Wild One Tours

12/02/2026

An old favourite.

Great road in the south of France between Cannes and AntibesShot with a GoPro HD v1 1080pon a Triumph Street Triple 675 (Arrow Low Boy exhaust)following a Ho...

17/10/2025

Breakdown warning beacons Spain:
Will by legal requirement completely replace warning triangles by January 2026.
I'm not going to repeat the content of the article, other than point out that like warning triangles, motorcycles are exempt from the requirement to carry them. And also that from January 2026 the V16 flashing beacons must also be fitted with a GPS locator that sends a signal so that the road assistance authorities know where you are and can send help. On motorways they also activate road signs to signal that a vehicle is stopped at a particular distance ahead. So if you've got room for one even on a motorcycle you may want to carry one anyway.

The V16 beacon should ideally be placed on the roof without exiting the vehicle, minimising the risk of accidents. The V16 beacon should ideally be placed on the roof without exiting the vehicle, minimising the risk of accidents.

12/09/2025

FERRY GOOD VALUE:
Time for a recap of themed recent posts. Wild One Tours has completed the last of its guided tours and the theme of recent posts has been to explain how marketing has added huge sums of money to what many people believe are necessary must haves to go on a motorcycle touring holiday in Continental Europe.
Some riders are paying up to £10,000 more than they need to on their choice of motorcycle and luggage. More than £1,000 than they need to on a suitable and safe helmet and clothing.
If they could use old fashioned navigation with a couple of paper maps and written directions, backed up by the Google Maps app on their mobile phones. They could save up to £500, instead of buying expensive motorcycle navigation systems.
By early pre-booking hotels with saver rate prices via booking sites, you can save a couple of hundred £s compared to late booking or just turning up. Whilst also ensuring choice, i.e. the required facilities i.e. parking, air-conditioning and convenient dining facilities.
If you don't already have a suitable tent and camping gear, again the saving on initial expenditure, only slightly offset by camping costs compared to hotels can be another consideration and staying at hotels means you can travel light and there is better security for your possessions.
Now it may be that you have loads of cash, or you much prefer the idea of camping to staying in a hotel. So do it! All I'm saying is that it is still affordable and at the same time maybe you can cover bigger mileage if you don't have so much money and you don't have to make and break camp at every stop.
Another potential saving is on the ferry journey you choose. Specifically if you are visiting Spain.
Over the years I have seen many posts in which people argue that it is cheaper to get a ferry from Plymouth or Portsmouth direct to Bilbao or Santander in Spain. This on account of petrol, accomodation and toll road costs. To level up some people also take into consideration and add on tyre wear and servicing costs for your motorcycle. Then try to justify their belief with some appallingly dodgy mathematics. But the fact is they are wrong!
Getting a ferry from Dover to Calais or Dunkirk is much like getting a bus, wheras longer sailings are more like going on a coach trip.
On the last of the tour groups we assembled in England, I would leave home in Northern Lincolnshire at 6.45am on a Saturday. Arrive at the group assembly on the Kent coast, fully fueled at about 10am
By late afternoon or early evening, (even with the clocks having gone on an hour) we would be settled into a hotel at Lille, Reims, or Rouen.
The ride to Catalonia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain requires only one other overnight stop and on a route which is less than 20% toll road.
Tolls are cheaper for a motorcycle than they are for a car. Some of the motorway is quite scenic and you can legally ride them at speeds of up to 81mph. So as not to become monotonous, I would include non motorway road, including mountain roads in each days route.
Like for like, including a personal use cabin on the boat instead of a personal use hotel room. The short crossing for a trip to the Mediterranean coast is much cheaper. For people riding from Eastern and Northern UK and onward to visit Spain, it is also slightly quicker. With a much greater choice of departure times from your home.
Again there may be other reasons why you prefer the longer boat journey, but cost savings, or speed of getting to your destination aren't included.
I personally prefer to ride my bike than go on a long boat trip. Wear and tear of tyres and servicing costs are all part and parcel of riding. But even if you include these costs you can still save a couple of hundred £s if say going to Catalonia.
Getting best value isn't just about making motorcycle touring more affordable. It affords opportunities to be able to treat yourself to for instance a good meal, or the odd night in a hotel in a popular tourist attraction city centre, where with your bike parked up securely for the night you can go out on the town.
In my experience going out on the town is much better if in the company of fellow travellers. But either way I would prefer to do this than sit on my own in my hotel room, fiddling with my mobile phone or other electronic devices.
I am now entering a phase of life in which the enjoyment of experiences doesn't need to be expressed to others. I'm sure that most people who go motorcycle touring are having the time of their lives and that being the case they don't need to compare themselves to what other people are doing.
There are other ways of reducing expenditure while on tour, such as sourcing cheaper petrol. But these savings are minimal compared with those already discussed and I don't intend to go into them in any detail.
Happy touring folks,!

10/09/2025

BANTAM SPEED MACHINE:
In the late 1970s I invested in a second motorcycle, a BSA Bantam D14/4 in blue.
BSA Bantams based on a earlier Germam DKW design had been around since the end of WW2 and the engine size had grown ftom the original 123cc to 175cc. The D14/4 model was a late 1960s version with a 4th gear.
From Liverpool there are two tunnels under the Mersey. The older Queensway tunnel with a 30mph speed limit led to Birkenhead. The Kingsway tunnel with a 40mph speed limit led to Wallasey. I used both tunnels regularly.
The local councils employed a small police force with jurisdiction in and around the tunnel entrances.
One day I was happily riding through the Queensway Tunnel, only absentmindedly at 40mph and with a Tunnel Police Land-Rover behind me.
The police officers pulled me over as I exited to Birkenhead. One of them asked If I knew what the speed limit was and I told him 40mph. "No, it's 30mph in this tunnel he replied."
Back in the day I was cheeky and told him that I didn't mind if he reported me for speeding because I would probably be the first person ever to get done for speeding on a two up, old BSA Bantam loaded with luggage.
The police officer looked the bike up and down and noting it's dated design was probably unable to ascertain its age.
"Wait here" he snapped and with his colleage strode off to the police office.
10 to 15 minutes later I was still waiting and said to my passenger that I didn't think they were coming back. Probably having a cup of tea, looking out of the window at us and having a laugh that we were still waiting.
I fired the engine up and we left, never to hear more about it.
Flat out and with just me riding on it, this Bantam would actually reach a little over an indicated 70mph on the tiny speedometer on top of the nacelle, below the keyless ignition switch and lights switch.

09/09/2025

ACCOMMODATION:
This is another element of motorcycle touring of which all too often a lot of tourists don't get best value out of.
For Wild One Tours and friends, all of the 1980s through to the mid 90s our primary accommodation was a tent.
In France tour camping with your own tent was virtually a national pastime.
There was no internet and I couldn't find a campsite guide book, so finding decent campsites was very hit and miss.
Not having a clue where they were we had to rely on roadside signs to direct us to them and what you got was a mixed bag. From the outset most city break stopovers were at hotels and I personally got to enjoying the relative comfort of city centre hotels.
These were generally cheap hotels in run down inner city areas, but close to popular tourist attractions. Some were so cheap that they didn't cost much more than pitches on some campsites.
There were many advantages to the hotels, but the main one was getting about an hour extra touring per day
A saving on account of not having to make or break camp.
As the 80s became the 90s finding acceptable campsites with available touring pitches became more difficult on account of pitches being given up to companies with pitches containing pre erected tents or hard shell accommodations. They provided maps and directions to these campsites and they were often of a higher standard with on site bars, restaurants and swimming pools. Gradually we used these sites more and more and left our tent and camp kitchen at home.
But then in 1995 coming back from the South of France on back roads, but rather quickly we happened across and stopped off at a hotel Formule 1. Bed and all you can eat breakfast at under £30 and secure gated parking. Very modern and interesting new concept hotels.
Inside we picked up a free booklet with a map and directions in English of how to get to every F1 hotel in Europe. We were impressed and checked into one the following night on the outskirts of Calais
A night in a F1 hotel cost less than a pre erected tent on a campsite. They were usually sited at retail parks on the outskirts of towns. They were easy to find and close to decent bars and restaurants.
On both nights we noticed that we luckily got the last available rooms and as we checked in no vacancies signs went to. So for future reference we always made a point of making reservations which from then we could do online.
In particularly hot places such as Spain the F1 hotels we stayed at even had air-conditioned bedrooms. If a place didn't have an F1 hotel there was often a similar themed alternative, or a slightly upmarket same Accor hotel group alternative Etap hotel which had private bathrooms.
The first Wild One Tours made exclusive use of F1 and Etap hotels. Which was great for me operating up to 6 group tours a year, because it kept my costs down and made it affordable.
But when repeat customers started to complain about the deteriorating condition of F1 hotels and say they'd rather pay more on their holiday I was forced to listen and gradually upgraded to Etap hotel standard as my basic level for group tours.
The advent of booking sites for multiple brand and individual hotels introduced new competition and a lowering of prices for the standard of hotel we were now seeking and other incentives such as early booking discounts which can be more than 50% less than the rates you pay if you book late or try your luck getting a room on the night.
The booking sites also opened up the range of affordable and character of locations and online listing's often give an indication of facilities such as the availability and suitability of parking on site.
No matter what other people's opinion of Wild One Tours recommended accommodation, the only way I have been able to afford touring so often and stop off at such amazing locations is by seeking out best value, advance booking and taking advantage of other incentives such as collecting loyalty points.
Etap hotels are now rebranded as Ibis Budget hotels. I recommended early booking of an Ibis Budget hotel for our June 2025 tour. On the offer a night bed and breakfast was obtainable for about £40. An air-conditioned room with double bed, private bathroom and linked to the adjoining Ibis hotel use of the bar, restaurant and swimming pool. Easy to get to and from with high mileage days on both sides of the overnight stop
The pictured hotel on the banks of the river Rhine in Germany has an enclosed yard and garage for safely parking motorcycles off the road.

07/09/2025

AFFORDABILITY MATTERS:
In a lot of my posts I try to convey that to enjoy motorcycling and motorcycle touring, you don't need to spend the amounts of money on bikes and equipment as most people seem to think necessary.
In my opinion this happens because of a confusion between reviews and marketing by almost every other motorcycling news outlet.
In essence what purports to be reviews are actually endorsements bought and paid for by motorcycle and motorcycling product, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The same applies to both paper and online publications.
Motorcycling media is apparently in a state in which it needs to raise income for endorsing products to survive. It's a symbiotic relationship in which many manufacturers grossly over value their products and use some of the surplus income to market them, while the rest of the surplus goes on bigger profits..
The other advantage of operating in this way is if you have stock that is not selling very well. You can massively reduce the price to something more like what a fair retail recommended price should look like. People thinking they are getting a bargain, then snap it up.
At a glance everyone's a winner. Expensive product often tends to be good quality and this is what the purchaser gets. Advertisers, retailers and distributors all make a tidy sum out of the transactions.
But on the other hand a lot of what is much better value and therefore cheaper product gets overlooked despite it being of equal real terms value to the more expensive product. And what gets me most is thar as the producers of better value product get squeezed out of the market. The whole simple enjoyment of motorbiking and motorcycle touring becomes less affordable.
Non of this is necessarily a new thing and motorcyclists are exceptionally slow cottening on as to why their favourite pastimes are fast becoming unaffordable.
I recently posted that I bought an excellent quality and well equipped helmet for €122 including post and packing.
Now I'm seeing helmets advertised at allegedly bargain prices of €600 to €800 which are no better than mine. A lot of money for something that you're going to have to replace in four or five years. No matter how much you paid for it.
Even if you believe that top quality protective bike clothing is a must, the retail recommended price of some of this is as much as ten times that of comparable products.
Throughout my working life I have been a regular working class guy. Any addition to raising a happy and well provided for family has been down to hard work (i.e. lots of overtime) and seeking out affordability.
I think I've done pretty good on both counts and that anyone can do the same.
The pictured motorcycle I bought brand new for £8,999. I already had a motorcycle suitable for my touring needs. It was reliable but the mileage was getting so high that the resale value was plummeting. A local dealer made me an offer of 50% of the new bikes value on interest free credit payable over 50 months.
Having kept up with it for a while, I once let an unloaded gixxer get ahead of me on the pictured mountain road. I was riding at 100% ability for both myself and this fully loaded bike and backed off for safety reasons. Apart from that one time, nothing got ahead of me in all the years I had the bike, which is a testament to the performance of it compared alongside much more expensive machines.
The kit I'm wearing is all top quality and was of the highest safety standards available at the time of purchase. All for much less cost than comparable quality protective kit. All I had to do was learn what makes some product better than others, shop around and ignore whatever many people consider top branding and price to assure quality.
Having had the advantage of touring in Continental Europe since 1981, I know what is necessary to get around and have a good time.. Fortunately I can ignore marketing ploys which attempt to convince me that I should make additional purchases and I can weigh up what products and services suit me best and whether based on potential gains and their affordability if I'm going to invest in them.
This way my motorcycling and motorcycle travel experience has been vast and pleasurable. The only way I've managed to do so much of this and for so long is to spend wisely getting what I need to do the job. Not what peers or marketing people would make believe I need.

02/09/2025

MOTORCYCLE NAVIGATION:
SatNav and mobile phone map apps are wonderful. I sometimes wonder how I ever did without them. I currently possess two SatNav devices, but more frequently use the Google Maps app on my phone.
There, now that's over with I'll say that almost everyone.already has a mobile phone and the Google Maps app is free and reliable.
Motorcycle SatNav devices tend to be expensive. More so than car devices because exposure to the elements necessitates that they be weather resistant. To this end most manage to keep the rain out, but still shut down when exposed to extremes of heat or cold. For all phone and SatNav devices there is a variance of how easy the screens are to read in strong sunlight. None are perfect in this respect.
To hear voice navigation instructions while riding a motorcycle you will need to purchase a good quality bluetooth headset to fit to your helmet. I recommend a Sena brand headset, but only because this is the only one which works well that I have experience with.
The devices I have owned and currently own have many glitches and drawbacks. I won't go in to them all, but most recently I have just paid a €40 fine for entering a bus and taxi only road while being directed to a hotel in the city of Granada and it's not the first time this has happened.
Useful though they are, these apps and devices are completely unnecessary.
It is a fact that from the mid 1970s until 2008 when I bought my first SatNav, a TomTom Rider V2, I found my way around the UK and Continental Europe perfectly well with paper maps and written directions. Through force of habit and preference I still do.
Now able to consult the Internet, finding those directions or creating them to display in a map pocket is even easier.
When I look at marketing for motorcycle mounted devices, often costing in excess of £300, bluetooth headsets often costing in excess of £100 and devices using CarPlay which is an exclusive Apple App requiring an iPhone (often costing in excess of £500). I wonder how many people are tucked into believing that this is an essential spend for motorcycle touring?
It isn't! Not at all! The devices are a comfort and not at all a necessity.
Map reading and route planning are skills that develop over time with practice. But even at my entry level I got around alright. It has always been a pleasure and something I enjoy doing.
Over time the maps and directions you write imprint into your brain and you need to refer to them less. You become more aware of your surroundings. Particularly road signs and are much less likely to turn into restricted access lanes or roads, where you shouldn't be.
It's cheap and fun. Give it a go!
A few tips:
Tank mounted map pockets don't always keep out heavy rain. Consider placing paper contents into a clear plastic bag for extra protection.
Large printed directions on display are much easier to follow than a map. I usually have the directions on top. The less fussy they are, the easier it is to follow them. When you write the directions yourself, your brain kicks in on the road to fill in missing details, such as the distance between turns.
I usually keep a map under the directions, so I can pull over to consult it if needs be.
Under the directions and map, for quick and easy access I keep a puck for resting the bike on its sidestand on soft ground. I also keep toll tickets and a credit card for paying tolls and buying petrol.
You can pick out some nice rides using the Michelin National Maps. But with only 1cm of detail for a 10km ride, you may want more detailed mapping for riding the back roads.
For this you can always look at Google Maps, preferably on a large screen desktop or laptop. Or you can stick with large scale paper maps for writing your directions.
Do this before you set off and you don't need to take the large scale paper maps with you.
If you take a wrong turn and are effectively lost, don't panic. Treat it as an unscripted adventure that requires you use your wiles to navigate. That too can be great fun.

02/08/2025

Royal Enfield Interceptor 650cc review: Does it make a good tourer?

It's impossible to say how good a bike is compared to other bikes, unless you actually have some means of comparison.
It wasn't until late June that I was first able to do this, by riding with a group of 5 other bikes.
As the tour guide I was riding at the front of the group of bikes all of which had a lot bigger engines up to double that of my bike and up to 4X the horsepower.
I already knew that my bike could get to and maintain 130kph (81mph), which is the speed limit on French motorway, So provided the group coming from the UK didn't go much faster than that I was sure that I could have kept up. But on paper my bike would be a lot slower accelerating and I wasn't sure how significant a shortcoming this would be in resl road use.
I met the group at Campo on the N260 in the Pyrenees. On the winding mountain roads and with a lot of miles to cover if anyone had a struggle to keep up it was those on the other bikes.
On the Interceptor I was able to set a fast pace and I don't think any of the other bikes could have got past me without massively exceeding the speed limits.
This was the case even considering that the original Ceat tyres fitted, were shot and immediately after the tour I had to replaced them after only 8,500km use.
Now sporting Bridgestone BT 46s the handing is completely transformed and I honestly think that I would have made a bit faster progress if the bike had been fitted with these before the start of the tour.
Not that Bridgestone BT46s are premium tyres like I used to fit to my Triumph Sprint GT. They're just not in that league. But they are a big improvement on the OEM Ceat (a subsuduary of ǰPirelli) offerings.
The Interceptor only has 47bhp to play with against about the128 bhp of the Sprint. The main reason for getting the BT46s was because they have a UM classification which means that as tubeless tyres they are also manufactured to be good when used with inner tubes.
I don't know technically why this is for sure, but when I examined several types of othet ĺtubeless tyres at the tyre fitters, the BT46s were a lot smoother on the inside.
I couldn't find any other UM rated tyres in the 18 inch wheel sizes of the Interceptor by the way.
Staying with tyres for a minute, the OEM Ceat tyres my tyre fitter tells me are made by a subsidiary of Pirelli. They never actually let me down, but somehow failed to inspire confidence on winding mountain roads. I rarely rode on them in the wet. So I can't comment on that.
But the BT46s are better, both on roads of all surface types and for the off road surfaces I regularly ride on.
The twin shock rear suspension on the Interceptor is technically inferior to the monoshock of my previous few bikes, but now I've changed the tyres it is not that noticeable on the road.
Look on any Interceptor group page and you'll see that one of the first things riders change is the seat. In standard form it is notoriously uncomfortable.
However I am still riding on the original seat. I swear that it had got more comfortable with use. As a group we did some high daily mileages and I don't think my backside fared much worse than the other riders.
On the final return leg of a day riding back to the base accommodation. Rather than sit in 35C heat, added to by heat rising from the engines a little filtering was required. Being the physically smallest and most nimble of the bikes in the group the Interceptor excelled at this.
On the 2.5km dirt and loose stone track to my home, I would also prefer to ride this on the Interceptor that any other of the bikes in the group. Even the Triumph Tigers 800 and 900 cc.
The Interceptor 13.7L fuel tank had an identical fuel range to the 800cc Tiger and although this was a lesser fuel range than the other bikes it was enough, even when ridden hard, to cover 300km and to not have to worry about fuel security.
The low fuel light comes on long before the fuel runs out. I pushed it to 40kms with the light on once, just so I could stop for cheaper petrol. Not that I recommend others try this though.
There is a variety of soft or hard luggage available to fit to the Interceptor. My personal favourite is a small bag strapped to the Givi carrier and if needed a large bag strapped to the pillion seat. I have a large collection of completely waterproof PVC backed nylon canvas bags to use. The only disadvantage of the soft luggage being lower security of your luggage contents without the locks of hard luggage systems when making short stops.
I don't really know if it makes much of a difference, but the lack of a windshield on an unfaired bike certainly allows the air to batter your upper body and potentially to dissipate the heat on hot days. I suppose this could equally increase your exposure to cold air on cool days. But I live in a part of Spain where temperatures tend to be typically warmer than in the UK, so the benefits of not having a fairing seem like a net gain to me.
The Interceptor has 10,000km service intervals. I've not done that yet, but having some mechanical skills, the appropriate tools and looking at YouTube videos, I plan to do all servicing except for brake fluid changed in the abs brakes myself. So hopefully the bike will be as cheap to maintain as it was to buy and it is to run.
I can't give exact figures but the Interceptor has better fuel economy than the Triumph Tiger 800cc.
On my Interceptor there is no socket to plug in a SatNav, phone, or camera. But a magnetic tank cover with a map pocket on which I can put a map and large print directions is sufficient for me. It's not that I don't have a motorcycle SatNav or phone with Google maps, I just prefer not to use them.
Perhaps this makes me seem a bit unusual, but I prefer the term gifted 😉.
Over 1,600km guiding this particular tour group without the use of a SatNav or phone, I didn't once lead them astray.
Might I replace the Interceptor some day? The RE Bear 650cc looks interesting.
Would I recommend the Interceptor? Hell yes! It may not have been designed with a lot of touring use in mind, but in the company of bigger bikes it can hack it.

12/07/2025

WEAR THIS: THE SILLY DEBATE
In a UK heatwave with temperatures exceeding 30C, it seems an appropriate time to try to settle an often repeating argument on social media channels about what to wear and what not to wear when riding a motorcycle.
The most common serious injuries and those resulting in death for people riding on motorcycles has always been head and neck impact trauma.
This remains the case even after the wearing of helmets became a legal requirement and so too the testing and certification of those helmets to ensure they meet safety standards.
Even though head and neck trauma remains the biggest cause of serious injury and death, the compulsory wearing of motorcycle helmets did significantly reduce this statistic and it seems likely that wearing a helmet that meets the latest UN ECE 22.06 standard is a reasonable precaution.
Consider also that most helmets afford eye protection against flying objects and some have retractable sun visors to protect the eyes against strong sunlight.
I think that most people agree that the wearing of a helmet is sensible.
According to accident statistics, the next most common cause of serious injury and death is impact trauma to other parts of the body. Not the speed you ride your bike at. But the speed that once your body becomes detached from the bike, it hits something and absorbs the forces of that impact. So hit the road surface, a kerb, a lamppost, signpost or any other roadside furniture and you're going to come to a stop abruptly. Then you might hit a car, a van, a truck, or a tree. If the speed of that impact is anywhere upwards of 30mph, you're in trouble. No brand of helmet or armoured clothing is going to be of much use. The trauma causing forces are so great, that they easily overwhelm protective clothing.
The best you can hope for is the long slide. In this and if you don't come to an abrupt stop, the trauma causing forces are lower and more survivable.
But unlike on the racetrack where all other traffic is travelling in the same direction, kerbs are low and there is by design no trees or roadside furniture to get in the way, in the real world road network you are much more likely to hit something rather than slide. This is not opinion, but rather fact, borne out from accident statistics.
So if statistically they don't help much, what's the point of wearing abrasion resistant clothing fitted with impact absorbing protectors?
It is probable, if only on just a few occasions, that abrasion resistant clothing and impact protectors will make a difference between a visit to, or stay in hospital, to continuing life without the need for that.
Most bike crashes are minor and most injuries from bike crashes are relatively minor and therefore don't feature in the statistics, therefore wearing the kit often means the difference between entering the statistics or not. The difference between suffering a lot of pain, discomfort and temporary incapacity, or not.
It is the difference between the motorcycle racer who after a spectacular crash, dusts himself down and walks off unaided and one who needs assistance oʻand medical attention.
This is why I often wear riding kit that is crammed with crash protection features. But there are caveats!
Perhaps because of the climate they live in most UK bikers understand the need to dress up against the cold and rain when riding their bikes. Many choose not to bother and put their bikes away for up to half a year.
The human body has an optimal operating temperature of about 37C. More than half a degree higher or lower than this and you start to lose cognitive ability That is to say the ability to concentrate and operate the likes of a motorcycle. Perhaps because people in the UK have experienced this when wet through and cold, they are inclined to protect themselves against it. But perhaps because they have less experience of riding in hot conditions, they are reluctant to protect themselves in the only way they can by reducing the wearing of heavy abrasion resistant clothing and impact protectors. To account for the inevitable loss of cognitive function, therefore making it much more likely you will have a crash. For reducing the amount of statistically insignificant abrasion resistance and impact protection on the less likely chance that you have the type of crash in which it will do you any good.
Once you understand this it usually comes down to compromise. If you insist on all the gear, all the time, perhaps don't ride your bike in hot weather. Or you could decide to set some of it aside while retaining what you deem to be the most likely to be significant items of abrasion and impact resistant kit.
Don't heed common sense and not only will you you look incredulously stupid in the eyes of the general non biking public who are struggling to keep cool in t-shirt and shorts, when they see you in a helmet, gloves, coat, heavy trousers and boots. You are also significantly putting your health and life at risk.
As always the choice is yours. But if you can get past the misguided and frankly ridiculous notion that overheating in heavy bike kit is merely a matter of putting up with sweating and discomfort, then don't do it.
If nothing else the comfort of not feeling too hot will allow you to enjoy the ride more.
As a footnote I add that the images attached portray my wife and I off on a UK summer camping trip. In daytime temperatures of low to mid 20s this was just inside of a tolerable temperature range for riding in full leathers fitted with extensive impact protectors and ventilation.
The point being if you can comfortably ride in this sort of kit and you can afford it, then by all means do. But just don't let in any misconceptions which originate in marketing about the potential outcomes of not wearing top dollar kit, or the real world efficacy of it, if you do have a crash.