New Gear Coming!

Hey Friends,

Cold weather is coming!  Some of it is already here actually!  I got my first taste of cold weather riding, and it was a bad first taste as I didn't have the proper gear.  Still commuting in jeans, jacket, perforated race gloves, my body got really cold.  My hands got quickly numbed in the wind and it was difficult to use the controls.  My legs were cold and my muscles quickly became slow and achy, and it was hard to grip the bike.  This seemed dangerous so I decided to look into winter gear!  Initially I decided that my snowboarding gear would be good for cold/rain, so I put those to the test on the bike...after all, they do work very well on the slopes!

Glamtastic? Heck Yeah!  Waterproof?  Not so much.

Took these out in two conditions..one in low 40 degree weather with light rain, and another in 50 degree weather with an initial downpour.  First time, everything worked well.  They do block the wind completely, and light rain has no effect.  Hands got a little cold though, as I was still wearing the RS Taichi gloves, but keeping your torso warm definitely promotes blood circulation to the extremities.  Second time with this gear, not so good.  I was fortunate this time to have gotten some "severely cold weather, hike mountains in blizzards" type gloves from Eddie Bauer, the Heli Guide gloves for a whopping $150.   I was disappointed when they arrived though.  The material definitely worked, but they felt so flimsy and cheap.

$150?  Might as well burn your money instead.

First..a fun little video of testing the gloves waterproofing.. - Also, sorry for the poor quality, I recorded using my junky laptop webcam instead of the HD camera on my phone.  I didn't want my phone falling into the water!

So yes, my test, and riding in the storm proved the gloves' rain-busting ability.  Unfortunately in the huge rainstorm, I found out on the way to work that though my gloves and jacket were seemingly immune to the water, my snow pants...well let's just say when I got to work I had to pull a Billy Madison.."Peeing your pants is cool!!!"  The rain rolled right over and down my tank and into my lap, where it soaked right on through.

Ok so pants were a no go, at least until I apply some type of waterproofing material, boots were as usual fine until water rolled in through the heel -boot covers coming soon-, and then jacket sure (by the way, I wear the jacket over my armored motorcycle jacket, just an fyi!). Gloves, I still wanted to test further.    They were great in the rain, sure, but how about in colder conditions?

Took them out in high 30's low 40's conditions, dry this time, and rode to work.  What I found was that after 30 minutes my finger tips began to tingle and ended up numb!  These are $150 gloves which are windproof and waterproof, with supposedly excellent insulation, and my fingers are still getting cold?  What a shame.  I ended up deciding that I will return them in the next few days.

As for wet/cold legs, and cold fingers I ended up ordering more motorcycle specific items!  And of course, as I love my RS Taichi gear so much, both articles are made by them!  I decided that I should definitely get some over pants with knee and hip armor.  Ordered the RST Matrix Overpants which are coming in tomorrow after work!  I also ordered RST e-heat winter gloves, battery operated gloves with multiple heat selections.  Hope these two work well, and I will post reviews when I get them!

I put my trust in RS Taichi! Top notch quality!

Have a great night everyone!

- Pandabear