First, I generally wear an underarmour or other "compression shirt" under a cotton under shirt before getting on the bike in general, and wear my "work clothes" or whatever I'm riding in over that. With winter definitely here, I'm considering getting thermal undies (lots of companies make these), but I'm not sure what I'd be wearing on a track day other than just shorts (I like the wicking kind, so probably not broadcloth-type boxers or anything like that). I don't think I need fire protection on/in the suit given it's not a car application, but are there "undersuits" that are appropriate here?
Second, do race suits have a "fly" in them? It may just be my tank (the 7 is notorious for a "ballcrusher" tank), but my bike engenders the need to, quoting Colin here, tap a kidney. It doesn't strike me as too hard to get on/off, but I can hardly see standing at a urinal with half the suit hanging down. I'm guessing a spare set of clothes is the way to handle downtime, but I've only ever seen Ross in his suit at the track (Redline events).
Last, I asked in an earlier thread, but both Bohn and Alpinestars offer HANS. It really looks like overkill:
but then, coming off a bike and thwacking the ground would suck a lot, even with the "hump" above the spine/below the helmet. My primary concern is that even wearing a scarf on the bike impairs my ability to move my head to the further left and right reaches to check for cagers on my corners. Seems like a HANS would almost prevent you from looking over your shoulder at all. And then there's the whole "showing up at your first track day looking like robocop" thing.
Are any of us actually tracking our bikes? Ross, can you comment on any of this?
