Category: Reviews, Gear

Gear, you know what that is.

Nikwax – getting gear waterproof

A little while ago we met a very nice chap called Michael Field at the Daily Telegraph Adventure Travel Show – we had a good talk to him and he told us the best way to keep ourselves dry on the road.

After we got back Michael dropped us a line and very kindly offered to send us some bits and pieces to help us get our kit ready. I must be honest I’ve never really believed in after-market waterproofing – we’ve all been there and bought the sprays and the liquids and everything in-between from the camping shop – so when I put the jacket in the wash this weekend I wasn’t holding out much hope.

My jacket is three years old, it’s never been washed and to be totally frank it was not really very waterproof around the tummy area. I’ve always put that down to the way my tummy pushes against the front and desperately tries to escape 🙂

So into the washing machine the jacket went, following the instructions on the tech wash bottle – 30 degree hand wash cycle – out it came dripping wet and not very much cleaner than before – but Michael had warned me – use the tech wash first otherwise the waterproof wont work.

Given the beautiful weather this weekend it was dry in a couple of hours, so went back in on a 40 degree wash, gentle cycle, slow spin with the waterproof liquid. To cut a long story short, it took six hours in total to wash the jacket, dry it, wash it again and leave it dry once more. It’s not a task I’d do in anything but the best of weather.

Allowing for British weather I didn’t have to wait long to test the application. This morning it was throwing it down, a perfect opportunity to see in action the wonder proofing that Michael had promised. I rode for an hour in the rain, constant but not heavy, fully expecting to have to change my top when I got into work.

Arriving in west London I noticed something very odd, the water, as it was hitting my jacket was beading, gathering in little balls before running off all together. It’s not 100% efficient but most of the water simply wasn’t staying on the fabric. Getting into the office I pulled the jacket off to discover no wet spot – nothing at all – bone dry underneath.

These two products form the basis of the Nikwax range, and frankly if everything else they produce works as well as these two, then it’s a name I’ll trust in the future.

Coolabah Swag Bag review

Choosing a tent to take overland is never an easy task, do you go for weight? What about material? Cost? All very important questions, but ultimately I think it boils down to how you work with the tent and how it works for you in return.

If you enjoy this review, I have some others you may like, or watch the video review below.

I know, slightly strange to be talking about forming some sort of bond with something as silly as a tent, but after all this small, insubstantial shelter is going to be your home for the next goodness knows how long, why not take some care in what you chose? Why not take into account how you feel about your home?

Coolabah Swag BagWith that in mind may I introduce the first tent that has made me feel something about how it’s put together – the Coolabah swag bag from Burke and Wills – distributed in this country by www.theaussieshop.co.uk

It’s completely made of canvas, both it’s best and worst point. I remember when I was a kid camping with my dad, a massive six person tent that took up the entire rear of the car, and took about a week to put up. It smelt bad when it rained, if it rained for more than a couple of hours you’d get a fine mist working its way through the material. But it seems even with the oldest tent material in the world we can have a bit of an update.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but it’s more ‘waxy’ and even though I’m yet to test it in the wet I can quite believe the claim from Burke and Wills that once it’s been wet, the seams expand and it’ll deal with everything but the worst of the weather. They suggest before you use it you take it out and give it a good hosing. Makes sense.

It’s certainly a ‘choice’, once I’d decided that I didn’t want to take a tent that took a lot of time to put up, and decided that I didn’t need a tent that I could get changed in etc, then the one man options became more sensible, the problems as ever boiled down to how you get in and out when it’s raining and where do you sit if it rains.

I’ve looked at a lot of one and two man tents, but all the modern ones just seem to be far to complicated. I’ve been looking for something that I can pull off the back of the bike un-roll and get in – complete with sleeping mat and bag. With the Coolabah I’ve finally found it. It ships with a foam mattress that frankly I’d be comfortable with as my main bed, but practically it’s just too big and doesn’t roll to a sensible size. I’ve now replaced that with my Exped Downmat (from Traveldri-Plus) and my sleeping bag – it now rolls up to half the size but it’s still fairly wide. If you’re on a narrow bike with no panniers you may struggle to find a way to fit it on. My bike, just like me, is quite wide and with 54 litre panniers on either side this isn’t going to cause me a problem.

Top entranceThe attention to detail is superb. As you get into the tent through the very accessible top door and put your head on the pillow you notice immediately how well put together it is, how close all the stitching is and how good the material is. I was very impressed when I saw a handy little loop for my torch and a series of pockets just above my shoulder for those little things like phones and glasses. I was slightly concerned about storage for things like my camera, but actually there’s so much room down by your feet that I stowed both my stills and video camera there without noticing them during the night.

There’s enough space inside to comfortably move around during the night and even change your undies and put some trousers on, but putting a top on is a bit difficult and you’ll need to poke your head out to achieve the more space conscious dressing activities.

Watch the video review.

The design is perfect, rather than the usual crawling into your tent you use a door on the top of the tent, very coffin like. In reality this means you can lie down and look out at the stars, either directly or through the mosquito net before pulling the canvas door over your head for a totally dark night. There is a door at the very end you can crawl through – but frankly – I don’t fit – I do like the fact you can leave the canvas on the end open with the net down however.

Coolabah swag bag on back of bikeIn summary, a great tent, very well made and once you’ve pulled out the supplied foam mattress and replaced it with a more sensible version just right for putting up each night very quickly. The only issues are with the size once rolled up – if you can deal with that and can find a sensible way to cover yourself in the rain (think tarp and poles off your bike) then go for it.

If you enjoy this review, I have some others you may like

Quick review of the Asus

From a post I made over at Horizons Unlimited – these are my intial thoughts after using the Asus as a primary machine for a week whilst being away – full review to follow in a month once I’ve used it properly.

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My new AsusOkay so a quick update before the full review gets going – I’m using the ‘wee beastie’ as my primary machine whilst I’m away with work at the moment – so it’s getting heavily used each day.I’ve been scared about messing with the OS too much as I’m away from another machine that will help me fix it – but I have updated all the software and run the advanced mode – had a little explore of Xandros as a distro and played with it’s more esoteric features.

OS – Xandros is a bitch if you’re used to more power and flexibility in your OS, it’s perfect for the Eee, but it’s going as soon as I get a chance to flash to Ubuntu – YMMV depending on your computer know-how and it’s not something I’d recommend for the feint of heart. The boot time on Ubuntu if done properly is only 5 seconds longer than Xandros – worth the wait IMHO.

Build quality – fantastic, very sturdy little machine, been thrown in and out of my bag all week with no visible abuse – comes with a handy little neoprene bag to keep it’s beautiful baby blue cover nice and pristine – no use on the motorbike yet.

Keyboard – takes some getting used to, and even after a week (I’m a touch typist) there’s no illusion that I’ll be putting out 20 page documents – but I can type at about 80% of my usual speed and for blog posts, forums and email that’s sufficient.

Wi-Fi – works like a charm – in easy mode and advanced mode alike it finds and connects exactly like a windows machine, but perhaps not as simply as a Mac – easy to see what’s going wrong if it can’t connect and direct comparison between an IBM thinkpad and MacBook Pro show it sees the same number of connections, it is a little over-optimistic about signal strength though.

Web cam – what do you expect? It’s not as wonderfully clear as an iSight on the Mac, but then again it’s perfectly useable in everything except very strong back light – perfectly sufficient for Skype (once you’ve installed the Skype update).

Storage – I have the 4gb version and was left with a little over a gig after the OS instal – that’s a little tight but after using if for a week I’ve not had any problems – docs are quite small when saved in Open Office format (it ships with open office, but you can save the docs as MS Office should you wish), the video I download I’m dumping to my cameras 2gb SD card and I’m leaving my photos on the camera SD card, uploading directly to flickr. 

The built in SD card reader is well placed, it takes a while to soften up a little – I was slightly worried about how stiff if was when first using it – but no damage to the cameras SD card as it’s been in and out all week. If you’re going to run Windows I’d suggest you install it to a sep SD card or a USB memory stick.

I’m going to be buying an 8gb SD card from Amazon – £14.53 – to leave in there to store videos / photos etc if I really need them – but frankly I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.

Sound – the in-built speakers it ships with are not going to power your house party, but they’re perfectly useable if it’s quiet and you’re on your own – you’ll probably want to plug in some headphones though, and the volume from those if perfectly sufficient.

These are my initial thoughts and I’m sure they’ll shift as I play a little more – I’ll post here as I discover new stuff that may help others – my next step is too see if I can mess around with short AVIs I’ve shot on the stills camera to do video podcasting whilst on the road…..

 

Wine Snob

There’s nothing better at the end of a hard day than a long cold beer, except perhaps a beautifully rich, deep bodied, glass of Bordeaux. Neither is that practical on a bike. The beer? Well it tends to be warm, and the wine? Frankly it doesn’t get out of France before I’ve finished off my three week supply.

Powdered WineSo to my absolute delight I discovered that you can freeze-dry wine – no seriously – you can buy 200ml of wonderfully rich ‘rouge’ wine direct from Touratech, and in a tiny little silver packet. Perfect.

I was open minded about the wine, I’m not a snob and tend to drink bottles that are less than £5 a pop, but for £3.04 plus p&p even I was a little worried about the quality of the plonk delivered in a mere three weeks.

I prepared the equipment (a jug with 200ml of water, a long stirring thing, and a glass), opened the sachet and dropped in the rather lumpy, congealed powder – not confident at all it was going to dissolve. But to my surprise, the wine dissipated after only gentle encouragement. Five minutes dragged by and I was rewarded with a deep red jug of wine, ready for drinking at the fireside. What could be more perfect?

lumpy wineThe only thing remaining was to actually taste it. This is where the dream of wine on-the-go falls to pieces. Dear Lord… holy cow… and some other non-printable expletives. I’m struggling to describe it without having to resort to blawah, but I can’t come close. It tasted of chemicals, with a hint of toilet cleaner, and and after taste not dissimilar to Sunny Delight.

This is a great idea, and I’m sure if somebody spends some time thinking how it actually tastes rather than trading on the idea of wonderful modern ease and travel, then it may succeed. Until then, drop into your local supermarket, buy the cheapest box of red – remove the outer packing – and be in rouge bliss.

Camping Espresso Review

Some people may say this is a luxury – but frankly there is nothing worse than waking up in a cold tent on a cold morning to be greeted by instant coffee or stale tea. The easy way to solve this problem? A camping espresso machine of course! Perfect for that first thing wake-me-up.

GSI actually make a good range of coffee makers – this one is the GSI Outdoors Mini Espresso kit which you can still buy from places like Amazon or Millets on the high street and is definately the closest you’re going to get to ‘real’ espresso on the road. Whilst some people may argue this is not real espresso it does meet the criteria as set out on wikipedia (so it must be true).

Caffè espresso or simply espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

Here’s a quick video of the mini espresso machine working.


Trangia Review

Continuing the series of video reviews, in this episode we look at the Trangia 25-5 – that’s the 2-4 person system that’s non-stick.


The Trangia is a wonderful all round system. I use the 25 (the slightly larger version) because I find the 27 too small for a decent cup of tea for more than one person, and whilst there is an obvious space saving issue, I also find the 27 too fiddly to use with the multi-fuel burner. Talking of which I’d consider the multi-fuel system an absolute must – the meths burner which comes with the system is fine if you have an hour to make a cup of tea – but as we discovered on the Dartmoor training run last year – the last thing you need when you’re cold and tired is to be wondering if your food will ever actually be ready.

The 25 can be had for around £50, the multi-fuel burner is about £80 and then you’re looking at between £5 and £10 for the various accessories, like the multi-disk and extra fuel bottle.

Hein Gericke Winter Gloves

Hein Gericke Winter GlovesThese gloves have now served two winters with distinction. Not only have they kept my mitts warm and dry they’ve also managed to withstand the stupid amount of salt on the roads last year.

The gloves are just £34.99 from any Hein Gericke shop – or their website – which makes them cheap enough to replace each year if needed, but you’ll probably get a lot more than one years use out of them.

They’re too warm to wear in the sping or summer, but perfect for those chilly winter mornings when even your heated hand grips dont cut it.  If you combine these gloves with a good heated hand grip system you will never have cold hands no matter how chilly it is or how long you ride.

The lining is made from a breathable membrane so you don’t sweat in them, they’re also totally waterproof – from the webstie;

  • Winter season/rain
  • 100% water and windproof
  • Breathable Sheltex® membrane
  • Warmth-giving 3M Thinsulate® insulation
  • Reflecting 3M Scotchlite® material

Material:

  • Back of the hand: tear resistant textile

Colour: black
Safety Extras:

  • Back of the hand has stretch leather and foam padding
  • Double material on the edge of the hand
  • Scotchlite® reflective material

From a saftey point of view I wouldn’t want to have a high speed crash in them – whilst I think they’d deal with a certain amount of tarmac – I wouldn’t want to test them – they’ve very durable and don’t look like they’ll easily come apart – but there’s no amour, and they are after all made from man-made materials rather than leather.

I can’t reccomend these gloves enough – I’m now putting these back in the kit box as it’s started to get warmer and I’ve moved on to my new Urban gloves.

Garmin Zumo – Initial Review

I promised a short review of the new Garmin Zumo after my visit to the NEC and the 2006 Motorcycle and Scooter show.

Garmin Zumo at NEC

I was really looking forward to getting my hands on this device, not least because I was expecting something special – a year after Tom Tom released the Rider Garmin had the perfect opportunity to pick up on the bad points of the Rider (bad mount) and release something that was sturdy, had even better mapping, and more intuitive interface.

They’ve failed on all but one account. The mount for the Zumo is great – it’s strong, lockable and I can’t see if releasing the Zumo without a fight – and that’s great – something the TomTom Rider falls down on badly. But then you look beyond the build quality and realise that it’s totally un-usable. The ‘glove friendly’ interface is a pain in the bum – it’s very slow to use and in most cases offers no better usability than the Tom Tom.

It has a silly slider system, as you can see above, for inserting addresses etc – it’s slow, difficult to use, and is not sufficiently big to adapt to my winter gloves… TomTom addressed this by ignoring it – they put in a standard on screen keyboard that unless you’re wearing the smallest of summer gloves you have to remove your gloves to use – but made everything else work perfectly with even the thickest winter gloves – in other words – when I’m setting off, before I put my gloves on I put in my destination (or itinerary) then when I pull off, every function is a nice big button towards the centre of the screen.

Which brings me to my next point – interface design – without being unkind… did they get a 3 year old in to do it? It looks like my nephews first attempt at building a GPS unit…

I don’t want to be ‘down’ on this unit before I actually use it – so I’ll stop now –  but my view at the moment is that if you’re looking for a GPS unit for the bike – go for the TomTom Rider or if you really want Garmin go for the Quest2 and get a mount from TouraTech.

Schuberth S1 Helmet – Review

I apparently own the best helmet money can buy, it’s nice to know that my £350 has gone some-way to giving me the quietest, safest lid on the market.

If you enjoy this review – I’ve written a few others you may like.

Whilst this image doesn’t do the lid any favours design wise, I can say that I have a very sexy lid… I paid a little extra and have a stunning paint job. Black with gold dragons, how could I refuse?

Let’s start with this lids biggest selling point… it’s supposed to be the quietest lid on the market, and when you put it on in the store you’re immediately grabbed by how little noise there is, the second thing that surprise me was how ‘lush’ the inside feels next to your skin. It’s the difference from going from a £1.50 disposable razor to the very latest Gillette Fusion, it’s like walking off hard stone into deep pile stately home luxury.

The second thing which surprises you is the internal sun visor, Schuberth where the first to introduce this, and in my opinion still implement it in the best way. A quick flick of the slider on your left hand side and it’s down, again a quick flip and it’s up – easy to do at 5mph and 130mph (so I’m told ;-)). If it was left up to me I would have made the internal visor a few shades darker, but to be frank I’ve not come across sun strong enough to make me want to put extra sun glasses on – not even that low autumn glowing red ball that normally makes me pull over and grab the glasses… and there-in lies it’s benefit – no pulling over when you get surprised by the sun, or if the sun suddenly goes away.

The S1 is also one of the safest lids on the market, it’s what Schubert call S.T.R.O.N.G.S

S. –   RIM
T. â€” THIN-WALL
R. â€” REINFORCED
O. â€” OPTIMIZED
N. â€” NON-WOVEN
G. â€” GRP

It also has A.R.O.S

A.R.O.S. –
Anti-Roll-off-System

Which will stop the helmet being pulled off your head in the case of an accident. A rather clever idea and one that inspires confidence in the though process behind this lid.

Finally, but certainly not least important, this lid is really warm, it was a little too warm over the summer, but now the weather is closing in I’m rather glad of it… it’s like being wrapped in a warm blanked… no cold air sneaks in past the neck huger and I don’t have to put up with running eyes that my old lid used to cause as cold air streamed past my neck and hit my face.

The only failing with this lid has been the outer visor – it’s not very fog resistant – most mornings I have to open it a crack to let in a little bit of air – most of the time I can just open the front vent – but if you’re sat in traffic – forget it – you’ll need to open it. Not the end of the world, and a very small failing for what is, overall, a very comfortable, very warm, very safe helmet. I can’t recommend it enough.

If you enjoy this review – I’ve written a few others you may like.