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Gear Reviews
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June 9, 2009 at 7:30 pm #2977zeppelinfromledParticipant
So I find that a lot of people have questions about gear, both here and in other places in life. I thought it would be cool if we could take a few minutes and type up a brief review of the gear that you usually ride with, or whatever you might have experience with. I spent a little while today and wrote up some information about what I use. I also included links to that item on its manufacturer’s webpage.
I’m not sure how much interest people have in doing this, but I think it could be helpful. It might be a good resource when it comes time to get a new jacket, or for those of us who don’t yet have gear. I’ll go ahead and post mine, which is longer than I intended for it to be, but oh well.
June 9, 2009 at 7:30 pm #19483zeppelinfromledParticipantHelmet: Shoei RF-1000. This is a full face helmet. I have no serious complaints with the helmet, except for the price. The helmets with designs on them clock in around $450, which is a lot of money to pay for a helmet when you can get comparable protection for less. One thing that I’ve noticed on some other helmets that would be nice is a tab to open the visor on both sides, not just the left. It’s easy enough to reach across to the left tab with my right hand, but it’s a small feature that I’m sure would be appreciated. (http://www.shoei-helmets.com/Helmet.aspx?RF-1000&h=3&t=1)
Jacket: Cortech GX Sport Series 2. This is a textile jacket with elbow, shoulder, and back armor. I got the silver color to have some extra visibility, but since my bike is black, I didn’t want the red or blue jacket. It comes with an insulated liner that I haven’t had the chance to use yet, but it seems like it would work well. I have two complaints with this jacket. When I’m riding without a backpack and all the vents open, once I get up to about 50 mph, the jacket puffs up a bit. It’s not a huge problem, but it increases the drag that my body feels and therefore increases the fatigue of riding. This problem goes away with a backpack, but the backpack renders the vents pretty useless and I get sweaty. (http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/GX-Sport-Series-2-Jacket-p-238_25.html)
Boots: Tour Master Solution WP Boots. I have almost zero complaints about these boots so far. They’re comfortable both for riding and for walking. They have some armor on the ankle bone to protect it from blunt force trauma. They have a pad on the inside top of the left foot to prevent wear from the shifter, and it also gives a little comfort if you’re upshifting a lot. They offer pretty good slip resistance. They’ll still slide in certain situations, so you still need to pay attention to where you put your foot when you stop. My only potential complaint, which hasn’t been an issue for me, is that you can’t adjust the tightness of the closure very much. There’s a zipper on the inside and velcro on top of that. You can do a little adjustment with the velcro, but not a lot. So if you have a very large or very small lower calf, you might be out of luck. (http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/product.php?productid=82&cat=7)
Pants: Shift Lowdown Jeans. These are jeans with kevlar/cordura reinforcements in the seat and knees to resist abrasion. I really don’t like these jeans. I’ll wear them anyway when I ride in town, but I have multiple complaints. They don’t offer different lengths for the same waist size. The kevlar reinforcements in the knees start too low. When I’m standing, the reinforcement starts below my knee. When I’m on the bike, it comes up over my knee, but it shouldn’t be too hard to raise that up a bit. There aren’t enough belt loops, so the pants ride down even when you have a belt on. I wouldn’t recommend these jeans, but I suspect that these problems are found in most riding jeans on the market. (http://shop.shiftracing.com/ecomm/ProductForward.do?forward=product.pagedef&proId=21523&cid=258&cname=Pants&proNumber=70137&imgName=70137202F.jpg)
Gloves: Texport Race Glove. I’m pretty satisfied with these gloves. They seem to have some pretty good protection in the palm, and the knuckles have carbon armor. If the gauntlets went up a little higher, I’d be ok with that, but they’re fine as they are. They also weren’t terribly expensive at $60 – MSRP is $70. (http://www.texportusa.com/largeview.asp?MSecID=97&PID=81)
June 9, 2009 at 9:58 pm #19489EliasParticipantAm I the only one thinking we should get Zeppelin in touch with Ben? There is a “Gear Reviews” tab at the top that hasn’t been updated with new material in awhile…
June 9, 2009 at 10:20 pm #19490zeppelinfromledParticipantYeah, but none of my comments are long enough to merit whole reviews. I don’t know how people have so much to say about a specific item that they can write paragraphs upon paragraphs about one thing.
June 9, 2009 at 10:47 pm #19491WeaponZeroParticipantBeginning of this riding season I purchased a new Shark RSR2 helmet and did a fairly detailed review of it in this post.
https://www.bestbeginnermotorcycles.com/forum/forum/2172/shark-rsr2-helmet-my-review
Other gear I own: FirstGear HT Air 2.0 Mesh Overpants, Teknic Freestyle textile jacket, Tourmaster Solution WP boots, Joe Rocket Atomic 3.0 Jacket, HJC CL-15 helmet, River Road basic leather gloves, Speed & Strength Moment of Truth SP gloves. I have had the misfortune of crash testing the overpants and teknic jacket at 25mph in a highside a few weeks ago. I’ll do a detailed review on them later.
June 9, 2009 at 11:37 pm #19492EliasParticipantHmm. Well maybe your system is more practical. Less informative, but maybe more useful? Maybe we could have User Reviews as a subsection of Gear Reviews…ok, irrelevant I know. I’ll get back on subject and write some reviews after I have worn my new gear some more.
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