? Do we really need to be schooled in the science of buying a jacket?

Not really. Some things should sell themselves and require no introduction. These things stand alone, are timeless and need no props.

One of the primary benefits of riding a motorcycle is the increase in cool-factor obtained by the need (the genetic requirement) for a guy or gal to wear a motorcycle jacket. It would seem to be a given, but if you look around, there's really not much cool about motorcycle biker fashion these days. Highly technical, overly technical, most of the sport or standard bike riding gear available is highly over-engineered and overly purpose-built.

So, it's refreshing, to me, to see the clothing created by Roland Sands for motorcyclists who need good looking gear, made for riding on a motorcycle, but not exclusively so. This is stuff who's primary function it seems is first and foremost: attract chicks. Secondly, it's to ride motorcycles and look good doing it. Thirdly, it's to protect the rider from the elements and maybe a crash and also to keep the rider riding longer, comfortably.

I got to review the line last week here at Motostrano's headquarters and I was instantly sold on the good looks and quality of the whole catalog of jackets and gloves. Motostrano is now selling and stocking the Roland Sands Clothing for cool-factor riding protection.

This isn't stuff you're going to use for a track day. But it's also not fashion-only leather. This is purpose-built riding gear that tries not to sacrifice either style or performance. There's no body armor in the stuff, but there's pockets for it in some of the jackets and if you need armor you can always slip on a protection jacket or back protector by Forcefield or any other brand.

Motostrano's retail outlet and web site will the places where you will be able to find these great garments. We encourage you to visit our store, call our shop or order online.

Motostrano staff can walk you through any sizing questions you have, as well steer you to the right product that is right for you.

Icon Death or Glory Jacket, Black Large

Motostrano has one left of these classic limited jackets from ICON.

Icon Death or Glory Jacket, Black Large

Rizoma Parts at Motostrano

Motostrano has always offered the best aftermarket parts for your motorcycle. Bolt-on, easy to install performance and aesthetic parts to enhance the look of your bike. Among the best brands we offer include Rizoma, the Italian maker of fine billet parts and accessories for your bike.

Bike customizers of all shades of experience come to Motostrano for these Rizoma parts because we stock them at a good price and because Rizoma parts are high quality billet.

The Rizoma mirrors are enough to make any motorcycle enthusiast drool with envy. Extremely well made, aesthetically enhancing mirrors that change the way you ride and change the way your ride looks.

Currently, no other maker of cool aftermarket sportbike parts offer a more wide catalog than Rizoma. They have multiple types and colors of handlebars to select from. Various ways of mounting these bars. 2 types of custom grips. Color-optional levers, a bunch of brake reservoirs, rearsets, clip-ons and a nearly endless list of other goodies for your bike.

Motostrano is a direct importer of Rizoma products, importing fine Italian billet multiple times per month.

We offer Rizoma for sale on our web site and in our store, at likable prices.