Topic: Newbie in need of some Leather gear help...

[andy750]

For gloves look at Rev`it gloves - they are excellent quality, fit very well (at least for me) and are far superior quality  compared to Fieldsheer, PowerTrip, Alpinstars etc gloves that are all made in China (no offense to the Chinese but the stitching on these gloves is poor...). Just my experience....

Ryan - MotoMkt had Rev`it gloves last year.

cheers
Andy

[Joel]

I've been looking for a leather jacket as well and Fox Creek is the only one I've come across so far with the style of jacket I'm looking for with armor pockets.  Any opinions on how important the back, elbow and shoulder armor is?

[eldar]

you know how some say the kevlar on your knuckles is good? Go up a few steps and you have the rest of the armor. Your hands in most cases will not take near the amount of impact your body does.

[HavocTurbo]

There are neat parallels between this and the 'biker look' thread.  I like my helmet, and though I play with the idea of a 3/4 or half lid, I think I'll stick with a modular.  I might consider other HJC helmets, though, or maybe the Arai Oak mentioned 'next time around'.  My head is so small even XS helmets move around a bit...

You ever tried youth sizes kit??

[Frankenkit]

I just got an 'xpert' XPL193NKDZ jacket (they're not in a lot of the catalogues yet, but I think they'll be going by the model name "Samson" Anyway, they're basically a nice-quality Pakistani knock-off of the Firstgear Scout IV, except you need to waterproof the leather yourself.  Still a nice deal and fits like a glove. (well, me, anyway)
I wasn't thrilled with the soft or hard armor provided (soft armor doesn't seem 'effective' enough to me... , and the hard stuff was rough on my joints etc) so I pulled the CE-approved Turtle armor out of my Joe Rocket Alter-Ego jacket and stuck it in.  I can't even feel the difference between the soft and new turtle armor, and I'm just wearing a light t-shirt under, so that's obviously my standard of comfort.  The full-size turtle back armor fit in the pocket as well, so I'm doing that, too.  You only see so many crushed vertebrae before you take that sh!t seriously.
My new gloves are scorpion exo cleos.  They fit as snug as the nitrile gloves at work and are almost as dexterous.  Knuckle armor and perforated leather between the fingers round it out, with thin goat skin and wicking lining.  To 'break them in' and get them form-fitting, I put them on and ran hot water over my hands 'til saturated, then sponge-dried a little with a towel and went to bed wearing them.  In two hours they were almost completely dry, but the real kicker was that my hands dried first.  Weird concept, but I like.  'specially since I've been having problems with my palms sweating in regular buckskin gloves.
There y'go, my $0.02.