5 Places To Find Motorcycle Riding Gear On A Budget

Motorcycles tend to run a bit cheaper than most cars, but there are a lot of hidden expenses that you might not know about when you're getting started. By the time you've saved up to pay for a riding course, get your license, buy a motorcycle, and then get it registered and insured, you might find it hard to shell out even more money for quality gear. Even so, good riding equipment is absolutely essential to riding safely.

Like it or not, motorcycle gear is both expensive and necessary. You don't have the steel frame of a car to absorb the impact when you get into an accident on a motorcycle, so you need to make sure your body is protected. You'll want a DOT certified full-face helmet and a good, but affordable jacket, as well as boots, gloves, and maybe even protective pants in order to keep your skin and bones from having an unpleasant meeting with the pavement.

You might be tempted to buy the cheapest, flimsiest gear you can find in order to minimize your costs, but this would be a mistake. Your gear is all that stands between you and a devastating injury during a fall, and the quality of some pieces of equipment is vastly superior to others. So what is a rider on a budget to do? Fortunately, there are a handful of places where you can buy quality gear at reasonable prices.

It probably won't surprise anyone to learn that you can get new riding gear at low prices on Amazon. The company became the largest online marketplace in the world by systematically undercutting the prices of competitors in order to ensure it had the lowest-priced goods available. However, you need to make sure you know what you're looking for, though. Running a search for "motorcycle gloves" isn't going to guarantee that the results will be quality protective gear. You're much better off figuring out what protective quality you want in your gloves, (Kevlar, leather, sliders, etc.) and then looking for gloves that suit your criteria on Amazon.

For example, Fox Racing is known for making some of the best and most affordable off-road motorcycle boots on the market. They're comfortable and include protective plating and rigid structuring to prevent injury. The Comp Boots run $259.95 on Fox Racing's website. Meanwhile, you can get these exact same boots on Amazon for $149.96. That might still seem on the pricey side compared to some of the cheaper boots from no-name brands that can be found on Amazon, but it's a significant discount on a quality piece of protective gear.

Those who can't find what they're looking for on Amazon, or simply want to browse a more curated selection of quality gear, should check out RevZilla. This is another online marketplace that sells excellent new motorcycle equipment. It sometimes struggles to compete with Amazon's prices for new items, but you should be able to find just about anything you need, and there are often surprisingly good deals to be found.

RevZilla sells the basics, like helmets, jackets, boots pants, and gloves. But the company also sells more unique items like specialty riding jeans, protective pads, racing suits, and rain gear. They sell just about all of the major brands and have products that range across a wide variety of quality and price points.

One of the biggest appeals that RevZilla has for riders on a budget is that it doesn't just sell new or full-priced items, though. Once you choose what kind of equipment you're looking to purchase, and then, there are several filters you can apply. Three of these filters allow you to shop for sale items, closeout items, and open box items. These categories can offer discounts ranging from 10% off all the way to 80% off or more. You can also set specific price ranges to save you from having to search too much if you have a hard cap on how much you're willing to spend.

RevZilla is a great all-in-one shopping site for finding new motorcycle gear, but there are other places to find sales as well. One of these is an online retailer called MotorcycleGear.com. This website might look like it was made in the early 2000s, but it's a legitimate business that offers some really good deals. Like RevZilla, it is a full marketplace that features everything from jackets and pants to full suits.

To start, there is a section of the site that is dedicated to closeout sales. Here you can find items at anywhere from $10 off to over $100 off the sticker price. There is also a section called 'Customer's Closet', which sells used items from MotorcycleGear.com customers at a discount. You might not want to get a used helmet for safety reasons, but it's a great way to get a good jacket at a reasonable price. This is also good for riders who are looking to sell their current outfit and upgrade. You can use this section of MotorcycleGear.com to get some money for your old gear and help offset the cost of your new setup.

Next up we have MotorcycleCloseouts.com. Unlike the previous two websites that primarily sell motorcycle gear at full price but have discount sections, MotorcycleCloseouts.com flips that script and primarily focuses on closeout sales, putting its most discounted items front and center. Just about everything that it sells is a sale item, making it a great place to shop for motorcyclists who are looking to save a few bucks. That said, there are still some discounts that are better than others on the site.

The biggest discounts on MotorcycleCloseouts.com are located in the "Hot Deals" section. There is a broad selection of items here that are discounted anywhere from 25% to 70% off. Many of them are warehouse closeout sale items that come from retailers that are looking to get rid of excess inventory. This might be because they're less popular than other garments, or it could be that the brand is simply discontinuing that line in favor of a new one. Either way, it's still a great way to get a brand new, name-brand helmet with all the best safety features built-in at less than half the price you would have to pay if you found it elsewhere. Motorcycle Closeouts also has a physical location in Smithville, Missouri for those who live in the Kansas City area and prefer to do their shopping in-person.

Cycle Gear is another online marketplace that sells a wide variety of motorcycle equipment. Like RevZilla, it sells accessories, parts, and tires as well as wearable riding gear and helmets. This site also has an entire section dedicated to clearance items. Most of the stuff listed on this clearance page is discounted somewhere between 10% and 60% off the sticker price. Like many of the other pages listed so far, a lot of the more heavily discounted items come from closeout sales. Some riders might be looking for something that doesn't usually go on clearance, though.

Fortunately, Cycle Gear has a lot of other sales too. The company regularly runs a summer sale, for instance, that gives the opportunity to save some money. The discounts aren't quite as steep at the closeout items, but you can get a lot of the more popular gear that isn't available in the clearance section for 15% to 30% off. This is particularly convenient for those who are looking for gear near the start of the riding season.

There's some gear you don't want to buy used. Helmets are the most famous example because their internal protective elements are designed to break on impact. Since there's no way to definitely verify if the inside of the helmet is intact, this is one area where you're better off buying something new.

Just about everything else is safe to get second-hand (so long as it's in good condition) if you want to save some money. You can check out your local thrift stores if you want, but one of the best ways to find good second-hand gear is to check out local online markets like Craigslist, OfferUp, or Facebook Marketplace. People sell their old gear on these pages for a myriad of different reasons. They might have outgrown them, they might have decided they prefer something different, or they might have given up riding altogether.

These marketplaces are often where you'll find the best deals, but they're also the places where you'll need to exercise the most caution. It's always worth researching the items up to see what kind of safety certifications they have. Then you should always look the item over before committing to a purchase to make sure that it's in good condition and that no safety features, such as protective padding, were removed.