Buying Rain Gear

Harley Tips Episode 9

Welcome back as Motovan presents the Experience, I’m Dave Hatch, and now that we’ve got you all ready to go for a ride, let’s wrap up by paying a visit to the Toronto Motorcycle Show to see what’s new in the land of rain gear.  Joining us now is the chief riding instructor at Georgian College, Jenn Martin.

Dave

So Jenn, here we are at the Toronto Motorcycle Show, we’re in the Harley-Davidson booth and we’ve been poking around before the doors open to the public and this has been great because it’s allowed me to sort of dig into things and sort of find out what is happening in terms of the industry and leading edge, cutting edge technology with all things and I thought that this would be a great time to talk about rain gear beause obviously as a motorcyclist you’re going to get rain once in awhile.  You’re going to ride into some rain, you’re going to come home into some rain.  It’s going to happen.

Jenn

Yeah, like the season we had last season;  if you didn’t ride in the rain you weren’t going to ride so definitely, it will help prolong your riding and you want to be, you want to be dry, for sure.

Dave

Well dry also, I think equates to being safe because if you’re being distracted by water running down the back of your neck or pooling in your crotch, you’re not concentrating on the ride.

Jenn

Exactly.

Dave

And once it starts to rain, the handling of your motorcycle will change a little bit so it requires full attention so you do want to be comfortable.

Jenn

So what did you find.

Dave

Well I can’t believe what’s out there now – for instance, Harley has these gators, pull over your boot.

Jenn

Nothing worse.

Dave

Nothing worse than wet boots, wet feet, cold, damp.  This allows you to pull right over your boot.  I found these gloves.  This is sort of the very latest thing in terms of glove technology… they’re pre-curved.  I mean, not only are these super waterproof, they’re also super warm.  There’s nothing worse than cold hands in the rain but they’re also pre-curved so that it lessons the amount of…

Jenn

Fatigue.

Dave

… fatigue because you’re not forcing your hands to curve around ….

Jenn

And I like those, those are the gauntlet style, those are great.

Dave

Gauntlet style, pull them right over your rain where

Jenn

Water dripping down.

Dave

They’ve got saddle protectors if you will, so you can pull this over your saddle, keep your saddle dry.  They’ve got crazy things like these gators that pull over your crash bars so you’ve got less water coming up on your lower body.  Wind protection as well.

Jenn

Additional protection, excellent.

Dave

Stay warm and dry. And then when you get right into the traditional wet weather gear you know, rain suits for instance.  You know some colour and some bright for conspicuity, the three pm piping…

Jenn

Which is perfect.  You want to make sure that you’re visible.  I mean obviously it’s a little bit darker now with the rain happening, you want to be visible.

Dave

And I guess, you know, pants…

Jenn

The pants.  The other thing is you hook them onto the bottom underneath your boot there.  You still have the piping.

Dave

Yeah.

Jenn

And the protection for the heat of the engine.  We’ve got nice smooth here.

Dave

Right.  And lastly,  I found a jacket like this one which just looks like a great all season do anything kind of jacket, you know, textile jacket, but thing is all sealed up, it’s water resistant, waterproof, it’s got the conspicuity… it’s just sky’s the limit.  Yeah it’s perfect.  The colour black is still the most popular but with this retroflective piping and all that, that’ll light you up.

Dave

Being seen is so important.

Jenn

For sure.  And did you… I heard about the warranty, did you hear about that?

Dave

One year…

Jenn

With the rain gear, that’s amazing.

Dave

Yeah yeah. So if you’re going to be out at your dealer and you’re thinking about riding this summer, you want to extend your riding season, there’s nothing worse than sitting at the side of the road waiting for the rain to pass… check out the gear.

Jenn

Invest in a good pair… in rain gear for sure.

Dave

Well that’s it for this week’s program folks, we’re all out of time, but be sure to tune in next week when we road test this baby’s big brother, the new Honda Gold Wing.  So until next week, keep your feet on the pegs, and your right hand cranked… bye for now.