New Riding Gear & Luggage

[jonathan180iq]

I spent the better part of this past winter and so far this year wearing my heavy leather armored jacket with winter gloves. Now, however, since Spring has sprung, I decided that it was time for some new riding gear. I also upgraded a few bits of hardware in hopes of increasing my carrying capacity, thanks to Ebay.

First, as far as protective clothing goes, I have, as mentioned above, a great leather jacket which keeps me dry and warm in the winter. I also have two helmets. A simple black HJC and a nicer Simpson race helmet which is painted an expensive yellow. I use the latter as my summer helmet. I also own (used to own) a Joe Rocket mesh riding jacket. While this jacket offers some protection from impact, it offers little in the way of roadrash protection. I don't have a good pair of riding gloves. So, that was a necessity.

I decided to upgrade to a textile style jacket with a perforated interior lining for summer riding while maintaining the leather for cooler weather. Textile jackets don't offer the same slide protection as leather jackets, but they are far superior to mesh jackets in all categories while offering more breathability than leather, unless you want to spend big money. The jacket that I bought also comes with a removable interior liner that offers insulation and it's waterproof, incase I need it colder/rainy conditions. I also picked up a pair of flashy summer riding gloves. While they are mesh and realtively weak, they are also very affordable and a lot better than sliding on bare hands.


I went with the Yellow/Black jacket to match my helmet and be a little more visibile.


Again, yellow/black for visibility and coherence.

Now, onto my new luggage. Those who keep up with the forum know that I've been working on wiring extra brake lights into the rear of my trunk. While doing so, I was enlightened at how crappily the trunk was holding up to the elements and decided to upgrage that area as well. I knew that I wanted a Givi style box that had space for brake lights and enough room to lock my helmet. So, I went with this Givi knock-off from Ebay.


It's a tougher ABS plastic than my previous box and has plenty of space for a long LED brake light strip to be mounted under the red panel on the back. It's also lockable and removable. Something that my previous box lacked. If you seach for LEd brake lights on Youtube, you can see what these boxes look like with LED strips mounted inside of them. I'll get the info posted here, once I get it accomplished.

Finally, now that I'm carrying a rainsuit and a nicer tool set on the bike, I needed to upgrade my overall carrying capacity. I got a great deal on a set of leather saddlebags with a waterproof interior liner. They are small enough to not require saddlebag supports but large enough for everything that I need them for. If you're interested, I can recommend an Ebay seller that offers a BEST OFFER option on all of their auctions and they usually are very reasonable in the prices that they accept. I got both the jacket and saddlebags from the same seller for a combined $15 off of the asking prices.



I plan on reviewing each of these products as they arrive on my doorstep and I'll post pictures of the real things once they get here.

Peace,
Jonathan