Motorcycle jacket for touring and commuting

[Anonymous]

#4226

Here's a question to start a gazillion threads and opinion-driven posts.After roasting between Hanmer and the West Coast in December, I'm looking for the Holy Grail of motorcycling gear to replace my aging Dririder jacket and pants; a good quality, durable, comfortable-in-most-temps, vented, waterproof, relatively stylish touring jacket (or two-piece) that I can commute in. Hi Vis is an added bonus.Then I did a stupid thing - I wandered into the local dealership and tried on a BMW jacket, and almost fainted when I saw the price.  Damn why does something that ticks most of the boxes have to priced so high...  :'(Trawling the interweb for 'good quality yadda yadda commute in' jacket produces a results list that would keep me amused for hours.  I've tried to narrow it down to at Rev'it, Teknic, Tourmaster, and Aerostich.  Of the three, I've only tried on the Rev'it jackets.For the dollar value, I'm prepared for a decent hit, bearing in mind it'll probably end up as two sets of whatever 'we' choose.For the fit, I"m a 5'10", 70kg skinny white boy.Any recommendations for what'll endure the best and worst of what we Kiwis and our weather can throw at our gear?

[Mark Mackay]

#17492

The Rev-it gear is good value for the price,if You get one with removable waterproof liners it will double up as a summer jacket. In extreme wet wheather use their hi vz waterproof overjacket.Its the old story You get what You pay for some of the BMW gear does last a long time,devide $2000 purchase price over 10 years and the value is their.Its just getting over the heart attack is the problem.Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

#17493

The Rev-it gear is good value for the price,if You get one with removable waterproof liners it will double up as a summer jacket. In extreme wet wheather use their hi vz waterproof overjacket.Its the old story You get what You pay for some of the BMW gear does last a long time,devide $2000 purchase price over 10 years and the value is their.Its just getting over the heart attack is the problem.Hope this helps

Yup, I agree with Richard 100% on that (although I've always been the poor (Revit) boy and the Librarian has had the BMW gear. BMW gear last HEAPS long.Whatever you buy, remember that with modern wicking technology, anything like a scarf or balaclava that you wear that goes through the neck hole may, in fact, conduct water into you while your Goretex® or similar is working hard to drag water OUT of the rest of your jacket. Buy garments with the maximum amount of zippered vents you can afford (the modern sealed zippers are amazingly waterproof when you do them up, no worries there). Be wary of the front vents on Revit gear: they are THROUGH the pockets! Put wallet and cellphone somewhere else in hot weather!

[Anonymous]

#17494

I do a lot of long distance riding, so I've had ample opportunity to test and think about gear. Ultimately, there is always going to be a trade off between waterproof in South Island West Coast rain, and breathing in 30+ in the high country. I've settled on the Revit textile gear, currently an Off Track Jacket and Sand pants. Both have twin liners (water resistant and thermal). I've found however, that letting the water through the outer jacket to the water resistant liner wrecks the thermal properties of the jacket and you can get cold fast, as the outer remains wet/damp until it dries out. Anything waterproof on the outside will make you die in the heat, especially stuff like slow speed adventure riding.I throw a DriRider basic rain jacket (Thunderwave I think?) over the top of the jacket for rain, then pull it off when the rain stops. They wear over time, but much cheaper replacing it than a whole jacket. I'd advise against a jacket with high viz, otherwise you'll constantly be cleaning it to make it any use. Use a vest, and that way you can layer as required. Vest is also cheap to replace. The Revit gear is able to vent well in the heat, the Off Track jacket even has removable side panels, but I've never gone that far  😮 Even in 50 degrees, it was just the outer mesh, side panels still in.For commuting, I've got another 2 jackets, summer is the older Revit Expedition, but I don't think it's quality is as good, and winter is a Neo something from Cycletreads. Winter I figure the jackets will never last, got 5 odd years out of the previous one, just replaced this last winter... For pants it's draggins, as they're work clothes, then the DriRider Thunderwave pants over the top for rain. Again, cheap to replace, but if you want really cheap there are the warehouse ones.If you want waterproof bike gear, and money isn't a problem, my winter suit (not adventure riding though) is a Rukka Armas jacket and pants. 20+ hours, still no rain getting through...

[Anonymous]

#17495

I too do a lot of mileage (not as much as Grem) and I have settled on a fully vented mesh jacket with no thermal layer built in to it and I purchased a gortex shell that was on sale that I wear over the top. Total cost of $450.00. The mesh jacket is fantastic on it's own when the weather is hot and the gortex shell provides excellent wind and rain protection when required. For insulation I use various layers and thicknesses of merino which allows good temperture control.Good luck.

[Anonymous]

#17496

Cheers for your thoughts/recommendations, everyone.  Just been posted back out to Trentham, so not looking forward to a winter commute. You just had to add Rukka into the mix, eh Gremlin  :-  I've already poured several units of drool out of my keyboard after looking at catalogues from Rukka, Belstaff and BMW.  Maybe when I get my Enfield 500cc, I'll have to buy a Belstaff so I can look like Ewan McGregor or  T.E. Lawrence.  Some swine bought my winning Lotto ticket over the weekend, so there goes that financial plan...And I know what you mean about hi vis jackets - my trusty roadworker's fluro jacket (on permanent loan from Fulton Hogan) has faded considerably over the last year or so, and isn't quote as fluro as it used to be.  I think it's still got bits of West Coast sandfly stuck/driven between the weave too.  A Rev'it rain suit will probably be added to the topbox for the occasional Wellington shower that'll drift through over winter.I recently had my trusty summer leather jacket cleaned by the team at European Leather Care http://leathertec.co.nz/ in Lower Hutt.  If you have anything leather that needs a spruce up, these guys are fantastic.  One mouldy, faded  and scruffy jacket was returned to it's former glory; even had to pick up a new white t-shirt!

[Anonymous]

#17497

Well, Rukka is very good, but I wouldn't use the Armas for summer riding at all, it's far too thick and waterproof. Likewise, too expensive to get ruined by dust etc.I meant to also comment, that I'm not that impressed by jacket thermal liners, often being quite thick and they don't pack down well. Often I don't use them, going for Merino and the like (like Gr8). Pack far better, thinner and better at keeping you warm.I've basically stopped wearing leather years ago, because the NZ summer is about 1-2 months, and it will still rain during that period. When you're riding through the same weather system a couple of times over, I've quickly realised that leathers simply aren't flexible enough to cope with all weather you'll find on a trip.

[Anonymous]

#17498

For our Americas ride I went with the Alpinestar “Tech-Touring” jacket and pants. They make a great jacket with two zipable vent panels in the front and a huge vent panel in the back. Comes with a separate warm and waterproof Goretex jacket. The pants are well vented but are still quite hot and through Central America and most of South America I went to a Draggin Jeans option. My only issue with the jacket is its weight – it's quite heavy. I also wore a Revit HiVis top for much of the trip to frighten off the polar bears. (Must have worked cos we didn't see any)Like Gremlin I'm not impressed with the thermal liners and take them out (left them behind for this trip) and wear Icebreakers instead. Kennif

[Clive Lawrence]

#17499

I wont get into the touring kit too much. Go the Spidi Touring Jacket over ten years ago and is only starting to go now. As it's already been said, you do get what you pay for… most of the time.Grabbed the gumby suit, Revit rain suit, through motomail; this one piece option works well for me and has looked after me during West Coast and desert road rides in the winter. It packs away and fits in my tank bag. (Inexpensive option) Stay dry...and warm.Dave

[Anonymous]

#17500

After a bit of research, much trawling of blogs et al and a little damage to the credit card, I now have a Rev'it Everest Jacket and a pair of Sand pants.  Thanks to all on BMWOR for your advice!Now that the drought has finally broken, I've been putting jacket and pants to the test on my morning commute (Island Bay to Trentham, about 40km).  The jacket's Gore-Tex shell sheds water like that off a duck's back, and doesn't absorb moisture leaving you with a soggy, wet (but waterproof) jacket.  Loving the pants zipping onto the jacket to get rid of that gap that the coldcoldcold morning slipstream somehow always used to find.  The jacket was bought from FC Moto; landed for $740; the pants were a lucky buy as most places have sold out of Sand pants and only stock the Sand2.  I managed to find a pair of Sand pants in the States; thanks to NZ Posts's YouShop, I got them landed in NZ for $310.I was a little dubious of the silver/grey colour attracting grime/gunge/oil stains, but so far it's been OK.

[Anonymous]

#17501

I've got a spidi adventure touring jacket for sale. I paid $1000 fot it and have used it for 6 days riding. It's about 6 years old but in perfect condition. Make an offer. I can email you a photo. I'm 5.10 and 80kgs. Live in Auckland.

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