RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
Beat the winter blues...
ARR’S TOP 10 TIPS FOR BUYING WET-WEATHER KIT
- Guess what? Golfers and sailors wear
similar stuff. Don’t limit yourself to the
motorcycle retailer. - Buy what you need. If you do 2000km a
year, you really should look to the cheaper
end of the market range. - If you do more than 20,000km a year, we’d
recommend shopping at the top end of the
market range. - Do you have carrying capacity? This stuff
takes up space. If you’re limited in this area,
look to versatile gear that can be worn year
round (zip-out liners are good for this). - Do you carry pillions in bad weather? A
hypothermic passenger is a crook look. Kit
loved ones out, too. - Leather suits do not hold heat well. You
may look a million bucks but race suits
are designed to cool the rider and off er
li le thermal assistance. Plus wet leather
weighs a tonne.
7. Avoid products that quote terms like “water
repellent” or “water resistant”. The Titanic
was water resistant.
8. If you do a lot of night riding, go for
gear with good refl ective features. The
decreased visibility in bad weather can
make you very hard to see.
9. Remember to buy sizes a li le larger than
you would for normal clothing. You are
probably going to wear this stuff over
some bulky clothing, including a well-
armoured jacket (in the case of PVC or
polyurethane gear).
10. Read up, do your homework. Word of
mouth is good here, so ask your mates.
I’ve owned many jackets that claimed
to be waterproof that turned out to be
anything but.
WHAT IS GORE-TEX?
Gore-Tex materials are typically based
on thermo-mechanically expanded
polytetrafl uoroethylene and other
fl uoropolymer products. Yeah, we’re not
sure, either — but that’s the tech guff.
Gore-Tex is best known for its use
in protective, yet breathable, rainwear.
Early Gore-Tex fabric replaced the inner
layer of polyurethane with a thin, porous
fl uoropolymer membrane (Tefl on) coating
that is bonded to a fabric. This membrane
had about nine billion pores per square
inch (around 1.4 billion pores per square
centimetre). Each pore is approximately
1/20,000 the size of a water droplet, making
it impenetrable to liquid water while still
allowing the smaller-sized water vapour
molecules to pass through.
However, it was found that, when used
in clothing, the exposed Tefl on membrane
layer was easily damaged as well as being
compromised by exposure to the wearer’s
own perspiration. As a result, a third
monolithic polyurethane layer was added.
Finally, either a loose fabric shell layer or
a bonded coating (typically a grid fabric or
occasionally a carbon layer as in Gore-Tex
Paclite Shell) is added to the garment to
protect the membrane sandwich.16 | AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDERUPFRONT
ARR139_012-019_Upfront.indd 16ARR139_012-019_Upfront.indd 16 6/20/2017 1:53:46 PM6/20/2017 1:53:46 PM