Volunteer rides, rain and other stuff

June Update

It's now well into the UK Covid-19 lockdown and we're now looking to open pubs, restaurants and parts of the leisure industry as I write (July 4th).
While many people have been hiding away and keeping safe, some of us have been able to ride, myself included. Working with Volunteer Riders UK (VRUK), I've now had a few more runs helping to deliver PPE to those who need it. So far I've had three runs on Tallulah Tiger Lilly and it rained for all three. In fact the only two other runs I've done, using the car, were the only ones where the Sun shined, but because of the amount of kit I had to transport, I couldn't even use the convertible, I had to use the Qashqai. 😒

While all three rides were enjoyable, even in the rain, the last one, from Peterborough down to Northampton and back was a little different. The rain was torrential & while I admit, my 10 year old Hein Gericke textile jacket & jeans held up well, they're beginning to show their age.

Since buying them, I've only washed them twice, both times using Nikwax products to both wash and re-proof them. the first time the results weren't so good, which earlier this year I took the opportunity to give them another go. This time the results were much better. and even in the poor conditions on my last ride, they kept me mostly dry.
The only areas that did get wet was, quite literally my arse and elbows. I suspect part of that was due to my sheepskin seat pad which, while I sat on it, was kept fairly dry, but once exposed to the downpour for the 15 minutes I was off the bike, became saturated. Yes, I flicked as much water off it with my gloved hand as I could before remounting, but that was also when I felt that cold creeping dampness that told me I'd be sitting in a puddle for the remainder of my journey.
I'm now on the hunt for some new textiles and think I've found the very thing.

I'm going to try out some #Alpinestars. I already have some of their kit, my 10 year old boots are Alpinestars, as are my 2-piece leathers and I really can't fault their quality. The boots have stood up well and even survived an 'off' but still clean up well and have remained waterproof throughout. I really can't find fault with them, so am sure they'll serve me for many more years. The leathers I bought second hand, so don't really know their history. I've worn them a few times over the 3 years I've had them, on both my Blackbird and Tiger and find them really comfortable. the only fault with them is the zip and that has two failings. Firstly, the zipper seems to be on the wrong side. what I mean by that is most men’s jackets zip pull is on the left, but on my jacket, it's on the right. Nothing to get worked up about and to be fair, you get used to it (more on this later). secondly, the bit you hold on to, to pull the zip has broken. I've read this was fairly common on Alpinestars leathers and again, it's fixable and doesn't really bother me as there's still enough of the pull to attach a piece of leather to pull on.

So which jacket/Jeans have I decided on?

I'm going to go for the Alpinestars Andes V2 Drystar Textile jacket with matching jeans. teh vast majority of the reviews I've read are favourable and they're within the right price range. One interesting point seems to be feedback on the zip, which states the zip pull is on the right, not the left as most men’s jackets seem to be, much like my Alpinestars leather jacket. Sportsbikeshop.co.uk seem to have the best prices at the moment and are open to the public. there's a store not too far from me so I'll be going to take a look in the next week.
Now the only thing to decide is what colour, do I go for the light grey, fluorescent yellow (Nah!) or the military green?