Motodisiac

This is going to be a short post. My friend had found this thread on the Southern California sport bike riders forum. Basically the writer tells the story about him deciding not to wear any gear one day when he went riding his Ducati Hypermotard. He high sided at approximately 50 mph although police claims he was going 80 mph. He wore only jeans, a tank top and tennis shoes. Ironically the rider himself owns a gear shop.

The pictures are really graphic. I decided not to put them on here. So please go to this link to read the thread - http://socal-sportbikes.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=58512.

I believe this should be yet another proof to all riders out there - don’t try to save money on your gear. Always gear up as things can happen even a couple of blocks away from your house and really fast. And when you make choices as to what brand of gear to buy please listen to my advice and invest in a good brand. It might save your life one day.

I have been riding all weekend logging well over 400 miles in 2 days of freeway, street and canyon riding. On paper the weather could not have been better. 80-ish (25-ish Celsius) degrees with a nice breeze. As usual I appropriately dressed for this kind of weather - my replacement Rev’it Airforce jacket and the Alpinestars jeans.

Last Saturday I ended up at the Rock Store. My temperature gauge showed 96F (35C) . Going back down to the 101 freeway and riding home my gauge showed 92-94F (33-34C). My Sunday ride was all over town ending in a fairly short Angeles Crest Highway run. Temperature gauge sporting something around 90F(32C) around town and nice and cool 75F (23C) going up the mountains in La Cañada.

As you can see the “theme” temperature of this weekend riding was 90 and higher. And as I rode along I remembered of this post I read on the Motorcycle Philosophy blog about the wind chill factor - http://www.motorcyclephilosophy.org/2008/05/wind-chill-motorcycle-myth.htm. Basically it boils down (no pun intended) to this - when the temperature is higher than 73F (22-23C) you no longer can experience a wind chill when riding. Scientifically it might be just so. However when I was riding faster and there was air coming in through my mesh jacket it felt nicer than riding slow in the same temperature. I am not sure if that was in fact a wind chill. Or rather just an air flow that would make my jacket no longer stick to my t-shirt or maybe vice versa :). In any case going faster and having more air come at you did make some difference even in a hot weather. Not sure about the science of it. But looks like I might have found the answer to the centuries old question - to chill or not to chill :).

By now you have become intimately familiar with my Rev’it saga. To sum it up - I’ve had a silver Rev’it Airforce jacket for about half a year. I loved it dearly. About a month ago one of the zippers broke. So I tried to get a replacement jacket from Rev’it USA. After a frustrating month I finally got it. This time in black. Why black? If you ride daily in a silver jacket it becomes visibly dirty in about a month of riding. Black on the other hand - not so much. As far as your visibility to other riders and car drivers I believe that your helmet color matters more and is far more visible than your bright jacket.

I immediately noticed more than a few improvements in the jackets design. Namely the way the velcro flaps are made on the cuffs, the way the rain liner is attached to the jacket, zipper quality etc. It does show that Rev’it is constantly working on improving products they offer.

I know I did not exactly praise the customer service provided by Rev’it USA. Using the Top Gear lingo their customer service is “absolute rubbish”. And though an important part of a brand representation this in my opinion still should not completely reflect and stain the high quality of the products Rev’it offers.

Looks like I have not given up on my favorite gear brand just yet.

My Rev’it saga came to its finish line today’s morning when I finally got a hold of my new replacement Airforce jacket in all black color. I took exactly one month to accomplish something that was pitched as a couple of days affair. Here is how the saga concluded.

On Tuesday, Jul 1 when the Rev’it team supposedly got back from their Holland trip I called Ally. She’d said that they did receive the shipment of the new jackets however they are super busy with emails and stuff. So they probably won’t get around to send me the jacket till later that week. Besides it would still take some time to “unpack” their new shipment etc. In any event I should see the tracking number in my inbox either at the end of that week or on Mon, Jul 7 at the latest.

Predictably enough came Mon and I still did not see the tracking number in my inbox. After getting a hold of Ally first thing she asked me was “Did you receive your jacket?”. I did not know if I should laugh or scream in agony. Obviously I did not receive the jacket. She took my contact phone number (for the 3rd time) and had told me she’d call me back with the update. Two hours later an email arrived. All it had was a forwarded email from UPS with the tracking number. No apologies in the forward email body. Actually no text at all. Just a forward. The original UPS email had the time stamp later than the time of my call. What that meant was exactly this - had I not called I would not have had the jacket shipped to me that day.

Again predictably enough Rev’it screwed up my delivery address and failed to provide my unit number. So when the UPS delivery truck came by they could not properly deliver the item. So they left it on hold for me at the UPS facility last night. And tomorrow morning after a tedious 40 minute wait I FINALLY had my jacket.

Now, lets review the complete time line of what should have been an easy transaction:

• Jun 11 - first contact made, replacement requested.
• Jun 17- prepaid UPS label received from Rev’it
• Jun 19 - my jacket shipped to Rev’it, replacement requested per agreement with Aron Ahlstrom
• Jun 20 - notification of my shipment is promptly ignored, replacement jacket not shipped
• Jun 23 - silver jackets are backordered, per Ally black Airforce jacket is to be shipped the same day or the next day at the latest with UPS tracking be emailed to me
• Jun 24 - after me calling Rev’it turns out that all Airforce jackets are backordered till Jun 30 at least as that is when they EXPECT them to come in. They are back from their trip to head office in Holland on Jul 1 which is when Ally had promised to call me with an update.
• Jul 1 - per Rev’it the jackets are there, and will be shipped out in a couple of days
• Jul 7 - after me calling Rev’it again and reminding of my dire need the jacket is sent to me with UPS 2nd day delivery, delivery address is not provided correctly
• Jul 9 - UPS fails to deliver as my address is incomplete courtesy Rev’it USA.
• Jul 10 - I pick up the jacket at the UPS facility.

Here are my thoughts on that - this type of customer service is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable to begin with. Rev’it is a new, unknown and up and coming brand in the US. Outside of Motodisiac and myself we must have seen a couple of riders wear Rev’it gear. With that said the way they handled my business should have been quite the opposite. If a company tries to win the market that is clearly not the strategy. After enduring this battle I doubt I’d want to buy more gear from Rev’it ever again. That is very unfortunate as their gear is really good all around - quality, reliability and looks. But the customer service totally blows. Some of you might object by saying that a corporate office does not have to deal with end consumers like myself. Their local dealers should. I totally understand. If that’s the case all Rev’it had to do was refer me to a dealer and not get themselves into something they could not properly take care of.

Very frustrating as I am or rather was one of a very few Rev’it enthusiasts over here in the states.

It happened 10 minutes ago. I was making a final turn on my way home. 3 more blocks to go. As I completed the turn I started picking up some speed. And that very moment a black brand new 5-series bimmer pulled out of the underground parking of one of the apartment building on my right. The driver, a 20 something year old kid was so stunned when he saw me approach rapidly that he kept driving till he became absolutely perpendicular to the road blocking both lanes on my side of the street. Then he stopped. His bimmer was not more than 50 yards away from me.

I started braking hard while attempting to downshift from the 3th gear (if I remember correctly). I was able to make only one downshift before completely locking the rear wheel and making my bike slide sideways a little bit towards the bimmer. I realized I won’t be able to stop. I will smash into it. I let go of the brakes and quickly swerved around the front of the bimmer. I am still unsure how I pulled it off. I clearly remember not thinking about anything while this was happening. Must be reflexes I guess. To my luck both of the opposite lanes were empty, no cars in sight. I must have swerved at 25 mph at least, may be even more. And just like that I was in the clear. This frightening experience lasted shorter than 2 seconds.

After maneuvering around the bimmer I continued on at 20 mph waiting for the bimmer to catch up with me. Filled with anger I was ready to kick ass and take names. The bimmer hesitantly caught up. When I saw the driver’s face I realized that he was absolutely horrified. He was gesturing apologetically as we strolled along, for like a block or even longer. And that’s without him being able to see my face behind the dark shield. I think had he seen my face he would have been even more apologetic. In any case I did not feel like relieving my anger as I am pretty sure he’d learned his lesson. And I learned mine. By the way my hands a still shaking a little bit as I type this post.