www.boxertrix.com

Paying for petrol ..... some garages insist that helmets are removed before you enter the shop to cough up your hard earned. A right pain. If you have a flip front then it is easy! Which is why I now have a BMW integral hat ...... Very very quiet, great fit,quite light too.

I forgot about the petrol stations

I know that BP have an official policy on paying for petrol, but I've never seen it applied in practise.

Al

my 2p worth..

Arai made the most comfy helmets I've had although my current Shoei is pretty good and I have a Roof Daytona which is also good)...

Goretex, goretex, goretex - anything else just seems to leak/ make you sweat... a lot..

I'm with Winger on the trousers front - after going through the flexi panel above the knee on a RIDE recommended pair of Hein Gericke Leather trousers in an off at Lydden, I've never trusted the fabric pants.. No doubt many here have crashed successfully in fabric.

Also find leather cooler in summer (believe it or not) and with the addition of a £12 pair of waterproof cycling overtrousers more waterproof than my supposedly waterproof all weather fabric trousers..

Winter, summer and city gloves

Kind of depends how and where you ride... I would strongly recommend that you shell out as much as poss on gloves and boots as they'll last.

Hein Gericke seem to be excellent value for money - I still use (almost daily) a pair of their goretex bum basic boots (about £120) waterproof after 4 years and 1 crash and are also quite plain so I can wear em in meetings unlike my Alpinestars SMX which squeak like a tortured mouse and look like an 80s ski boot.....

Having said all that its a lot down to personal preference and size of wallet.

Have fun choosing.

Ade

Thanks for the advice chaps.

Anyone got the BMW System 5 Helmet ?

I would strongly recommend a helmet that comes with the "pinlock" visor insert, this is a brilliant device, it's similar to a fog city, but can be removed / swapped easily. You just cannot get your visor to mist up with this fitted. they come as standard with some Shoei lids and are now available on Arai's too, but you can buy the fitting kit on it's own to fit to any visor (requires drilling holes in visor to install pins), and you can get tinted inserts too.

Steve

I guess if you can try to source as much as possible from a single source as you'll be able to negotiate a bit more.

I bought £1300+ worth of kit for £900 from HG recently

I don't there's too much more to be said here other than price is not always an indicator of quality. Some comapnies have a lot of markup, either to cover their advertising/sponsorship costs or because they are aiming at a particular market, rather than reflecting the actual item cost.

I use armoured RST gloves in warmer weather, which came in at around £50 and are far better quality than many other brands and more expensive gloves. The armour is genuine, the stitching is well done, the overlaid material covers the seams in 'crash-prone' areas (like along the edge of the hand/little finger). The carbon pad over the first knuckle likely saved my fingertips from a 'Sheene-ing' and the one over the back of the hand doubtless saved some bones but gave up its rigidity - likely on impact with the deck. They are still useable as none of the seams gave way, nor did the material wear through and have become a spare pair - just in case. Replaced by another set of the same gloves.

Boots are A-stars SMXs - again the first pair survived with slight damage but still useable and were replaced with a new pair of the same model. One sore but not broken ankle.

Fabric pants in winter/cold weather; Leather pants the rest of the time. Fabric is Hein Gericke (not crash tested), leather RST again. Originally HG as well the seams on these gave out in the crash and were binned, though the leather itself did not wear through. The HG pants did not have the flexy material at the crotch, which made them a bit of a pain(!) when getting athletic on the bike.

Fabric jackets for me for all-round usefulness. HG both times (gave up on leather a loooooong time ago) the first one was only missing some retaining straps on the upper arms for the armour and, sure enough, the armour moved around the arm in the crash and the single material wore through along with some of my elbow. The rest of the jacket did fine. Again replaced by more HG kit (Voyager?) which had been revised and included upper arm straps. HG kit also has an under-crotch strap to keep the jacket pulled down in a riding position.

Gore-tex and similar materials are not always 'sweat-free' as they have a flow-rate for vapours which can be exceeded. You will pay a premium for something using Gore-tex over similar materials just because of the licensing/trademarking issues - the material costs more.

Helmets really are a case of fit over anything else. What fits me may not fit you. I used to use Shoei but now use Arai, as I found I could not get my glasses to fit inside the Exceed without snagging the lining. Pay a lot for a helmet that will last quite a few years (notwithstanding crashes) and you will get that quality. Cheap helmets do tend to be made of inferior materials, though if you replace them every year or two the costs equal out. Vents add cost and don't always work but do add noise. I personally wouldn't trust a flip-front to stay down if I needed it. Chin curtains, breath deflectors and a demist position on the visor are really nice to have. Decide if you want traditional or seat-belt style straps. Get a fit that has no pressure points in the shop, or two hours on down the road and you'll be thinking about how sore your head is rather than what the car/road in front is about to do.

Quantum/f destroyed, replaced by Astro/j.

My particular accident involved sliding/rolling nearly quarter of a mile on tarmac, so the kit got a good workout. I think replacement costs were somewhere around £1000.

Dunny wrote:Thanks for the advice chaps.

Anyone got the BMW System 5 Helmet ?

I had a system 4 which I didn't really get on well with. It was very noisy, even with ear plugs, and felt like it was lifting when I was riding "briskly".

FYI, BMW helmets are made by Schuberth.

Cheers,

Paul

Boxered wrote:I would strongly recommend a helmet that comes with the "pinlock" visor insert,
Steve

I would not recommend getting a helmet with the pinlock system if you are going to fit a tinted insert - the 12mm gap all around the insert is a real distraction

I would strongly recommend a helmet that comes with the "pinlock" visor insert, this is a brilliant device, it's similar to a fog city, but can be removed / swapped easily. You just cannot get your visor to mist up with this fitted.

Not quite true, I managed to mist mine up in the snow a few weeks back on the M1..... Once you crack the lid open a few mm to clear it, water gets in on the internal face and it was down hill from there.....

I reckon fan assistance with heating (like a car) would be the only way to really get a mist free visor.

Other than that pin lock is pretty cool.

Ade.

Pinlock's main advantage over FogCity etc is that the inner insert is not permanently fitted to the visor.
(and therefore, cheaper in the long run)


I must admit, Pinlock could do with bringing out a Shoei-specific insert that covers more of the area.

Al

Blackal wrote:Pinlock's main advantage over FogCity etc is that the inner insert is not permanently fitted to the visor.
(and therefore, cheaper in the long run)


I must admit, Pinlock could do with bringing out a Shoei-specific insert that covers more of the area.

Al

My Aria visor with Fog City has lasted four years so I doubt if the pinlock will be any cheaper as they are more fragile.

Sorry, didn't explain that very well..........

I have an Arai with a Hyper Optiks (thought it was FogCity)photochromatic insert, which at £22 ish, makes a total investment in the visor of around £55. When the visor is scratched beyond use - the lot is lost.

Of course, I'm assuming that FogCity are non-removable and apologise upfront if I am wrong about that.

With the Shoei - when the visor is done, the pinlock insert can be transferred to the new visor. Ka....Ching!

I must admit - I prefer the fit and coverage of the HyperOptiks, but not the cost.

Al

[quote="boxerpan[/quote]
I would not recommend getting a helmet with the pinlock system if you are going to fit a tinted insert - the 12mm gap all around the insert is a real distraction [/quote]

I Have to admit that I've never used a tinted insert, but I dont find the clear one distracting in any way, different strokes etc

Ade, perhaps yours does'nt fit correctly? I have never had water ingress on the inside of the insert, even when i remove the visor and run it under the tap for cleaning? and It has never, ever misted up, even in torrential welsh rain!!

maybe different on different helmets, mine is a Shoei XR1000 ( very light and fits my odd shaped head superbly, but is a little noisey)

Steve

[Nearly forgot,I've tried,dear Lord i have!!! but wear anything but an Arai,quote]

Eh? Please explain