As the Excalibur Grey Vespa moves through central Pennsylvania its rider is now clad in Hi-Viz yellow. I feared it would be the yellow green color, and it is, but I was surprised how cool it looks. I may be quiet in person but my jacket is loud and obnoxious!
The new First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket is great. Compared to my old one it’s better built, better fitting, warmer, and more functional. So far it seems a near perfect solution for my cold weather riding. I’ll share more as time and cold marches on.
The first ride with the jacket was to work on Thursday morning with the temperature hovering at 35F. I was toasty with a t-shirt, sweater, old pile liner, and the new jacket with thermal liner. I suspect that combination will get me to 20F. Below that point I’ll replace the t-shirty with polypropylene long underwear, a warmer sweater, and perhaps another layer of some sort. All those layers really mess with a company’s sizing scheme. When I was looking at sizes based on my body measurements I fell squarely between LARGE and X-LARGE. But you always need to remember they are thinking you’ll be wearing a shirt under the jacket and nothing more. Experience has guided me to bigger sizes.
In this case, considering the temperatures I would be riding in, I chose XX-LARGE TALL, or 2XT. Good thing I did. The coat has plenty of room to layer and with no layers the cinching systems allow a person to snug it up nicely so it doesn’t look like you’re wearing a tent.
The best feature so far is the collar. Much more comfortable and better fitting at the neck and high enough to cut out more of the cold air that normally would knife into tender flesh and blood.
The polar vortex is hear I suppose. The ride home was as cold as the ride to work and autumn seems like nothing more than a doormat to winter. Like the squirrels in our garden madly preparing for winter I’m doing the same with the Vespa. Yesterday a pair of Tucano Urbano handlebar muffs arrived — spacious neoprene covers to keep the cold winter from my hands. After years of electric gloves I’m surrendering and moving to the next level of warmth with the muffs. To complete the upgrade I’ll be installing Koso heated grips. Protection from the wind and head beneath fingers and thumb equals contentment in the cold. At least that’s my hope.
The difference in outlook and well-being between cold and warm is striking when I ride. If I’m just a bit chilled, or worse, a ride is something to endure and wish to end. But warm, well, it can go on forever. I’ve complained for years of cold, numb, painful hands. With great hope I feel they will soon be vanquished. The jury is out on whether I have the proper electrical skills to make grips hot or whether I’ll be posting a picture of the GTS in flames.
For a closer look at the First Gear jacket check out this Revzilla.com review:
