You’ve had one of these relationships. You were crazy about her sleek figure, how she felt under your fingers, and — not to be too crude — appreciated how well she was put together. You liked her, she liked you, but the timing wasn’t right. She was new in town, you were in transition after a major change, etc etc. You know how it is – like ships passing in the night.

Such was my brief relationship with the Turbine ventilated textile and mesh motorcycle pants from Rev’It. I have lost weight since purchasing my Motoport / Cycleport mesh kevlar pants, and needed a smaller waist. The Rev’It Turbine pants were good (with a few exceptions), but they didn’t make the cut considering my existing stable of protective pants.
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It makes me happy to commute to work on a motorcycle instead of driving my car. Well, let’s say it makes me happier. However, when you spend five to six hours a week navigating highway traffic, sometimes the last thing you want to do is hop back on a bike during the weekend.

It is with great joy that my twin friends Tomax and Xamot talked me into riding with them yesterday. I had an absolute blast, and may have converted another sportbike rider into a mid-distance-in-foul-weather riding, touring gear wearing, hardcase luggage bearing four-season motorcyclist.
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It has been raining since last Friday (technically wintery mix then), but yesterday I rode into work anyway. Light rain, no problem. It didn’t rain a SINGLE DROP from 9AM until about 3PM, and then it started to rain more and more.

By 5PM it was steady; by the time I was on the highway it was a downpour :)

I really enjoy riding in the rain, but it adds a few layers of complexity to an already sketchy commute. I have to allow for extra space between cars, worry about putting my feet down on painted surfaces, etc. I also have to worry (particularly on the way into work) about water getting through my gear. I kept a status check looping through my brain: car in front of you, car behind you, car to the right, gauntlets are covering sleeves, visor clear enough to see, neckline still dry, car in front of you, car behind you, car to the right ….

It becomes meditative. I think that motorcycle riding puts me in a trance anyway, which is probably why I think so clearly while riding, and why I am happy when I get to work. Riding in the rain also plays on that traditional motorcycle spirit of being independent. I didn’t see another single bike out yesterday. I really enjoy riding in the rain, as long as I am prepared and am traveling a short distance.

My gear did very well: my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket was fantastic, and the Motoport mesh kevlar pants were watertight, too. I wore my Teknic Speedstar gloves, although I probably shouldn’t have; they are great gloves and I don’t want to shorten their lifespan by wearing them in the rain too often. I have some Aerostich waterproof glove covers, but that will have to wait for another entry. My Sidi OnRoad boots kept my feets dry.

The Gmax helmet is still very comfortable, but it doesn’t vent for shit. All of those vents on the top didn’t keep my face shield from fogging up. I had to decide between a partially fogged visor or getting blasted in the face from wind and rain. I split the difference on the highway, and ran with the visor three clicks open once I got back to the surface streets.

It’s supposed to be less rainy today, so I will be riding again. Hopefully this time without the free bike wash. ;)

The first half of my trip down to Georgia was fantastic. It was cool enough that I wasn’t hot in my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket, but not so cold my hands were freezing. It was overcast enough that I didn’t have to squint behind my Native sunglasses, but not so overcast that I had to worry about rain.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Then the sky opened up. It didn’t stop until I reached Savannah, some 280 miles later.

What followed was a near total failure of every piece of waterproof motorcycling gear that I owned. Am I being too harsh?
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With all of the riding and motorcycling mishaps last week, I neglected to post that Wayne Boyer of Motoport has broken his usual policy and offered to take my jacket back for a refund. You can read the whole saga if you haven’t been following along. The short story: I sent my jacket back for alterations twice, was dissatisfied, called for a refund, was told that because the jacket was now custom a refund was impossible, I posted about it on the Internet, Wayne emailed me in rebuttal (which was also posted), and now we’re here.

My jacket was sent back last week and should arrive on Monday. I am not sure how long it will take Motoport to process my return. Once I have my money back and this whole event is closed I’m going to update my Internet posts with how the situation was resolved.

I am thankful that Wayne decided to take the jacket back. It’s against Cycleport’s usual policy, but hopefully I will get my cash back in short order. I feel better, but keep your fingers crossed. We’re not out of the woods yet.

I promised Wayne at Motoport I would post his email to me in its entirety. I have only removed my first name from his email. I posted this on advrider.com’s equipment forum, but I am unsure if the post will be allowed to stay because I posted on behalf of a merchant. So I’m reposting it here. I will quote Wayne’s comments, and bold my rebuttal.
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My altered Ultra II Air Mesh kevlar jacket and pants arrived while I was away in California last week. The initial order was very mis-sized, and I had sent the jacket back to have it resized, and the knee armor on the pants relocated.

After almost three weeks of waiting, I was really anxious to give the gear another try. Unfortunately there is going to be a Round Three between myself and Motoport.
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EDIT 07/18/2006

Now that this article is indexed by Google and I’ve seen a few visitors to this page because of its ranking, I want to state that I have stopped wearing my Fieldsheer jacket and wouldn’t recommend a mesh jacket to anyone.

The material used in mesh jackets can melt at high speeds generated by friction (read: sliding on the road) and may melt to your skin. Please do yourself a favor and buy a textile or better yet, perforated leather jacket. The discomfort you may experience in the heat is nothing compared to the combination of road rash and burns from a mesh jacket gone bad.

On to the original post:

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Protective jackets and pants come in three basic materials, in ascending order: mesh, textile, and leather, with leather being the most protective. Leather should probably be in its own category, with variations in thickness, the skin used, perforated/solid construction, etc all making subtle but important differences. But for the purpose of this write up, it’s important to know that mesh is the least protective, then textile, then leather. Generally speaking, however, the inverse ranking is true for comfort in warm conditions.

I get hot very easily, and overheating was one of my biggest concerns when I bought my motorcycle. Thanks to my friend Bond, I was able to inspect his Teknic Chicane perforated leather jacket. I bought one for myself in solid black at a discount. I love that jacket, and it fits me quite well despite my longer-than-average arms. I still find it uncomfortable to wear in any temperature higher than 75 degrees, even though it’s perforated to allow air to flow through the jacket. When I’m stuck at a stop light it’s particularly bad; partially because the jacket is all black, and partially because that’s the nature of leather. It’s fawking hot.

So I started scouting this October for a mesh jacket. This is, of course, the weird time of the year to buy mesh jackets. Mesh jackets are worn during the hottest periods of the summer. Thanks to the cooler temperatures, however, all of the mesh jackets from the 05 style year were on sale. I was able to pick up a Fieldsheer Magnesium mesh jacket from Kneedraggers.com for $76 shipped. A brick and mortar store here in Richmond had the same jacket for $120 before tax.

The Magnesium features body armor in the elbows, shoulders, and back. There are velcro straps around the wrists and neck. There is an adjustable velcro-secured loop around each side to help make the jacket fit more snugly about the waist. Each arm features buttons right below the elbow, with three snaps available for those of you with stickfigure arms or big ass Popeye guns.

The entire jacket is mesh: little ringlets of (hopefully) tough as nails fabric.

The mesh allows wind to flow through the jacket quite easily. I’ve worn the jacket around a dozen or so times, and you can definitely feel the air coming through. Since I don’t have any weatherproof gear yet, the Magnesium is also my foul weather jacket. This is a horrible idea, since a wet jacket + wind = sad panda, but I figure the mesh would dry faster than wet leather. Plus it would be a lot lighter as well :).

One of the problems with the jacket is that unlike my Teknic, the Magnesium is in “letter” sizes (S, M, L, XL) instead of numerical sizes. Because of my arms, I need a size large, although my belly girth is better suited for a medium. Of course, my herculean boulder shoulders also require a large. So fitting into any letter-sized top is a nightmare. I wound up buying a large.

As you can tell from the back, there’s a lot of loose material around my midsection. From the first picture in the write up, but also in this shot, you can tell that the back/shoulder section fits well enough. The shoulder seams appear to be further out than they actually are: the Magnesium features really heavy armor in the shoulders and it throws off the lines of the jacket a bit.

The problem with a loose-fitting jacket is that in the event of a crash, the jacket may move around. This is bad for a few reasons. First and foremost, if the jacket moves around it might leave my precious baby-smooth skin exposed to the asphalt. Secondly, if the jacket is loose, the armor inside the jacket might move around and not protect my elbows, back, and shoulders adequately.

So, while the jacket seems well made and is quite comfortable, I regret not buying a medium, at least to try. If I had to do it over again, I would buy both a medium and a large and eat the return shipping cost.

I’m not going to rate this jacket, as I feel that the most important part of its value, its crash-worthiness, isn’t something I can rate. However, I will do a run-down on what I like and don’t like, otherwise.

You are the wind beneath my wings

• Lightweight in comparison to a leather jacket.
• Excellent airflow for the best ventilation you can get while still wearing protective gear.
• Armor in such a low-cost jacket is a big plus.

Hot air

• Letter-sizing scheme puts freaks like me in less-than-optimal fit situations.
• Velcro wrist straps feel cheap and I wouldn’t expect them to hold together during a crash. This isn’t too big an issue for me since I wear full gauntlet gloves that protect my wrists.