Gear review

[rallyrodent]

on the contrary, they work even better then the stock mirrors i have on my bike. no glare, and i can see behind me.

this is of course, my opinion. take it for what its worth.

[twostroke]

At nite they do not work, IMHO.

[rallyrodent]

I have been looking for bar end mirrors for a while. i have been told that most of these vibrate so bad that you can not see out of them.

i was visiting my newest cycle gear, just opened this last weekend, and talking with brad who just purchased a pair for his buell lightning. this bike is very loud and vibrates the screws loose on the shifter. LOL, its a good thing its a twin, it can take off in 3rd gear. but i am getting away from myself.

so to my point, he tells me that the mirrors did not vibrate on the buell, so i had to try them on my bike. these mirrors are great. they don't vibrate, and they have a very slight tint to them that cuts on the glare. i was joking with my wife and told her i can see so much better with these mirrors, i could check out my OWN ass! LOL

the stock mirrors are in a bad location for me, i have a 52 in chest and the shoulders to go with them, so all i can see in my stockers were shoulders. i wanted to share, hope it helps someone else out.

purchased from Cycle Gear, $60, Motrax mini barend mirrors. i saw them in black and silver.

[the_grinch]

racer gloves are the bomb! i will buy them until they stop making them

[epim]

Alpinestars SMX Plus (boots): Good, but they dont have much in the way of longevity. I probably didn't get more than about 20K miles out of mine. The ankle guards on the sides pull away from the stretch panel in the boot, and the weird compound zipper is kind of a bitch to deal with. Can lead to early zipper death. (did on both of mine.)

Alpinestars SMX-4 (boots): Not bad. I've put about 3K miles on them so far. They're comfortable, dexterous enough, and fairly rugged. Not raceboots, but they're ok. Cons: The toe sliders try and pop off whenever a stray foot whacks something at just the right angle. Easy to clip back on, but i'd rather not have it happen in a get-off. Zippers: Zippers on both boots have a couple teeth that wont quite line up right. I'm worried that one of these days the zippers will fail entirely.
Update: Lost a zipper on one of the boots in exactly the way I predicted. Lame.

[seric]

I'll second both the Lowrance iWay GPS, and Givi top cases. I went 6 years without a car with a 50L and 35L Givi case.

My other favorite piece of kit is my Amplirider, which lets me mix the inputs of my iPod, iWay GPS, and Valentine One Radar Detector. And output them through one set of earphones.

http://www.electric-avenues.com/amplirider.html

[Pollux]

Oh givi topcase, were we in canada I would make you my bride.

Back off bitch. She's mine. :P

[epim]

Alpinestars GP Plus gloves: Crap. My latest pair is still less than a year old and they're completely falling apart. Seams ripping, leather abraided. Crap.

Scorpion EXO-400: Not bad for summer riding. Reasonable pricing. CRAP for winter riding. The visor fogs up (it's anti-fog!) and there's a leak in the top vents which causes a nice blurry stream of water to come down inside the visor. Fantastic for 'splitting in the rain.

First Gear Kilimanjaro IV: Good jacket. Comfortable though the zipper can be a pain. Built in camelback pouch FTW.
Update: Zipper snapped in half. Lame

First Gear Kilimanjaro air: Jacket itself isnt bad, but it doesnt have any good armor. You'll need to buy armor if you want to wear one of these.

Givi rack and topcase: Oh givi topcase, were we in canada I would make you my bride. How i've ridden for so long without any kind of decent luggage I really don't know.
Update: Stupid rack broke. Shitty italian welds.

[lugnut]

In another part of the forum a member said he wanted to start reviewing gear. Here's a thread starter.

I have to say that I'm happy so far with my GPS, a lowrance Iway 500C. I look forward to having it delivering audio to my stereo, at which point I can dispense with mp3 CDs.