Bike Gear

I had great fun today - went out and bought some stuff for the bike :-) Boring stuff was a cover (since it's going into winter, and I'd hate to see it get ruined by rain - although a cover seems somewhat... I want to say geeky, but that's not quite right in the context); and a disc lock (along with one of those gizmos to hook on to the lock and the handlebars, so that you don't try to ride off with it still attached; a very important thing).

Cool stuff is my helmet - it's a Caberg Justissimo flip-front, black, with sunshades :-) Not so useful in the UK, I would have thought, but then I guess the weather can get pretty sunny even here. It's even treated with Sanitex, or something like that, which stops the growth of mold and bacteria; and the inner lining is removable and washable (although there was a rather bizzarre warning saying that petrol shouldn't be used to wash it). The padding is also supposed to be super cool and wickable, which can be quite important since your head gets really hot wearing a helmet at times.

The other cool thing is my jacket - it's truly awesome. It's a Spyke, black, with a removeable inner lining (which can be worn as a jacket on its own, if you don't mind wearing silver). It's really comfortable, and it's got shoulder armour as well as elbow and forearm armour, and it's got a 3M reflective strip so it'll be nice and visible in the dark. And pockets! It's got two inner zip pockets, about 6 outer zip pockets, and 2 inner pockets, a chest pocket, and a sleeve pocket in the lining as well. It's got a velcro covered main zip, so rain won't get in, and adjustable arms and sides and adjustable velcro closings on the neck It's even got a removable hood, also with an adjustable velcro closing on the neck. And it's a nice plain black/charcoal colour, so you can easily wear it almost as a normal jacket (the problem always is, when riding somewhere, what do you do with your jacket when you get there? but this one you can wear).

Umm, what else? Guess that's all I bought; this was all from Motoden, by the way, which is an excellent place. I impressed the hell out of the sales guy when I told him what I'm riding :D, and apparently they're quite happy to do services on grey imports, which is great. They're a bit far away, but they seem a lot more professional than the little bike places around here, and I trust them a lot more. So far, anyway :-)

Haven't bought a GPS unit yet - it's going to take a bit of getting used to riding the new bike, since it's a totally different riding position from the Hipster, so I don't really need the GPS unit yet. I want to get the TomTom Rider, since it's the only one I know of that's specifically designed for bikes, and it's got very good reviews. I shopped around for it a bit yesterday, and it seems like prices vary from £250 (but they don't actually have stock) up to £540 online. Most places seem to charge about £350.