2009-04-25
Time For Gear
ATGATT - All The Gear ,All The Time. Until recently I've been MOTGMOTT - Most Of The Gear, Most Of The Time.
Other than a helmet (which is always on) and long pants, the rest of my gear would come and go. I usually wore gloves and boots, but I was spotty with my jacket completely ditching it on the hottest of summer days. Two years ago I bought a mesh jacket with padding in key places. That helped tremendously. I fairly strictly follow Murphy's Laws and believe that jinxes and irony are to be seriously contemplated before any endeavor, so I started to always wear my jacket. I knew that the one day I didn't wear it I would fall somewhere that would have been protected and be ticked off at myself.
I also moved back to full face helmets. I love the free feeling of open face helmets but bugs and rocks take their toll after a while. After my accident in which I hit the face of my helmet, I'm sticking pretty intently to the full face.
This week, I added over-pants. These are mesh (with a zip in liner for wind/rain protection) and slide on pretty easily. Yesterday was my first time suiting up in full protective gear and I am definitely adjusting.
One big plus is that I can wear shorts under the over-pants; the downside is that I'm wearing boots ... with shorts. I need to make sure to bring some shoes in my saddle bag. The multiple layers of mesh do a pretty good job of letting air through. Today was in the 80s and sunny and I only started to get hot when stopped. Buying gear in a color lighter than black (like grey) would help quite a bit. I bought my jacket on closeout and it was black ... so I took the black one ... and the pants had to match.
There are two things I dislike about all the gear. First, stupidly vain, it looks a little dorky. The over-pants look like winter weather gear at first glance. They are a little big to accommodate the underlying clothes. When wearing the mesh jacket I would get "aren't you hot?" comments nearly every time I was riding. This is only going to get worse.
The second drawback ... time:
- Change into boots (4 zippers)
- Put on pants (maybe put in liner which adds a few steps): 2 buttons, 3 zippers, 2 velcro straps
- Put on jacket (maybe put in liner): two zippers (one hooks the the pants)
- Put on helmet (changing face shield for sun conditions)
- Put on gloves
- Zip jacket sleeves (2 zippers)
That's a lot to do to make a quick run to the store that's two miles away.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
