Kit Report - ex-Police Hi-Viz Jacket

I bought this two winters ago. I ought to say at the outset that I am not a big fan of high-visibility clothing for motorcyclists. I'm not against it, but I do feel that a lot of people put far too much importance on it. Politicians, regulators and researchers are all in favour, and I think their approval is the result of some misguided thinking: if so many motorcycle accidents are caused by the other driver not seeing the biker, then making bikers more visible will cure the problem. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that. Some bikers follow the bad logic - if accidents are caused by motorcyclists not being seen, then if I wear hi-viz I will be free of risk (or, goes the corollary, if there is an accident, it won't be my fault). This is, of course, bollocks. I have talked about this a lot elsewhere, so I won't repeat myself, but in essence the way to be safe on a bike is to ride as if no-one can see you. Proper defensive riding is far more use than looking like a Christmas tree. However, the statistics show that riders who wear conspicuous clothing are proportionately represented slightly less in the accident figures (although this may be a sampling bias - the riders who wear the gear tend to be the safer riders anyway), so there are circumstances where I will wear the yellow. But I do it according to conditions and circumstances, not as a cast-iron rule, and I never believe that the gear I am in will prevent an accident, although it may reduce the likelihood of one.

I made the decision to get this jacket after an incident (well, a potential incident) two winters ago. I was leaving work at about 5.30 pm one January evening. It was dark, and the rain was heavy. It was one of those nights that just seemed blacker than normal, if you know what I mean. I was on the XT600. I packed my work gear into the top box and fired it up, and then set off up the site road heading for home. I had gone about 100m when the bike suddenly stopped dead - the engine cut out and the lights failed in an instant. I pushed it to some shelter and had a quick grope around in the dark, found the main fuse had blown, and replaced it. The bike started as normal, but as soon as I switched on the lights it died again. OK, a short somewhere, but it needed daylight and some more tools to investigate, so I parked the bike somewhere safe, and got a lift home. (It turned out to be a short in the headlamp cowl, but it took a bit of finding.) But it made me think. About half a mile down the road on my way home was a stretch of A-road which was very busy at that time of night. It's unlit, it passes through some woodland, it's downhill and twisty, and there are high banks on either side. And cars (and bikes too, oops) tear down there at high speeds. If the bike had cut out there, I would have been toast. No power and, crucially, no lights. They would be wiping me off the windscreen before they had seen me. Clearly, something that would show up well in headlights - unlike the almost-matte black suit I wear in bad weather - might make a difference.

So that night I had a look on eBay and found someone selling an ex-Police motorcycle jacket: yellow hi-viz, with retro-reflective bands, chequer-pattern stripes and proper bloke sizes. (The seller was nick120_4, although I haven't seen anything similar from him since.) The only thing that distinguished it from a proper Police jacket was that the word 'Police' had been removed from the blue panels - apparently to comply with the law. It was 100% waterproof and lined with Gore-Tex, and that sold it to me. I think it was £50.



With a flash on the camera, it looks pretty conspicuous in headlights:



It was exactly what I was looking for, and I was very pleased I had got it. I didn't wear it every day, but if I was riding after dark and it was raining, I brought it with me and I was glad of it. It's big enough to fit over my usual leather jacket, and has the added advantage of keeping the leathers dry and cutting the wind to slow down heat loss.

The disadvantage is that you look a bit (OK, a lot) like a copper. On the ratty old XT, most people weren't fooled, although I did notice car drivers sometimes behaving in an oddly polite manner. But on the Pan (also ex-Police), the effect was startling. It would take a very cool driver to see me coming up in his mirrors, see the word Police had been erased from the jacket, note the lack of aerials on the bike, and know he could continue at 90 mph as he pleased. People would move over to let me through, let me out at junctions, and generally behave in a cringingly subservient manner. I found this amusing. The disadvantage was on roads where overtaking was difficult. You would come up behind someone doing a perfectly reasonable and safe 70 mph, and they would suddenly drop to 56 mph and stay there. The Pan had a calibrated speedo, so I could tell they thought they were doing exactly 60 on their over-reading speedometers. Amusing for a while. On the M6 last week, cruising at a steady 70-75 on an obviously non-Police Bonnie, I lost count of the number of cars that roared past in lane 3 and then pulled meekly in front and slowed to the limit when they saw me.

Anyway, a long way of getting round to the choice of garment for the trip. I knew I might be meeting some bad weather, and I knew I would be riding after dark, and I knew I would be possibly doing either or both on busy motorways, so I chose to wear the jacket from the start. This had the added advantage of reassuring Anna, who was a little nervous about me making the trip on the bike anyway. And when I was on the M6 going over Shap Fell in driving rain and spray, I was very glad that I was a little more visible (and dry) than I might have been otherwise.

As a shell, the jacket was brilliant. Over the textile suit, it was a little tighter than over the leathers, but it kept the water at bay superbly: the suit jacket was almost dry at the end of the two days. It is meant to be an outside layer, as there is no lining, just a Gore-Tex membrane bonded to a nylon outer, but that meant that it dried out in no time too.

There are two further advantages to wearing it, which are not obvious.

One is that it may give the impression to other motorists that you are a sensible and serious rider - after all, hooligans don't wear hi-viz, do they? When I am wearing it, I seem to feel that car drivers are a little less aggressive, and a little more co-operative. Perhaps I am putting my own interpretation on this - when I am out on the road, riders in hi-viz (on big bikes, at least) make me think 'serious rider, possibly a bit boring, but unlikely to do anything silly'. Simpson helmets, camo trousers and Billy Mitchell helmet-ears tend to have the reverse effect.

The other is that people are nice to you. I am pretty sure this is another aspect to the 'looks like a copper' thing. I passed through Aberystwyth on the way North, and a pretty student on the pavement gave me a huge smile. It cheered me up all the way to Chester. I thought nothing of it (other than 'should I do a U-turn right now?'), but then when I was waiting in a queue for food at a service area there was the same thing. Men stood to one side and called me 'mate', women smiled and got their children to behave. It was quite uncanny. There's a PhD for someone in all this - how the British, despite their chippiness and independence, go all gooey and subservient in the presence of someone who they think is in authority. Especially if they are a teensy bit over the speed limit.

All in all - a lot of money for what is essentially a second-hand jacket, but fulfils its function brilliantly well, and recommended for journeys where hi-viz is likely to be of benefit. Over winter, it will stay in the left-hand pannier in case of really bad visibility, or when I misjudge the weather and go out under-dressed.

One thought - how do the Police feel about someone riding around in one of 'their' jackets? Well, I was followed from Aberaeron down the coast road on Saturday night by a Volvo I could not shake off. He must have followed me for 5 miles before he swept past, and then I realised it was a Police car. He must have clocked the jacket, but he didn't seem to mind that - or the fairly 'spirited' riding style I was innocently displaying.

Lest We Forget

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Kit Report - Shoei XR1000

Today seems like as good a time as any to review the performance of my regular kit, after the thorough testing I gave it last week. I hope it is of some use to someone, but bear in mind this is only my opinions and not in any way a scientific or balanced assessment. On the positive side, I have paid for all this stuff with my own money (with one exception, thanks Endo) and so anything I say will be unbiased and as objective as I can make it.

First off, the brain bucket that kept my head dry and the bugs out of my eyes - my 'main' helmet, a three-year-old Shoei XR1000.



It's often said that you either have an Arai-shaped head or a Shoei-shaped head. I have never actually owned an Arai, but long experience has shown me that Shoei fits me fine. I came back to biking after a break of a few years in 2007. I had kept my old Shoei and wore that for a while, but the lining had gone mis-shapen and it was very uncomfortable. I bought a cheap Caberg as a stop-gap, but only until I could get a new Shoei. I finally found one on eBay at a price I could afford. It was brand-new-in-box, but was last year's graphics and was therefore offered by this seller at a huge discount over the then-current prices. I think it cost me £245, when new ones with the latest designs were nearer £400. I'm not a fashion victim and I quite liked the look of the thing anyway, so a deal was done.

For me, it's very comfy to wear. I can wear it all day (say three hours at a stretch and nine hours total), and by the end of the day there is only a slight discomfort around the ears where the ear cups have started to rub. It's reasonably quiet - certainly quieter than most helmets I have had, but I have never used something like a Schuberth which are reckoned to be the quietest around, so I can't compare it with those. I have never known any helmet's ventilation system to work, and the XR is no exception. I can slide all of the little buttons and flaps, and it makes not one iota of difference. Perhaps if I were planning to ride a lot in a hot country I might consider something with a cooling airflow, but there's no rush living in a temperate climate.

The best feature of the helmet is the visor. For one thing, it is easy to remove without tools, and the mechanism is robust, so there's little chance of being stranded somewhere with a useless helmet because of a bit of broken plastic. Rotate the visor to a marked position, flip a lever on either side, and the visor lifts off. The visors are not cheap - about £30 - but they are anti-scratch coated and made to take a Pinlock insert, more of which in a moment. Using one for daily commuting, the visors last me about a year. I could probably make them do for a lot longer, but I am very fussy about being able to see where I am going. I get mine from Race Visors, who are based in Guernsey and seem able to supply everything from standard clear to black, unlike mainland-based suppliers. I usually go for the 'light tint', which is road legal but has just enough of a tint to cut the worst of the glare (the photo above shows a clear visor). On long trips I carry a clear spare (usually the one I have previously retired), but in fact last week I wore the tinted visor all the time, and riding in the pitch black and rain was no problem. The eyes adjust very quickly.

I can't speak highly enough of the Pinlock system. This consists of a clear insert which attaches to the inside of the visor with two pegs. The insert has a soft seal around the edge, and creates a layer of dry air next to the visor, a bit like double-glazing. This goes a long way to preventing misting, and I believe the inserts also have a coating on the inside face that further prevents the formation of condensation on the inside. I have always had a problem with fogging visors, and with my previous Shoei I had got used to riding with the visor permanently open one notch for six months of the year. My eyes watered with the cold air on every ride. With a new Pinlock, I can sit at traffic lights in the pouring rain in January, with the visor fully closed, and not get any misting at all. You are looking through four air/perspex interfaces instead of two, and this does mean that oncoming headlights create slightly more starring than a plain visor, but it's no big deal, and is vastly outweighed in safety terms by the ability to ride in heavy traffic with your eyes on the task and not blinking from the cold air. Unfortunately, the Pinlock inserts don't last indefinitely, and after about a year with me they start misting over - although a lot less than with no insert at all - and I replace them. Maybe I wipe the coating off when I clean the inside of the visor, I dunno. But one a year doesn't seem a huge cost, when set against the enormous benefits in comfort and safety of being able to see clearly whatever the weather. (The Caberg I bought, which is a fine helmet in other ways, mists up on a warm day in June. Perhaps I should learn to stop breathing.) I will never buy another full-face helmet without a Pinlock insert. They are that good.

The fastening is a traditional double D-ring, and I am very happy with that. It's a little fiddly, but the advantage is that you adjust the fit every time you wear it. My open-face helmet has a seat-belt type clip, and while that is marginally easier to use, it needs constant adjustment of the buckle if it is to remain properly tight. The Shoei's strap has a dinky little stud that fastens the long end onto itself after you have tightened it, to stop any annoying flapping at speed. It works.

The XR1000 only gets a 3-star rating on the SHARP website. It's rated 'very good' for impacts to the front, crown and back, but 'fairly poor' for side impacts. The newer XR1100 gets five stars, and is rated 'good' for side impacts as well as 'very good' in the other places. That's a significant improvement, but it doesn't put me off the XR1000. It may be short-sighted of me, but comfort and useability (like the anti-fogging) come much higher up my list of desirables than a notional safety rating based on lab tests. If you're in an accident where the helmet is being tested to that extent, then you're in big trouble anyway. Better to have a helmet that allows you to concentrate on your riding in comfort, and avoid the situation in the first place. I'm not knocking the SHARP system, but it's only part of the function of the helmet. The XR1000 is ECE 22.05 certified, and that is enough for me.

The helmet is starting to show its age now. A bit of vigorous cleaning one day snapped the little plastic vent cover at the back, and that is now permanently open. It makes no difference, and I am in no hurry to fix it. It still looks smart and it will do me another couple of years at least. With most things, I am slightly pleased when they wear out or break, as this gives the opportunity to buy something different, but I will keep the XR until it falls apart. No rush.

Less of that blogging, young man

This blog seemed to go a bit frantic in October, with a massive 90 posts in the month - that's three a day. Some days, I seemed to spend most of my day either writing and researching stuff for posting, or reading other blogs and chasing up links and references for possible future bloggery. Well, it's got to stop.

I walked out of my last job in February. If anyone asked, I cited 'personal reasons', although the real reasons were complex. Partly, I was pretty exhausted after all of Anna's tribulations last year, and I wasn't 100% on the ball. Partly, the nature of the job I was doing had changed, and what had started as a relatively simple and manageable set of duties and responsibilities had become massively complex and burdensome. In the field of Health and Safety, if you're not on top of the game, bad things can happen, and I was starting to exhibit signs of significant stress - not sleeping, body systems going haywire, gloom, anger, negativity. Not me at all. I decided to make a clean exit. My employer and I parted on good terms, and the solution seemed to be the best thing for both of us. My health and outlook improved within days.

In my innocence, I had assumed that finding another job wouldn't be too hard. I am well-qualified and have a good employment record, and willing to work at almost anything. But my confidence was badly misplaced, and I have been unable to find anything. There are plenty of jobs out there, but for 90% of them I am absurdly over-qualified, and employers don't want over-qualified people, as they tend to either make trouble or move on too quickly. For the few jobs that came up that I was suitable for, there was often an internal candidate and the interview was a charade.

Long story short, and my limited financial resources ran out. The workhouse or debtors' prison loomed large in my future. So I swallowed my pride and contacted my employer again. I didn't want my old job back at any price, but I was willing to work in some other capacity. I was called for interview, and landed a position as a shift leader in Security. It's not completely problem-free, as I will need to find the time and money to get the SIA qualification to meet the job requirements, but they are being flexible about this and allowing me to do this within the first three months of the job. I start work tomorrow.

Which is a long way to go around saying that I won't have as much time to devote to the blog as I have had over summer. I'm not hanging up the keyboard as so many (much more illustrious) bloggers have done recently, but I will be posting less than before. I hope this will allow me to be a bit more selective about posting, and tackle only the stuff that really matters - which will be bike-stuff and the occasional current affairs issue that just cannot be allowed to go by without a rant. And the odd poem. And I'm sure I will have something to say about working as a Security guard. That will be a new one for me.

A New Arrival

Guest post from Endemoniada_88, who has a little piece of Good News ...

A New Arrival

No, before anyone gets too excited about champagne and cigars, not a Winston Churchillesque mini-me sort of arrival. Something rather more mineral than animal was installed in secret at Chez Endo, not to be revealed on pain of...well, pain, I suspect. Fortunately, the reporting ban has now been lifted, so the risk of going global (hey, I've seen Rich's reader map!) is somewhat mitigated in favour of my bones remaining intact.

And, possibly, this may make some sense as I no longer have to refer to "the secret thing" and can instead use rather more accurate descriptive terms.

It started a few weeks back, when the weather was a bit nicer and there were hours of daylight. Myself and Mrs E - who, for the sake of argument, we'll call Sue (which is apposite, that being her name) - were whiling away a quiet Sunday. The conversation meandered on to whether I would be going on another continental bike tour next tour (which I sincerely hope will be the case) and suddenly turned sharp left.

"I'd quite like to learn to ride," Sue said.

I've heard similar things before, on other topics. Not all of them have been ideas that lasted out the afternoon. So my first response was one that veered between mild encouragement and mild scepticism, but she brushed that off and expanded on the idea. As a gardener by trade, she has a Land Rover. Nothing especially wrong with that, if one has to have a car, but I tend to agree that it's a cumbersome and costly to run beastie. Space (oh, and cash) preclude her having the sports car she'd like for best, but neither of those would be a particular bar to having a two-wheeler as alternative transport.

Well, fair play: that's not a bad argument, speaking as someone who's used many and varied justifications as to why a new bike would be a very good thing to buy right now. She wanted easy and stylish, something that wouldn't look out of place parked outside a Roman cafe. Obviously, I thought "Vespa" immediately, and only revised my opinion when I saw the asking price of them, both new and old. The scooter idea stuck, though, as did the idea of an automatic - and, of course, learner-legal. I plugged all of that into the eBay motors search and we took a look at the results.

Top of the list (after filtering out all the trade ads) and only about ten miles away was just the sort of thing that demonstrates the power of coincidence. Relisted due to a previous timewaster: a silver Sachs Bee 125 on an 09 plate, one owner from new, low mileage and cheap (well, they're only £1800 brand new...). No harm in taking a look, we figured, so I phoned and arranged to pop over there and then.

The owner proved to be a very pleasant and genuine lady. She and her husband had shared the scooter: he'd now bought an upright motorcycle-shaped motorcycle and she didn't get enough use out of it on her own. We looked it over: Sue liked the style and ergonomics and I liked the general state of repair and the sound of the little four-stroke. Having thought to bring my lid and leaving the wife as deposit, I ran it around the block and found it pretty much as expected. And shortly thereafter, a deal was struck and deposit left.

We picked it up the following evening after exchanging cash for paperwork: Sue drove her car back and I took the Sachs.



It was a little odd to be back on a twist-and-go: the last time was back in the early 80s. Little-wheel handling and a tendency to try and use the clutch despite it actually being a brake kept my mind occupied. On the open road, with a bit of patience and some contortions, I got it up to an indicated 65, although the white van behind seemed to think it was slower than that. From the experienced rider's viewpoint, it ticked very few boxes, to be honest - but as a simple way to get from a lifetime of four wheels on to two, it seemed ideal.

So, "the secret thing" was installed in my (sorry, that's now "our") garage and I was sworn to secrecy. Sue told her sister, inevitably. I told nobody. We spent an evening checking her pillion gear and supplementing with alternatives from my spare stuff. Sue booked herself on a CBT training day on a site a few miles away. To spare all sorts of logistical difficulties, she decided to use one of their supplied bikes. Come the day, she took herself off just before I left for work. At lunchtime, she phoned me to say she wasn't ready to do the road assessment and would be taking advantage of the company's free retake policy instead.

Later, we discussed it and found she hadn't warmed to her original trainer, but had spent some time with one of the other trainers, a lady also called Sue, who had impressed her. Her retake was already booked with the aforementioned Sue. Next problem: simple bike handling and familiarity. I had her go up and down the close a few times, identified a few entirely expected issues - deathgrip on the bars, reluctance to tip into turns and too much hesitation with the throttle. My advice: relax, and give it more gas(!). That weekend, we found a quiet carpark and practised until U-turns were a very real possibility in ordinary-width roads. Final issue: kit. Sue found the gloves she had were too bulky for comfort, and her full-face lid too restrictive. Fortunately, my Caberg flip-front does an open-face conversion, and is of a suitable size to fit her. I took the chin-bar off and had her try it. The end result was a trip down to the dealers for an HJC open face unit and some Weise ladies gloves. As it happened, they also had fully armoured and waterproof Alpinestars ladies boots that actually looked like a fashion item. Neat trick, and as it was a week from her birthday, they went on the list too.

Second try at the CBT got as far as the road. The training site happens to be in a shopping centre just off the main crosstown A road. It's always busy enough for tailbacks, and the feeder roads are a nightmare of junctions and traffic lights. It was late on a Friday afternoon and Sue couldn't quite muster the plunge into that maelstrom of commuters and shoppers. Sensibly, she backed off - which was one reason for not telling anyone she was doing it in the first place, so there wouldn't be the pressure to overreach.

Sadly, the next try wasn't free. It was, however, successful, despite drizzly conditions. One of the other trainees, a fearless young girl, came straight out of the training centre and promptly crashed on too much front brake. No harm, no foul - apparently, she went on to pass as well. And Sue got home with her all-important certificate of road legality and a big smile. The D-notice was lifted and she took considerable pleasure in visiting people unexpectedly on her bike.

I don't know how much use the little Sachs will get over the next few months. Not as much as it has been enjoying, one suspects. Sue's still a little apprehensive, especially in less than ideal weather, and there are some fairly harsh roads around these parts. Still, that's not the point. The point is, she has the option and the desire to ride it, and has discovered something of the joys of two-wheeled transport. It's funny in a way, seeing it from a newbie's point of view (and trying to remember what it was like to be there myself), and rather delightful to know that the bug can still bite someone later in life, when they're supposed to be much more sensible!



A full test is likely to be some way off. I would guess that the restrictive nature of a 125 will make itself known in reasonably short order, especially since Sue likes to drive, well, fast. It's good for learning roadcraft, but the sensible way forward would be to phase in gears and proper controls at some point, in preparation for a Direct Access option. Even if she wants to go back to automatics after that, it makes little sense (to me) to take any of the lesser or restricted tests. We'll see, though.

For now, I'm inordinately proud of her for having got this far. And if you're down Sussex way and see a little silver Vespa-alike on the road, she'd be delighted to get a wave.

(More info on the bike: www.sachsbikes.co.uk)