Let’s go back to the beginning. I went down to one of the London bike shows to get myself measured up for the jacket back in Feb 08. Keith, the owner of BKS was the chap I met up with. He went through the various options with me during the measurement process. I eventually settled on deer cow leather because it felt a bit softer to the touch and I liked the peterna (if that’s what its called) of this particular leather cut. I also went for one of the excellent back boards and the fleece liner for the cooler UK days.

It was a long wait but the jacket eventually arrived in mid June. Initially as predicted the jacket was a bit stiff and didn’t feel perfect when wearing it on the bike. It needed to be worn in so that the creases would fold accordingly around my special shape that is a fatbiker. After a month or so of use it eventually started to feel like it was mine. Due to the physical weight of the jacket its probably not the best jacket for wearing on a commute that involves walking or public transport like mine does. This means that the jacket is reserved for weekend or longer rideouts only. This is fine with me though because I wear a waterproof jacket when riding to work because I need to arrive dry and don’t want to be carrying a heavy leather when on the train.

Back to the jacket. I also chose optional pure white stitching. This contrasts nicely with the black leather and really makes the jacket look the part. On the arms I have a BKS reflective logo, for a bit of safety and because I’m a bit of a label tart. You would too if you had splashed out over £1k on a bespoke jacket.

A few months back I was in my local triumph dealership having a look see at the bikes when one of the staff came up to me and asked to touch my jacket. It turned out that they sold the mass produced BKS stuff that whilst good does not compare to the cut and quality of my jacket. This chap stood there groping me in public. I felt a right plonker being mauled and other people were looking at me and this chap getting off next to me. This sounds weird but he was actually that excited about touching a real one!

Moving on. As with any leather, this jacket is hot when stuck in a jam on a warm day. Not a problem though coz the zip can be operated with a gloved hand and the flap can be fastened back to allow a bit if air in.

So is this jacket worth the price tag? If you can, go for it. This jacket will last a bikers life time and some. If you are unfortunate enough to have a spill BKS will repair it for you using the exact leather cut that they used to create it. Obviously this costs but atleast you can continue to use the jacket and rely on its CE approval afterwards.

I should mention the CE approval shouldn’t I. BKS are one of the few manufacturers that can advertise the actual jacket as being CE approved besides the armour. Most jackets only sport CE approved armour. It makes you wonder how the a normal jacket would hold out in a fast slide. The seems could burst and you could still end up with a bad dose of road rash.

Checkout the BKS website for more info. They are expensive but your skin is priceless…

Fitting was a breeze because the Stelvio comes with a sturdy rack and all I needed to do was bolt down the Trax base plate and slide the box on. The job took about 15 or so minutes to do. I reckon the Stelvio looks good with it fitted… Well as best as a bike can look when it has luggage fitted….

Rear Viewshowing the two seperate locks.

Side view

View from the underside showing the base plate and lock mechanism

In the recent past I have used my fantastic rex marsee tank bag but infortunately that bag will not fit around the sculpted shape of the Stelvios petrol tank. I’ve therefore had to rethink the way I keep my phone clean, safe and dry whilst on the bike. Step in the Ram aquabox. This is a £36 water tight box that comes in various sizes and can house anything from a cheap GPS thats not waterproof to your mobile phone or anything else come to think of it. It mounts on to a standard ram ball mount. The clear plastic screen allows you to press the buttons of your chosen device without having to remove it. Ive not confirmed that my iphone will operate through the screen just yet. I’ll confirm that soon. My HTC Desire seems to work just fine using an un-gloved finger. At the back of the box is a pop out hole that allows you to feed a power cable in to the box to keep your device juiced up whilst on the move.

Enough whittling on. checkout the pics below…

The grip-lock is a is a cracking lock that clamps your throttle AND front break together thus locking up the front wheel and stopping and turds from moving your bike without the use of something a bit more serious like a metal bar or the like. When you take delivery all you have to do is pack out the lock with the supplied rubber inserts so that its just tight enough to stop the throttle twisting. You then need to adjust the black insert so that it clamps the brake lever in place. This is one of the nice things about this lock, it’ll fit on to almost any bike…

The lock is made of plastic with metal inserts running down the insides of it. The lock mechanism is made of a good quality barrel type lock. As with all locks of this type, it wont stop someone nicking your bike but it should be used in conjunction with something like a chain. If you have a steering lock on, the grip-lock and a chain holding the bike in place I reckon the turd of  thief will pick the bike next to yours… Job done… Its saved your bike from theft.

The lock comes in a few different colours. I went for the loud yellow colour so that all can see that its fitted to my bike. Another thing to note about this lock is that you cannot forget its still locked to the bike. I have done this twice with a disc lock Luckily both times nothing serious happened.

Now to the key. The size of the key is tiny. I am no locksmith so I cannot comment if this is a good or bad thing but having a short key is a massive bonus for me. It means that I can have it on the same keyring as the ignition key and it wont scratch the bike coz it cannot easily make contact with it whilst riding the bike. Its a small thing but for me it was a nice touch.

Grip-Lock.com are based in New Zealand and you can only buy direct from them. Do not let this put you off purchasing from them because delivery is super fast. They posted the lock out to my on the Tuesday and I had it on the Saturday. They are great communicators too and will respond quickly to any emails you may want to send to them.

Fatbiker are going to award this lock a very healthy 5 out of 5. We back this up because its a great looking lock, fits easily under your saddle when not in use, sticks out like a sore thumb when locked to the bike and saves you getting brake dust on your person when fitting or removing it.

Thanks go out to Tracey @ Grip Lock for her assistance in providing us with a lock for review.

www.grip-lock.com

To cut to the chase I’ll confirm now that its an excellent bit of kit if you have a compatible helmet and are in the market for an expandable wireless comms system. This system allows pretty good quality phone calls within legal speed limits with the added bonus of full stereo audio to relax you whilst out on a cruise. If you have a pillion with the right bits installed in their helmet you will also be able to share your audio feed AND chat to them whilst aboard your bike. For me it’s been a liberating experience having the ability to receive inbound calls and listening to music. I rarely have to make calls on the bike and generally either stop or schedule my riding around such calls but again, having the ability to make a call is excellent.

Now that you have read the basics lets get in to a bit more detail about the kit. The box contains the following bits. A mic, helmet speakers, battery module, control unit, cables and the externally mounted stick on keyboard.  The instructions are detailed BUT confusing so you’ll need to read them a few times before getting down to installing the bits and pieces. It goes without saying that if you are reading this stuff then you obviously have a compatable X-Lite helmet. If not, click away back to Google and continue your searches for other bluetooth kits. Sorry, back to the installation. You have to strip down the helmet before fitting. It does look a bit scary with all the padding spread over the table but don’t panic. Its a really basic jigsaw puzzle once you’ve looked at the bits. The relevant components fit nicely into pre-shaped compartments within the padding of the helmet and don’t really require fixing due to the exact fit. The mic is pretty well thought out. It slides into a recess within the chin guard so it doesn’t  get in the way when you put on/remove your helmet. A nice touch. The control keypad sticks to the outside of the helmet and is nice and tactile through a glove whilst not sticking out too far and creating a load of wind noise whilst going fast. This is a criticism I have of most of the after market units which have a massive bolt on part that sits on the outside of the helmet.

Now I’m gonna fast forward on a bit. If you want to know how the rest of the bits are fitted you can download the user manual from X-Lites website.

Usage….  Firstly you need to pair the helmet with any bluetooth units you plan on using with it. In my case  i’m  using an iPhone. Its bluetooth support is ok but not perfect. If your phone is capable of voice activated dialling  you will be able to use this feature whilst inside your helmet. Unfortunately for me, the crappy bluetooth implementation on the iphone does not support it. So my outgoing calls are limited to the last dialed number. Better than nothing. Incoming calls are great. If you are listening to music it gently fades out as the ringer fades in. You then just press any button on the keypad on the helmet and the call is answered. When the call ends the music fades back in. Cool! Volume is very good, almost too loud without ear plugs. With ear plugs you’ll need to just slow down a tad whilst on the call. All of my callers noted the total lack of wind noise even though I was pushing on. It goes without saying that as a user of this kit, you should be mildly sympathetic to the cause and appreciate that sometime you do need to slow down just a tad whilst on a call.

Lets move on to music now. Again, due to the crappy bluetooth implementation music controls are limited. This is not a limitation of the x-series unit. If you were connected to a capable device you would be able to select your track, start and stop your music. All I can do is start and stop a track. Better than nothing though. Playing a relaxing track whilst out and about relaxes me and if anything slows me down a tad. Again, Cool!

There are a few other functions that the N-Com X-Series Bluetooth kit supports of which I cannot report on yet. One of those is rider to pillion comms. I hardly ever carry a pillion let alone one with the right kit in their helmet. The other function is voice guided GPS. MY research so far says that I should be able to be listening to music AND accept voice instructions from a GPS device at the same time. I don’t have such a GPS device but am hoping that either TomTom or Navigon will allow me to test one of their products on my iPhone soon. That’ll be the ultimate setup for me…

What are the downsides? There are a few. If you are off touring you obviously need to pack a charger to keep things energized but I reckon the battery life of this kit is definitely good enough for a FULL days use at a minimum. For me its lasted a week because i’m commuting on the bike so am not having it switched on for hours at a time. Thanks go out to Mike @ Ultimate bike gear for arranging this review and installing the kit in to my helmet.

So to round this one off I’ll say that Fatbiker is gonna give this kit a 4* out of 5*.

Likes. System integration, usage, battery life, noise cancellation

Dislikes. Price. Saying that, all these kind of systems are expensive so you get what you pay for…

Below are some pictures of the kit fitted in to my helmet.

Web Links

Nolan’s N-com website

Ultimate Bike Gear

On the acceleration front its great too. My Son no longer has to put up with me moving about on the saddle as we cruise the country lanes of East Anglia. He’s been planted for a while courtesy of another Triboseat cover on the pillion seat so now neither of us move about unless we want to.

Fitting is a breeze. All you need to do is pop you’re saddle off, slip the cover over the riders contact area and pop the saddle back on the bike. Job done! Thanks to Patricia @ Triboseat for supplying Fatbiker with the Rider for review. Priced at £12.99, its a worthy addition to any bike.

Close up view of the “Rider” fitted to the saddle

Side on view showing the elastic straps that hold the cover on

Weblinks :-

Triboseat

I wasn’t looking for a bag specifically made for my bike because I have a bit of a habit of changing bikes once a year. I was also looking out for a product that was made well and would last the distance if you know what I mean. The UK markets are full of products from Oxford, Hien Gericke and the like. I’m sure they are good but I was looking out for something special. My Google searches eventually came up with Rex Marsee. Personally I have never heard of them prior to my recent dealings but it quickly became apparent that Rex’s products were different to the rest out there. For me the the semi rigid design and strong poly carbonate clear map window at the top of his bags seemed like common sense designs to me. I often only need to carry a disc lock, spare gloves, phone and wallet so having a bag half empty bag flapping about in front of me wasn’t something I relished.

Anyway, moving on… I spent a bit of time researching the bags that Rex had available and then got in contact with their European distributor to enquire about a delivery to the UK. Bill Shaw of Mission Motos explained the available bag options including their electrical hook ups to me and recommended the 10 Liter (litre for those in the UK) teardrop bag to me along with the electrical hook so that I could power my phone, gps and heated clothing when the weather gets tough. At this point I also emailed Mr Marsee and it was eventually agreed that a bag would be posted out for review.

10 days later and here we are, a seriously cool and functional bag is fitted to my bike and I will tell you now, its really well made and its obvious that someone with a bit of a brain has actually thought about the design and materials involved in putting this bag together. Fitting was easy. The base fits easily thanks to the length adjustable straps and the electrical hook up was quickly secreted into the bike and connected up to the battery.

When you first fit the bag to the base there appears to be some movement around the zipped area. I can assure you now that the bag is totally planted up to the legal speed limits and beyond (allegedly). I used the map area of the bag recently to get me to a place in London that I was not familiar with and it was great being able to print out a Google map and instructions and just pop them in the top. When you need to change page just stick the bike in neutral when stationary at a set of traffic lights an pop the top open and flick to the next page. There is no need to take your gloves off to do this. Not everyone wants to use a GPS all the time. As it happens, the bag will happily hold a powered GPS in the top if required with the power cables running nicely though the two holes into the lower part of the bag. I found it very handy being able to store my disc lock, phone, wallet, spare light weight gloves, keys and other bits in the bag. Technically its dangerous carrying anything in the pockets of your jacket. a phone tucked away in a breast pocket will break a rib with ease whilst sliding down the road.

The bag is easily fitted and removed from the base. It just zips on using the nice chunky zip and seems to be well secured once done up. If you are out for a blast and don’t need the bag but still need a map the base has a water tight map window in it that’s very handy. Well thought out.

I’m a daily commuter and use the bike as part of an onwards journey. I can now store a flask, wallet, phone and waterproof trousers in this bag and just carry it about when on the train. Its a good size and usable on and off the bike. I’ve not ridden in heavy rain with this bag yet so cannot confirm its waterproofing but I can tell you now, I’m not going to jet wash the bag down and then moan about it failing. That’s not a fair test to me. The zipped area looks pretty tough and there is a good sized lip inside it so I suspect that in normal wet riding conditions it’ll hold out as expected. If you are concerned then pack your electrical items in a bag to be safe.

If you are interested in purchasing a real tank bag that’ll actually do a proper job for you, speak to Bill at Mission Moto’s Bill is the European distributor for Rex Marsee and will go out of his way to make sure you get the right bit of kit for the job in hand.

No doubt I’ll be updating this article with my future experiences of this bag but for now I say well done Mr Marsee for building a properly designed bag that’s actually useful for normal bikers.

Below are a few pictures of the bag and here is the full picture set on Flickr.

Weblinks:-

Rex Marsee

Mission Motos Motorcycle Accessories

Full Picture Set

The idea of such a cover is that it makes the saddle to arse patch super grippy and therefore reduces the chances of said arse slipping around when on the bike. It really does work. These covers only cost approx £10 GBP and are worth every penny.

Fitting is easy and should only take a few minutes. In my case all I had to do was remove the saddle turn it upside down. Remove the grab strip from the bike by removing the two fixing screws from underneath the saddle. The cover then fits over the saddle and is tied off with the draw strings to another part of the saddle. I was also able to fix the ends of the string back under the grab strip securing bolts. I would recommend that you re-adjust the cover after a few ride outs to make sure its well secured.

Pics below:-

Underside View of the saddle with the Triboseat cover fitted

Side view of the saddle

Top view of the saddle. Thats a small arse contact point I can tell you…

Weblinks :-

Triboseat