Archive for April, 2007

All dressed up, no place to go.

Published by miken on April 11, 2007 in Miscellaneous. 0 Comments

After a couple of weeks of research and shop visits and heaps of conversations and forum trolling, we parted with our hard earned money and got our riding gear on the weekend.

 We were pretty chuffed with Chris’ service at Motomail (and thoroughly recommend them) and were planning on buying most of it there. That was until we went down and saw Kent at BMW Motorrad in Newmarket and tried some of their gear on. There really was no comparison between the BMW gear and it’s competitors, and like most things in life you seem to get what you pay for. Myra had been absolutely deadset on a Spidi jacket she tried on early in the exercise and did not budge from that for weeks, even though she tried on just about every jacket she could find, but changed her mind in about 15 seconds when putting on a BMW Tourance.

I was really impressed by the Streetguard II gear, and have ordered myself a jacket and some pants, to go along with the gloves and boots I picked up. I also loved the ProSport helmet so grabbed one of them.

Myra has a Tourance jacket, some Light n Easy pants, countour boots and all round gloves. She is pretty adamant she has a Shoei head and got herself an X-Spirit helmet from AMPS which she loves to wear in while watching movies at home (hey - the bike is still two - three months away!).

Overall it cost a lot more than I thought but the gear really has come along way since my last bike and is of a much better quality than I thought it would be. I still have my AGV top of the line helmet from about 95, and it’s an absolute brick compared to the new BMW one weighing in at just a shade over 1kg.

Have to give big props to Kent at BMW, he really is the best sales guy we’ve come across so far. Really willing to bargain, not pushy, helpful and just a guy that made us feel like they wanted us in their shop and was more than happy to stop and shoot the breeze about all sorts. He’s the kind of guy I’d definitely buy a beer outside of business and catch up with on the weekend. He is open about the whole process and hopes one day we’ll get a bike off him, and this is his way of getting onside with us. That’s a great attitude and I wish we had that at AMPS! Have had a real mixed service from AMPS which is a shame (I bought my bike of you guys!), everytime I go in there for something they make us feel like they wish we’d leave! Motomail is another store that was great to us, and we’re coming back for some bits and pieces Chris!

So, we’re pretty much an identity crisis on two wheels, dressed in German gear made in China on a bike from the UK :)

I do want to grab a Triumph jacket when they get my size in though, for the Sunday rides…

So much gear, so much indecision.

Published by miken on April 5, 2007 in Miscellaneous. 0 Comments

We’ve been stuffing around constantly going to and from bike shops all week, meeting some great salesmen all with great advice on their gear (of course!), so many it’s gotten to the point where I’m almost frozen with indecision about which kit to go with!

It’s a big decision and a lot of coin to part with when you’re looking for good gear, it’s such an important thing to keep warm, dry and safe and every thing claims it’s the best so it’s been an agonising choice.

Unfortunately we both need full kits. I thought I had some gear from my previous bike riding life but it has mysteriously gone the way of the Bermudan cricket team and disappeared back into the triangle :(

I think I’m nearly sorted, in my mind anyway, about what items I’d like to get for me.

For the helmets, I’m pretty certain I will go with the BMW Sport Integral Pro Race helmet. It has just by far been the most comfortable lid I’ve tried on, and without being able to demo them all at pace that’s about all I have to go on. I guess I have a ‘bmw’ head, because it seems to fit better than the Shoei’s and Arais I have tried. I’m not a Nolan fan so even though they feel ok I’m not keen on one. The BMW is not as expensive as I thought it would be (hopefully Kent at BMW is going to give me a bit of a deal…) and it feels quality, light and just right. I don’t like the fact it only comes with racing stripes in red/blue/yellow, but I can live with a bit of “look at me” paint for the helmet’s comfort. Anyone want to do a professional black paint job on it :D ? I went down to BMW to check out their bluetooth helmets, but they don’t sell ‘em anymore, so for fun we tried on quite a few pieces of their kit, and man I was impressed. They have a jacket in store (can’t remember the name), that is almost enough to get a mortgage on but wow, did it feel nice. Their gloves and pants also felt the business, and were on par with the top of the line gear at other stores in terms of price and comfort, so I am headed that way for a few items I think. From a boot perspective well believe it or not the Harley Davidson boots down at AMPS have been the best of the bunch from my personal opinion :)

Myra so far has fallen in love with a lovely Spidi jacket, and a lovely Triumph brown leather jacket as well. We think we’ll get her both of them with the justification of leather for summer day rides and the Cordura for the touring.

We’re off to Motomail again tonight to talk to Chris (late night) and finally start laying some dosh across the counter. He’s promised to look after us and has been the nicest guy to deal with so far while we’ve been window shopping. He has the Spidi Myra likes as well, and said he’d have a new shipment of draggin jeans in which we are quite keen on trying on.

The other thing that has had me really scratching my head is to solve the comms setup we’re trying to achieve. We received our Zumo the other day, and this is a fantastic piece of gear. Really impressive, it’s worthy of it’s own post once we give it some more testing, so I won’t elaborate on it too much yet, but it relays your mobile phone and nav voice prompts (and music, but this is very crappy quality) to any bluetooth headset. I’d like to get a completely wireless helmet setup for both of us, with other feeds coming into the riders helmet, but so far I’ve struck blank faces or plain “no you can’ts” from everyone I’ve approached. I’ve fired off an email to Challenger Motors who deal with the Baehr gear here to see what he reckons, and the other option that’s made the shortlist is the Interphone Bluetooth System, which looks like it would *nearly* do everything, but you have to switch between intercom and phone mode manually, which isn’t that handy. Here’s the link if anyone else is interested (or if anyone has used one let me know what you think) http://www.myblueant.com/interphone-motorbike-intercom-specifications.htm.

 Will update when we finally get some gear in our hands. It’s hard parting with the cash but in the long run it could save your life and you get what you pay for so I shall have to swallow the lump in my throat and part with it. No point having money left in the bank if you’re not alive!