I saddled up my 2009 Yamaha FJR1300A and headed down to Georgia last Thursday. I needed to take a break and was anxious to meet up with some of my favorite people. I was also ready to put Apollo up to his first mid-distance road trip.

I have a rule: never install anything new or change anything a week before a motorcycle trip. I followed that rule (mostly), but did do a few upgrades before I left. The most suspicious was adding a set of auxiliary lights low on the forks. I did this well before my trip, but had finally gotten them positioned where I wanted them and secured with blue Loctite. Would the mounts hold up to over 1000 miles of highway travel? Would my ass hold up to over 1000 miles of highway travel?
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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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I’ve started taking some photographs while motorcycling. I bought a used Canon PowerShot SD700IS from eBay for about $100 and already had an SD card lying around. I take most of my shots while moving, using my left hand to operate all the controls of the camera.

I keep the camera in my left front pocket. When I wore my Rev’It Cayenne Pro this was no big deal: the jacket’s large, top-load pockets made it easy to get the camera out and put it back again. However, I now wear the Rev’It Turbine since the weather is warmer. As I mentioned in my review, the Turbine has traditional side-mounted vertical pockets that are hard to get into and out of with a full sized gauntlet glove. This makes grabbing the camera even more awkward, since my hand is now closed around something and less likely to escape the pocket without difficulty.

Worried about dropping my camera on the road, I stopped taking as many pictures as I wanted. I read that a few riders secured their cameras to their bikes via a retractable lanyard. Think of a heavy duty janitor keychain that zips a big ring of keys back to a belt. Gear Keeper makes a whole swath of retractable lanyards, and the RT20012 seemed to be highly regarded on ADVrider.com

I put in an order for one via a vendor on Amazon, and it arrived a few days later.
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I love my Rev’It motorcycling gear. I own the Cayenne Pro textile jacket and the Fahrenheit waterproof leather winter gloves. The Cayenne Pro did major duty as my primary commuting jacket during the fall, winter, and spring here in Virginia and also went with me down to Georgia in October. The Cayenne Pro has some innovated venting features, but the jacket’s sturdy construction and Virginia’s humidity meant I needed something more lightweight and vented for warmer temperatures.

The problem with lightweight textile or mesh jackets is that the fabric typically doesn’t hold up well in a crash. The abrasion of an accident quickly wears through most materials. Certain types of mesh, especially those used in less expensive jackets, can even melt to the skin.

So there’s a delicate balancing act with summer gear: comfort versus safety. I had written off getting a mesh jacket until I found the Turbine jacket by Rev’It. I put in an order with Dennis over at Beach Moto and as usual his service was top notch. Yes, you can buy Rev’It gear from a few other places, but none of them will offer you the customer service and elite product knowledge that Dennis can. The Turbine is $350 before shipping, and the SAS-TEC back protector is another $50.

Anyway, on to the review.

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