A lot of us have made a walk through the motorcycle shop searching for the perfect motorcycle outfit to make us look cool for riding our bikes. But many of us often get confused when the shop assistant describes us CE standards, information related to protection, abrasion testing, double-stitched, and markings.
Hearing so many things makes us not only confused, but some of us often get dizziness. Some of us leave the shop with an expensive outfit. However, the price tag doesn’t matter if we get good protection on our bike ride.
Over the years, the motorcycle protecting riding gear has made safer since the introduction of CE standard legalized by Europe in 1994 upon motorcycle clothing which is also known as EN13595.
CE approved clothing is a mark which shows that clothes are according to the health, environmental protection, and the safety standards of products which are sell under European countries. Initially, it gets designed for professional riders or racers, but this standard gets legalized as protective wear for every motorcyclist in Europe. The CE standard has legalized throughout many other countries. But, it was never policed and got mainly ignored.
What are the five standards of CE?
Under the new rules, there are five standards which include Class C, Class B, Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. Let’s have a look at each standard in detail.
1. Class C standard referred to off-road garments. It provides cover garments like under-suits that impact the protection of off-road riding.
2. Class B standard referred to road garments, where impact protectors considered not that important. Level A standard related to urban riding with zone 1 require abrasion resistance of one second at 265.3rpm and zone 2 requires the abrasion resistance of a half-second at 147.4rpm.
3. Level A standard referred to urban riding. Zone 1 requires abrasion resistance of one second at 265.3rpm. Zone 2 requires abrasion resistance of 0.5 seconds at147.4rpm, which is about 25km per hour.
4. Level AA standard referred to tourists providing an adequate amount of protection. Zone 1 requires abrasion resistance of two seconds at 412.6rpm, which is about 70km per hour. Zone 3 requires abrasion resistance of one second at 265.3rpm. Zone 3 requires abrasion resistance of 0.5 seconds at147.4rpm, which is about 25km per hour.
5. The fifth and the last Level AAA referred to the highest protection level. It requires abrasion resistance of four seconds with the spinning of machine equivalent to 120km per hour (707.4rpm). Zone 1 requires abrasion resistance of two seconds at 442.1rpm, which is about 75km per hour. Zone 2 involves abrasion resistance of one second at 45km per hour/ 265rpm.
There are existing CE standards for boots (EN13634) and gloves (EN13594). This means that any types of gloves and boots sold in Europe as motorcycle wear should meet the above standards.
But most of the motorcyclists don’t pay attention to these standards because they do not get guidance while buying pairs of gloves and boots as a protecting motorcycle kit. Other countries may not take CE standards that seriously but a country like France has made it mandatory for the motorcycle riders to wear such gloves that have CE mark and approval. It seems that in some near future, we would see CE approved boots legalized.
Difference between CE Approved and CE Certified?
If a manufacturer is telling you that the garment meets the CE level 1 test, then it doesn’t mean that the garment gets tested with the testing approved the facility. Or if someone says that the garment is CE approved or CE certified, then it also not means that the garment meets the rest of the standards. Let’s learn what CE Certified, CE Tested, and CE Approved means.
· CE Certified: Garment that got tested in a certified testing facility and passed the test in zone one or two.
· CE Tested: The garment which gets tested in the manufacturer’s facility but not got tested in the official testing facility.
· CE Approved: CE Approved means that multiple garment samples got tested in an official or certified facility to meet all the standards in all of the zones.
Why could CE standards not get practised by motorcyclists in the past?
No opposition to this legislation makes sense. Why would it be? Because the introduction of five standards is for the protection of motorcyclists to make their every ride safe and protective. However, how much manufacturers of clothing will take this legislation seriously depends upon how rigorously authorities are going to police this regulation.
The old standards were highly get ignored because it was impossible for manufacturers to meet these standards, precisely the manufacture of textile products. That is why, in the past, most of the manufacturers did not take notice of this legislation seriously. The only people who took this legislation seriously were official bodies like Police Officers and officer of Health and Safety.
Any thoughts on the motorcycle protection standards and labeling? Leave your comments below.
