Jackets and others
 

Maybe you want to check out this site:

http://www.biker-land.de/

They got pretty good deals and a reliable service! Ordered a Schuberth Concept helmet there a couple of weeks ago, was delivered to Japan without any problems!! And the price was great (compared of what I would have had to pay over here). I am NOT coonected to that company, get no benefits!!

Another place might be Louis Motorrad in Germany. Lots of discounted stuff, but you have to check more or less daily/weekly:

www.louis.de

Well, hope this will help you. Take care and safe riding!

I replaced (on a whim) a 100k+ mile Darien with an on-sale First gear Kili 4 jacket...at 1/2 of the Darien's cost. I was a hardcore Darien guy and had planned to get another one.

The Kili 4 jacket has worked well and I'll probably wear it out before getting another jacket.

My girlfriend had $2k worth of Rukka jacket and pants. Nice stuff, but really not what I'd want for myself. She sold the Rukka stuff....that she 'had' to have.

Most all mfgrs now are into the hi-tech (relative term) textiles and make stuff that works, really works. The term 'get what you pay for' is no longer applicable.

If I didn't already have my First Gear gear, I'd try out that Tour Master that Patrick mentioned.

BTW, I've found www.newenough.com to be a good source for stuff and they do know the lingo if you call them.

With so many mainstream companies now making good stuff, there's pressure on the 'brands' to be different...and better. Might have been millimeters in the past...now it's down to squeezing microns..:)

I do the same when wearing dirt bike pants. Rain pants over warm you
right up.

jackets
 

I'll give my 2 peneth

I have Rukka gear for the UK but if i were to go anywhere hot 'd buy a sinsalo enduro jacket & pants or something simular. Rukka and the like is made for europe (north) and N America. It is great stuff and far out lasts anything else like the BMW stuff (then again it is more expensive).

Only other oprion is to look at hein gerrik stuff, they now (just) have a good range of hot weather gear. with a rain coat on top this would be good. Expensive again so i would just go for enduro stuff and put a jumper on when cold.

I'd like to hear from someone about all riding condition boots, altbegs look good but no shin protection - any ideas?

I needlessly carried two jackets last March on a trip from Canada to Mexico. My "northern" jacket was a Belstaff Trekker which (with a liner and electric vest) carried me nicely through the high passes in Oregon (it snowed). I lugged along a Joe Rocket Phoenix 3 mesh jacket on the assumption that I would truly need a "southern" jacket in the heat of Mexico. In fact, I never wore the mesh jacket once and it continued to greedily gobble up space in my luggage all the way back to B.C.

Although the Belstaff looked as though it would be stifling in a hot climate, with the vents open it was just fine as long as I was moving. If I stopped for more than a few minutes I just took it off, something I probably would have done with a mesh jacket anyway.

As far as boots were concerned I wore a pair of stout (as the British say) ankle high hiking boots and hard shin and knee protectors under non armoured loose fitting abrasion resistant pants. With this combination I could walk around very comfortably while the leg gear gave me a real sense of lower limb bash proofing (and really did work when I managed to give my leg a serious whack).

Norm

I've recently got a pair of Oxtar Infinity's. They're advertised as a 'dual-sport' boot, meaning they're midway between a road boot and a MX boot. They're very well made and seem to offer a decent level of protection, though not to the same level as a plastic MX boot. They're made form leather throughout with a Gore-Tex lining, so are 100% waterproof, and with a thick pair of hiking socks they're pretty warm. They'll probably be a bit warm in very hot conditions, but probably no more than any other full motorcycle boot. I've been using them for the last month and I'm very happy with them.

RRP in the UK is £170. BMW also sell a near identical boot for £200 (probably from the same factory!), and Hein Gericke do a similar pair for £140.

http://www.moto-oferta.com/images/IN...RETEX1-big.jpg

are even close then you've got a winner IMO.

Very painful to continue your journey once
you've broken a few. YMMV.

Leather option
 

My wife has a really well designed Heine Gericke Killimanjaro black leather jacket. It has some good vents on the chest and sleeves with the "exhaust" across the shoulders at the back. There is a clever pop out reflective strip for safety at night if required. The pockets are accessible with gloves and it has an incredibly warm removeable thermal liner. It's 3/4 length which I've noticed is in the minority for leather but strangely the majority of touring/enduro in synthetics are this length. It seems to serve it's purpose well enough while being reasonably smart off the bike without looking like someone from Mars. I have a very similar HG "Dakar" jacket which I just love. It's reasonably rain resistant but obviously requires a rain suit for heavy or extended exposure. It's the sort of garment you can curl up in a ditch in or wear to a restaurant. For really hot weather travel I guess some mesh armour would be the go instead of a jacket. Is leather not so popular? I gave up on a synthetic jacket because it was awful sticky in the summer, especially with the liner out. If I buy another jacket the wife will kill me. Is perfection so difficult?

PS: The wife's just sold her bike so the jacket's for sale on ebay Oz.

I disagree with your views on removable sleeves. When I first got the Rallye 2 I thought the removable sleeves were a gimick but after riding through Egypt earlier this year I found them to be a godsend. With the sleeves off you get as much cooling as you would without a jacket, but you get to keep your armour....a good combination.

Decisions decisions
 

I got a pair of the Oxtar Infinities over 18 months ago - they're great!!
Very supportive around the ankle, and excellent shin protection, but also comfy to walk about in for ages. Very happy, dry and warm little toes in these babies :) They stand up to a fair amount of abuse too and still look good.

The jacket search is a little tougher though.
I wear body armour whenever I ride - I got into the habit when I first started riding and now just don't feel right without it on. It's great in hot weather because the jacket can just be bungeed on the back of the bike. When it's raining or cold, that's when it get's tricky.

Anyone got any ladies jacket recommendations? (waterproof please)

For the desert you cant beat a MX shirt with body armour underneath for ventilation! A rucksag with a 3L camelbag and voila u are ready....

For a proper jacket have a look at Hein Gericke, good quality reasonable price...

Interesting but
 

IMVHO ....the Rallye 2 Pro. is good- the vents work well and will cool you in towns etc but when in extreme heat such as the desert etc..... vents have to be all closed to maintain your sweat INSIDE to effectively create a mini 'air-conditioning' effect which keeps you cool-er. This can be helped by wetting your T-shirt then closing yourself off in the jacket all vents closed. Unless, off course, you have a support vehicle carrying lots of water.....

Armour works well- tested at 60mph! and jacket still intact-ish.
And as for the removeable sleeves idea...:confused1: .......:rolleyes3: ......twattish:biggrin: but you can't have it all! Rallye 2 Pro- it's a good as can be.

I keep looking at the Rallye 2 whenever I got into the dealer. The more I look at them the more I like it, and you only have to look at the number of Dakar boys who are using it to see that it works - but £680 is hell of a lot of money to lay out. It's also worth mentioning the pro-riders bin the BMW armour and wear MX gear underneath.
My KTM Rallye kit works well, but is starting to look a bit second hand - I'll probably go with the Rev'It kit next time round, as it seems to offer the best compromise between cost and quality.

That's how the Rallye 2 concept works. For serious pro (rallye) riding you always need to wear full body armor beneth the thicker well ventilated robust textile (that's rallye style, the MX guys on the motocross-track can ride naked too or with regular cloth above the body armor :)) and that's why the stock protection is in 1 piece and very easily removable. BMW sells full body armor separately and you also can fit in any MX-style armor you like for pro rallye riding.

The stock protection is rather for more "medium" offroad riding making the use of suit much more comfortible for daily use, it stays in one piece to take it off or to put it on.

Main reason why i bought it was that easily usable protective kit having very advanced ventilation and non sun-sucking light colours that are also well visible in the traffic. Removable GoreTEX inner layer is nice thing to have for the cold conditions. It's the only jacket i know that works comfortably from -10C (with inserts and just waring a fleece under it) to +40C (w/o inserts vents fully open), without getting cold or starting to wet, very good temperature latitude.

Before buying I compared it with very expensive Rukkas and none of them comed close in the advanced ventilation the R2 has while the R2 is cheaper. Not talking about the colours where Rukka mostly makes relatively ugly black "sun suckers" that most of other makers also do. Couple of them were in lighter colours in their collection, but most of it's products are "funeral" deep black. Lighter colours are better for traffic visibility and i rate lighter coloured clothing much higher, i hate to be in a black clothing somewhere like in Iran in july when the Sun's hitting you almost 90 degree angle and outside shadow temperatures reach over +35C. I honestly don't know what they designers are thinking in the factory (or they drink woodshine wodka too much?), and that goes to most of motorcycle clothing manufacturers. HG, Rev'it, BMW and very few others have the colour advantage.