Bandana for Bikers

There’s no need for applause or fanfare: the biker bandana is a modest accessory. A humble servant. A beacon of hope, with seemingly limitless possibilities for utility and function housed within that square without the pretense of being a fine cloth.

The biker’s bandanas, also known as doo-rags, are both fashionable and functional. The cloth head-ware protects the scalp from the sun, provides a cushion under a motorcycle helmet, and keeps hair in place when riding a motorcycle.

While providing a safety feature for the wearer, bandanas also allow bikers to display their favorite colors, logos, and brand names.

The key to wearing motorcycle bandanas safely is to tie them on correctly, so they aren’t blown into the wind, potentially obscuring another motorist’s view.

Motorcycle bandana

How to wear bandana for bikers?

Face into the wind, so your hair flows away from your face. Tip your chin down. Place the straight folded side of the bandana low across your forehead, just 1 to 2 inches above your eyebrows. Allow the rest of the fabric to flow up and over your head. The fold of fabric should face down, touching your hair or scalp.

How to wear a bandana for motorcycle riding?

Bandanas for motorcycle riders: Will you be in need of a napkin, a tourniquet, a washcloth, or an eye mask? Or perhaps your fancy camp towel is in the washing machine and you’re desperate for a shower? A bandana (or three) can come to the rescue.

When I’m gearing up for a biker tour, I always pack two bandanas. Why two, you ask? Because bandanas are so dang versatile. I use one as a hanky (or a “snot rag,” as my mom so aptly calls it), and another to wear around my neck or use as a headband.

Is it weird to consider a piece of cloth a trusted companion?

We don’t think so.

Here, we think the bandana is a clutch piece of outdoor gear. These versatile squares take up little space in your pack (especially if you wear them) and have a number of practical off-grid uses.

How to tie a biker bandana?

!A bandana for bikers is one of my “helmet stuffers” – gloves, head sweat, and bandana. One step in attiring for a ride is to tie a bandana loosely around my wrist, using two adjacent corners and a square knot, then tucking the rest into that wrist loop.

My bandana is always “at hand” for deployment with a tug of the teeth. Or use on freezing descents, for farm machine dust clouds, as bandage ties (torn in half), for leverage on stubborn skewer handles, as hot pan holders… the list goes on.

Bikers wearing bandanas

Bandanas absorb sweat and keep it away from the eyes on hot days. Sweat is also transferred to the lower parts where it acts as an evaporative air conditioner if the bandana is made of cotton or other materials.

On cooler days it helps keep your head warm, acting like a helmet liner.

Keeps your hair tamed if you have long hair. The bandana sits lower than the helmet and if it’s not in a ponytail and it’s long or longish it’ll flap around and make it hard to see sometimes.

Protects your head from the helmet rubbing on it, especially if you have a shaved head.

When you get where you’re going the bandanna looks cool and again gives your head protection from the sun, and helps manage your hair if it’s not really short or in a ponytail.

Prevents helmet hair

Provides a bit of protection from bugs, hail, road debris, etc with a half shell.

The bandana sits lower than a helmet and there’s a strip of about 2 inches the helmet doesn’t protect. Same with 3/4ths and a full face with the face shield up. The bandana is just enough protection to take most or all of the sting out of most things that hit you there.

Cute bikers wearing bandanas

The bikers wearing bandanas have a unique appearance, they seem to be people who do not care about anything or anyone, they seem lonely people who travel without direction or destination, who make their rules where they arrive, just by looking at those faces and those looks we realize why we want to be like them.

Cute head bandana for girls

For motorcyclists we have selected bandanas with different colors and patterns, they come in packages of six bandanas, so you will have reservations for the entire motorcycle trip.

Bandana for men – Levi’s

Levi’s is one of the recognized brands of classic jeans and bandanas, with its logo of American style and effortless cool. It is something a motorcyclist cannot help having.

More on this story

Bandanas: Frequently Asked Questions