Hullo from Mauritius. Lovely biking weather here, it’s the middle of winter and yet the wife’s getting a sun-tan. On Wednesday afternoon, I get on a plane, fly four hours to Johannesburg, change to another plane for an overnight flight to London, and land at Heathrow at 06:30 GMT. From there I’m getting a taxi home, picking up my helmet and gloves, and getting on a train to go and pick up my new S-Wing 125 from Doble motorcycles :-). I’ll be picking the bike up come rain or shine, but I’d like to ask that whoever it is that controls the weather, if you could sort out some sunshine to make the first day riding it easier I’d appreciate it…
In any case, the main point of this post - I’m also going to be buying a set of clothes at the shop, amd I’d appreciate any recommendations on what to get. Basically anything at http://www.dobledirect.co.uk/ is on - I negotiated gear instead of a discount on the bike, so no recommendations from other shops for now please. I have a helmet and gloves already, but I need boots, armoured jacket and trousers. Ideally I’d like waterproof textiles (well actually I’d like leather but I need waterproof too and can’t afford two), and possible an additional set of armoured jeans, plus some good waterproof boots. Not too expensive please - would like to fit in about £300-400 including a decent disk lock. Recommendations please!
Excellent, I’ve looked at the Jacket and Trousers and they do seem to be a good “starter set” for what I need. The Web site says “not available in store”, but I’ll email them and try and see if they can arrange something.
For the boots - those are the cheapest in the range:
So, it turns out that the Oxford kit cannot be tried on first - the company don’t offer sale or return to their merchants. I’ve had multiple people suggest “Richa” as a good value brand though:
Despite their rep., I’ve found Frank Thomas branded stuff pretty good, notably their AquaPore (or some such) stuff. Worked well in 3 hours of snow and in six or seven hours of steady, sometimes heavy, rain.
I’ve not crash tested it and don’t intend to.
Your budget is a bit tight so I’d compromise a bit.
Helmet: Get a really decent fit and don’t worry too much about brand image, but try for 4 star Sharp rating.
After that, it’s a case of sorting out the affordable and pretty good from the good but unaffordable.
Do you mean the Frank Thomas “oversuit” type gear? This seems like a pretty inexpensive and convenient way of being waterproof, especially if it works well
Of course I bought it for the bluetooth (I intend to install a mobile ham radio onto the bike - yeah, I’m obsolete - and use it with bluetooth). The helmet has a 3 star sharp rating, and it’s comfortable and a good fit, so I think I’ll be OK with it.
