To compliment good riding gear, or what you are comfortable with is the need to continuously refresh and upgrade your riding skills.
After a layoff -generally the winter season - ride a few 1000 Kms/miles and you are up to speed again is actually a misnomer IMHO. We are all creatures of habit and we tend to repeat the same habits (good, bad, or indifferent) over and over. Riding skills will also continue to diminish year after year unless we take a refresher course and have a trained someone point out our diminishing skill set(s) (something like trying to teach your buddy how to golf).
It's also good to practice, but to practice the right way. This can only be accomplished if one is shown the correct way. I know I have tried to practice a lot of techniques, but find I need that objective set of eyes to point out to me what and how I should be doing an exercise. I know this from having taught recreation and racing skiing. Hard to develop past a certain skill level without having taken additional training.
I also found it beneficial to take a course on a new to me bike. I practice quite often - 2-3 times a week in a parking lot, but there are skill patterns I don't do regularly because of time and inconvenience to me. A course provides a venue to do additional skill patterns, and forces me to get to know my bike a lot faster.
I have heard it said that when an emergency occurs, we go into an auto pilot routine and let muscle memory take over. If we have been practicing good motorcycle skills, hopefully our auto pilot will use these to safeguard us, if not, most of us drive cars/trucks more than our bikes and it is the skills that we use in the car/truck that will be used for a motorcycle emergency. The issue here is that the two skill sets are not as compatible as one might think, and we are on the loosing end of the stick so to speak.
Another saying I've seen and heard is that "I had to lay my bike down". There is no recreational basic or advanced course that teaches this particular technique.
Just some thoughts on the safety issue, and of course, IMHO.
Cheers