Seasonal Bike Kit – Sublime to the Ridiculous

As I sit here in my working-from-home office with the thermometer reading a heady 37°C, I find myself looking ahead to riding later on in the year and in particular, what additions to my kit I might need. There is a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices and to a degree, this is right. With the right kit, you can enjoy riding a bike in virtually any weather.

Feelin’ hot, hot, hot

So it’s 37°C and I fancy going out for a ride. Obviously, I need to tailor my clothing for the task at hand and the key here is airflow. We all know that still hot air is a lot more unpleasant that moving hot air – if you don’t believe me, try to buy a fan from Argos at lunchtime on the hottest day of the year.

So, airflow. From the head down, the best form of crash helmet for airflow is an open-face. The skull is protected and with either a built-in visor or sun-visor or a pair of sunnies, you should avoid kamikaze wasps and flies trying to take your eyes out. However, many people aren’t fans of the exposed feel of an open-face despite the airflow that they offer. A compromise is a convertible helmet, like the Shark Evo ES. This is a dual-aspect open and full-face helmet, offering the best of both worlds. It’s a slightly-larger-than-normal full-face helmet (with undertones of Blake’s 7 for the oldies) but a quick flip and the chin-bar passes up and over top the back of the head, leaving the visor in place in front of an open-face design. The visor keeps the worst of the roadkill of your face while plenty of air is still flowing to keep you cool. Flip the chin-bar forward again and instantly, it’s a full-face lid once more with all the protection that offers.

Moving down, we next get to jacket and trousers. A leather one might look cool but they are generally heavy and sweaty and textile jackets, while usually containing plenty of vents in the form of flaps, slits or even panels, sometimes don’t flow as much air as you’d like. This is where mesh clothing, like the Tucano Urbano Network jacket and Zipster trousers, comes in. Using solid-material panels in the typical impact zones for abrasion protection, such as shoulders, arms and back and the seat, hips and knees, the areas that don’t typically need protection from abrasion are formed from air-transparent mesh, admitting enormous quantities of cooling air. This can be a bit strange to ride in to begin with, as it feels like you’re not wearing anything significant and that’s scary but choose well and you can get as much protection as a warmer textile. The Tucano takes it a bit further, with zip-off lower legs on the trousers to convert to shorts if you’re staying in your destination for while.

Heading inside, it sounds crazy but base layers aren’t just for when it’s cold. Riding in a warm jacket in just a T-shirt is a fairly unpleasant experience; your bare arms stick to the inside, cotton T-shirts gets saturated with sweat, becoming sticky and nasty which is not good. So a set of summer base layers, like the Forcefield Armour Tech 2 will not only wick sweat away from your body and disperse it evenly and effectively, it will stop you sticking to the interior and the design will also help support your muscles and keep you fresh.

Getting a set of boots that will both protect your feet and allow them to breath is no mean feat and depends on your style. You can get sporty vented boots from Alpinestars that will offer the highest levels of protection while allowing your feet to breathe and prevent overheating.

Keeping your hands safe is also crucial and when the heat is on, a pair of sporty summer gloves, like the LS2 Swifts will give plenty of protection and feel for the bike’s controls, thanks to the thin leather while offering the highest CE rating for protection and decent cooling from the front-mounted air vents on the knuckles.

There aren’t many changes you can make to the bike to help cool you down, though if you have fitted a larger touring screen, for example, you might consider going back to a smaller original version or even removing it altogether to get as much airflow onto the body and head as possible. You might also want to invest in a set of waterproofs – none of this stuff responds well to a sudden downpour…

Winter is Coming

Jon Snow knows all about winter and he knows that layering up is the way to go. Any outdoor enthusiasts also know this and motorcycling is no different. While 0°C can feel a bit chilly, add in a… ahem… 70mph wind-chill factor and all of a sudden, you’re in a serious situation.

When it comes to helmets, there is nothing particularly beneficial from different styles to keeping your head warm. What will help is vents that close properly and a bit of room to get a neck buff or even a balaclava on to minimise draughts around the neck. What is crucial in winter though is a Pinlock insert on the visor. These almost completely eliminate visors misting up, by adding a ‘double-glazing’ style air gap between the visor and the Pinlock insert to stop warm breath condensing on the cold visor. The insert itself also absorbs moisture and disperses it later.

Working from the skin outwards, just like in summer, a set of base payers is essential and winter ones can help to regulate the body temperature by retaining heat while allowing moisture to disperse. The Alpinestars Ride Tech winter layers work extremely well, supporting the muscles while retaining heat. Choose them to fit snugly, as they need almost complete contact to wick away moisture from the skin.

Next up would be a mid-layer, depending on how cold you’re going to be riding in. There are various manufacturers who make garments like this, which can contain a wind-stop function but this is generally only needed if there is something wrong with the outer layer.

If it’s particularly chilly, or you feel the cold, then heated clothing is a definite game-changer. A vest will take the place of a mid-layer in its own right and even without turning on, will help warm you up, as will a full jacket. Products from Keis can either be powered directly from the bike’s battery or by portable batteries so you can keep warm if you’re off the bike and will keep you toasty in even the lowest temperatures.

The outer layer is essential and for winter clothing, in addition to the obvious protection from accidents, the key here is wind and rain. The outer layer needs to be windproof to prevent you getting cold through cold air replacing warm and of course, it needs to be waterproof to make sure you stay dry. There are a host of products available ranging from less than £100 to more than £2000 for a suit but the gold standard to winter clothing is the laminated textile suit. Using a membrane such as Gore-Tex (or even Gore-Tex Pro, but we’ll get to that in a moment), this will keep water out but allow the body to breathe moisture, in the form of sweat out, prevent you from getting wet with your own perspiration.

The ultimate membrane is Gore-Tex Pro, a three-layer membrane that is boned to the inside and the outside of the outer layer. This means that water runs straight off the outer layer, not saturating it and making it heavier in use. Something like the Rukka Kallavesi is not cheap but it features the very highest levels of materials, construction and technology. Pair it with the matching trousers and you’ll be warm and dry no matter how far you go and when.

At the other end of the scale is the Oxford Mondial laminated suit which costs just £450. It uses the company’s own Dry2Dry laminated membrane and while this allows the outside to absorb some water, it does a very good day-to-day job at around a fifth of the price. Almost every textile jacket will include a removable thermal liner which will add differing levels of heat retention. Some may be enough while others may need that mid-or heated layer under them.

Keeping feet warm and protected is a job for a good pair of waterproof touring boots and again, Alpinestars does well with its Web GTX using a Gore-Tex membrane while the Dane Esbys also do a great job at keeping feet comfortable, warm and dry. As toes are exposed to the airflow just a few inches above the ground, they can get a bit chilly so either a pair of decent socks or even heated insoles, also from Keis, can help to stave off frozen toes.

Hands are also exposed to the elements and even with a pair of handguards to cut the wind, fingers can still get cold, fast. A pair of heated gloves is fairly high on the shopping list for most motorcyclists who ride year round and the XR version from Gerbing can be run off the bike’s battery or portable batteries and offer three levels of heat over the fingers and the back of the hand.