Shifting Gears Episode 3

So Ken, last week on “Winging It” you brought out, we were talking about rain riding and you brought out all this rubber gear, all the old school rain suits and gloves and lots of rubber to pull over our gear and one of the things you pulled out are these totes and I was shocked and that is fantastic, I know I’m not going to get wet feet but I can’t believe you would pull these over your riding boots. Seriously?

Ken

Yeah but there’s a trick. Just like anything else, you learn as you go along and the first time your buddies do it you don’t tell them on the trip because most people, the first time they get them, they pull them like crazy and they have blow out. Why? Because this is such a live rubber and you’ve probably got damp feet and that just doesn’t work. What I found was a little trick.. recycled, rejuvenated…whatever you want to call them, grocery shopping bags. The ones that are more crinkley than rubber. If you put those over your shoes, they’re almost like stirrups and then put your foot into these, they’ll slide right up as if it was a pair of bedroom slippers. But you need that little trick before you realize that these can save you.

Dave

Wow. Fantastic.

Ken

But they’re difficult to find.

Dave

There’s a great tip. The other thing is tyvek. You also pulled out this and I stopped you last week. I said let’s just talk about this for a second. You actually pull this out and put it over all of your riding gear and use it like a rain suit.

Ken

For sure. It is the newest high tech rain gear for the motorcycling world. In the last half dozen years or so, those that are real travellers of all kinds of environments have learned what these are. It is that material that you still see as far as labeling on the sides of hoses and one of the neat things about it is it won’t allow water through but it will allow evaporation out.

Dave

So it breathes. Right.

Ken

So from the inside it breathes, yeah. Which is a big thing even in the housing industry.
Dave

Now, we’ve been talking about pulling on a lot of gear. Let’s just talk about that for one second. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen people pull over, they’re touring and it starts to rain and they’re diving underneath the over pass and they’re pulling on their gear right next to the highway. Not a good idea right?

Ken

No it is so unsafe, it’s dark, there’s not a lot of room under there and if you’ve ever looked at it, the swirling action of passing vehicles… you’re not dry under there anyways. The fact is, you’re out riding for awhile, you’ve got the ultimate sunroof going on, you knew what was coming. I look at the opposing traffic. Wind shield wipers, extra headlights, it’s time to get off before I gonna drive in what I can see. So pull off to a safety spot right off the interstate… get into some under protection at a gas station possibly, I’ve never been chased out yet. Get your gear on there and then resume the trip.

Dave

Wow and great tip. Watch the cars coming towards you, they’ve got their wipers going, you know there’s rain ahead.

Ken

That’s right.
Dave

Awesome stuff.