Leatherup.ca order up!

I made that order for Leatherup.ca even though I couldn't get a clear answer out of them about sizing on the jacket.  I was told by their 'live' support that the jacket measurements were the outside of the jacket - which I've never heard of before.  Why would I want to know what the outside dimensions of a jacket are?  It's the inside dimensions that would fit me, why would I possibly care about the outside dimensions?

Anyway, based on the weird sizing I should be a small (I'm 6'3", 220lbs, a 46 chest and a 40 waist).  My current jacket is an XL and the idea that I'd be a small seemed absurd.  I tried looking around for alternate size descriptions and found another on ebay.  That chart suggested I should be in a large, which still isn't where I usually look for a jacket but isn't as out of whack as a small or medium.

Inevitably, the large was too small.  I could get into it, and I think it would have fit without the liner but it ain't no 42" waist.  I've since sent it back for an XL safe in the knowledge that Leatherup.ca is very proud of their return policy.  Having said that, it cost me $22 to return it, so this jacket is already getting more expensive.

The good news is that the jacket was a quality piece with excellent stitching, heavy duty zippers and a nicely finished liner and details; it felt like a quality garment.  The helmet and gloves I got were both excellent.  The gloves have solid build quality with nice leather and stitching, and the helmet has also exceeded my expectations being light, comfortable and offering a lot of options for venting.  Both (gloves XL, helmet XXL) are perfect fits and follow normal sizing.

I'll let you know how the return process goes with the jacket, I'm hoping it's as effortless as they claim.  If you want to save some headaches in trying to figure out their strange jacket sizings just go with what you'd normally go with.  I get an XL jacket normally, I should have just trusted in that rather than the weird sizing charts.

update:  I'm a week into the exchange and Leatherup.ca has been completely radio silent - no 'we've received your exchange' email, no, 'your exchange is in process email', no, 'your new jacket is on its way' email.  After requesting information (twice), I've gotten no replies either.  Everything may be proceeding, but it's like I sent that jacket back into a blackhole.  Between that and the lack of information on sizing that got me into an exchange situation in the first place, I'd have to say that Leatherup.ca isn't very good at communicating.  Well priced quality gear?  Yep.  A smooth, customer orientated ordering process?  Not so much.

update again!  Leatherup suddenly woke up on Saturday.  I found a $600 motorcycle jacket at a garage sale for fifty bucks so I asked for a refund rather than an exchange on the returned cafe racer jacket and within ten minutes they'd ok'd the refund.

I'm happy with the kit I got, quality stuff at a good price, but their communications aren't great.  I do a lot of ordering through work and the good companies (Amazon, Tigerdirect to name two) are constantly updating statuses and letting me know where they are in process.  This can be automated, so I hope Leatherup goes that route.  Having said all that, I'll order from them again.

Motorcycle Media: a documentary to look forward to

I came across a description of The Greasy Hands Preachers in BIKE Magazine this month.  The two guys responsible for this upcoming documentary about motorcycle culture previously did a short film called Long Live The Kings:


LONG LIVE THE KINGS - Short film documentary - from SAGS on Vimeo.

It packs a surprising amount into a short film.  It's nicely shot and carefully crafted, though it does seem to fall into a genre trap that I saw pointed out the other week; the dreaded bullshit hipster bike video.  There is something genuine about Long Live The Kings that (I hope) excludes it from being a BS hipster bike video. 

Looking at BHBV's bingo card (left), they seem hit a lot of the hipster bullshit, yet I still want to believe that they are genuine.

With luck The Greasy Hands Preachers will offer some real insight into motorcycling.  I'm hoping against hope that they have interviewed Matt Crawford and are able to present a film that doesn't just paint motorbiking and working on your own machine crudely in a fad that will quickly look out of date.  

Long Live The Kings has moments of philosophical insight that might develop into a deeply reflective documentary in Greasy Hands Preachers.  Crawford's brilliant Shopclass as Soulcraft would be a perfect fit for that approach but I'm afraid the film is going to devolve into another 'ain't bikin fun?' video, this time with a veneer of hipster bullshit on top.


Sneak preview straight from the edit - The Greasy Hands Preachers from SAGS on Vimeo.



THE GREASY HANDS PREACHERS DOCUMENTARY Pre-trailer Kickstarter from SAGS on Vimeo.

Following Rivers

I just took a quick ride today along the Grand River.  In Ontario, where all the roads are painfully straight, you have to think geographically to find a road with some kinks in it.  Following the river offered something other than driving the Ontario grid.

Riding the banks of The Grand River

I got to the covered bridge at the end of the route and stopped for a photo.  I noticed that there was some drippage underneath the bike so I looked it over.  I'd just lubricated the chain before leaving so I thought maybe I'd put a bit too much chain oil on, but what was coming off looked runnier than chain lube.  A quick look under the fuel tank showed a gas leak.  

I got the bike home and took off the tank.  I hadn't been happy with how the fuel line had gone back on, it never seemed to sit right.  After futzing around with it for a few minutes it suddenly popped right on properly and locked.  No more leak.

It was nice to get out for a short (45 minutes or so) ride even with a headache on a cold, windy day.  It's been raining for days so I couldn't turn down a chance to get out, even for a little while.  Diagnosing and fixing a leak that quickly afterwards was just as satisfying.

I'd really like to find a junker that I can break down and rebuild as a learning exercise, but finding an old bike in Ontario isn't easy.  

More Traditional Bike Gear for Season 2

My first year of bike gear had a certain style to it, it also happened to be the least expensive stuff I could lay hands on.  After the no-name boots and pants I did a second round of gear buying as the summer began.  The Alpinestar boots and Macna pants I got were next level, but this year I want to expand my kit to include a more traditional biker look; it's time for the leather jacket and an alternate helmet.  

Since everything else is technicolour, textile and sport-bikey, I'm going for more traditional looking gear this time around.  When I've eventually got more than one bike I'm hoping that a range of gear lets throw a leg over anything and go.

This time round I'm looking for an open faced helmet for the short commute to work and a leather jacket.  My current choices were found on Canada's Motorcycle, Motorcycle Superstore and Leatherup.ca.

I've been looking for a classic motorcycle jacket that does the vertical stripe thing.  That look is surprisingly hard to find.  Short of going to a Pakistani garment manufacturer directly (along with the perils of ordering that way), they are surprisingly unavailable.


The flat black G-Max helmet is inexpensive and simple.  The Shark Soviet looking helmet is cool and expensive.  I've got gauntlet gloves and mesh gloves, but a pair of black leather gloves would be nice.

Since I started riding I've been finding that jeans are handy if I suddenly want to take the bike out.  A leather jacket would be a causal but convenient way to quickly get out on two wheels.  The full-on textile armoured jacket and pants still do the job for intentional longer rides, but for quick jaunts the leather and denim thing would mean just throwing a leg over a bike, not to mention not looking out of place on a more classic ride.  Getting on a Bonneville with the textile race wear looks a bit out of place.

 LLeatherup.ca's prices look reasonable too.  If they get back to me about the weird sizing on that jacket, I'll be ordering shortly.

Squids

I came across this term today while looking up gear.  It was funny to see it tied to a major manufacturer of motorcycle gear at the top of a Google search.  Being a keen new motorcyclist I looked it up.  You can't look like you know anything about bikes if you don't know the lingo.  Fortunately Urban Dictionary had a thorough explanation.

One of the things that knocked me off getting a motorcycle was a 'squid' killing himself outside my work one day.  He was late and he threw his GSX-R through a just-turned-red light at better than twice the speed limit.  He went over the hood of a car turning left onto the road in front of him and died on impact with the road.  His helmet wasn't done up and flew off on first impact leaving him to skid down the road helmetless in a tshirt for sixty feet.  Seeing this all happen first hand put me off riding for a long time.

When I think now about motorcycling I think of it as a meditative and conscious activity. The people I've met doing it are the antithesis of squids.  Many seem to have a poet's soul and a technician's considered approach to their riding.  In many ways I feel like I've found my tribe when I talk to other motorcyclists.  That a squid did something that stupid twenty years ago and robbed me of what I'm enjoying now so much is a source of irritation.  These idiots have a disproportionate effect on how non-riders see motorcyclists.

That the internet gives this idiotic motorcycle subculture such a hard time makes me happy...

"Squid Shopping"

http://www.bikebandit.com/community/articles/how-not-to-be-a-squid