Potentially Inflammatory: Why vests?

[Peter Aawen]

I reckon that 'vests' for motorcyclists didn't really start to become 'a thing' until after WWII... And once the war was over, there were lots of fairly cheap ex-military & civilian motorcycles around, which many (ex-servicemen especially) could afford; but unless you'd managed to keep your flying gear when you were de-mobbed, the 'professionally made' leather jackets & trousers etc were pretty much only affordable then by the well-heeled &/or those to which appearance was more important than pretty much everything else.

But Vests, which were relatively cheap & easy to make, could add a fair degree of warmth & comfort to any jacket; they often had extra pockets for all the stuff you wanted to carry (concealed or otherwise); they protected the clothing you wore them over from bugs & mud splatter; they weren't as bulky as a fleece lined jacket, so they could more easily be carried &/or be stashed in a bag or pannier when you weren't riding; and they were (still are, to a certain extent! ) a whole lot cheaper than a proper 'good' motorcycle jacket was to buy back then...

So back in the day, vests were a way of rapidly converting or upgrading your every-day clothes into riding clothes, and lots of people did just that!! From there, the well-heeled moved on to their 'full-leather' suits &/or colour-coded riding gear that matched the colours/design of their 'expensive European bikes'; while the 'less well-heeled' or those who simply didn't give a rat's about how they LOOKED while riding just used whatever worked, and Vests just worked!!

They worked so well, they caught on; became a widely recognised symbol of the freedom many found in riding; and it all snowballed from there...

Simples, really!