Common Gear Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2020

7PM East / 4PM West

Where: Facebook.com/GearChic

RSVP HERE

Join me Wednesday night, I’m going to share some common gear mistakes you might be making. This idea has been swirling in my head for months, I finally decided to just schedule a 45 minute-1 hour talk about this.

And then we’ll have 15 minutes or so for QnA at the end.

Doesn’t matter if you’re experienced at riding, or new at riding.

Gear is fluid and so much of how it works and what it does for us depends on how you may use it or want it to work.

I’ll cover how wearing a helmet that isn’t designed for your riding position can be a negative or positive thing

The human aspect of wearing gear adds another layer of difficulty sometimes because when our gear doesnt do what we want it to do, it can be frustrating or a let down.

I’m going to give you the most common mistakes that I run into when I talk to customers about riding gear. Sometimes I’m right, and sometimes I’m wrong.

Feel free to post any questions here as well, but you can rsvp and post in the Facebook Event too.

Open Letter to New Women Riders

This is something I wrote a few years ago but thought it would be good to bring it back to life for 2020!

Have a Happy New Year.

http://www.gearchic.com/blog/2016/03/13/an-open-letter-to-new-women-riders

Join Me on The Lean Angle

(Left: Alisa Clickenger/Women’s Motorcycle Tours, Right: Porsche Taylor/Black Girls Ride Mag,)

I never have enough to do so I started a brand new motorcycle show on Facebook, called The Lean Angle.

We’ll be streaming live on Facebook, on our page here: Facebook.com/LeanAngleShow.

The Lean Angle will cover a wide range of topics as it relates to motorcycles. Alisa has a strong solo travel, dual sport background (in addition to street touring) and Porsche has a lot of experience in solo travel, sport touring and cruising. And you know me and my sporty bike addiction.

We hope to be on at least once a month for ~60 minutes but will do our best to try and see you a little sooner. With summer around the corner, our schedules are hectic but we all love talking about motorcycles so check out our first episode which aired last night!

And you DON’T even need a Facebook account to watch! But if you do have an account, post a comment in the episode and let us know your thoughts including what kinds of topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes.

Facebook.com/LeanAngleShow

So it doesn’t matter who you are, what/when/how/where you ride. Join us on The Lean Angle!

More Options for Women's Gear from Held USA

Just in time for Spring and Summer 2018, Held GmbH is releasing more gloves to the American market through Held USA and giving us Moar Gloves! 

These are especially awesome because they are higher performance gloves for women who WANT BETTER GEAR. 

First up is the Air N Dry, $250 for a GoreTex XtraFit glove that features 2 pockets. One is where your hand will be totally dry, surrounded in the most breathable waterproof membrane.

Palms are perforated and feature grey Kangaroo leather

Held Air N Dry Gloves for Women, Black

The other pocket allows the palm of your hand to feel airflow right through to the full palm of your hand and the full underside of your fingers. 

So this means if you're getting air, your hands aren't staying completely dry. 

Why is this useful? Well in mild winter climates like San Francisco, where you rarely get weather below 45F even in Winter, the glove provides plenty of wind resistance to keep cold air out for the most part. 

And then for the 2-3 weeks a year where the temperatures climb above 80F, you have a lower pocket that is fully perforated in case you need some airflow. 

Evo Thrux, top side

However, for those of us who've decided to migrate over to the East Coast where it starts to get fully tropical in the summer months, these gloves are the perfect summer/wet weather companion. Here, it's hot and wet in the summer so your temperature range is constantly changing and you may need something waterproof (but not insulated/warm for winter) when it's 85F, Raining and Humid. 

As long as your hand is in the upper chamber, you'll stay nice and dry but not insulated or warm. Notice these gloves offer the *exact same* protection as the Mens Version :D

The next glove they released is the Evo Thrux, $170. These are a track worthy glove, but also very much street friendly as well. The reason the palms are grey? You guessed it, Kangaroo leather. 

Evo Thrux, Palm side

If you've been following along, you know that I only wear my Racer Gloves when I ride unless it's too cold out. I love the feel of Kangaroo leather, it's unlike any other on your handgrips. 

These are pretty comparable to my Racers, in protection and function. Instead of carbon fiber bits, they're using SuperFabric to accomplish similar protections in the form of abrasion resistance. I think they're going to give my friends at Racer a run for their money. But I wouldn't trade these in for my Racers yet. ;)  

If these ladies gloves follow the profile of the mens versions, then I'll say that they might have wider palms and slightly longer fingers than other Europeans including Revit, Alpinestars and Dainese. 

The last glove in their Spring lineup is the Sereena, $165. 

They're a solid leather glove for year roundish riding. They're not waterproof, not warm, just a middle weight glove that you would wear when it's not extremely hot or extremely cold. 

The perfect GoTo, as I like to call the one you wear the most. For the price, there's a lot of technical features going on here like Schoeller Keprotec, Sas-Tec Armor and Outlast. Those are awesome, but can't a woman at least get a Palm Slider for that much money? I would've skipped the Outlast and made sure there was at least SuperFabric on the palms (like the Evo Thrux) because you almost always need your gloves to perform right there. 

If I didn't have my palm sliders I probably wouldn't have a glove or palm left. 

Overall, I'm happy to see that more brands are bringing on better gear for us. There are a LOT of options for women right now but sadly, most of them are more average in protection and seem to be catering heavily to the casual/fashion based crowd. 

I hope to see more women look at better gear options so that they aren't asking themselves "What If" later.