[Darkcloud]

The woes of buying riding gear online in India

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get a premium touring jacket and pant for the past 3 months. I’ve been thinking of getting Klim or Revit but as none of these are available in Mumbai I had to look up stores online which sell these brands.

And therein I found the woes of trying to buy riding gear online in India.

Unless you’re fortunate enough to check the site soon after they’ve received new stocks you will be hard pressed to find something you like and in your size. If you like it they don’t have the size and if they have the size it’s not what you want.

Then comes the big issue of sizing. Sizing is never standard across brands and while in some brands I may find XL to be a perfect fit, in others it’s 2XL (yes, I’m an overweight motorcyclist!).

Now almost all of the riding gear stores in our country have an exasperating blanket policy on not accepting returns. They will exchange only for sizing or defects.

So, if I wish to order an XL size online, I should first check if there’s a 2XL available too. If I go ahead with ordering the XL, despite the 2XL not being in stock, and it doesn’t fit me the store guys say they won’t accept returns. What am I supposed to do with the gear then?

Imagine if I purchase a Revit Cayenne jacket for ₹59,800 and the pants for ₹43,000, from High Note Performance from Delhi or Orion Motors from Bengaluru, and the gear doesn’t fit me! What am I supposed to do with that gear worth almost a Lakh! Even if they do provide store credit(I’m not sure if they do) that’s pointless to me as I have all the gear necessities.

Tried BigBadBikes from Bengaluru. They do write on the site that they will charge restocking fees, which I find acceptable, but I haven’t been lucky to find a Klim I like in stock in any of my sizes.

Customelements, which has an online site but not a physical store (though I’m not sure), writes on their site that they accept returns. But when I spoke to them for an RS Taichi gear, they said they will exchange only for size. When I mentioned what was stated on their site they simply stopped responding even after I made around 2 more attempts. What’s stated on their site is not what’s being followed. It’s safer to talk to them and confirm.

I haven’t yet been fortunate enough to get an XL and 2XL available at the same time. And none of them give any concrete time frame for availability of new stock. So in any case the wait still continues.

These stores probably just stock one piece of each size, which is fine. But then at-least accept refunds if the size does not fit. I’m ok with paying reasonable restocking fees as that’s more acceptable to me than being stuck with store credit worth a lakh or gear that dosent fit me. The stores are happy waiting long enough for someone to walk in and buy the gear as they usually have limited stocks of the expensive gear.

So the only way out is to visit these stores personally and try the gear. That would mean going all the way to Delhi or Bengaluru. Rather than this wouldn’t it be better for me to go to Thailand or Singapore, assuming similar ticket prices as it usually the case, and enjoy a good holiday buying the same gear at a cheaper price!

Cheers!

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by Darkcloud

[b]go to Thailand or Singapore, assuming similar ticket prices as it usually the case, and enjoy a good holiday buying the same gear at a cheaper price!

Most stores in Thailand and Singapore don't carry XL, forget about 2XL. Local population is on the skinny to slim demographics - so the majority of sizes are S - L. You can try Revzilla or FC Moto and see if you can have the items returned.

Most stores in India don't offer refunds as its quite difficult to stock these brands without proper distributorship. Majority are dealers and as you said - bring in only a few pieces of merchandise for sale.

[Darkcloud]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Most stores in Thailand and Singapore don't carry XL, forget about 2XL. Local population is on the skinny to slim demographics - so the majority of sizes are S - L.

Thanks a lot for that piece of information! I always assumed gear was available plentiful in those places.

My rant was precipitated mostly by the Customelements site. You don’t accept returns - I’m fine with that. But don’t claim on your site that you do and then refuse to honour it. The other sites are upfront about not having any return policy.

Now I’m no expert in sales but maybe if they do have some return policy with restocking fees applicable there would be more people ready to buy gear from them as there’s some safety net.

Thanks!

[shyamg28]

Originally Posted by shyamg28

Update after some 3000kms and maybe 2 months or so - the left rubber pad tore and also came off the boot...

I'm back with another update. Done 10000 kms or so with the rubber padding jugaad on the RE TCX Stelvio boots. Not working
It invariably tore despite the double padding that we had done last time around. Which I'll be honest, I was fully expecting to happen.

This time, I decided to pick up the TripMachine Company Shoe Protector Classic - https://www.tripmachinecompany.com/p...40748795002977

Went to the same cobbler. We're on first name basis now lol. He did his usual and below is the result.





















I did try on 2 generic gear shift protectors for 150 bucks each, they flew off from the boot faster than my salary on the day it arrives.
Hence, this obsession with getting it glued on.

I'm going to order one more so that the boots look even. Or I may not. Let's see how this plays out

[krankstter]

Dear BHPians,

I'm currently looking for some riding gear. Would love if you shared your expertise on this.

Current Gear:

1. Helmet: Axor Apex Racer Gloss White/ Flu. Yellow
2. Gloves: Royal Enfield Urban Hustler (Rover V3) Riding Gloves Olive & Black

Current Gear Review:

The helmet has been worn for over 6k kms (over 1.5years) so far and it's still a pretty snug fit. My cheeks are almost always lifted upwards like I'm wearing a push up bra on my face, it's a bit awkward and everyone else who looks at me thinks I'm being suffocated while I'm actually pretty comfy inside. Had not really encountered a situation where I could test the durability of this helmet, I hope I don't in the future either.

The gloves are very comfortable and have plenty of balanced ventilation to keep my hands both cool and warm depending on the weather.

Looking to Purchase:

1. Riding Jacket
2. Formal Riding Boots

Budget: 20,000

Requirement Brief (might not really be brief ):

I travel 50kms (takes average of 55minutes) one way to office daily. I'm currently doing this without a jacket and boots (using regular leather formal shoes as of now). I would love to own a jacket that doesn't make me look like I swam to office. I don't usually sweat a lot, but I'd rather not start now.

I'm currently expected to be in office all 5 days a week which makes my weekly travel a minimum of 500kms. I would be removing the jacket once I reach office and probably hang it on my chair, but the boots should be formal and compatible.

25kms out of the 50kms is a highway with no cover stops anywhere, when it looks like it's raining, I want to be able to immediately switch over to a rain cover attachment. I would prefer if the boots were waterproof as well but since it's hard to find formal looking waterproof boots, I'm willing to just buy a waterproof boot cover that I can wear on top of these boots.

Once I get riding gear, I'll start planning spontaneous solo trips on my H'ness to nearby places, and I'm excited about a potential Kerala trip for Christmas or Pongal.

Considering the aforementioned parameters, I request any and all suggestions from your personal experiences.

PS. would love if the jacket matched/comboed with my Anniversary Green Bike, my helmet looks alien compared to my bike so far, so this is not a deal breaker for me. I don't mind the matching looks part, but it's an added bonus.

Things which I've looked at so far:

1. Rynox TRIDENT JACKET - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION, absolutely love how it looks in the images, yet to see one live.
2. Rynox Tornado models - Seems to be a no-nonsense jacket which I see a lot of riders in videos and irl pull them off smoothly.
3. Viaterra Spencer - I like how this looks too, seems like a budget version of the trident.

I haven't looked at any riding boots so far.

[hikozaru]

I have been searching for discreet looking moto gear (that you can wear everywhere without looking like a biker bro) and it has been a long and uncertain journey. Indian brands seem to be focused on protection above all else and fair enough, getting your money's worth is never a bad thing and its better for customers to say they were protected in a crash than to say riding gear is a waste of money. But I believe that by doing this, these brands signal that ATGATT is something meant only for highway rides and not necessary in the city. So, I looked into foreign brands and discovered that a lot of them had questionable protection or styling. Alpinestars, one of the supposedly leading brands simply cannot stop themselves from plastering an astars logo at the back, a* on the shoulders, elbows and they have to write alpinestars across the chest zipper as well. Same thing with their boots, and gloves, so that was off my list. Similar story with Furygan. Dainese is cagey about their protection levels. They refuse to say if a jacket or pants are A, AA, AAA and their urban lineup is typically just A rated and while I certainly was prepared to pay foreign brand prices, I could not stomach paying that much money for A rated jackets and CE level 1 armour and 'pockets' for armour. I found RST and Rev'it to be fairly forthright with their certification and at palatable prices too, only to discover that the subtle looking jackets are not stocked in any riding gear stores in bangalore (which is somewhat understandable as the ones I like, seem to be textile jackets and I too am not convinced how cool they can be in stop and go traffic). Oh well, I can remove a jacket at the destination anyway, so it does not matter what it looks like, I told myself and bought a Rynox Air GT 4.

Jeans

But I could not exactly remove my pants or my shoes, so I continued searching for these. RST and Rev'it again have a fantastic collection of jeans and what's more, they were all certified AA and above (compared to their A rated jackets on their urban collections. In their defence, it is entirely possible that a torso has much higher cooling demands than the lower half the body) but its a crying shame that none of this is stocked by any dealers here. Compare Rev'it Detroit or Lombard to https://rynoxgear.com/collections/ri...alth-evo-pants where Rynox claims 600D this and Cordura that but no mention of CE rating for abrasion. Then I came across this https://store.royalenfield.com/en/co...-40-95cm-black and these pants with similar claims of 600D, cordura only got a CE A rating, and from this I assume that Rynox and Viaterra gear are about A rating for abrasion resistance (By the way, Royal Enfield deserves credit for actually taking the time to get their gear certified (which you can see on all their jackets, pants and their latest E39 boots), not just slap on some CE rated armour imported from china and korea and call their gear CE certified like Rynox and Viaterra). Now, a few days into my search, I had to believe that riding jeans from european brands are indeed better than whatever riding pants Indian brands sell and they look like normal jeans too (unlike the hideous (imo) looking bikeratti and solace jeans, defeating the whole purpose of riding jeans). Brands like Bull-it even sell AAA rated jeans with level 2 armour in both hip and knee that look completely normal, for the same price as a foreign band riding pants and that is all the convincing I needed to buy them. Alas, I could not find these either, at places that sold Rev'it and Dainese. I don't exactly know why everyone stocks only Bikeratti jeans but that was that.

Some time later, I discovered Byke'It Alpha Jeans at orion motors in Bangalore. Byke'It is likely an Indian company but headquartered in Dubai. Back to the Jeans, this looked exactly like those fabled jeans I saw online. At 15k they were priced around the same too. It came with CE level 2 sastec armour (flex armour) in both hip and knee and they claim to have used dyneema (and had a dyneema tag to give it some semblance of proof) to give it a AA level protection (the jeans is not actually formally rated by European bureaucrat). At INR14899, it costs a fair bit more than an Indian brand riding pants but the armour pieces were legit and higher spec (compared to the knox armour in Rynox) which I assume is a significant part of the cost and the jeans was heavy enough with all the armour removed that I could believe they used dyneema and that it had AA level protection. The stitching and overall fit and quality as a fashion garment also seemed top notch on par with my Levis, at least with my average fashion sense. Above all, the fact that I could use it even to go out on a train or a bus convinced me that paying the premium was worth it, even if it was overpriced compared to CE certified european jeans with similar spec. I would love to see them pony up some money and actually get it AA certified for this price in a future iteration. And sell it in black. That or I am buying Bull-it next time.

Notice that the tag does not mention date of import. As far as I can remember, it did also say Made in India somewhere but I cannot find that label now. This certainly does not come cheaper even being made in India

Available only in one shade and it does look a bit awful in real life. Give me black and darker blue and other colours

I've worn these pants every ride for a good half year now (I ride once a week) and I can say that they are super soft, comfortable, flexible enough at the knees to sit cross legged on the floor and not heavy (even with all armour on) at all to be used as fashion jeans. The hip armour is unnoticeable, the knee armour can be seen in certain angles only if you know what to look for. Unless you live in a circle with fashionista friends, I do not think this would be noticed at all. They might even indulge in it if they are avant-garde enough lol. My legs do not sweat at all even at 35c ambient, inches away from a J-Series lump in crawling traffic, thanks to the regular (or if its tapered, I cannot notice it) fit which allows copious amounts of ventilation from around the ankle.

As motorcycle Jeans however there are a few drawbacks. The hip armour, lovely as it is, does not cover a large enough area and does not inspire confidence (I have no point of reference to compare the area of the armour to, as I do not own any riding pants with standard armour), but since its CE rated, used by other companies, and most importantly does not move around much inside the pants, it is safe to assume to it works.

The second issue and this is a real one, is that the knee armour does not fit correctly only on the left leg. This was something I did not notice at the store, even when mimicking a riding position. My first suspicion was my knee structure which is slightly bent in on both legs. The left knee armour felt like it was coming out on the outside edge and up, covering three quarters to half my knee and my thigh instead of my shin. But if my legs were the cause, it should affected my right knee too, which was perfectly fine. So my current hypothesis is it slides out and up when upshifting. I still think it should hold up relatively well on a lowside on the left but highsides and falling in other ways, I am not so sure.
Both knee and hip pockets are not height adjustable, only angle adjustable, so it is very important to try it out in shops. A slightly lower knee armour placement on the left leg could have very well sorted this issue out for me. This is different from cutting off the excess length of a normal pant because that would not change the relative position of the knee pocket from the hip. Even if it were an option I am not sure how feasible it is to do while keeping the seam strengths intact for abrasion resistance. The pockets are also designed for size B armour, so trying to fit a size A armour (which I think is used for slim fit jeans) will likely not help here.

The third issue is that this knee armour just gets torn. I do not have the old armour with me anymore and did not take pictures of it either but https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/d...split.1203784/ is what it looks like. It was a little better than the second and the third one. It is a very tight squeeze to get the knee armour in and out to wash the jeans and I suspect that might have ruined it a bit but the left knee was in much worse shape than the right, improper knee fit might accelerate this wear and tear. When I showed it to the guys at Orion motors where I'd hoped they'd do something about the armour fit, they gave me a new armour in exchange and told me they will send my torn one to the company. Top guys. Unfortunately, I had the same issue with new armour as well, and I've just learned to live with it. I would prefer a future iteration to have a velcro strap where I can just dump the knee armour in and shut it close.

Knee armour. Do take the time to take each armour piece out at the shop and verify the manufacturing date of the armour. D3O is rated for around 4 years and I assume Sastec has a similar lifespan. With how few inventory gets sold (at least for jeans) consider negotiating a discount when you see end of life armour. Hoping future iterations have a T+ rating as well seeing how ambient temperatures are rising every year

Sastec armour nomenclature

Guide to reading CE symbols.

Shoes

I was using some no name riding boots until very recently. Sturdy build, laced up with velcro to stick the super long laces in so that they do not get caught on the bike. It looked stylish enough in its own way but it was a dead giveaway to my biker outfit even with my incognito jeans. More importantly, the boots were super open from my feet up despite it being ankle high. This resulted in a lot of ankle flex and it was not particularly confidence inspiring to lean out of the bike with the rubber pegs on my bike (its a lot better with serrated pegs like on the R15), especially on quick S turns and they are a massive pain to walk in. The first time I rode to Nandi hills, about 5 months in since I bought it, so completely broken in, familiar with the walking pain etc, I stopped climbing the stairs midway to the nearest view point because I just could not be bothered. I had my eye on the TCX street air for a long time, which in my opinion is the some of the least compromised ankle high shoes available, and more recently the Rev'it Arrow and Filter. Shoes like the TCX Road 4, Falco Lennox, Tensho, Shima Rebel were all not CE level 2 in all four scores, with most of them being a 1 1 1 1. I was not willing to spend riding boots money for something that did not even get a 2 everywhere and looked like a pair of janky shoes. Personally, I do not understand why dealers even stock such dreadfully useless pairs of shoes for prices north of 10k. Sheesh guys, you already deal with Rev'it, just get their jeans and shoes already. After waiting for about half a year, hoping that someone would stock the TCX street 3s in Bangalore, I heard about the boot import ban and decided to buy it online. I had a couple of options. High note performance, Delhi, had both the air and WP my size or import it from Europe. Both would cost me about the same and the Rev'it shoes I wanted were not discounted at all, so I decided to go with High note performance.

Since the Street 3s use D3O, I assumed the standard expiration date applies, so I called them and asked them for the manufacturing date and specifically not the import date. If I heard correctly, they said the air was manufactured on 12/21 and WP on 09/22. I asked them for a picture of the CE rating which they readily obliged. I asked them about sizing based returns because I am in the middle of two sizes in TCX and they said they will not refund money and only do sizing based exchanges and failing that they would give me store credit. I have no idea what I am supposed to buy with store credit in a store that has been banned from importing what I want but I was tired of waiting half a year to get a comfortable pair of shoes to walk in after a ride so I bit the bullet. It arrived a day later. Very fast shipping. All the excitement left me as I discovered that it was actually manufactured in 02/21 and not 09/22 as I thought. I suppose I should have asked them for a picture of the manufacturing date as well. I was quite annoyed that I had about 2 years before I could use it only as fashion shoes but after I was satisfied with the fit of the shoes I gave up on returning them. Live and learn amirite. These stores should consider discounting shoes at least based on the remaining life left (at least after one year) instead of us customers paying full price.

manufactured in 02/21

About the fit itself, the Street 3s do not have a zipper entry and its very difficult to put your feet in. They close a lot better than my no name boots, which is to be expected considering how difficult it was to get my foot in, in the first place, but I was also happy that it had less ankle flex than TCX's other shoes like the road 4 and RE x TCX Stelvio. Definitely consider another shoe like the Dartwood if zipper entry is your thing or you are worried about ruining the ankle D3O. The left shoe left a large gap around the ankle, which I later remedied partly by lacing it through the last set of holes. Its still not quite as snug as my right but as a couple of rides later proved, it did not sap any confidence when leaning on rubber pegs.

As for protection, the shoes are rated 1 2 2 1, so definitely do not drop your bike on your foot. There are supposedly better shoes out there for cheaper in the UK like spada strider which are 1 2 2 2 but I could only import them through sportsbikeshop and I couldn't be arsed. While people say they can just about feel the D3O, I still haven't the slightest clue as to where the D3O armour is on my ankles and toes. I hope the armour does not tear underneath (as in the link above) (there is no way to remove or replace the armour) as I contort the shoe into every imaginable shape every time I put my feet in.

shoes are rated 1 2 2 1

The shoe is fairly comfortable. I don't much care for the ortholite insole but it does have a noticeable cushion which a lot of people enjoy. The heel to toe drop is not a bother. The shoe is wide enough to accommodate my feet as they splay when it hits the ground. Most of all, I can now actually flex my toe and walk. Its still not the most comfortable thing in the world considering my feet hit the toebox because I am in between sizes and the rigid construction due to riding protection demands means the heel to toe transition when walking has a distinct on off thunk to it. It is fairly breathable through T-Dry even on 30c ambient days, although I have not tested it in bumper to bumper traffic. The lace is fairly short once all the holes are laced in that I could barely get my double slip knot in, which I suppose is intentional because you do not want lace getting caught on the bike. It looks absolutely smashing in green (a few shades darker than a british racing green continental gt) with a gum sole and goes well with pants of most colours.

On the bike, I have mixed feelings about this shoe. It is grippier than my no name boots which helps in leaning but at the same time upshifts feel like shifting with my sandals on, and I have to push the lever up twice to shift to 2nd after getting it stuck in neutral. Not often, but frequently enough. If someone knows of a mod to engage neutral by pressing some button on the dash instead of this 1-N-2 setup, please let me know lol. I also felt the rear abs engage for the first time on these shoes. It felt like it was tickling my foot and I definitely lost a few precious milliseconds backing out on the rear because of that. Downshifts are also not as pleasant because you feel the groove pattern (not the shift lever) which distributes the pressure in a non uniform way. Despite being more tactile, it isolates peg vibrations as nicely as my boots so it is objectively tactile in the best way.

Overall, I think I will continue to use this as my primary shoe even for long rides because it is properly certified and has less ankle flex. After this long winded route of window shopping, customs feasibility analyses and other things, I am quite happy with my current moto gear style.

[ebonho]

One of the best threads on Team BHP information wise. Just finished going through the Pandemic years and thereafter. Like a living fossil emerging from the deepest bowels of the earth!

I'm going to get gloves and boots from outside wherever I travel next. Madness these prices are.

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

DMS days are back













Yes I know they are not close to offering the same protection as dedicated riding boots. But I've ridden in these more than any riding boots for over 20 years now. And this is only my second pair since 2004. That's how hard wearing and tough they are. Look at the thickness of the hide used. And that sole has won 4 wars. While I use professional boots now for the past 10+ years, these are still my go-to boots in the city and ever for shorter rides around Pune. Cleaning, polishing and lacing them up with new laces, and slipping them on right now was like saying hello to old friends after a long while!

Cheers, Doc

[Thamps]

Originally Posted by hikozaru

. All the excitement left me as I discovered that it was actually manufactured in 02/21 and not 09/22 as I thought. I suppose I should have asked them for a picture of the manufacturing date as well. I was quite annoyed that I had about 2 years before I could use it only as fashion shoes but after I was satisfied with the fit of the shoes I gave up on returning them. [/ATTACH]

Does riding boots really have an expiration date? That is a new information. Any source?

[shyamg28]

Originally Posted by shyamg28

I'm going to order one more so that the boots look even. Or I may not. Let's see how this plays out

I matched them

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by shyamg28

I matched them

Attachment 2522159

I simply cut a nice thick padding, even old rubber tube works, rolled it over the gear lever bit which touches the boot and super glued it. Problem solved.

Usually lasts a few years.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by shyamg28

I had a major gripe with the RE TCX Stelvio boots, in that they don't come with a hard plastic/rubber gear shift pad. This was causing the left boot to have scarring (or whatever the word is) on the leather. Before the situation escalated, I decided to take matter into my own hands (or rather, into a friendly neighbourhood cobbler's hands ).

In my opinion and experience, if the leather is good and thick and not fine formal leather grade, then aside from blackening and a depressed deformation that is the telltale sign of a biker's boot, nothing worse would have happened. Indefinitely. Over years. My first DMS became like that once I started riding the Machismo 500 (I chopped off the heel of the shifter within a week of getting her) ... the standard 500 gear lever is huge and comes in the center of the upper forefoot, just behind the toecap. So the scuffing merges with the upper foot creasing.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Darkcloud

The woes of buying riding gear online in India

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get a premium touring jacket and pant for the past 3 months. I’ve been thinking of getting Klim or Revit but as none of these are available in Mumbai I had to look up stores online which sell these brands.

LABS Andheri stocks some models of Klim and Speed Merchant Worli stocks some of the volume Revit models. Do visit them to get a sense of sizing.

I’m sure its easier logistically to visit Delhi once perhaps (instead of SE Asia) and buy these if you don’t get to try your desired size in Mumbai. Between Pathpavers and HNP Delhi, you’ll be covered for both these brands and several more too.

[hikozaru]

Originally Posted by Thamps

Does riding boots really have an expiration date? That is a new information. Any source?

I was referring to the D3O armour that they use for the ankle when talking about expiration date.

https://youtu.be/_nbQsnUvlo4?t=320

[Thamps]

Originally Posted by hikozaru

I was referring to the D3O armour that they use for the ankle when talking about expiration date. https://Youtu.be/_nbQsnUvlo4?t=320

The thumbnail literally shows that boots are forever. He states that theoretically, boots will last a life time with some care and if devoid of any crash.

I don't think boots would lose its protective capabilities after 4 years, especially when two years have been spent sitting on a shelf.
Just my opinion.