Biker's Cafe Chatroom

Soldato
Joined
15 May 2007
Posts
12,804
Location
Ipswich / Bodham
Treated myself to some new gear for next season, in the sales last week. Richa Cyclone jacket and jeans, replacing my faithful Furygans that have a couple of thousand too many miles on them and are now beginning to leak quite quickly.

Feels much lighter, and therefore I guess less protective, than the Furygan gear, but is far more comfortable.

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Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2004
Posts
5,565
Zip has come undone/broken again on my £360 Daytona Road Stars. They're only 2 years old.

Stupid design where the zips are completely exposed to the elements so the dirt gets right into them.

Back to using my 6 year old £70 boots again!
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Nov 2010
Posts
23,958
Location
Hertfordshire
Almost wrote off my bike on the way home today. Thankfully the bike gods were with me.

Some absolute ******* tool pulled out on me. I slammed the anchors on, the rear locked up (the road is damp and greasy as you can expect) and I was sliding the backend like i’d channeled my inner Marquez.
Stopped an inch, if that, from the rear quarter of the car, upright.

They carried on like nothing happened.

******* fuming. I need a beer.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 Dec 2003
Posts
30,898
Location
Shropshire
So I never got round to selling my Blackbird in the summer and it's currently sitting under a cover while I continue to spank the life out of the trusty SV.

I didn't really gel with the 'bird but I keep thinking that a new set of tires that aren't cube shaped and about £300 thrown at it to change the front springs and have the rear shock rebuilt and I might just understand the love it seems to get from others. Really I'm just looking for something to fiddle with and keep considering giving it another chance in the new year.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
Posts
6,234
Location
Leicestershire
What's the process for getting on and off the bike with heated gloves?

First ride this morning with them and they are really great, and plugging in to the bike is easy enough, but the gloves seem a bit of a faff.

Do you disconnect the gloves and reconnect each time you get on and off? I locked my bike up with the gloves dangling from my sleeves like mittens but that's probably not very good for them.

Also, I have my gloves coming over the top of my jacket sleeves, but that leaves the connector on the outside (see photo). Is it okay there, or should I be connecting up, poking the wiring up my sleeve, and then putting the glove on?

xT7CpS3h.jpg

Am I completely overthinking this and it's just the price to pay for wonderful warmth?
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Mar 2011
Posts
6,479
Location
Kent
What's the process for getting on and off the bike with heated gloves?

First ride this morning with them and they are really great, and plugging in to the bike is easy enough, but the gloves seem a bit of a faff.

Do you disconnect the gloves and reconnect each time you get on and off? I locked my bike up with the gloves dangling from my sleeves like mittens but that's probably not very good for them.

Also, I have my gloves coming over the top of my jacket sleeves, but that leaves the connector on the outside (see photo). Is it okay there, or should I be connecting up, poking the wiring up my sleeve, and then putting the glove on?

xT7CpS3h.jpg

Am I completely overthinking this and it's just the price to pay for wonderful warmth?

Those are xr12's by the look of it, you should have the wire threaded through your jacket so the controller emerges out on the bottom left side, then the glove wires just need poking out the sleeves. Put the wires between your thermal liner and the outside jacket so it stays in place. Start of ride, put on jacket, gloves and connect the connector and tuck into in the huge cuff, then pull on the toggle to tighten the cuff over your jacket. Make the wires coming out your jacket barely more than the connector. It's pretty easy once you've done it a few times.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Aug 2006
Posts
3,924
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Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
Posts
6,234
Location
Leicestershire
Those are xr12's by the look of it, you should have the wire threaded through your jacket so the controller emerges out on the bottom left side, then the glove wires just need poking out the sleeves. Put the wires between your thermal liner and the outside jacket so it stays in place. Start of ride, put on jacket, gloves and connect the connector and tuck into in the huge cuff, then pull on the toggle to tighten the cuff over your jacket. Make the wires coming out your jacket barely more than the connector. It's pretty easy once you've done it a few times.

I think the practice was key! Less cable sticking out of the jacket makes it easier. I guess the right angled connector on the glove is for the benefit of running on batteries, because a straight to straight connection would certainly work better for me.

I just need to remember to unplug my jacket from the bike when I get off now :D
 
Soldato
Joined
15 May 2007
Posts
12,804
Location
Ipswich / Bodham
Decided to change the helmet equipment. In the bin (e Bay) are the Sena 20S and the GoPro 5 Session. Stuck with 3M are the replacements - a Cardo Freecom 4 and a Drift Ghost X.

The Sena 20S is ok but can be a little fiddly and sometimes temperamental. It isn't waterproof, and I went through a monster storm last summer. It survived fine, but it was a bit of a wakeup call. The Freecom 4 apparently has clearer audio (this was never a problem on the Sena though), better range and is waterproof.

The Ghost X was a more difficult choice. I like the GoPro 5 Session, and got around the non-changeable battery by having two of them. Nice high resolution image quality in good light, and stabilisation. However, despite being smaller than the main GoPro chassis it still felt bulky and I wanted to try to record some in-helmet audio. That's just not easily possible with the Session, and stupidly large adaptors are required on the larger GoPros unless you go back to a GoPro 4 which in itself is still big.

The Ghost X overcomes all those problems and has remarkable battery life of 5 hours (apparently). However, there's a price - 1080/30 video. I output my video in 30 fps so that isn't too much of an issue, but I have been using 4K for the past couple of years. I'll try upscaling, but more likely will just shift to 1080 and enjoy the smaller file sizes! I'm convincing myself here though...

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