A riding suit, affectionately known, if it's been bought from a well known German manufacturer, as a clown suit.

The locals potter about in their everyday clothes on their bikes but then they're generally not traveling at 60mph down the highway. They also don't tend to hurl themselves into rocky ravines either. We need something to protect us.

Traditionally, motorcyclists wore leather -- let someone (something?) else's skin take the brunt, not yours. The downsides with leather are it's relatively heavy and you boil inside it if the sun comes out. Not so clever in the desert.

Now there are various textiles, most commonly something involving Cordura which claims to be as tough as old boot. Maybe, maybe not. Cordura's job is to contain the abrasive damage if you slide down the road (see leather) but you still need something for impact damage where the first bit of you (knee, hip, elbow, shoulder back) hits the deck first. Some suits come with pads built-in, others may want to invest in an MX-style suit of armour!

I looked at some Akito Desert gear which seemed a bit flimsy then at the Rev'It Cayenne and at the Hein Gericke Tuareg Rallye GTX 3. The Rev'It gear was slightly cheaper and used a 3 layer system as opposed to the HG's 2 layers.

The number of layers is interesting. The Rev'It layers are: wind/water proofing, thermal and protection which you can join together as you like. The HG has the wind/water and thermal layer in one. What that means is that if it rains so hard you want to keep dry, you'll be putting your thermal layer on too.

I tried them all on and the HG gear just fitted so well I bought it there and then without thinking too deeply about it.

(Hein Gericke's web page is useless so I've linked to that pic from elsewhere.)

I considered the two layer issue and decided that if it ever rains in a really hot place then I'll dry out in no time (or suffer the bonus heat -- is it ever really hot when it rains?).

There's plenty of pocket space including waterproof ones and plenty of venting. Built-in CE approved padding.

I have read that when it's really hot you want to be zipping all those vents closed and "recycle" all the water (sweat) inside your suit. Otherwise say hi to rather rapid dehydration. Not clever.

I have been riding it in freezing weather and can report that it has kept me toasty warm -- note here that as I type it is about 20C and I'm feeling a chill thanks to a slight breeze so to survive 70mph wind chill in freezing weather is very impressive.

I've ridden it in a torrential downpour and been done dry. I've also ridden it in the rain without the waterproof layer. It does need that layer.