Oh! To wear zip ties on a racetrack feat Electra

On a hot August evening, I sat down with Electra and spoke at length about what it’s like to have zip ties around her wrists on a race track.

Yes, you read that right! 

Before we get to the zip ties, let me introduce you to Electra (a.k.a Akanksha) – full-time designer, forever rider, racing enthusiast and a connoisseur of the arts and scenic routes along the way. 

One fine day, I stumbled upon Electra’s video on Instagram in which she shared her challenges about finding gear that actually fits. Yes, there is a difference – finding something wearable and finding something protective are two very different things, and despite having spent more than four years on the road, the star of this story is yet to find gear that checks all the boxes. Sigh!

When did you first decide that it was necessary to invest in riding gear and prioritise safety? Almost nobody in India starts off with padded jackets or even helmets for that matter. How did your journey start?

"I was 20 years old when I started riding, and one of my first pieces of gear was a half-face helmet, which was lying around the house. I am big on following rules, so as long as the helmet fit and I was wearing it all the time, I was being diligent; I was not actually taking safety into account. Then came a riding group that changed my perception. I was on a small 125 CC bike with little regard for my safety, but watching other riders on much more powerful bikes clad themselves head to toe acted as a wake-up call. I fell into peer pressure, the good kind, that actually made me do the right thing."

Electra emphasised the fact that the roads are and always will be unpredictable, irrespective of your riding skill. She does not believe in giving external factors or clueless humans the opportunity to land her in danger. She recalls one of her longest rides, a 120-kilometre stretch, where she had a minor crash, and despite covering herself, her fingers were the only body part that sustained injuries.

“It felt like the universe was making an example out of me because I was wearing fingerless gloves!” she jested.

Well, apart from the universe, it appears that humans too have a not-so-funny way of joking. 

“Gain weight", that's what she’s been told by store attendants and people on social media whenever Electra has voiced concern about not finding gear that actually sits right on her body.

"Every store I go to, they eventually tell me that maybe I should just gain weight. Sometimes they say it in a snarky way; sometimes, it's genuine advice.

I'm now in Bengaluru, but when I lived in Mumbai, I actually flew down to Bengaluru just to get a leather suit because the available sizes don't accommodate women's proportions.

I'm sort of in between the proportions of a child and a woman. Even if I get the smallest women's size, it'll be too big in some places and too tight in others. I can't just opt for children's helmets or gear either, because those won't necessarily fit my proportions.

It's been very difficult, and I've almost lost hope. I'm not even joking anymore. I've been to every store I can think of and spoken to everyone in my circle.

Some commercial brands advertise that they take women's proportions into account, but I'd disagree with that. I currently own an XS Scala jacket, and people think it fits me really well because the straps around the waist allow me to adjust it to an extent. Everyone thinks my jacket fits me perfectly, but not a single piece of armour on it actually sits where it needs to."

And so I also sought Electra’s take on the infamous question, ‘Does size really matter?’

This time she spoke of helmets. "As far as I know, smaller sizes do exist. Manufacturers like LS2, KYT and MT -- brands you'd commonly find in Indian stores, advertise helmets in smaller sizes, but stores don't actually stock them.

They exist somewhere; they're just not accessible in stores.

I've noticed that most of the customers these stores cater to seem to be men. I've contacted retailers online, over the phone and in person, and they all tell me they can easily get me an XS helmet in two days. But I'd have to pay for it first.

They're afraid of making a loss, so I can't actually try anything before buying it. They want me to make the payment and then they'll import it for me. That's something I could just do online myself.

They tell me they haven't had anyone express interest in a size that small, so they won't stock it. I've asked them whether they'd consider stocking it even if I didn't buy it, and whether they'd call me if they ever did. Their response has essentially been, “There's no point in taking your number because we're not going to stock it.”

Which brings us to the next question: Do we wear riding gear just to dial up the 'cool' quotient?

Electra says, "A lot of times, people assume that you just want to look good or have your figure show through the gear.

Store owners, random people online and even friends have told me that it doesn't matter if the gear sags when you're standing because you'll be in a different posture while riding.

I think this advice is often misconstrued. Yes, gear might feel uncomfortable when you're standing or walking around, and it needs to work with your riding posture. But that doesn't mean it's okay for your knee guards to sag all the way down to your shins.

The actual advice is that your gear doesn't necessarily have to feel comfortable or look perfect when you're standing around. It needs to work when you're sitting on the bike. But people interpret that to mean it's fine if you can simply pull the gear up and then sit down.

If I crash at even 60 km/h, it could take less than a second for the armour to shift out of position."

And…here’s the part with the zip ties....on a RACE TRACK!!!!

"The first time I went on a race track was for a three-day learning course. I went with my dad. They didn't have anything in my size, but they assured me that whatever the smallest size they had was, it would work for me. I was too naive at the time, so I went ahead with it.

Their leather suits were much too big for me. They tried to keep the sleeves from moving around by putting zip ties around both my arms. It wasn't necessary around my feet because my trousers went into my boots.

It was a three-day course, and I crashed once each day. One of those crashes was a little bigger. I don't even know exactly what happened, but when I hit the ground, the zip tie probably snapped.

The gear wasn't protective in the way it needed to be. The suit slid, and I still have scars from that incident three years ago. The leather itself was good; the problem was that the suit shifted and exposed my bare skin to the ground.

And it echoes the same point I made earlier: it can look all right. It can look like it fits you, but that doesn't mean it actually does."

It does feel quite baffling to know that you will be gliding on asphalt at a certain speed with only zip ties holding your gear together. Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, Electra was wounded and still carries the scars to this day, albeit she doesn't seem quite bothered by the reminder.

Another challenge worth considering in Electra’s journey is that she cannot quite escape the ‘Pink Tax’ either. Yes, it shows up in the motorcycling world as well.

"When I was looking for jackets, I was also told that another option would be to buy off-road protective gear, which provides impact protection, and then find a separate jacket to wear over it after removing its existing pads.

We discussed the idea for a while, and I asked how much it would cost. The estimate was at least ₹50,000 for the jacket setup, and I'd still need the protective pads."

For Electra, and a lot of other women out there, finding gear has meant learning about safety, visiting numerous stores, and looking for alternatives on shelves where there are limited choices. She’s received unhelpful comments, poor assumptions of what women need and denied requests. There have also been moments of kindness, like the gentleman who sent her a pair of riding pants. 

I don’t think there is a solid takeaway that makes these struggles easier. But I do find myself coming back to the same question:

Why should finding riding gear that fits women require so much effort in the first place?

Written by Priyanka Rathod, Founder & Curator, Gearbox