If your wife has one of the jobs (or you do) that requires the use of "strong" hands you may want to look at some wrist guards. I started using them some time back when I was showing a friend of mine (she is a physical therapist) how to ride and she said she was treating lots of wrist injuries and a lot of them were from skate boarders and dirt bike riders. I never used to use them, but she wanted them since without her wrists she is out of work. The skate board shops have some pretty good ones that are cheap, almost like they expect you to throw them away.
Gloves for me are now coming from places that sell them to mechanics for the most part.
But you have the right idea, and that is dress for the get offs. Those come sooner or later and as was pointed out, being able to get up and ride home is penultimate.
The next thing I think I would buy would be as was suggested when you were shopping and that is a riding school. Don't discount the importance of getting off on the right food habit wise there. It will make every bike you will ever own faster and safer. It is worth way more than any bike mod. Suspension mods can't hold a candle to it. Anyway, I would be considering it and the purchase of the videos most good schools offer as the next thing. (Even if you have friends who have been riding as long as I have, you will gain way more from the school, and won't be subjected to picking up the bad habits that they don't even know they have.)
