Ok...just wanted to know what some of you thought about your cold weather gear...what is the best and worst?
Jackets, gloves, pants, boots, etc.
My answer (in the gear section).
http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=13558.msg233773#msg233773 (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=13558.msg233773#msg233773)
Ooopssss....I probably should have posted over there...
Moderators; please feel free to move it...I was just looking for a fair amount of response.
Thanks!
I've had very good luck with my Tourmaster gear, a balaclava & silk thermal underware ~
JM
I can tell you what's the worst. A Carrheart jacket w/sweater, a pair of worn out jeans, sneeks, and CoreTech insulated gloves.
And maybe a couple Guinness. [drink] [drink]
Thank God I live in South Carolina. [thumbsup]
LA
I ride almost year round in Northern, VA so I have had practice with what works and what doesn't. Also my gear is inexpensive.
Leather palmed snowmobile gloves, bulky but work and can still manipulate the controls.
Fieldsheer textile pants with quilted liner. I have actually taken the liner out and use thermal underwear underneath and have found I prefer that to the liner.
AGV Textile jacket with liner. Jacket is large enough to accomadate a polar fleece underneath very comfy.
Underarmor hood like football players wear, thin enough not to affect helmet fit but warm.
Foggy breath mask(Aerostitch Warehouse).
And a scarf for my neck.
Olympia AST Jacket and Ranger pants. BMW Pro Winter Gloves + Oxtar waterproof boots. Balaclava or similar for neck area. 18k miles later I am always warm and dry when the weather gets cold and wet. I add an Aerostich electric vest when things get really cold.
I used to wear my summer gear with the liners in them and an extra sweater or something and long underwear etc.
I find that I get bulky and feel like the Michelin Man, I can't turn my head, just not very comfortable. I finally got around
to buying Gerbing gloves and loved them, but man my feet would get cold. So, I got the socks and wow, warm feet and warm toes.
Well, then I decided my legs got pretty cold when it was below 35F. So I went and got the pant liners and just said what the hell
at the same time and picked up the jacket liner too.
This last Sunday it was 18F when I left on my ride at 7am and under my jacket and pants all I wore was a pair of shorts and a
T-shirt. Turn up the Gerbing gear and nice and comfy and no Michelin Man, "I can't move very well kind of feeling"
The FirstGear TPG setup is rather pricey, but it is head and shoulders better than any of the others I personally checked out (and I checked out a bunch!). I rocked the 3/4 length jacket (Rainier) all last winter through some torrential downpours here in the PNW and always arrived bone dry on the inside. It even has 'dry pockets' that do what they're supposed to! Comes with a nice, removable 'soft shell' windproof liner jacket that I actually wear pretty often off the bike. Also has halfway decent built-in armor.
I just picked up the TPG pants on eBay a couple of months ago & have rain tested them with excellent results. My current wet weather/winter gear setup is the TPG jacket & pants, some SIDI Strada Rain boots & some-odd A* winter gloves. Aside from the few times when I didn't fasten a zipper properly, or had a pant leg peeking through the bottom of the pant, I arrive 100% dry at my destination!
Depends how cold we're defining it here. I commute even in the middle of winter here, coldest mornings are below freezing, most around -1 to -3°C (30.2°F -> 26.5°F). Coldest I've ridden here is -10°C (14°F). My commute is 30-40 minutes, speeds up to 120 km/h (70 mi/h).
I do as much layering as I can. I wear the following:
* Full thermal underwear
* Decently warm socks (my snowboarding socks, actually)
* A* SMX3's are the current boots'o'choice. They're ventilated so possibly not the best for riding in winter
* Thin glove liners from a ski shop
* Motorcycling pants & jacket. I tend to swap between a fabric winter jacket (A DriRider Alpine jacket, fully armourned, I have crash tested it, works well) and my A* leather jacket.
* Gloves - some winter DriRider warm gloves. Even have a nifty windscreen wiper on the index fingers, helps if it is wet (usually isn't here).
* Balaclava/neck warmer combo
* 2 or 3 layers on top - thermal underwear, tshirt, maybe a long sleeved tshirt, a windproof fleece that I have for work, and an appropriate jacket. Two layers on the bottom (thermal underwear and pants). If it is super windy I have some goretex overpants I chuck on which cuts out any major wind.
No heated gloves. I get off feeling a touch cold, but no extermites blue, and warm within 2 minutes of sitting down at my desk in the office.
Listen to Ellingly, he knows cold weather. He lives in a desolate, remote, awful place in Australia. A place so bitterly cold and windy that the Australian people send their politicians there to live....it's THAT nasty.
Quote from: Spider on October 24, 2008, 03:57:29 PM
Listen to Ellingly, he knows cold weather. He lives in a desolate, remote, awful place in Australia. A place so bitterly cold and windy that the Australian people send their politicians there to live....it's THAT nasty.
That's not entirely true. It is very rarely windy here!
Rest's true though!
Least it's dryer than Melbourne.
I just got everything wired up for my new Warm'n'safe jacket and gloves today.
40 degree 30 minute commute to my night job at 70-80 mph. I was wearing EMS cold weather thermals, the heated jacket, heated gloves, a MESH jacket on top, thermals, jeans, and leather on the bottom, and with the dial at about 7, I was almost unbearably hot. I kicked it down to about 5, and I was toasty but not sweating.
my only complaint is that the jacket is kind of short... leaves part of my back exposed when I'm in a highway tuck. Also, the gloves will have to break in quite a bit before they get comfortable. I'm trying to brainstorm a way to put a MC battery in my backpack for skiing this winter without being dangerous.
Best gear purchase ever.
I love my Dainese lined jacket. I also have a perforated leather jacket when it's not so cold, but the lined jacked it my fav since the lining comes off. The best thing is I was hit, flew about 10' and did my best impression of a runner diving to steal base. My jacket came out unscathed...I wish I could say the same for me. :'(
I decided to splurge a little and help out the retail numbers last month. To stay toasty I wear a Belstaff Mercury jacket (without it's liner) over the Gerbing heated jacket liner. Man I just love the heating coils in the collar. With the heated liner in the jacket ,my core temp stays nice and high so my Belstaff Pioneer pants keep me plenty warm with just a pair of shorts under them. I also use the Gerbing G3 gloves, gotta have toasy hands.
The lasted addition has been an Outdoor Research winds stopper helmet liner. That completes the package by keeping my chin and forhead warm.
Mike
Quote from: extra330 on October 28, 2008, 03:54:09 PM
I decided to splurge a little and help out the retail numbers last month. To stay toasty I wear a Belstaff Mercury jacket (without it's liner) over the Gerbing heated jacket liner. Man I just love the heating coils in the collar. With the heated liner in the jacket ,my core temp stays nice and high so my Belstaff Pioneer pants keep me plenty warm with just a pair of shorts under them. I also use the Gerbing G3 gloves, gotta have toasy hands.
The lasted addition has been an Outdoor Research winds stopper helmet liner. That completes the package by keeping my chin and forhead warm.
Mike
Where did you get the Belstaff gear? I've only ever seen it at the IMS show. ???
www.britishmotorcyclegear.com (http://www.britishmotorcyclegear.com) Couldn't be nicer people to deal with. I've been riding for over 25 years and this is the best setup I've ever had for cold weather. I used to hate cold weather riding, now I look forward to it. Now I'm talking Maryland cold not Canadian cold.
Mike
+1 on the Belstaff gear. I've got the Discovery jacket and it's the warmest jacket I've ever seen. If it's above 50 F, I HAVE to open the rear vents or it gets too warm. Recently got a pair of Rev'it Farenheit H2O gloves; they've been comfortable to upper 30s for far. They seem to run a bit bigger than their non-insulated gloves though.
Don't berate me for not posting actual gear, but here in SoCal the temperature variation means using liners, etc. is too much of a pain. I've got a North Face jacket that keeps me really damn warm in the morning/night and during the warmer hours I just toss it in my backpack. [thumbsup]
After looking at my Pioneer pants it would apear that they are not "Belstaff" but are "British Motorcyle Gear" (BMG) brand . Still very hi build quality I don think they are Belstaff although I think BMG purchased the Belstaff line. I also found a lable that says "made in China" :(. The Mercury jacket is labled "Belstaff" but I can for the life of me see were it was made.
Mike
Firstgear HT overpants-- Removeable liner, extremely warm, TOTALLY WATERPROOF. Super fast on/off due to zippers all the way up to waist height.
cons-slightly funny fit on a trim figure, funny "armor" --open cell foam that wouldnt do much in a fall but keeps the wind off of my knees. Its upgradeable tho.
Gerbing Heated liners. (Jacket, pants, socks & glove liners)
Under leathers, over Winter Silks.
Riden very comfortably into low 20's.
I am ready to pull the trigger on some heated grips and an electric vest/jacket.
Its cold here, western Washington.
We have frosts most am and at speeds of 70 plus on 1-5 at 32* its a mite chilly.
I have some good boots which keep my feet warm (sidi) but the rest of me freezes......... its kinda like being in bed with the ex......... [laugh]
riding in 35 +/- with held phantoms was not a good idea. I ended up going for some pearl izumi lobster claw gloves.
they obviously dont offer the protection of real motorcycle gloves but boy do they keep your fingers warm. They are made for bicycling but i have no issues using them in the cold. the lobsterclaw design allows 2 finger clutch/brake useage while providing similar warmth to that of mittens.