Personal protective equipment has a somewhat threatening sound to it, but the truth is it can be used in a range of situations that vary from mountain biking to working in harsh environments that require such equipment. Personal protective equipment means everything you need to protect your body and this includes reflective personal safety equipment you can use to feel safe while riding your bike at night or in low visibility conditions, jackets, pants and helmets. You can even get special T-shirts destined to be used by motorcycle riders, T-shirts that include reflective areas that give you a better chance of being noticed on the highway during night time. Shops even sell pants and coats that include the same reflective materials, clothes that even come close to being called "fashionable".
Few people know that reflective personal safety equipment can be used in a variety of situations, from directing airplanes on the ground to scuba diving.
Personal protective equipment includes everything you should use to feel safe in a given situation that might prove hazardous to your health. Helmets and special gloves are included in this category together with low visibility clothes and gadgets you can attach to your vehicle.
If people using bicycles tend to be more cautious on the road and tend to use reflective personal safety equipment more often, motorcycle riders often limit themselves to wearing a helmet. This is due to the bad-boy image that motorcycle riders have gained through the years mainly through media channels. There is an unwritten consensus that allows motorcycle riders to go on the road at night using no reflective personal safety equipment and this raises the death toll and accidents rate in such cases.
Some companies tried to mix the need for personal protective equipment with the need to maintain the road warrior image that motorbikes unwillingly perpetuate. Online you can get coats, jackets and T-shirts that include reflective elements not visible during the day. So far such low visibility clothing didn't do well online, mainly due to the fact that most people tend to get their personal protective equipment directly from their local store.
Nevertheless, in conditions of low visibility you are safer on your steel horse wearing not only personal protective equipment in the form of a helmet but also reflective personal safety equipment, even if it means wearing a reflective bandana wrapped around your arm. Highways are dark at night and most drivers tend to speed up if they don't meet any cars on the road. This means that at the next curve they might ignore the speed limit and meet you head-on in the dark. The bigger you seem at night the better your chances of remaining alive on the road. This is why you should consider patches of reflective material on your coats, jackets and pants, should you go on a long road and are forced to ride your motorbike at night.