Triumphrat

yonder · 03-07-2008

Relative noobie checking in.

I am back home safe & sound, but very wet and cold.

It's been raining pretty well all day and I had to run some errands. I put on my Thoroughgood waterproof boots, my First Ride rain pants, my Olympia waterproof jacket and gloves, and my Suomy helmet.

The helmet was the only article of clothing that kept me dry.

For a little while the Olympia gear worked but I could start to feel that cold wet feeling that comes when your outer layer is water logged and starting to seep into the inner layer. It looks like most of the water came in right down the front zipper and on the breast pockets, as well as down the zippered jacket vents. All of the above leak points were zipped up and sealed up tight but that's where the water came in.

The gloves just plain soaked through.

The rain pants did well for most of my body but the bottom 6" of my jeans were soaked through all the way around. The rain pants have no way of cinching tight at the bottom so spray from the road just came right on through.

My boots are about 2 years old and worked well when they were new. But the right one let a little water in, and the left boot had to be dumped out when I got home because there was standing water in it.

Riding in the rain wasn't so bad until the rain gear stopped working. Once it started slacking on its job, things started getting cold & miserable.

EDIT: The helmet wasn't perfect, either. But I don't need to tell anyone here what it's like to fight fog on a full-face helmet.

MVP44 · 03-07-2008

Ah been there done that got the tee shirt as they say. I feel for you.

I have been through several different makes and models of rain gear over the years and have found that well in the end on a long day in the rain water usually has it's way.

I figure if it can carve gorges through mountains it darn site can find its way into my suit.

I have found varying degrees of water resistance in rain gear - all worked great in slight rain at moderate speeds, but once the heavens opened up for any amount of time something pretty much always got at least a little damp.

The Suomy visor kind of made me ponder though - with all the helmets and all the visors I have gone through over the years the my spec 1R - Extreme visors have never given even the slightest hint of fogging - when in the rain though I do pop on the full nose piece which I am sure helps a lot.

BigAl8295 · 03-07-2008

Toughen up!!!!

Now you have war stories to tell other riders!

TriumphTengu · 03-07-2008

I took a short trip up to Fort Worth to see Tommy Emmanuel last year and had a great trip up and saw a hellavah show (Doc Watson too!) but I got up around 4:30am the next morning and took off back down towords Austin and got as far as Waco and it started to rain. And Rain. And Rain. I keep up for around twenty minutes but it was just coming down. I had passed several bikers who had stopped under over passes, so I gave up and stopped also. A few minutes later another rider stopped across IH35 going north and we waved at each other.
I was soaked and cold and after 20 more minutes I said I was going to try to push on. Yeah. It was raining so hard that I was going around 40 mph but I gave up because these semis were going past me at around 70 mphs! They're gusts of wind was almost blowing me over.
I was just certain that one of them was going to hit me.
I pulled of into a gas station in Jarrell to wait it out and when I walked in at lest five gallons of water poured off me.
My main beef was my hands had turned black from the dye in the gloves.
It was about a week for them to be back to normal.

yonder · 03-07-2008

Yep my helmet is Suomy Spec 1R. I've had problems with it fogging in cold weather. I tried putting RainX's anti-fog juice in there which helped for a few days in the cold, but with the steady rain we had today it didn't hold up more than a few minutes. I don't want to re-apply the RainX juice because supposedly it is bad for the polycarbonate. I'll try something else that is more appropriate for helmet use.

I don't have the nose piece that you speak of. I'll have to google that up.

I'll have to work on the rain gear. Maybe coat the jacket with some sort of protectant, wax the zippers, etc. Gloves are made of the same stuff so I reckon they get the same treatment.

Maybe some gaiters around the ankles will help with the rain pants.

The boots just plain have got to go.

People were honking at me at intersections, rolling down their car windows, and asking me if I'm nuts riding in this stuff.

"Yessir, I'm nuts. And I'm also having a lot more fun getting there than you."

andymott · 03-07-2008

Hey Yonder

Sounds like poor design if the gear leaked at zips and pockets. If you can see, are the seams taped? If not, that'll be why it leaked. What is the waterproof bit made of? Is it some kind of membrane like Goretex (or even the real deal)? If so the garment must meet their standards so you should have some come-back if it doesn't.

As for the boots - all membrane boots will eventually crack the membrane leading to leaking. The membrane is a thin layer of (usually) some kind of ptfe, which after much flexing (particularly near the toes) will split, rendering your boots useless in the wet. Another possibility is the old problem with that huge hole at the top - if the bottom of your jeans got wet, it's also possible the water ran down into your boots! One other fantastic thing about goretex - it's equally good at keeping water IN...

If your gear is under warranty, take it back. If not, get some really good stuff next time - I use Rukka and it's never let me down.

ps - like the unixbeard tag. I'm not going to stalk you, but being a fellow geek I'll read your blog

)

Andy

yonder · 03-07-2008

The jacket is an Olympia AST. Not sure what you mean by "taped" but there are flaps that are doubled-over and then velcro'd on the front for the main closure.

The material is coated Cordura.

During less intense weather I like this jacket quite a lot. It's highly visible (yes I got that awful yellow color for high-visibility). The vents are effective. With the liner zipped in, it's good down to the upper 30's if I wear a sweater or something between it and the shirt I'm wearing underneath. At the upper end I've only had it into the low 70's so far and it did fine there. TONS of pockets. Pretty decent armor coverage.

I even pulled over at one point, went into a coffee shop and made sure I had everything zipped up and sealed correctly. That's when it became apparent that the outer shell was simply soaked all the way through. No, I haven't tried washing the jacket or anything so any coating of the Cordura has been rendered ineffective without help from me.

blackstar1965 · 03-07-2008

I have a Frank Thomas Aqua Pore Sting jacket. It works great at keeping water out. For pants I bought a pair of British Royal Mail wet weather pants. $20 at the surplus store.
Shoei Pinlock, never fails, never fogs- rain or shine.

Or you could wear a diving dry suit, they cost about as much as a leather track suit.

Catenaccio · 03-07-2008

What's a rain suit?

yonder · 03-07-2008

Oh the gloves are Olympia 4370 - COLD THROTTLE HIGH VIZ.

Quote:

Waterproof/windproof breathable Aquatex insert - 40g Thinsulate on the palm and 100g Thinsulate on the back of hand

I call BS on both counts (waterproof / windproof). Right now those gloves are hanging up in front of a fan, soaked all the way through. They are even worse than the jacket.

The thumb goggle wiper is there just to say they have one; it doesn't actually do anything in the rain. It's much more effective for me to wipe the visor with the palm of my hand.