Best Brand for the Buck!

I need to gear up completely!!!

What brands have the best quality for the lowest price??!!

Looking for a helmet, jacket, boots, and gloves!  

I like Cortech products.  

Any thoughts on a GMax brand helmet?  

How about Speed and Strength - Devils in the Details Jacket??  

Speed & Strength makes good products. We'd look for something else besides the GMax helmets; they only have DOT approval (no ECE or Snell), so we'd be wary of their overall build quality. Don't skimp on a helmet; you get what you pay for in that market.  

As for "Don't skimp . . . you get what you pay for."

Really?  I mean, assuming a proper firm fit, if a helmet meets the ECE or Snell standard, then isn't the protection level substantially the same?  

Obviously the rest of it - fit, finish, comfort, wind noise, shield optics, and so on - is price/quality related.  

Yes, protection levels would presumably be the same, all things being equal. But many of those attendant qualities you mentioned, including proper fit and comfort, quality of the shield and its pivot mechanism, defogging and venting characteristics, and most of all, durability after several years of daily use, are much better with the higher quality/more expensive helmets. That is what I meant by "you get what you pay for", and I feel that those qualities can be just as important as meeting a helmet safety standard.

Also, the dozens of ultra-cheap helmet brands may not be around in 3-5 years, leaving a person to wonder about their quality control, as well as their intent.