23 June 2014 – Gear Review 8 – Clothes

This will discuss the outer riding gear I used on this trip:

Gerbing heated jacket and gloves – There are multiple brands of heated riding gear but I have used this Gerbing gear for several years including AK1 and at least 3 years of winter riding. They have never let me down and they certainly can make the difference between a nice warm ride or a miserable cold ride. My gear is comprised of a light jacket, heavy gloves and a thermostat controller that has two controls; one for jacket and one for gloves. I have added a power outlet on the bike where I plug in the thermostat which I currently have attached to my tank bag using Velcro. When I get on the bike I plug in the two pigtails on my jacket to the two pigtails off of the thermostat. The wiring for the gloves goes through the jacket harness. When I put on the gloves I plug in their pigtails to the plugs running out my jacket sleeves. The two knobs on the thermostat can be operated independently. The jacket even has a heated collar to keep wind out and to warm up your neck area. On real cold days I will wear a fleece vest or shirt next to my body with the jacket over the fleece then my heavy riding jacket over the Gerbing. I’ve ridden an extended time in low 30’s with this arrangement very comfortably.

Heavy riding jacket – I used on both AK1 and AK2 the First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket. It has lots of armor and zippered pockets. This jacket is my primary rain and foul weather protection. It is a little bigger than I would normally wear because I usually have the Gerbing and even a fleece shirt under the jacket. During my miserable ride through Montana in driving cold rain (46 degrees) that was how I was dressed plus my rain pants (discussed next). The jacket was soaked by the time I got to Great Falls, MT but I was mostly dry inside. Only leaks were caused by me not zipping up all the pockets. I will say that the material could probably use some water proofing again just because it is not beading up the water as it used to do but seems to be absorbing it. I’ll check with First Gear on that. Quality is excellent and I highly recommend this jacket. BTW it comes with a fleece liner that zips inside.

Heavy riding pants – First Gear with zip in liner and armor in the knees. These pants are also my primary rain and foul weather protection. The pants are several years newer than the jacket and are perfectly waterproof except when I didn’t have the two pockets zipped close. I’m riding in that cold driving rain and all of a sudden feel cold water in my crouch area. What a bummer. Could not understand how water could have gotten in until I found the pockets unzipped. Full zippers down the side of both legs that seal tight against the weather. Highly recommend.

Riding Boots – I used a pair of Bilt high top water proof boots for the whole trip. They were actually very comfortable. Let’s face it, Bilt gear is cheap equipment but it is available and works most of the time. This time it DIDN’T! These boots were advertised as $187 boots for about half price. Of course everything Cycle Gear sells (Bilt) is sold half price which is probably the real price anyway. I digress. I was skeptical that these boots would stand the test but was willing to give them a try. They actually did ok in lite to moderate rain but when they were needed most, the driving cold Montana rain, one boot filled with water and soaked my foot. I have no idea where the water got in because my pants were dry under my First Gear rain pants. I spent a long time with a hair dryer and toilet paper soaking up the water so I could wear them the next day. I plan on sticking this boot in a bucket of water to ID the leak area before I take them back to Cycle Gear. In this case, Buyer beware. You get what you pay for and don’t fall for the half price scam; you are buying an $80 boot not a $180 boot for half price.

Heavy Riding Gloves – For cold weather I use my Gerbing gloves but they aren’t waterproof so I used a pair of (you guessed it) Bilt waterproof gloves when it rained. They were waterproof until they got wet then they were two cold rags wrapped around my hands. Same plan, these are going back to Cycle Gear to hear their logic for putting waterproof logos on gloves that soak up water like a sponge. I never got them to dry out while on the trip. Buyer Beware.

Orange vest – Must have on the Dalton Highway.

Lite Rain Suit – The two blue items in the Pics are a cheap rain pants and jacket. I never used them and they would probably not work anyway. I should have left them at home.

Lite Riding Jacket - The Yellow Riding Jacket is of course a Bilt product. It worked OK because it was only used in good weather when it was too hot to wear the First Gear. No issues and it was cheap so any brand would work as well.

Lite Riding Gloves – I actually bought some cheap riding gloves from Wal-Mart. They had pads on the palms that helped isolate vibration and they kept the sun off my hands. Any brand would work as well.

Helmet – I could write a whole blog on this alone. The Shoei modular full coverage helmet is of excellent quality, air vents actually work, everything works smoothly, optics is great and the anti-fog feature is fantastic. That’s the good now here is the bad. It’s heavy, it’s larger than other full coverage helmets, has mega wind leaks and it was noisy as hell. That said I should also say that I bought the XL because it felt more comfortable when the L felt too tight. The young lady said the inside lining would tighten up after I wore it but I didn’t want to take a chance it would be too tight for 7,000+ miles. I should have paid attention to her. The XL did get loose and that is probably why it had so much wind inside and all the noise. I bought this helmet only a week or so before I left. Lesson learned: buy a helmet and wear it 6 months before heading out on this kind of trip. I would recommend Shoei but I will probably only wear this one in the winter on short trips.