Jump to content

rchase

Members
  • Posts

    1,117
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

Everything posted by rchase

  1. Ok. Here goes. Not to be obtuse but I think you can learn something from anyone even if it's "this guy is an idiot" or "what a catastrophically bad idea". I apply a similar "acid test" to any knowledge that I try to gain regardless of the source. If I'm brutally honest not everything I have learned at the school works for me out on track. It was worth hearing about and is good information but for my specific needs it did not work. (for those reading who aren't familiar with the school this is a TINY subset of what they teach and likely the malfunction is on my end rather than that of the school's) The best information is stuff you can get backed up with an explanation. If you can explain the "why" in a logical way even if it's fundamentally wrong it's a lot easier to understand the thought process used to develop the idea and perhaps adapt the concept to a way that might actually work. Science and technology is all built on millions and millions of wrong ways to do things. And even some of those "right ways" eventually became wrong ways when someone figured out a better way to get something accomplished. My .02
  2. You got my attention Cobie. This tends to be my #1 problem. I have a very analytical mind and tend to think about every single element of riding. What's interesting is the idea of conscious and subconscious mind use. The subconscious works faster than the conscious mind. Unfortunately by the time you realize that the subconscious has acted sometimes you realize it took the wrong action. That's where training and some conscious thinking comes into play. There's a balance. A balance I have yet to find.
  3. Absolutely. The rider has a LOT more impact on the man/machine connection than just the hardware. Don't write off upgrades completely though. They can make life a lot easier out there. What a rider does with that hardware advantage of course is the important part. Riders spend a lot of time making comparisons. The only thing that "really" matters to me at least is having a good time and enjoying myself. If my enjoying myself is a few seconds a lap faster or slower than the next rider it really does not matter to me. On the BMW powerplant you are right. It's almost slightly too powerful at times. I would not trade that power for anything though. It's absolutely amazing having that level of power on tap when you want it. What's more amazing is not much has changed with the engine for almost 6 years at this point. They changed the intake slightly in 2015 but for the most part it's the same engine that came into existence back in 2010.
  4. My 2 cents All of these comparisons are really meaningless. None of them ever are a direct comparison and even if they were they would still be equally meaningless. You could compare the same rider on the exact same bike and get different results depending on what they had to eat and how much sleep they got. Even the ambient conditions could change a test rending the result equally as meaningless. What does all this mean? Spend less time comparing numbers and spend more time enjoying your bike. That's really the only thing that means anything. If comparison is what tickles your fancy find something that you can actually do a real comparison with results that can actually be replicated. Motorcycles have way too many variables. Are all the numbers completely useless? No. As long as you keep the variability in mind they can be somewhat useful for accomplishing some goals. Just stay grounded somewhat in reality about what they really mean.
  5. Many race teams inspect as their bikes see conditions beyond what a standard bike might. They have been doing it for years even on the older technology. F1 teams do the same thing with standard components on their cars. The Lamborghini Aventador uses a carbon monocoque with the engine and suspension attached via metal components both front and rear. If there is a failure in the carbon chassis the car would literally break apart. Carbon sounds like an exotic material but it is becoming more and more common place. It's just like any other material with the same strengths and weaknesses. It's really not that special beyond its incredible strength and light weight. I'm sure people had the same concerns when manufacturers went from steel frames to aluminum ones. Aluminum was once an exotic material at one time too. All materials go through their "new" phase. I don't blame you for your caution and if anything it's a good thing. Views like yours ensure that manufacturers go out of their way to get it right the first time. A motorcycle frame is a very important component!
  6. For those still doubtful of the strength of carbon fibre construction. The Lamborghini Aventador's construction process. Most of this car is carbon construction. Kind of neat actually. If it can hold up in a car I have no doubts on a much lighter weight bike.
  7. My classic car interests tend to be more practical and modern than most. I have a thing for Land Rovers. If it were not for the lack of engine power and A/C you would likely see me towing my stuff to the track with a classic Series Land Rover rather than the P38 Range Rover that I currently use. The P38 is quite the amazing vehicle. The last of the frame constructed Range Rovers and a great blend of off road toughness and luxury car comfort and daily practicality. It's also one of the least liked Range Rovers due to it's styling, luxury and perceptions of reliability. I love misunderstood and weird vehicles a LOT. A fun video. I also have a thing for classic Mercedes Benz's. I admire their construction quality and the fact that they are serviceable forever. I currently own a W126 and a W140 but would like to add a W108, W116 and a W221 to my collection as well as a R129, R107 and the SL55AMG version of the R230 to my collection. I also love the M100 cars from the Mercedes 6.9 to the Mercedes 600. The M100 was an absolute beast of an engine that was designed to haul the weight of the Pullman. Someone had the brilliant idea of sticking one in the standard S class. A video of a M100 powered W116 in the movie Ronin in a car chase. Interesting tidbit about the W116 6.9. The man that filmed the movie Rendez-vous used a bumper mounted film camera on his Mercedes 6.9 and dubed the Ferrari V12 sound track on top. The Hydropneumatic suspension on the Mercedes was the only thing able to give a smooth enough ride for the film camera to work at those speeds. I also love older Jaguar's and Citroen's. My favorite Jags are XJ6's and XJS's and my favorite Citroens is the strange CX model. A very weird car presented by an equally weird singer. My impractical interests are Italian exotics. Anything with the sound of a Ferrari V8 or V12. I have come very close to buying a couple of Ferrari Mondial's and 400i's before I came to my senses (A belt service on a Mondial is $12,000 nearly half the price of the car). I love their very understated styling and cheap price tags as well as their construction quality. I would also love to have a late Coutach even though the car is pretty much useless for anything other than looking pretty and the occasional Sunday drive. I have my eye on the Huracan of late and may end up picking one up in a decade or so if the prices go the way that the Gallardo's prices have when it's replacement model comes out. I absolutely love the understated but exotic styling as well as it's practicality and V10 engine. Cobras are certainly wonderful cars. I admire how absolutely insane they are as well as their styling. A friend of ours that we met at Atlanta Motorsports Park drives a Cobra Daytona Coupe. It's a very well done replica (it's not fibreglass) and sounds absolutely amazing. What's fun about it is the Daytona Coupe is so rare that nobody can ever guess what it is. They often think it's a Ferrari. The history of the car and why it was created is equally interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Daytona
  8. Not anymore. Just a couple of clicks and it's like it never happened.
  9. Wheels take a lot of stress as well as having 180 degree + tire warmers on them. There are still first generation BST carbon wheels rolling around at high speeds at the track. There are cars from the late 80's such as the Ferrari F40 that have extensive use of carbon fibre that are still on the road. I don't really see any differences between the carbon framed version and the aluminum framed version maintenance wise other than one being a lot lighter than the other.
  10. Probably not. Just the forks on this bike rival the costs of a new RR. :/ What's even worse is it's going to be low production so it will be difficult to get one even if you show up to the BMW showroom with a briefcase full of cash.
  11. Power to weight is simple physics and something that any rider can tell the difference with pretty quickly. Try a bike with carbon wheels sometime. It will blow your mind! As for the carbon frames being not as flexible. The test everyone refers to was one rider on one bike. Is the failure due to their design or the materials? Or perhaps even a rider unable to adapt to something totally different than anything they had experienced before? All of those are really nice bikes. If you can live with the reality that anyone with a stock BMW can slip by on the straights they are all great choices.
  12. Metal wheels are no different. A certain Mr. Robert Dunlop unfortunately learned about that in 1994. :/
  13. Carbon is a pretty tough material. Rocks tend to bounce right off. I'm sure a trip through a gravel pit at speed would leave some marks they would not really compromise the integrity of the carbon. Carbon can also be painted so if you were to get some major damage like that you could likely have it painted or repaired. Unlike metal wheels carbon wheels are able to flex up to a point. When they do completely fail however they tend to shatter and come apart. The same metal wheel might be bent way out of shape or potentially shatter as well. Predicting accident physics is all guesswork anyway. Because of the perception that Carbon wheels are super fragile companies like BST offer a rebuild program for damaged wheels. Send them the broken wheel (no questions asked on how it got that way) and for a reasonable price they will repair, rebuild or replace the wheel for around 1/2 of the cost of buying a new wheel. As far as I know no other wheel manufacturer stands behind their product like this. With my experience with my BST carbon wheels and my experience with the amazing engineering that BMW puts in every single bike they make I have absolutely no doubts of the strength of their carbon frame. Trust me. Before they put a specialized product like that into the hands of a customer it's been tested thoroughly both in the lab and on the track with a series of test riders.
  14. Carbon wheels are lighter and stronger than Magnesium wheels. The reason they are not allowed in some race orgs is because of the competitive advantages rather than safety. One race org they are allowed is AHRMA and Nate Kern's #9T race bike is equipped with them. AHRMA has some funky rules where brand new Panigale's and an ex EBR World Superbike can compete against vintage 2cyl bikes in their Battle of the Twins race. Carbon fibre is stronger than steel and has been around for a long time. They have been using it in aircraft for years and many aircraft control surfaces are made of it. In fact there are several entire airplanes made out of carbon fibre such as the Raytheon Starship. If you have flown recently likely you have been on a plane with some composite control surfaces which are subject to tremendous forces at 500-600mph cruise speeds. If you check out this video at 4:10 you will see someone bouncing a BST rear wheel off the pavement like a basket ball with no damage to it whatsoever. Try doing that with an aluminum wheel or a Magnesium one and try claiming that they are stronger than Carbon Fibre. BMW has started using a lot of carbon fibre in the 7 series and many supercars are constructed entirely out of it such as the Paganni Zonda. Here's an article on BMW's use of the material. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/209812-how-bmw-weaves-bakes-and-builds-the-carbon-fiber-7-series Aluminum has it's issues as well when it comes to frame materials. Many manufacturers have cast aluminum sections in their frames that are really prone to cracking. I personally spent over $4000 having an ancient Yamaha R6 put back together with an aluminum frame after it cracked. A bike that had never seen track use and had only 16K miles on it. It was my first sport bike so it had a lot of sentimental value to me. It's kind of ironic really. Racing is supposed to be an area where the pursuit of speed is the only goal. Unfortunately this is often not the case. Rules, politics and budgets often get in the way of the speed. Active suspension technology is a victim of this at the moment. You would think that 3 years would be enough time for people to embrace new technology. Perhaps in a few more years. Until then I do agree with you that the analog suspensions are better supported especially when it comes to the high end setups. The new R1 is an amazing bike. I'm glad to hear that you are happy with it and are getting better adjusted. Features such as the yaw control are ground breaking. While you can do that with the BMW RCK putting that control directly into the hands of the rider with an on-board system monitoring in real time is a massive leap forward. Having the ability to let the bike "move around" makes the concept of traction control a bit more attractive to many riders. You can of course do this with many other traction control equipped bikes but it requires a lot of tuning. There's a lot of people who have a lot of doubt on carbon fibre frame technology based on Ducati's experiment with carbon frames in MotoGP. That was one bike design with one rider in one very specialized race hampered by lots of rules and politics. While ultimately a failed venture many other ground breaking technologies start in failure. We would not have space travel or airplanes if people gave up as easily as the motorcycle world seems to on new technology. We need a lot more visionaries and people who are thick skinned enough to endure failure if we are going to move forward. Don't get me wrong though. I'm more than happy to see what we currently have. You can buy amazing 200hp bikes for 20K that have blistering performance from a myriad of different manufacturers. Just imagine however what "could" be done if we took the path that visionaries like John Britten did starting with a clean sheet of paper and only the pursuit of speed as a goal.
  15. It's kind of hard to beat gas forks. If they were cheaper everyone would be using them. For my use though I would prefer DDC. Tinkering with suspension one of these days is going to become like using floppy disks. You can do it but you are generally wasting your time. I have to admit that I did cringe a bit when I saw the bike. One of the things that I really admired about the S1000RR platform was it's general lack of the "you can't have this" snob factor you see on the Italian bikes. Even the HP4 was based on the core engineering of the platform with most of the parts needed to create one available in the HP race parts catalog. The new bike unfortunately seems to be exactly that (based on the current info) and therefore a bit of a let down for me. After seeing so many $100K+ MV Agusta's that have just a tiny bit more performance as my stock one for a stupid amount of money I'm super cynical of exclusive limited production bikes. It's a marketing tactic rather than an engineering effort. Kind of a shame to see this and I sincerely hope that I'm completely off base with my perception of the bike. Although BMW may surprise the heck out of us as full details have not been released. Keeping my fingers crossed. When more information is available I may find myself in a mad panic to get to the dealership and find my checkbook. The one thing that really sticks out about the new HP4 is the frame. When there's some actual information on the frame and the weight savings I'm certainly interested in something like that. I doubt it will ever be available as an HP part but there's always written off bikes where you could get one. If the weight savings is big enough and the benefits are substantial enough I have already started researching having a Generation 2 carbon frame custom fabricated. It's expensive to get a high quality end result that you would trust your life with but doing a bespoke frame is a lot cheaper than my dream of designing my own motorcycle. Then again BMW is full of surprises. They use a lot of carbon structural components in the BMW 7 series. Perhaps we might see the frame make it to the production bikes. Higher volume manufacturing can often lower prices.
  16. I can tell you part numbers on my bike but I can't tell you the brand of contact lenses that I wear. Try to guess my priorities in life. It's one of the name brands that my eye doctor offered when I got my exam. I have never had troubles with any contacts and can wear pretty much anything. One thing I do is keep a bottle of eye drops with me and if I'm not in a rush I put some in before I go out. In the southeast where I ride we have pretty decent humidity so they don't dry out until the point of falling out. They do however occasionally get dry and distracting. Some things to consider.... Are you hydrated enough? I'm not a physician but my guess would be when you are low on fluids tears would likely be one of the first things the body cuts back on to conserve resources. Is your helmet leaking air? All of my helmets all have rubber air seals around the visors and retractable chin wind deflectors. If your helmet has a chin wind deflector you should use it. Are you taking advantage of your windshield as much as you can? All helmets leak air of course otherwise we would not be able to breathe. If you aren't getting down under the windshield in the faster parts you could be getting a lot more wind than you want. And of course going slower due to increased wind drag. A taller windshield can make life a little easier in this regard.
  17. I wear contacts when I ride. Never had a problem even at 180mph+ speeds. What kind of helmet do you wear? I have an Arai that has a drop down chin air deflector. I also close my eye vents on the Arai because otherwise you would be amazed at how fast your lenses will dry out. You may be dealing with some weird way that your helmet makes your air flow. You should not be getting air around your eyes no matter how fast you ride. If you are wearing glasses try contacts. You would be amazed at how much better the view is and how much easier it is not dealing with an extra step when it comes around to 3rd call.
  18. I have to say I agree with Hotfoot here about DDC. My main track bike is a Gen2 S1000RR with a very well setup Ohlins Suspension, BST carbon wheels and the HP power kit. Before I had ridden the 2015 RR's I had formed an opinion that it probably would not be "as good" as my personal bike. One of the school's fleet bikes proved me quite wrong. While there were some areas where my bike was better (power and weight) there were areas that the 2015 model blew my mind. One of those areas was the suspension. DDC was quite amazing. What was more amazing is this was all the stock stuff that was performing as well if not better in some cases than my Ohlins stuff. DDC adds another dimension of suspension adjust-ability to the rider. There are companies selling upgrades for the internals of DDC shock units and BMW sells a sensor unit that helps the on-board computer understand what the suspension is doing. You can also add in the data-logger and the Race ECU and Race Calibration Kit for an amazing level of adjustment over DDC. I'm saving my pennies as well for an additional bike in the future. It will be a BMW and it will be a DDC equipped one.
  19. rchase

    16 Rr Race Prep

    Here's a slightly different idea. You paid extra to get a bike that was DDC equipped and to rip it out and to pay more for a conventional suspension is a pretty expensive endeavor. The RCK3 gives you the ability to fine tune DDC and costs less than the price of a suspension refit. I would suggest picking up the front fork sensor and the data logger as well. They sell internal upgrades for the DDC equipped shocks and there are advantages to a DDC equipped bike. When conditions change DDC is already adjusting the settings to the optimal values. Here's a helpful video on the previous generation RCK2 and Race ECU. Most of it is the same with some additions to the 2015+ model year bikes. DDC does have it's limitations at the absolute limits but in my opinion most of this is due to three factors. The average quality of OEM internals (which can be upgraded), perception (it's different than conventional suspension) and support (it's new so not many suspension people have embraced the idea especially because of the fear of it putting them out of work). The RCK gives you the ability to adjust a LOT of useful stuff. Launch control, Engine Braking, ABS settings, DDC and DTC adjustment as well as wheelie control. It's a little intimidating at first due to all the choices and flexibility but it's not that bad once you have used it a couple of times. The software is Windows based and will connect to the bike with a cable that comes with the RCK via USB. Each system is broken into a tab with it's individual settings. On the +7 and -7 the ends of the extremes are similar to Rain mode +7 and similar to Slick mode -7. This allows you to change the amount of DTC intervention "on the fly" while having full power. Here's a video of Nate Kern the BMW test rider using the adjustable slick mode on a 2013 HP4 in 48 degree weather on standard DOT tires. He's using +7. I do have to agree 1000% with Dylan on the aftermarket tunes. You can make a huge amount of power with those kits. Only to have the choice of riding with no DTC at all (and crashing a LOT) or having DTC working overtime fighting you every step of the way because of the increased power output and a DTC map with compromises for rider safety. The aftermarket ECU flashes very rarely update DTC settings and if they do they are just based on dyno tests vs real practical track use. BMW's maps come straight from World Superbike rather than some dyno runs.
  20. The warranty thing. It depends on your relationship with your dealer. An HP race ECU or an RCK being present does not automatically invalidate the warranty on the bike. It does make certain warranty claims more challenging of course but that's where the relationship with the dealer comes in to play. The ECU and RCK only affect the engine so all other warranty areas on the bike are normally not an issue at all. Personally the warranty issues don't bother me at all. I'm pretty confident BMW would do the right thing for me. Word of caution though. Non BMW HP dealers often don't have correct information about what the warranty actually covers and does not cover and often deny claims because they don't know any better. But then again why would you be having an HP equipped bike serviced at a dealership not qualified to do it? Some other things to consider. The HP Race ECU has a few minor rough edges. For example when my bike was in it's street bodywork I needed to have the rate flash delay changed for my HP LED turn signals. The Race ECU did not have a setting for this at all. On the street you will find it's a bit of a handful and gets a lot hotter than a stock bike does. The DTC system is re-tuned completely for performance rather than rider safety with the assumption that you know what you are doing. It can and will bite you if you don't respect it. I eventually took my HP ECU equipped bike off the street. It makes a much better track bike anyway.
  21. Best place to get tires done in my opinion is at the track or at a shop that specializes in race/track bikes. Look up some of your local trackdays and find out if they have a tire vendor. Pay the gate fee (usually a few bucks) and get the tire vendor to do some tires for you. Or find a local shop. Motorcycle tires require specialized equipment and tires that are going to be used on the track require a bit of specialized knowledge that the average tire shop is not going to have. You want a tire vendor that can answer questions for you on the best tire pressures for a given pace and other questions of that nature. Tire grip is more plentiful than you think. It's question in every riders mind of course. I don't know where you are with your riding however I will tell you that when you start to get close to the limits or start making big enough mistakes the coaches at the school will let you know really quick. I worry a lot about grip myself however most of these concerns are completely unfounded. It just takes a while to completely understand and be comfortable using everything your contact patch has to offer. Most of the time my riding is well within the grip of my tires. The few times I have stepped over the line the bike did not immediately fall over. The best advice (and hardest to actually accomplish) is just not to think about the grip. Just ride and be somewhat responsible and steadily increase your pace as your comfort level allows. Last year I did a 2up ride with Nate Kern the BMW test rider. You might find the article somewhat interesting when it comes to grip. Riding with someone who has the technique and skill and understanding of the grip that tires has is an eye opening experience. I posted about the experience here on the forum. You can find the article here. http://forums.superbikeschool.com/index.php?showtopic=4458&hl=%2Barticle+%2Bwrote In regards to the suit. The school rents leathers at a very reasonable price and it's an opportunity to test ride a brand of leathers and grade of suit. You can get a decent suit starting at around $1000. It's mostly the sub $1000 suits that present mobility and heat problems and even then every brand of suit is different. Not all sub $1000 suits are going to be as terrible as mine was. Something to keep in mind on the airbag suits. There's many kinds of airbag suits. The Dainese uses a motion/G sensor which is quite nice however once the airbag unit deploys it requires a visit back to the service center to be re-enabled. Some suits use a tether based system that utilizes an air cartridge that can be re-armed by re-packing the air bag and replacing the cartridge by an end user. There are pro's and con's to each system. The tether based systems can be accidentally deployed and you have to remember to remove the tether. You don't have to charge them though. If you accidentally deploy it of course is annoying but is fixable. The sensor based systems are nice but you have to charge them. Your unlikely ever to accidentally deploy them but if you forget to charge the battery you don't have an airbag. They also sell vests that add air bag protection to any suit that are tether based. A bit ugly and they do have some aerodynamics compromises but they are a cost effective way to add air bag protection to any suit. Beyond air bags they have a lot of other protective equipment such as back protectors and chest armor to provide a bit more protection to a rider. The school sells back protectors and equipment like this at a substantial discount to students. I got a great deal on my Forcefield back protector I bought from them.
  22. You can use whatever kind of fuel you like if you have the RCK2. The Race ECU by itself is designed to use standard premium fuel. Mine runs on standard premium but I will occasionally use T4 in it. Not for speed or anything like that. It's an oxygenated no ethanol fuel that stores well in a sealed metal container in my trailer and saves me a trip to the gas station when I'm running low on fuel. Yes I'm lazy enough to use race fuel just to save a trip to the gas station.
  23. If you look at where the damage happened on the suit it's on the elbow. That's why suits have armor in them. Not only to cushion your bones from the impact but also to protect a pointy spot from abrasion. Shoulders, knees and elbows all have this protection because they are pointy bits. That suit worked as designed and can easily be patched and worn again. Falling off on the track is like going through a rock tumbler. A rock tumbler attacks all the nice pointy parts of a rock and wears it all smooth. Fortunately at the track the rock tumbler only lasts a few seconds rather than a few hours. If it were to last longer we would all look like Swedish or Italian meat balls afterwards. Not a pleasant thought for sure. Some food for though. Rather than invest energy into determining which suits are more resilient after crashes why not prevent that crash to begin with? Riding at the track does not always have to involve ending up on the pavement. The pro's are able to leverage good technique to go way faster and have fewer accidents at the same time. There are of course accident's that you can't avoid so it's still a good idea to have high quality gear. Something else to keep in mind. Even high quality gear is not going to look the greatest after a tumble. If you care much about cosmetics at the very least a re-dye and some cleaning is going to be needed. Even if cosmetics aren't a concern any suit is not going to be as good as it was for a "round two" crash. Crashing stresses seams and stretches the material and can even deform armor. Even when you aren't crashing the gear is still aging. Foam gets stiffer over time and the materials weaken from age. That's why it's recommended that helmets get replaced every 5 years. So what does all this mean? Invest in some high quality gear. Also invest in good training so your suits die of old age or from your latest diet rather than an accident.
  24. The higher end suits use leather that's thinner but more abrasion resistant. What you are paying for is the material and the engineering. They test various types of leather for abrasion resistance and then pick the leather that provides the best balance of abrasion resistance and weight. What's interesting is some of the lighter weight leathers actually are better at dealing with crashes than the thicker heavy stuff. Dainese has their own type of leather called dskin and you will also see Kangaroo and Japanese Cowhide in a lot of suits. Part of what makes these suits lighter weight is their use of non leather materials in key areas that don't see abrasion. Add in stretch panels for flexibility and the suit becomes a lot more complex and labor intensive to produce. A great source of information for the various gear that's out there is sportbiketrackgear.com. They have a youtube channel where they do reviews on various suits, gloves, helmets and accessories that you might be interested in buying. https://www.youtube.com/user/Sportbiketrackgear STG does not always have the best price out there but they are pretty close. What's most impressive about STG is their customer service. I lost a wing on one of my Knox Handroids and I asked them about buying another wing. Instead of selling it to me they sent it to me for free. When it comes to buying new gear I always check to see what they have available.
  25. The more you spend on a suit or a set of gloves the more features and quality you get from your investment. It's not always apparent the value just looking at them on the rack. Years ago when I bought my first suit I wanted protection and did not see the advantages I would get by spending more on a suit. I bought a base model Alpinestars for less than a grand. The first time I tried to wear the suit I was astonished at how heavy it was and how difficult it was to move in the suit. And I got HOT fast. I suffered with that suit for quite some time. I lost some weight and needed another suit and tried on a middle of the road Dainese that was double the price of the Alpinestars. The differences between the suits were absolutely amazing. The Dainese was lighter way more flexible and I could actually move around in it. I still wear this suit as a backup and it's great. I was fine with the Dainese for a while until a friend asked me to grab his suit from his car for him. I reached in and picked up the suit and was amazed at how light it was. It was a Kushitani suit. I asked him about it and he gave me a lot of useful information about some of the Japanese suits. I eventually picked an RS Taichi suit and it's much lighter and much more comfortable for hot days than my Dainese. Sizing of course is a bit of a pain in the butt because they use Japanese sizing. If you can find your size and they fit you they are super comfortable and worth the price. So what do you get for the money? Here's a list. -More stretch panels -More ventilation -lighter weight stronger leather -more protection -exotic materials (kangaroo leather, japanese cowhide, stingray leather, carbon, titanium) One other thing. The suit that you see your race hero's on TV wearing that are branded X,Y and Z aren't the same as the ones that you and I can buy off the rack. They look quite similar but each one of those suits is custom made for the individual rider and uses much higher end materials than the off the rack version. The cool thing is you can do much the same yourself on a smaller scale. Many companies out there have a custom program so you can get your own perfectly fitting suit. Some of them even aren't that expensive. As for the boots. All of my boots are vented (I live in Georgia and it's always HOT). I have never had a single problem with any pair for damage. One thing I will say however. Going through a puddle at speed it's amazing how quickly a vented set of boots will completely fill with water. On Gloves. Be careful buying gloves from vendors you aren't familiar with. There's a lot of fake products floating around out there and I have heard some stories. While buy the best gloves you can is a great rule of thumb there are some exceptions. Held makes BMW's Double R gloves. You can frequently find the BMW gloves on closeout for 1/2 the price of the Held ones. Are they as good as a set of full Held race gloves? The are pretty darn close. The Held branded ones are slightly nicer but not by much. Not enough to justify double the price for sure.
×
×
  • Create New...