Buying Summer Motorcycle Gear

Harley Tips Episode 5 Summer Riding Gear

Welcome back as Motovan presents the experience, I’m Dave Hatch.. .. now that we’ve got you all fired up to go for a ride.. we’ll wrap up our show by looking at how to dress for those warm mid summer rides .. Joining us now.. is the chief riding instructor at Georgian College … Jenn Martin.

 

Dave

So Jenn, this season we have spent a lot of time talking about gear and equipment and it’s all been about extending your riding season and getting the most out of your motorcycle. And we’re talking about those shoulder seasons, spring and fall – what we didn’t really talk about is the middle of the shoulders and that is the summer itself. And there is a lot of technology, a lot of gear available now that really helps you out in terms of riding in the middle of the hot hot summer.

 

Jenn

Yes, and I cannot wait for that heat, I’m telling you.

 

Dave

It’s going to happen. So let’s start with something that both of us just went wow, what a great idea. Tell me about this vest.

 

Jenn

So, this vest, designed to wear underneath your gear. You can dunk it and what it does is absorbs the moisture, stores it, and then releases it, it evaporates. So it keeps you cool.
Dave

That is unbelievable – so when you say dunk it, you mean dunk it in a tub of cold water, or sink of cold water. That’s amazing and this is now extending to the beanies, right, underneath your helmet.

 

Jenn

Yeah.

 

Dave

So same deal?

 

Jenn

Same deal, I mean, on or off the bike as well, the helmet on or off afterwards to keep yourself cool and they have the baseball cap too that you can dunk and keep yourself cool and the other one that I really like, that I enjoy is that, the neck, so again, you dunk it in cold, cold water and it stores the water and moisture and just releases it as it evaporates.

 

Dave

Wow. So we’re dunking, we’re staying cool, we’re keeping our cool hands, what about our lower body, you’ve pulled out a couple of pairs of jeans.

 

Jenn

Yeah, so these ones, again, this is there, FXRG.

 

Dave

Function, extreme, riding gear. Okay, so abrasion resistant, they look like you’re wearing a normal pair of jeans.

 

Jenn

And they’re lined, fully lined inside as well.

 

Dave

And then there’s the pockets right, for the armour.

 

Jenn

So this is fully abrasion resistant denim and has the armouring already in it but if you don’t want that (because they’re pretty durable for a lighter denim but you’ve got the pockets, you can put your protection in there. You have pockets inside so you can slide them in.

 

Dave

So, it looks like you were wearing a pair of jeans but actually you were just all armoured up underneath.

 

Jenn

Exactly.
Dave

Amazing. Okay let’s talk about this.

 

Jenn

The wicking, the moisture wicking, yeah. So Performance gear.

 

Dave

Performance gear – this will obviously absorb a lot of the sweat. Keep you cool.

 

Jenn

And I’m wearing the liner underneath as well, the same idea, the wicking. SO that lends itself to what they were talking about venting.

 

Dave

Right.

 

Jenn

Right.

 

Dave

And one thing that’s so cool is this new jacket, it’s part of a triple vent system, this jacket, right. They’ve actually, Harley-Davidson has actually designed a jacket that has zippered, you can open and close the zipper vents, both front and rear and it’s actually in tune with the motorcycle, they’ve looked at the motorcycle and the way it’s flowing with the air and it actually is designed to pick up the air flow through the motorcycle. So you’ve got the vents that you can open and close on the faring and then you can start out with this zipped up when it’s cool. When it gets hot you open it up and it actually grabs the air that’s flowing through the motorcycle.

 

Jenn

Yeah and it works with the shirts as well because I have one here, this is the male version, you’re going to love this, but the air flow through here, so the triple vent, this that’s the system and then as well like the shell that I have, it works the same way.

 

Dave

So they’re all vented to grab the sort of air flow that’s coming through the faring and the motorcycle.

 

Jenn

And keep you cool – cool and protected, I mean, that’s the key.
Dave

Wow So we have come so far from the days of denim jackets and, or worse t-shirts.

 

Jenn

Worse yeah.

 

Dave

On a hot summer’s day.

 

Jenn

Exactly we can keep yourself protected and secure on the motorcycle.

 

Dave

Lots of great technology.

 

Jenn

I know

 

Dave

Awesome.