Riding gear. Should it be Cheap or affordable?

Riding gear. Should it be Cheap or affordable?

Here at BirotarUK HQ we’ve seen a rise in the number of "cheap gear" reviews, promising the best gear for the least amount of money. Just like you, we love saving a few quid here and there but sometimes "cheap gear" can cost you more in the long run. 

But we believe that there is a difference between "cheap" and 'affordable". If you're just starting out on a bike, or if you are a seasoned rider it is hard to gauge what is good value and what is over priced. With high-street giants retailing garments for very little, we understand that it can be freighting to turn the price tag to reveal an item of gear worth hundreds or even thousands.

So, we’ve put together a list of affordable gear that we think will get you from A to B in comfort, all year round and last for a few years too (depending on the miles you cover). We haven’t tried and tested all the gear mentioned in this review but where we have, we will let you know.

Let’s start with the most important item, a helmet, the minimum legal requirement of protective equipment you need to ride a motorcycle. At this point we’ll say we are huge advocates of always riding in full protective gear.

The most important thing about a helmet is the fit, a £600 ill-fitting helmet will be no better than a £200 properly fitting helmet. On this basis we can only recommend what fits our heads and suggest you visit your local bike shop to try on their helmets and get some expert advice, it could be a life saver after all..

With all that a side we’re a big fan of the HJC R-PHA ST for many reasons. It's a fully spec’d touring helmet that also holds a gold ACU sticker meaning it’s good for track/race use.

The HJC features:

• Good airflow vents to keep you cool in the warmer months
• Quick release visor mechanism
• Double D retention system
• Pinlock ready visor
• Internal sun visor
• Slots for bluetooth kit

HJC R-PHA ST - Image from Google

We think it’s a great all round helmet for commuting, touring and track days and it can be had from £179 (at time of writing).

When it comes to jacket and trousers we’re torn on what to recommend, but to keep things affordable we’ll go with what we’ve been wearing for the past 10,000 miles.

Birotar Jonjo, taken on a winter shoot with Wil Collins

The RST Pro Series Adventure 2 textile suit.

First off it’s not the most ‘attractive’ of 2 piece textiles but they are functional, very functional.
There’s a clue in the name, the adventure jacket has been designed with the adventure fit in mind, think more upright adventure / touring bikes, giving it a slightly looser fit. This doesn’t mean it’s not comfortable on a sports bike, we’ve used this suit on GSXRs, Ninjas and GS’ to name a few.

So what makes this a good jacket;

• 2 year warranty
• Full Connection zip
• Removable waterproof membrane
• Removable quilted thermal liner
• CE approved back, shoulder and elbow protection included
• Vents, lots of vents!
• Detachable wind collar
• Removable map pocket that doubles as a bum-bag

RST Adventure 2 Jacket - Image from Google

You’ll notice there’s lots of detachable parts meaning this can be used in the depths of winter or heights of summer. We’ve certainly been happy all year round, and think the price is good too. Before we get to the price let’s skim over the features of the trousers;

• Removable waterproof membrane
• Removable quilted thermal liner
• Full connection zip
• CE approved knee armour and pockets for hip protectors
• Slightly flared to allow a good fit over adventure boots

Again, removable inners mean you can tailor to the weather and ride in comfort, avoiding arriving to work or a meet all hot a sweaty! (Or cold and damp).

RST Adventure 2 Trousers - Image from Google

The jacket can be had for £179.99 (at time of writing)

The trousers can be had for £149.99 (at time of writing)

Gloves are an important part of year round riding and it’s hard to find a glove that’ll work in all seasons, we tend to have a set for winter/rainy days and a summer set however there is an answer for both.

Held have a glove called the Air ‘n’ Dry, whilst we haven’t managed to try them yet we have heard good things from like-minded bikers.

The Air ‘n’ Dry features:

• Kangaroo leather palm
• Gore-Tex waterproof, windproof & breathable membrane
• Hard plastic knuckle protection
• Visor wipe on index finger

In a nut shell, the palm of the glove has summer like features and the back of the glove is Gore-tex waterproofed to keep you warm and dry yet cool in the summer months.

Held Air N Dry - Image from Google

These gloves can be found for £148.49 (at time of writing)

The final piece of the puzzle is boots, long gone are the days of something big and cumbersome needed to fulfil the all-round requirement for the past two years we’ve been wearing the TCX X-Street waterproof casual boot. They are seriously comfortable, waterproof and best of all look just like a normal high top trainer.

They feature:

• Full grain leather upper
• Waterproof lining
• Toe and heel reinforcement
• Lace up closure

TCX X-Street Boots - Photo by Birotar Jonjo

We’re a big fan of these boots, tried and tested, we even wear them as casual trainers with a pair of jeans (and to do the gardening, DIY, shopping). They can be had for £89.99 (at time of writing)

The total cost of all this gear is £747.46. It sounds like a lot of money, in fact you can buy a bike for £800 but we believe these items will last you a good few years making the equivalent annual spend less than £250. 

Our point isn't that you should stop what your doing to go out and purchase these items. Instead consider the alternatives. Do your research, check out reviews and most importantly, go and try the gear on. Take your time. 

You'll know as soon as you try an item of gear, that it fits. feels comfortable and has all of the features you want and need.

Everyone is different and has different requirements, but there is a risk associated with buying "cheap gear". The price may be good, but you will find that the item won't last as long as you want it to and it may not perform in when you need it most.

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Heated Glove Showdown

Heated Glove Showdown
Heated Motorcycle glove review

Keis X900 - left, Keis X800i - middle, RST - right

Bike Stop have provided us with 3 sets of heated gloves to put through their paces. We have 2 pairs from Keis and 1 pair from RST.

Heated gloves have never really been on our ‘to buy’ list since we’ve been biking, but now we’ve had some to try there is quite a big appeal.

The RST THERMOTECH glove

Let’s start with the RST gloves. They offer plenty of palm and finger protection, but lack something across the knuckles. The look and feel is of usual high RST quality. The inner thermal lining feels rather plush, and immediately stands out compared to both the Keis gloves. 

These gloves will keep your hands warm, without the heating on (to a certain extent)! But the benefit of heated gloves is that they don’t need to be too bulky, which is a nice change from the usual ‘non-heated’ thermal gloves.

All these gloves can be switched ON, and controlled from a single button on each glove. They all offer 3 heat settings: hot, warm and err…tepid. Colours easily identify the heat settings on the ON and OFF button: red, yellow and green.

Once turned on, heat only takes a minute to filter through to your hands, meaning that by the time the bike is up to temperature, the gloves will be well on the way to being warm. Quite a nice on these cold winter mornings we're having.

The button to turn the gloves ON and OFF on the RST gloves and change the heat setting is in a rather awkward position (on the outside of your wrist). If you want to change the settings whilst riding, you have to remove your hands from the handle bars and bring them together to press the button. This makes for awkward guess work as to weather you’ve actually pressed the button or not.

This was quite a let down with the glove because everything else is so ‘right’. The battery for the gloves connects in a waterproof pocket on the underside of the wrist, inside the glove. Surprisingly the weight of the battery goes unnoticed when on the bike. We found the battery life to give us approx. 2 hours of use.

The Keis X800i & X900 heated gloves

We have two different versions from Keis the X800i & X900.

The Keis X900 heated glove doesn’t look as nice and doesn’t appear to be as robust as the RST glove. However it’s not all down to looks…

The X900 offers similar levels of protection as the RST glove, but is again lacking knuckle protection. The X900 does offer a waterproof inner lining and breathable textile shell though.

The thermal liner inside the glove leaves a bit to be desired, whilst it’s not bad, it’s nowhere near as thick and soft as the RST glove. The glove is very comfortable and warm, although there seemed to be a lack of heat around the finger tips – which is the part of your hand that get’s the coldest on really cold rides.

The X900 comes with two power source options, one is to use the battery packs which slot in to a zipped pocket inside the glove, and the other is to use the supplied lead to connect direct to a 12v bike battery.

We didn’t try the lead connections because we were worried we would forget we were connected by a lead as we stepped off the bike. The thought of pulling the bike over and dragging the wires along was scary. The owner’s manual does state that the friction connections will come apart with sufficient force. But it seems to be something else to worry about…

The downsides are extra wires to think about but it eliminates any battery life woes!

Keis battery - left, RST battery - right

The Keis battery packs are larger than the RST ones and slightly heavier (we’re talking grams here) but the weight is not noticeable when riding. The ON/OFF and temperature control button on the X900 is in a very user-friendly place. The button is on top of the hand making it very easy to adjust when on the move and to see what heat setting the gloves are on.

During our test we found the batteries on the Keis X900 to last approx. 3 hours.

Finally we come to the X800i glove and this is where we came a bit stuck when comparing them to the other two.

It comes with a decent amount of external protection including carbon look knuckle guards and finger tip re-enforcement. The thermal liner is the same as the X900, so leaves a little bit to be desired, although we must remember it’s by no means bad.

The ON/OFF and temperature control button is in a nice location on top of the hand, and is easy to operate when on the move. There is no zipped pocket to store the batteries meaning you'd have to stow the batteries in your jacket pocket and use the supplied cables. These gloves also come with wire connections to power them via the bike’s battery.

For us, heated gloves need to be mobile off the bike. So, we really struggled to get on with these when there are gloves from RST & Keis that come with a battery pack & pouch. 

We prefer a heated glove with a battery pack. It seems to be the better option because you have less wires, less hassle and you don’t have to worry about unplugging yourself when you need to re-fuel or even in an emergency situation. So heated gloves are a the perfect option for winter riding, unless you forget to charge the batteries.  

Okay, but how much do they cost?

The RST Thermotech gloves retail at £149.99

The X800i gloves retail at £149.99 with the battery pack costing an additional £60

The X900 gloves retail at £130 with the battery pack costing an additional £60

As heated gloves, all of these work very all at keeping your hands warm. They offer very similar levels of heat, so the only other things that can truly be compared are: comfort, design and price. And that’s where the RST gloves come out on top.

Even though they are a bit more difficult to adjust heat whilst on the move, they are the most affordable and they simply look and feel better. The battery life may also be a tad shorter than the others, but the thicker thermal lining is sure to keep you warmer in the long run.

Nice one RST.

The heated gloves in this review are available to be purchased from Bike Stop.

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