Millions of people around the world use motorcycles, and not just for utilitarian transportation purposes, but for recreational activities such as touring and vacationing, off-road exploration, and racing. Motorcycle racing is a multi-billion dollar industry just in North America. Amateur and professional racers compete in thousands of races every year all over Canada, Mexico, and the United States. For example, the American Motorcycle Association® (AMA) organizes racing competitions in six different categories: superbike, flat track, supermoto, motocross, supercross, and hillclimb. Motorcycle riding competitions also feature prominently in extreme sports competitions, such as the X Games® or the Dew Sports Action Tour™ competitions. Additionally, motorcycles and motocross have inspired or melded with other types of vehicles to create new forms of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) recreation, including quad racing, competitive snowmobile racing, and bicycle motocross (BMX).
Protective gear is a critical component for amateur and professional motorcycle enthusiasts, and manufacturers often tailor such equipment for specific uses. Off-road motorcycle riding and racing present unique challenges for protective riding gear. Not only must the equipment protect riders in the case of a fall, it must function in the face of unique hazards not seen in road riding or track racing. In all types of off-road motorcycle riding and racing, riders often face treacherous riding conditions while traveling over dirt, sand, mud, and snow. Off-road riders often must negotiate around trees and stumps, boulders, brush, and other terrain features.
Conventional, prior art riding boots have limited anatomical movement of a wearer's foot and lower leg, restricting the rider's agility and ability to maneuver the motorcycle. Conventional, prior art riding boots have also been constructed of hard plastic that provides little or no dampening of vibrations inherent in motorcycling. Conventional, prior art riding boots constructed of hard plastic have also been bulky, particularly near a wearer's fore foot, which is used to control a foot-operated rear brake lever (e.g., usually on the wearer's right side) or to control a foot-operated gear-shift lever (e.g., usually on the wearer's left side). Conventional prior art riding boots, with their stiffness and limited range of movement, tend to cause a wearer to fatigue more quickly.
Thus, there remains a need for motorcycle protective gear configured to accommodate natural anatomical movement of a rider's lower leg and foot. There also remains a need for motorcycle protective gear configured to provide sufficient tactile feedback to a wearer to permit the wearer to safely control the motorcycle. For example, there remains a need for motorcycle protective gear configured to adequately protect a wearer's foot and foreleg from debris, etc., while allowing a user to feel subtle changes in force applied to a foot-actuated lever, e.g., as the transmission shifts between or among gears. There also remains a need for motorcycle protective gear that reduces wearer fatigue.