Holey Moley: Alpinestars Effex Gore-Tex “Final Review”

Wow, what a bum of a week.

The weather has been miserable. Someone at work said the other day, “did you come in on your bike?” and I said, “Yeah?” She looked a bit confused and continued, “is it not really difficult in these conditions?” “Yeah it is but you choose your own path I guess.”

And I wouldn’t change it for anything. I love my bike and I knew when I signed up for this what the negatives would be. I like being able to miss out on the queue on the way to work. I like not having to worry about it. I like being able to sleep longer in the morning because I don’t have to beat the queues.

So yeah, it is difficult and I do end up soaking through, and at the time I think, “this is shit” but then I remember why I do it and it’s ok.

Anyway, this week is over and in a special way. It’s the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th millenium year, 08-08-08. This will NEVER happen again until…actually I dont know when. What happens when we get to 2100? What do we call it? 00? 100?

Oh well.

The news

My boots, my brilliant Alpinestars boots have broke. I am devestated. These were the boots that were with me from the start. The beginning of YamYam. And now they have big holes in them. My camera is dead so I will post pics up when I get home, but there is one great big hole in the sole of the boot and another where the shift patch has worn through. These boots have kept me dry for….well over 600 days of sun, rain, wind, ice, snow, poo, sand, walking to the shops, cleaning my bike in and digging holes in the garden. They were mine. Moulded to my exact foot shape and I knew they were brilliant because I never thought about them. I guess that’s when you know your gear is good, when you don’t notice it. But now the impenetrable Gore-Tex forcefield has been rendered totally useless with 2 great big holes in it. Oh well

What they arrived like:

Taken from Alpinestars official site

And this is what they departed like:

Used and abused

Shift patch is worn through

Holey Moley in the bottom of the boot

These boots, for £118 or whatever I purchsed them for, are pretty much bullet proof. They offer superior comfort, water proofing, looks, durability. Yeah they dont have much protection or plastic bits but they are a great commuting boot and absolutely perfect for what I needed them for.

This will be the “Final Review,” the first one ever on YamYam, and it’s really sad that these are gone.

A lot of you may be reading this and thinking, “He’s a bit sad to be so upset about a pair of boots!” And you are right. But when these boots have taken you through 4 countries, every single weather condition imaginable, 2 accidents, cleaning my last 4 bikes every weekend and walking up to the shops in them when it’s been raining (which in Scotland is quite a lot) you can start to hopefully see why I am so attached to them.

So anyway,

I should just get another pair right? Well no. I know it’s silly as I would have another pair of these in a second, but I fancy a change.

I am not straying too far from what I am used to though.

May I present my new choice of mega boot:

Image taken from www.gearzone.fi (Google Image search)

So when thinking about replacements for my absolutely brilliant Alpinestars Effex Gore-Tex boots I summed up what I wanted.

I wanted a comfortable, warm, waterproof, durable boot with improvements over the A-Stars boot, namely the shift patch and the sole.

As you know, I bought the Puma Desmo 800’s a while back and I absolutely love them. I actually thought I purchased the Gore-Tex version but sadly I was cheated. Never the less, they are a great warm/dry weather boot and supremely comfortable. So instead of NOW getting the Desmo 800 Gore-Tex version, I had a wee browse of the other Puma boots.

I think I actually saw the Brutale’s in Hein Gericke when I nipped along at lunch one day and they were £120 for the Gore-Tex version. I wanted to buy them right there and then but at that time my Alpinestars were fine.

The Brutales are nice, they look similar to my Desmo’s but come in black with a black velvety swoosh and black metal bit at the back, black boot with blue bits or brown boot with copper bits.

If they had a black boot with copper version I would have bought them, but I dont want a brown boot so went for the blue to differ from my Desmos.

So yeah!

If I am being honest I actually have a pair of the Brutales right now. This is because I ordered the non-Gore-Tex version (again) but have spoken to J&S and they are sending out the Gore-Tex ones to swap.

So instead of posting up the review now, I will wait to give them the usual in depth YamYam treatment.

I am really excited about them. Puma make some of the comfiest boots you can wear and that’s some achievement given my Effex comfort levels were 10/10.

I hope that they are good. I hope that they perform well for the coming 20 months or longer. One things for sure, the Brutale’s have a big boots to fill.

Thanks for visiting folks,

Gordon

Quick Update: AGV GP-Tech Helmet

Quick update here folks.

I have had a lot of emails about my GP-Tech and my experiences with it. I have been asked if it’s worth it, is it a nice helmet, what size should I get?

I think it’s time that I gave an update of how I feel about the whole thing.

AGV GP-Tech: Aye or Nae

Well lets start off with the most obvious question: Would I buy one again?

The answer is yes and the reasons are thus. I didn’t buy this helmet, it was given to me just as the GP-Tech version was released. This leads me to believe that I have one of the first batch of GP-Techs and therfore the problems that I have had with it are surely down to teething problems. So on that basis, hell yeah I would buy one.

This helmet is the best of what a helmet should be; comfortable, good fitting, well constructed, well detailed, great ventilation, good sound proofing. It’s a smart ass helmet as well, which counts for a lot.

It costs an arm and a leg to purchase this helmet, so on the financial basis, no I wouldn’t buy it because I couldn’t!

Next, What is the ventilation like? Is it better than a Shoei X-Spirit?

I dont know because I have never tried an X-Spirit or any other top bang helmet. This is the one and only time for a long time that I will own a top speccer.

I own a Shark S800, a Shoei XR-1000 and this AGV GP-Tech. Blair has a Schuberth S1. Out of all these helmets the GP has by far the best ventilation and that’s surpassing the “open face” feeling of the Shoei. It is a great ventilated helmet.

HOWEVER

The one failing of this helmet/brand is the visors. I absolutely love being able to see where I am going, and I am sure you do too. So when the visor steams up, you may have some issues with it.

The GP-Tech’s visor has a “mist free” coating on it. Now that’s great, but it’s not true. Aye for summer riding it’s ace, no steaming up whatsoever!

At the minute it’s the peak of Scottish rain fall and I tell you what, I don’t half miss my Shoei and it’s pinlock visor insert.

If you refer to my previous post, you will see what an ordeal I had going to work, this is a real deal breaker for me. If AGV incorporate pinlock in to their visors, they will be perfect to go with the excellent helmet. As it stands, it’s a total let down.

Ok, so what size should I get, I am a size x in a Brand Y helmet?

Again, I dont know because helmet manufacturers vary wildly with sizes. An XL in a Shoei might be a L in an AGV or Shark. A Large Caberg might be an XL Arai. Not only that but it doesn’t matter if you are large anything because if the helmet doesn’t fit your head shape, it’s over anyway.

To add another filter in to the mix, within brands like AGV or Shoei, the size of shell/interior varies also.

The best piece of advice I can offer anyone is to go and try the helmets that you fancy on at your local bike shop. The reasons are;

The boys at the bike shop know what they are talking about. They also have the power to discount the price of anything.

I once had my heart set on the AGV Ti-Tech Rossi Gothic and was ready with my credit card to buy it online. I papped out of it and headed to Scott Murray, where I tried on a Ti-Tech and it didn’t fit me. Infact it was borderline torture. Imagine if I had bought that helmet online and with all the online no returns policy for helmets, I would have been stuck with a £400 helmet that didn’t fit me.

The good thing about going to a bike shop is that they also have other brands sitting there. So if you get down and find that the AGV GP-Tech is the wrong shape or it’s too expensive, they will probably have something there that will capture your heart/wallet soon enough.

Another plan of attack is to get the size and helmet you want at a shop, then come home and buy it off the net for muchos cheaperness.

Now I have done enough miles in this helmet to know how it will fair over time and it shows excellent potential as a rock steady piece of gear for the next 3-4 years.

If you do opt for the GP-Tech can I offer you one really important piece of advice: DO NOT GET WHITE. It is the worst to keep clean, it’s the worst for stone chips and although it makes you stand out like a sore thumb, it’s also the one that makes people go, “Eugh, look at all that road kill, do you never clean your gear?” when you screetch up trying to look menacing, having cleaned it just before you left.

I like my helmet and its good enough for me to not want to get my Shoei out of storage. The comfort and safety feeling is just too good to revert back from. Unless I get some new cheek pads for my Shoei….

Thanks for looking guys,

Gordon

Lube it or lose it

Yes folks, that’s right.

Well this week got off to a bad start weather wise, with mega rain all the time. It’s getting tougher and tougher to withstand the cold wet commute but there you go, the choices you make.

The other day I was riding in to work and even though the 6th gear tapping was doing it’s thing as usual, there was another type of noise. One which made me instantly worried.

Now the thing with the 6th gear tap is that it’s coming from around the engine area, however this new noise was a back left hand noise…i.e. drive chain.

The thing is, it was only at 0mph-20mph that it was obvious. It was in all gears as well which was even more strange.

I got to work and had a big look around the chain, wheel, sprocket and nothing was apparently wrong. I thought that a missing sprocket tooth might be the problem but they were all present and correct sir. I had a chat with my boss who had just arrived in the garage and he was as baffled as I was.

So the working day concluded and I headed home and weirdly enough, the sound had gone…until I got to a roundabout and it started again. It was really loud, and I mean seriously loud. It’s hard to describe a noise through text but as always I shall try:

Imagine the bike at rest. First gear, “Clunk!”

Clutch out and bike starts moving, “Bvvvv THUMP bvvvv THUMP bvvvv THUMP!”

The thumping speeds up as I accelerate. It sounds at one point like something is stuck to the back tyre and is slapping against the tarmac as the wheel goes round.

“THWACK! THWACK!”

I eventually get home with nerves fraid. I mean I thought that the back wheel was going to fall off. I get in, take my rucksack off and put the bike up on the paddock stand to have a good look.

Back tyre is perfect, no nails or cracks/bulges. Chain is also ok and the sprocket is all there. Hmmmm. I start the bike up and listen for it, however I didn’t really expect to hear anything as on the way home I worked out that the noise only happens when the engine is under load i.e. I am accellerating fast. If I smoothly and slowly accelerate it’s fine.

So I decide to lube it and see if it makes a difference, the chain was looking a bit dry.

Lube, it's your friend

So after a massive doseage of Lube, the sprocket instantly sounded smooth and quiet, a lot quieter than the racket it was making before the lube.

I head out on the bike to see if it’s all ok and it’s 100% fixed. No noise at all.

I breathe a sigh of relief and of surprise. The last time I lubed it was before the service and when I got it back there was this white stuff all over the swingarm, which I just assumed was the garages lube, but it obviously isn’t that good and had either washed off or dried up.

So basically what I am saying is, my chain was bone dry and it was metal on metal action that was causing the noise. I shudder to think what possible damage/accident it could have caused if I had left it any longer. I shudder to think what possible damage it has done already!

It just goes to show folks, if you dont keep your chain lubed, you’ll have a crappy ride and a fraid nervous system.

Lube is your friend.

Thanks for stopping by folks, next post will be about my old faithfuls, my Alpinestars GoreTex boots, which on the 6th August 2008, died.

Gordon

July 2008

Hello.

First off what a tragedy to read of the death of Craig Jones. After an extremely alarming accident at Brands Hatch, Craig Jones suffered too severe a head trauma to survive which is very very sad.

Having seen the accident on Eurosport it was pretty clear that there was absolutely nothing that Andrew Pitt could do to avoid Craig’s fallen body and it was just extremely bad timing that his head be struck by Pitt’s wheel. Regardless of this truth, I can’t begin to imagine how Andrew Pitt is feeling at the minute. It’s a very sad day and a sad day for World Superbikes.

Well that’s yet another month over. This is starting to worry me slightly. My months are flying by all to quickly.

I have a story for you and it’s not a positive one, so if you are not in the mood for a grumpy Scotsman with gear issues, please look away now.

It was a very wet morning and it was so wet that I thought, “I’ll have to wear some sort of waterproofing, as my Jacket and Trousers just won’t go the distance.” So I dug out my Ixon Cheap Waterproof jacket but couldn’t find my trousers because Blair still has them.

So I donned my gear, got my dark visor tucked inside my jacket (in case it was sunny later…wishful thinking I know) and zipped up before putting my Ixon over my jacket.

Now here we go.

The collar of the Ixon jacket is very high, like up to ears high. Usually I manage to get the zipper up far enough that I am able to tuck the remaining collar in to my Kriega shoulder straps. However today it didn’t matter.

I headed out to my bike and opened the garage door. Oh. Dear. It was chucking it down. Oh well, here we go.

I must have made it 400m and my gear let in water.

Oh well, I had predicted this and brought extra underwear and t-shirt. But that was the least of my worries. As I headed on to the motorway the rain was picking up density and the spray from the other cars was unbelievable. My visor was instantly transformed in to a frosted window. Then it steamed up.

Now I am usually not a guy to believe marketing hype, but AGV claim that their visors are “Clear, flat, anti-scratch and anti-fog polycarbonate Race X visor with tear-off system” which is nice. But totally untrue. Yeah when I got the visor I sat with the visor shut and breathed really heavy and it didn’t fog up. But introduce the things that actually do make visors fog up, rain and cold and you instantly have a useless visor.

So I couldn’t see for the spray and rain on my visor, which was easily dealt with by a turned head or a wipe of my glove, but when it steamed up there was nothing I could do but open the visor to get some de-misting action going on. That however made seeing where I was going dramatically harder considering that I was now blinded by the ultra high speed water droplets hitting my eyes.

Not for rainy use either

You would think that my ride to work couldn’t get any worse…well as I was travelling along blind, cold, totally saturated and annoyed, my Ixon cheap-shit collar started to vibrate against my helmet, directly at my ear. Now if you can imagine either a pneumatic drill or a woodpecker attached directly onto the shell beside your ear, you have roughly what I am talking about here.

As I struggled to get the collar tucked in to my bag strap or into my helmet liner with my winter big gloves on, yet more water was now seeping in to my clothes. I would get it tucked in only for it to whip out and start banging against my helmet again 2 minutes later.

I think at one point I was so frustrated and deafened/blinded/freezing that I started to whimper. Then I went f a c k i n g BANANAS.

Then to make matters worse, my gloves started to let water in and my god damn mega boots started as well.

It was a dark day for YamYam.

Oh well.

Every wondered what a white helmet looks like after being ridden through a pack of Scottish Midges?

Fly swatter need not apply

So yeah, there you go.

Other July highlights are my bike breaking at a petrol station but then magically working again, and lots of miles.

Thanks for stopping by folks, I really do appreciate it.

Gordon

Back in full swing.

Hello all.

Well this last 2 weeks have flown by. My bike was in for it’s 7500 mile service last Thursday and although they didn’t fix the really annoying knocking sound, they did fit another back tyre. £340 it cost for the service and back tyre, which is a big chunk of moolah, but I guess that’s what happens if you use your bike a lot.

So the knocking is still there, but I have booked my bike in at the end of August for a “longer test ride” by the mechanics, who also noted on the service sheet that I need a new air filter…but they couldn’t fit it because they ran out of time…

Great. I am starting to doubt the authenticity of the garage. In a few posts back I wrote about how B needed a new bar end weight after his fell off. Well he went in to the garage at the weekend there and I went with him on my bike so he could get his bar end weight fitted under warranty. He decided to get a new back tyre as well because it was bald! So we waited around for a bit and then the guy signalled B in to pay for his back tyre fitting. When he got in the guy said, “That’ll be £140 please” and B went, wait a minute. He knew exactly how much it should have cost because I got my tyre fitted 2 days ago and it should have been £118 fitted. So he queiried it.

“Well there’s the tyre, and that costs £x, and there’s the valve and that costs £x, and then you have the fitting and balancing and that costs £x….and then you have the bar end weight..so anyway.”

“Hold on a minute, the bar end weight is to be done under warranty!”

“Hmmmm. Hold on.”

He then got the only guy in the whole of the garage that is allowed to deal with warranty issues (supposedly) and he came out and went, yeah it’s to be done under warranty.

If B was any other punter, he would have just paid the £140 and that would be it, no second thoughts, but it just shows how sneaky some people can be.

Rant over.

The weather was tremendous at the weekend, starting foggy and burning off to reveal a gorgeous day. I then went with Em on Sunday to buy a sofa, which was stressful and then had a BBQ at night, which was awesome.

The week started pretty bad with lots of fog. Then today it was foggy again but brightened up a lot during the day, only to lead to an insane mega down pour at home time, but luckily I only caught the outskirts of it and managed to ride across the front of it, which was nice!

The bike is going well, and the back tyre sure does remind me how good the GSR handles. You start to lose that “flickability” when your tyre looks like a car tyre. Oh well.

I was going to get some BT016’s on for their “triple compound” goodness but can’t afford it this month (or the next 56) because of the house. Oh well.

We move in in 2 weeks and Em is beside herself. I can’t wait and I am looking forward to 19 days of pure and simple holiday.

I am finishing my photography website off where I have got all my landscape photographs and other images available for sale. I’ll post details closer to launch, but as a wee taster, here’s one of my images. If you fancy owning a fantastic limited edition print, including ones that are distinctly motorcycle based then check it out.
Thanks for looking all,

Gordon