Universal : Riding Gear Thread

[aquaticbullet]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Guys I am really confused about which riding jacket to get. I live in gurgaon but I don\'t commute by my bike. I use my bike only on weekend breakfast rides and plan to tour a lot. Leh is coming up for this year. So all that in mind I am sure that I need mesh jacket but it should have removable rain and thermal liners. (Plus the thermal liners should really hold up good in extreme leh conditions). I have zeroed in to couple of jackets. If any one has first hand review where in the jacket was used from extreme cold to grueling hot and humid condition then please let me know:

1. Rynox Tornado: http://www.rynoxgears.com/index.php/products/riding-jacket/tornado-jacket/tornado-jacket.html
2. Zeus All terrain motorcycle jacket: http://www.zeusmotorcyclegear.com/products/zeus-all-terrain-motorcycle-jackets-black-blue/pages/motorcycle-gear/men-s-textile-motorcycle-jacket
3. DSG Triton: http://www.planetdsg.com/dsg-triton-jacket-red-pri-1544.html?reviews_id=167

[AmitRavi07]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Guys I am really confused about which riding jacket to get. I live in gurgaon but I don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t commute by my bike. I use my bike only on weekend breakfast rides and plan to tour a lot. Leh is coming up for this year. So all that in mind I am sure that I need mesh jacket but it should have removable rain and thermal liners. (Plus the thermal liners should really hold up good in extreme leh conditions). I have zeroed in to couple of jackets. If any one has first hand review where in the jacket was used from extreme cold to grueling hot and humid condition then please let me know:

1. Rynox Tornado: http://www.rynoxgears.com/index.php/products/riding-jacket/tornado-jacket/tornado-jacket.html
2. Zeus All terrain motorcycle jacket: http://www.zeusmotorcyclegear.com/products/zeus-all-terrain-motorcycle-jackets-black-blue/pages/motorcycle-gear/men-s-textile-motorcycle-jacket
3. DSG Triton: http://www.planetdsg.com/dsg-triton-jacket-red-pri-1544.html?reviews_id=167

All these jackets, with the exception of Tornado, cannot be used in the summer season esp. the kind faced in Delhi. Out of these Triton has been used by numerous riders for their journey to Leh-Ladakh, so its proven its mettle in extreme cold conditions. The other two jackets are as good as Triton in build quality, and you would not be facing much issues with either Zeus or Rynox. But, in extreme cold weather, I believe Triton to be most effective. Rynox can be used in summer and winter seasons, but I will not suggest it for a ride to Leh. Zeus works better in colder weather than in summer.
I have a mesh jacket and a separate cold weather jacket for rides to colder places.

[aquaticbullet]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

All these jackets

I believe Triton will be like a griller in hot and humid weather. Can I use rynox with thermal layers in cold weather ? Since I have budget of buying 1 jacket only I am thinking of getting a mesh one which can fairly protect me in cold weather (along with cloth layerings). Apart from leh, I wont require jacket to be really cold proof. Maybe down the line, I will get separate winter jacket.

What say ?

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All these jackets

I believe Triton will be like a griller in hot and humid weather. Can I use rynox with thermal layers in cold weather ? Since I have budget of buying 1 jacket only I am thinking of getting a mesh one which can fairly protect me in cold weather (along with cloth layerings). Apart from leh, I wont require jacket to be really cold proof. Maybe down the line, I will get separate winter jacket.

What say ?

[AmitRavi07]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

I believe Triton will be like a griller in hot and humid weather. Can I use rynox with thermal layers in cold weather ? Since I have budget of buying 1 jacket only I am thinking of getting a mesh one which can fairly protect me in cold weather (along with cloth layerings). Apart from leh, I wont require jacket to be really cold proof. Maybe down the line, I will get separate winter jacket.

What say ?

I would suggest go with a mesh jacket like Tornado or Helios which have liners for wind/rain protection. That should keep away cold during winters and would not be as bad in summers.

[santhoshs]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

After long time planning for a motorbike and touring. Thanks for the suggestions in this thread.

Instead of buying jackets and pants (with shoulder & elbow protectors), is it sufficient to buy a body armor like (http://www.pgsbikinggears.com/motorb...y-products.asp) and a knee guard. Wear these under normal winter/rain jacket and jeans. Planning for short trips upto 500 kms (up and down).

Whether these armors provide same protection as jackets with protectors.

[aquaticbullet]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

After long time planning for a motorbike and touring. Thanks for the suggestions in this thread.

Instead of buying jackets and pants (with shoulder & elbow protectors), is it sufficient to buy a body armor like (http://www.pgsbikinggears.com/motorb...y-products.asp) and a knee guard. Wear these under normal winter/rain jacket and jeans. Planning for short trips upto 500 kms (up and down).

Whether these armors provide same protection as jackets with protectors.

You may skinp on touring pants but if possible do try to buy riding jackets. It will be a good investment in long run. Major advantages of riding jacket over just armors:

1. The mesh is made of cordura which is abrasion proof. So in case of a slide whole jacket becomes an armour and will protect your upper half.
2. You don\'t need to keep on straping separate armors and waste time. Just remove jacket and you are done with it.
3. The jackets are pretty sturdy and can be worn day in day out without washing. (Heck I washed my cramster after an year of use) Your regular jackets won\'t be able to take that kind of abuse and may degrade in just couple of rides.
4. It looks cool bro :P.

Save a bit more and get a riding jacket. It will definitely save you from hassles.

[santhoshs]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

You may skinp on touring pants but if possible do try to buy riding jackets. It will be a good investment in long run. Major advantages of riding jacket over just armors:

1. The mesh is made of cordura which is abrasion proof. So in case of a slide whole jacket becomes an armour and will protect your upper half.
2. You don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t need to keep on straping separate armors and waste time. Just remove jacket and you are done with it.
3. The jackets are pretty sturdy and can be worn day in day out without washing. (Heck I washed my cramster after an year of use) Your regular jackets won\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t be able to take that kind of abuse and may degrade in just couple of rides.
4. It looks cool bro :P.

Save a bit more and get a riding jacket. It will definitely save you from hassles.

Thank you.

[HeartBrokenBiker]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Answered a subscriber on riding gears in his budget.
Do check it out guys,

[Sourjya Guha]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

is bikegear.in a legit site ?

The reviews of the website are confusing. There are only very good and very bad reviews.
Anyone has personal experience with them ?

[aquaticbullet]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Guys anyone out there who is using zeus hawk touring gloves ?

[Sourjya Guha]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Got the THOR Sector knee guards from Motogear near R T Nagar police station for INR 1534/-
Great comfy fit. CE rated. Build looks and feels great. The plastics on the knee scratch the fairings on my R15. Did a jugad DIY to bypass the niggle by pasting a few layers of Leukoplast / adhesive tape (150 INR for 5 meters X 5 cm roll from a local chemist store) on the part that was scratching the plastics. Rating 4/5

Also, got the finger wiper from them for 50/- INR. A neat little wiper rubber with velcros that you can fix on your left index finger and wipe water off your visor in case of raindrops blurring your visors out. Rating 3/5

[HeartBrokenBiker]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

So I guess 90% of motorcyclists in our country could hate me if they saw this video :P

[killer_180]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Got myself DSG Primal gloves today & now these pictures are scaring me
Are there any long term usage reviews available regarding these Primal gloves.

This was within a week of usage. I waited for well over a month for replacement, and didn't get one.
After almost 1 month of phone calls, and visits to the showroom, finally they agreed to give me a refund on them as they "couldn't get a size L in stock" for over a month.
This was the case with the official DSG showroom in Pune... Awful experience...

[siddharthsure]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

So I guess 90% of motorcyclists in our country could hate me if they saw this video :P

Lmao!! The guy at 0:46 kissing activa mirror and The guy at 1:47 super yawn :O My fav, last guy. He came like a hero

[Abishek94]

re: Universal : Riding Gear Thread

Hi guys, I recently purchased 'TBG Street' gloves, my first leather riding gloves so thought of writing down a short term ownership/buying experience.
Since I am a student, in October 2014 my budget for gloves was not very high (800 bucks - 1k), so I decided to wait for 2-3 months, save up more cash and go for good leather gloves which will offer adequate protection on the highway as well as city. My previous gloves were cloth/textile gloves for 500-800 bucks which literally developed holes in them after 6-7 months of daily city usage.

Fast forward to January 2015, a friend who was using similar cloth gloves met with an accident and the cloth on the palm side literally tore apart and he had wounds on his right palm. This further made me aware of the importance of riding gloves made of leather, which provide maximum resistance against abrasion.
The plan was to buy semi –gauntlet or short cuff gloves as 70-75% of my riding will be in the city with occasional long rides and for city riding a full gauntlet glove will be cumbersome to wear and remove and they also take up more space in my bag while not in use :P

My eyes were on ‘Spartan/Aspida Pegasus’ gloves which are full leather short cuff gloves available for 2.6k and suitable for daily city use as well as occasional highway rides. I went to moto101 at JC road and they had the last piece left. Spartan pegasus:

I tried on the left hand glove and was about to try the right glove when I noticed something strange, both the gloves were for the left hand :P So someone else had bought both right hand gloves! The Aspida gloves were pretty comfortable for a new set of leather gloves but I was informed that they will get fresh stock only after a month. (When I went to buy my jacket in September 2014 they did not have stock and told me to wait for 2-3 weeks. I ended up waiting 1.5 months for fresh stocks to arrive). I was in no mood to wait for close to 2 months to buy gloves, so I called ‘Lets gear up’ and was informed that they too did not have stock of any Spartan gloves and were expecting stock only by next month. I wasn’t interested in ‘Spartan Phaeton’ gloves as they were part leather and part textile. In short, Spartan gloves were out of my list.

So now I was left with 1) DSG revive/primal 2) Cramster TRG2 3) TBG Street
1)I started reading reviews on dsg gloves. I never was a fan of dsg gear and the dsg dealer I knew (Helmet paradise, JC road) was over enthusiastic about selling his products whenever we (friends) went there which most of the times put me off and this kept me from even trying out dsg gloves (Also, I had read about the below par quality of dsg gloves in reviews).
2) Cramster TRG2 is a full gauntlet glove, it was out of my list without any research on them.
3) Now, I had read/heard positive reviews about The/Track breed gear (TBG) which was manufactured and sold by ‘Lets gear up’. The TBG ‘street’ gloves were exceeding my budget by around 400 bucks but they have ‘knox Scaphoid protection system (SPS)’ , so I thought of extending my budget a bit.

I went to LGU on January 22^nd in the evening and tried out ‘TBG street’ gloves, large size seemed to be just a little loose but medium size was very uncomfortable around the fingers. I was told that these gloves will loosen up a bit after the initial few days. I bought the TBG street gloves for 2999/- with a 6 month warranty and the ‘crash policy’ which is a plus point of buying any TBG glove.

Initial experience:

The journey back home from LGU is approximately 25km of ring road out of which 10km was crawling traffic. After 5km itself my wrists and forearms started paining but nothing unbearable. The gloves were very stiff initially and I took frequent breaks to stretch my fingers. Since these are my first full leather gloves, I did not know how tight is a good fit and by how much will the leather loosen up after the initial break-in phase.

Problem:
I reached home and realised that a portion of leather on the left glove was damaged/worn out and the stitches on the Velcro were coming off just after a 25 km ride. I immediately mailed the people at LGU along with photos and requested for a replacement. I got a quick reply within an hour saying that they were closed the next day as well as the weekend and I should visit the store on Monday for the replacement/inspection of the glove. damaged glove:


Solution:
I used my old set of gloves for the weekend and went to LGU on Monday and they replaced the gloves with a new set, no questions asked.
This time I did not wear them on the way back home :P My plan was to sleep at night with the gloves on which would probably finish the break-in phase of the gloves. :P

The gloves:
These are the features according to LGU:
A-grade drum dyed cow hide leather.
- With KNOX Patented SPS (Scaphoid Protection System) to reduce Scaphoid and wrist injury.
- Carbon fibre protection for knuckles.
- Schoeller - Keprotec for high abrasion resistance
- Curved fingers to reduce fatigue
- Front silicon printing on palm for better grip
- 3M reflective piping
- Finger bridge for pinky finger protection

some photos:




---The sleeping with the gloves-on plan did not materialize and I ended up wearing the gloves for about 1 hour each day at home just so that I feel more comfortable while riding. Finally, I wore them on the way to college for 2 days and now after 4-5 days the gloves seem like they are tailor made for my palms :O

---The full leather gloves feel premium and are very comfortable post break-in phase. During the first two days of usage, the ring finger of my left hand used to rub against the tip of the glove on the inside and it was pretty painful. After continuous usage, this discomfort gradually reduced and now it is almost gone!


---The carbon fiber finished knuckle protectors feel solid and look good too! Another thing I observed is the uneven finish on the knuckle protectors. Initially I thought that this was a defect but I saw another piece of the same gloves and realised that this uneven finish is by design. :P


---The stitch quality is top notch at most places but I found a spot on the right thumb where a small portion of thread is popping out, this is probably where the stitches end and doesn't look like stitches are coming off.

---The knox sps is basically palm sliders and they protect the scaphoid bone in the event of a fall. The sps will feel odd while riding for the first 50-100km till you get used to it as none of the gloves in the Indian market at the moment have sliders on the palm side so you probably wouldn’t be used to something like this. Even after you get used to it, these gloves will not feel like other gloves because you can’t grip the handlebars like you would with other gloves because of these palm sliders but it is an important safety feature:


---Coming to the ventilation of these gloves, I find these gloves to be neutral i.e. on cold mornings I could feel the cold on my fingers but it was nothing extreme and way better than my previous cloth gloves. During afternoon traffic, my hands were sweating a bit but nothing which caused discomfort. Once on the move you won’t feel the sweat/heat as there are small air vents on the finger sliders which provide instant cooling.

---There is a sort of pocket under the knuckle protector which I use to store money before I go to refuel so that I don’t have to remove the gloves and search for my wallet :P (I don’t know the actual purpose of this pocket, probably it provides flexibility to the glove when you curl your fingers).

---I haven’t yet gotten a chance to test it in rains, will update once I experience rains with these gloves.

---Finger bridge:


---Also, got this :P :


Overall I am very satisfied with these gloves though it is priced a bit on the higher side. Please feel free to ask any questions about these gloves