[WeaponZero]

I love the idea. Too many video “reviews” on the internet are more just sales pitches that don’t say anything negative about the product where it needs to be said.

A few questions you should answer in your reviews:

How good is the venting? While you do state in the video that the jacket has vents, most any riding jacket does as well. But many jackets have vents that don’t perform all that well at high temperatures. Would like to know what temperatures the venting is good enough up to.

How is the sizing? Is it standard, is it off by a size, what? Best way to address this is height/weight of the person modeling the jacket and what size they’re wearing.

Is the jacket waterproof/water resistant? And if it claims to be so, have you tested it to be true?

Also, I know you guys love SHIFT brand gear here but if it’s possible to get your hands on other stuff as well I’d like to see a variety of brands. Well, mostly cause despite all the weight I’ve lost as of late I’m STILL not small enough to fit into anything SHIFT makes… The bastards

[WeaponZero]

This was one of the reasons I chose a Scorpion helmet for my new el cheapo helmet. According to reviews on Sportbiketrackgear.com, most full face helmets are designed with a leaned forward, sport riding position in mind. So if you sit upright with the vents open you often get a whistling noise that goes away if you lean over more, and you don’t get much airflow. But with Scorpion EXO 400 and 700 models, that’s the opposite. You get the annoying noise and dereased airflow while leaned over because the vents are more positioned for upright/standard riding positions, which I thought was a good idea since I have an SV650.

That being said, I’ve owned 4 helmets so far and I’ve discovered that the leading cause (based on my personal experiences) for unwanted helmet noise is when the visor doesn’t seat properly while closed. The Shark RSi and HJC I had were especially bad with this. The Scorpion EXO 400 and Shark RSR2, not so much.

My next helmet will either be a Shoei RF-1100 or Icon Airframe.

[WeaponZero]

I live in PA where the MSF class is supported by the state and is free, so local dealers don’t have anything to do with it. Everyone takes it regardless as a result.

As far as markup is concerned, the only place I’ve found that isn’t a total ripoff is Cycle Gear. They do come close to matching online prices, but all the other places I’ve been to charge up to 50% more over online prices. I even had one guy at a dealer flat out tell me I’d be better off buying online than buying from them when I asked him to look up how much it would be to order something they didn’t have in stock. The extra cost was like $50 more on an item that, online, didn’t even break $100 for the price. Dealerships around here (and I’ve been to quite a few) are a complete and total ripoff when it comes to accessories and apparel. About the only exception I’ve seen was on gloves where they ONLY charge $10-$20 more than what online retailers sell them for. And as far as “qualified service personnel” goes, I have never in my experience of dealing with dealerships met with ANYONE who is as helpful and as courteous and knowledgable as the guys on the phone at sportbiketrackgear.com. They have done more to help me over the phone with service and questions than any place I have been to in person.

Also I really like the fact that sportbiketrackgear is very picky about what brands they carry and why they refuse to sell brands such as Joe Rocket. I asked Brian Van in an e-mail once why they don’t sell Joe Rocket and he sent me a long reply telling me the story of Joe Rocket’s “Fall From Grace” years ago when they started outsourcing production to sweatshops overseas and how quality sank as a result, how the original founders abandoned the company to start out fresh with the Speed & Strength line to put that whole mess behind him, and how Speed & Strength is far superior to the current incarnation of JR in terms of quality. I found it great that he knew that much about it and was willing to take the time to tell me the full story about what happened in detail.

[WeaponZero]

So would you say paying nearly $200 for a basic textile jacket that costs $130 online is not unreasonable?

[WeaponZero]

LOL!!!! Good advice definitely!

[WeaponZero]

When I first started riding this was the gear I bought:

HJC CL-15 helmet – paid $130 for it, even though online retailers were selling them for under $100. After roughly 6 months of owning it and breaking it in, the liner padding broke down to the point where the helmet that was snug on me now bounced around on my head.

Joe Rocket Atomic 3.0 Textile jacket – great ventilation, great fit, poor stitching, poor zippers. Paid $185 for it even though online retailers were selling them for $130. I about cried when I found out I overpaid by that much for it.

River Road leather gloves – aimed at the cruiser rider. was a mistake to buy. didn’t suit my needs in the end, sacrificed too much protection for style.

Tourmaster Solution WP boots – overall good, and great for the money, but they seem to run narrow so those of you who have wider feet like myself will need to go up one full size if not more to be able to accomodate the width of your foot. Also, no toe protection.

Over time I eventually replaced all of it (but the boots-I still wear them when the weather calls for a possibility of rain as they are waterproof)

I now own:

HELMETS —

Shark RSR2
Shark RSi
Scorpion EXO-400 (my favorite to wear despite being the cheapest because it fits my head shape the best)

JACKETS —

Scorpion All-In leather jacket (traditional black leather jacket, good for cold/cool weather riding)
Scorpion Stinger leather jacket (sport-styled full perf leather jacket, good for hot weather)
Teknic Freestyle waterproof textile jacket (cool looks, quality construction, but design features don’t work as well in practice as they do on paper–definitely getting replaced soon)

GLOVES —

Alpinestars Apex Drystar gloves (foul weather full gauntlet gloves– decent but not as protective as i would like. confirmed waterproof. not as good in cold weather as i would have first thought but definitely works)
Speed & Strength Moment of Truth SP Short gloves (hot weather short gloves that are a combination of mesh and leather with knuckle protection–fits my hand perfectly, love them)

BOOTS –

Tourmaster Solution WP boots (waterproof, full length, full leather–no ventilation so your feet roast in the heat, no adjustability so better hope they fit as-is, and no toe protection. good overall boots for the money but you’ll find better if you’re willing to spend more.)
ICON Field Armor boots–GREAT!!!!! PERFECT RIDING BOOTS especially for HOT WEATHER!!!! only thing was the break-in process was EXTREMELY painful. 2 days of hell while wearing these boots but once they broke in, PERFECT FIT, SUPER COMFORTABLE. And INSANELY PROTECTIVE.

PANTS –

Tourmaster HT II Mesh Overpants (great for what they are–mesh overpants with reinforced ballistic nylon in impact zones, soft foam armor in hips and knees, adjustable waist that has a good 6″ of adjustment or so, and a removable waterproof and windproof liner. GREAT for what they are.)

MISCELLANEOUS –

ICON Field Armor Leg Guards (not a fan. no adjustability for size although they say otherwise, and gets in the way of wearing full length boots with them. can’t wear my tourmasters with them.)
Knox Cross Knee Leg Guards (AWESOME!! Bought these to replace my ICON Field Armor Leg Guards and much happier with them. higher quality, more comfortable, comfy enough to wear all day)

[WeaponZero]

The hat trick is nothing more than a basic mesh jacket with 2 layers of liners–one being a waterproof liner and one being a thermal liner. The burnout is a very sturdy textile jacket. They’re so completely different that I’m surprised a person would be considering them both as they don’t fill the same role.

The burnout, just FYI, is the textile version of the all-in leather jacket.

[WeaponZero]

Whether the pants in question have armor in the knees or not is a non-issue to me as I will be wearing them with my Knox Cross Knee/Shin guards which are far superior to anything that could come in a pair of pants.

[WeaponZero]

The problems I’m talking about are ones you can only discover while riding. Things such as helmet airflow issues, etc.

[WeaponZero]

ICON’s merc line of jackets are made to be snug-fitting in the typical sport style and have that tapered waist you seek. Unfortunately they’re being discontinued on closeout. The rest all use a straight-cut design where the waist doesn’t go in any from the chest. It’s nice for us folk with bellies but you skinny types probably won’t like it.

Joe Rocket and Speed & Strength jackets have a LOT of adjustment in the waist. After I lost weight and dropped 2 whole sizes my old Joe Rocket jacket was still able to fit me snugly with all of the adjustment it had. Try them.

Personally I love ICON brand gear. I just have gripes that some of their stuff, like I said, doesn’t work as well in practice as it does on paper. I’ll admit that for leather I’ll go elsewhere but for textile jackets it’s ICON all the way for me. And their Field Armor boots are awesome!

[WeaponZero]

600cc bikes generally use four cylinder engines that are engineered to make their power more like a race bike. It is a lot more difficult to control and doesn’t work as well at street legal speeds because at lower RPMs they don’t have much thrust. 650s on the other hand are usually twins that sacrifice that top end rush for more power in the low and mid range and are much easier to control as they were designed with street riding in mind, not the track. They do typically have a lot less power than race-ready 600s such as the CBR but it is a lot easier to control and you have much more power on top at the speeds you’ll probably realistically be riding at most of the time.

[WeaponZero]

250 to 600 is fine as long as youve got the fundamentals of riding down and are comfortable with all the basic techniques.

[WeaponZero]

Bottom line is that nothing is more versatile (as far as adapting to different weather conditions goes) than textile. And nobody demands versatility more in a jacket than the common commuter. If you plan on using your bike to get to and from work as your main means of transportation and don’t want to have to fork out money for at least 3 different jackets, textile is your one, single, solitary option. If, however, you use your bike exclusively as a pleasure vehicle and only ride when the weather is ideal, then you don’t need that kind of versatility in a jacket and can opt for the premium protection of leather.

[WeaponZero]

As far as the bike goes, its perfect for you.

Side saddle bag is a bad idea but backpack is ok.

In the florida heat I recommend textile unless you want to buy not one, but TWO leather jackets for the extremely hot and for the cooler days.

Boots. Unfortunately Sidi is the only brand that makes riding boots available in wide sizes and they are ridiculously expensive. However there are other brands such as Icon and TCX that run wider than normal even though they’re not marked as such.

For pants, there are a number of choices but a good pair of overpants is a good idea. Icon has a wide selection of women’s riding gear.

[WeaponZero]

Manual transmission cars have almost no resell value here in the US and if you ever want to trade it in, many places won’t take it at all and the ones that will will make you take a big hit on your trade-in value.

[Author]

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