[falcon.adv390]

Originally Posted by shyamg28

I removed the original insole.
Which Decathlon insole did you specifically use? Mine is this one - https://www.decathlon.in/p/8600729/i...8600729&type=p

Have the same one . Removed the original insole but the heal pain increased .

[hikozaru]

Perils of buying european riding gear in India

Tired of waiting for my friend to get my boots from Europe (whose ETA is still unknown, I'd be happy if anyone can bring it it home), I decided to buy another pair of full length boots to at least ride out the current season. With the import ban and my budget my choices were limited. Ryo T-Rex looked like the best option with a full 2 2 2 2 (and also IPS IPA pass if i remember correctly) and toe sliders but unfortunately it did not fit my leg correctly. Hearing other people's mixed feedback about Falco made me hesistant to go for them. I did not particularly like BBG's full length boots, not to mention at the time I still believed strongly in CE certifications and ratings (not so much now), which Indian boots did not have at the time and I could only balk at the cost of an uncertified Solace Speedtech compared to the T-Rex. I later stumbled upon the Shima RSX-6. From the outside it looked the same as a Forma Freccio or a Solace Speedtech or a BBG but I knew there were not many options left, especially at my budget, so decided to give it a go. I tried it on and this was the best fitting boot for me by far (spoiler alert, I seem to have a trend of buying ill fitting gear and this would also later turn out to be one of those). Sure, it is only a 2 1 2 1 IPA and despite advertising shin protector embedded in their logo, they had not actually ponied the monies for a IPS test, but anyway what is important is that it fits right right, so I got it.


CE ratings for the Shima RSX-6


Manufacturing week

After a short 100km breakfast ride for my first ride with them on nothing but straights roads, I came home and found that the toe slider had come off my right boot, a case not unlike https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/ride-...ml#post5699460 (The Riding Gear thread) I was terribly annoyed at knowing that fixing this mess would make miss out on rides, the entire reason why I got a second boot in the first place. After a call with Orion motors, where I'd bought it from and sharing pictures of the missing slider with them, they told me they'd place an order for the toe sliders and it would take a week's time. Not too bad eh. A week might sound like a lot, 7 long days if you think about it, but it is only one riding day and I could live with that. But 1 week turned into two, and three and by the end of the second week I was quite angry with Shima. Time is money and by now I had spent twice over in money alone. Weren't European brands supposed to be better. Wasn't better QC supposed to be their biggest selling point compared to gear from Indian brands. Sure it is not quite Rev'it, which seems to be a bit of a gold standard in terms of comfort and qc on this forum, and naivete or not, I believed Shima would be high quality too. Around this time, Viaterra also cocked up one of my orders and did diddly squat for 2 weeks, I took solace in the fact (no pun intended) I cannot optimally use one without the other and I am going to get both around the same time. keikaku dori.



Around 3 weeks after I placed my order the toe sliders arrived, which in hindsight is alright for non priority international shipping I suppose, I went to orion to get it fitted. Annoyingly enough, neither the box nor the replacement slider come with an allen key nor an instruction manual that specified the correct bit to screw the slider in and I was not exactly a tradesman with a bazillion toolboxes. I predicted this would happen and tried beforehand, every bit from my computer screwdriver set, allen keys from my ikea exploits, and finally the allen key that came with my LS2 Thunder Carbon to screw the visor in, was the best fit. Come on Shima, if a helmet with replaceable parts comes with spare tools, why can't a boot with replaceable parts do the same.

Once at the shop, they told me that toe sliders are not covered in warranty and that Orion got these for me out of goodwill. Needless to say, I was not particularly happy when I heard that. This sort of thing would not fly in the EU, where I believe the burden of proof lies on the shop for at least the first half year out of a 2 year warranty and I was pissed that the world was taking the piss out of my passport. From what I understand, in addition to all the fancy regulations, better qc, this 2 year warranty accounts for a significant cost in the prices of european gear and is already priced in, but hey we should just be grateful to buy it at a 25% import markup and get minimal customer support amirite. Not to take anything away from how Orion handled it, they did replace it for free but I think Orion and gthouse should sort this out and not leave a bad aftertaste to their customers. Same for other brands and their distributors. After this short exchange, I had to deal with yet another minor setback. The screw was mildly stripped, noticeable compared to the intact one on my left boot. Anyway, the allen key did fit and while I was not in the clearest of minds and I managed to screw it in perfectly but stripped the screw even more in the process. Well, at least its in, and I've used it for a few rides now and its doing alright.

About the boot itself, its a bit narrow. Fits me great when my foot is in the air, but my feet have a tendency to splay out considerably when putting my body weight on the ground and its a bit narrow when I stand on the pegs. It is absolutely miserable for walking, as well it should, and I highly recommend a change of shoes. The inner itself is a bit spartan in terms of cushioning around the toe area. I don't mean the insole, I mean the sides when I say that. When you dig your feet in as narrowly as you can and find your toe against the heel plates on straights, these boots transmit more of the bike's vibrations than something like my tcx street 3. On a particularly vibey bike like the KTM 390s it can be a bit of an issue. The outsole is quite grippy and if it fits, there are no real complaints.

That brings us to the current state of Indian brands in 2024

Indian qc is still a mess and CE certs are not endgame. Allow me to explain. While I was waiting on my viaterra pants, I used the Shima RSX-6 for a few city and breakfast rides with my Bull-it covert evo jeans. The jeans are a touch longer than it should be when looked at purely as riding kit but rolling the bottom can be fashionable, so I never got it hemmed to my inseam. The jeans being slim fit does not go over a full sized boot, but the pant keeps sliding up on the left leg over hundreds of shifts when tucked into the boot, similar to knee armour on my Byke it alphas. One day, I find that the seam around the part where the pant touches the tank grips (mototrendz) was frayed and coming off. It is hard to say what exactly the culprit is, whether the tank grips are too abrasive, or if the jeans are just bad. My hypothesis is that this combination of jeans, boot caused the jeans to bunch up at the tank grip area and left the jeans with sub optimal resistance to abrasion. Perhaps, it was always unavoidable or I just hastened the inevitable with these particular tank grips but I cannot change anything now. Armed with some more spare change the next month, I was out shopping again.


Bunching caused the tear?


Look how they massacred my favourite jeans

Surfing the interwebs showed me that Rynox had come up with riding jeans - Downtown pro. What's more, they had come up with jeans offering both abrasion and impact protection, compared to other brands satisfied with just sticking in some CE pads and calling it a day. It was also cheaper than the Byke it alphas, what's not to like. I managed to find one in my size at the Rynox showroom, HSR. Say what you want about their gear, design, qc, their purchase experience is top notch. Take notes Viaterra. You cannot say custom this custom that and tell us to take 2 measurements and start stitching away. Get a real physical shop, you take a dozen different measurements, account for the slight asymmetries and differences between the limbs if you want to carry this custom thing forward.

First look, the jeans look gorgeous, a brilliant shade of dark blue. My current jeans cannot even compare. Of course, it remains to be seen if this will last a dozen washes and plenty of tank grip and seat rubbing. The knee armour inserting mechanism is not stupidly difficult like Byke it and its even got 2 level height adjustability. It is supposedly cordura denim everywhere and kevlar lining on impact zones but I could not really tell what's where. I went in to try it and pop, the button came off. The infamous rynox qc strikes again. The salesperson told me its a first batch issue and it would get sorted in time and fair enough but 10k for such qc is a bit apalling. The D3O logo stitched on the belt rivets? was falling off too. Sure these are not safety critical but it makes you wonder if some safety related thing also silently failed. Another bummer not related to qc is that the pads are only type A, meaning the area covered by the armour is smaller compared to type B. Though at this point I have more or less given up on correct armour fitment and will be using the armoured tights or inners going forward. For what its worth, the jeans are very comfortable with zip fully zipped up and no button, the pads are in the right place for me at least when sitting on the bike. Definitely need to see how it fares over hours of shifting and how well it fares coming into contact with potentially abrasive tank grips. The D3O ghost armour also look very discreet for being level 2. Overall, I can see myself buying one of these once Rynox gets a handle on their qc and a few more colours and I am very excited about other brands getting into this discreet riding gear space.


Colour comparison. Phone cameras still cannot seem to capture colours accurately. Left is Rynox, right is bullit


No large armour for you !!


Buttons? Who needs them


Protection label falling off

What about the second part about CE certificates not being endgame. When I bought my Shima RSX-6, I also saw a full length looking boot from an Indian? brand called Tarmac. Speed racing, rated 1 2 2 2 IPA. It has better specs than my Shimas therefore it must be better right? To my surprise, the entire back of the boot was bendy compared to my Shimas and I could not be confident enough that it will protect my ankle from twisting too hard which is a bit more likely when crashing at speed and matters more than the improvements in transverse rigidity, which to be fair helps when the bike falls on you. Back to the question, is it better? I dont know. Why does this matter? Because we are finally getting fully CE certified gear. Royal enfield has been doing it for a while, Raida has their tailcraft, Tarmac with these boots and apparently clan sneakers are getting them and it does not have the most stellar reviews on this forum. I think it is only a matter of time before this devolves into spec sheet wars when comparing gear without taking a more holistic approach to evaluating the kit, not unlike car crash test ratings. Indeed, the car crash test rating seems to be an apt analogy, once I dug deeper after watching Fortnine's controversial video on not wearing body armour after he highlighted the ills of regulatory capture in this industry.


CE ratings for Tarmac speed rating

Apparently, Europe had a higher standard for motorcycling gear before the latest ones came into effect and Motocap from Australia decided to log numbers using a methodology similar to the old standard and has shown that Europe's latest offerings are a bit poor in real world situations. The Bullit covert evos I wear have the same rating as a RST Kevlar tech jeans and yet the RSTs are 'much better'. And we know that literally every glove, even from european brands from a cheap half gauntlet to a full race glove are all rated to the same level 1 KP. Europe's main push to me looks like making ATGATT a reality and minimising life threatening injuries but the demands of the Indian rider is very different. We do not care much for ATGATT but expect much higher levels of protection when we do put gear on, which is reflected in the bulky armour present in Indian brands. Yes, Rev'it's seesoft, seeflex, Dainese's pro armour, D3O ghost are all amazing at being light, exceed CE standards for impact protection but a common thread among these is that they are ventilated. i.e. they have weird patterns for impact dispersion and let air through the armour. This works great when combined with race suits which are designed to bear the brunt of road rash but with cheap and fragile little mesh jackets and trousers that Indian brands sell, it does not quite work out the same way.


Note how empty the armour is in the middle of the triangular patterns is. You cannot convince me that this slides better than the chunky CE pads (including D3O's own armour like T5).

I think it is very likely that the blocky, bulky armour constitutes a significant part of abrasion resistance in these 'heavy duty 600D polyester chassis' or at best '600D double layer cordura shells' and especially so in the back (compared to shoulders, elbows, knees) as most of these are just plain mesh back there for ventilation. Their inflexible shapes keeps the garment itself somewhat structurally sound even with suboptimal fit, preventing issues with bunching up and other things that might stress the seams. Their thickness is literally more material to slide. The weight, that is just an unfortunate side effect. And we know that despite these Indian gear not being CE rated, have saved many a motorcyclist according to internet anecdotes. In fact, I think jackets like the Rev'it Eclipse despite being CE rated (which is still rated to a paltry 'A' I should add) which are praised in this forum for great ventilation compromise significantly on protection. Personally, if I went solely by CE ratings, I would choose nothing less than a AA for jackets and a AAA for trousers.

Further reading

1. CE certification methodologies old and new https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocia...-law-explained
2. Motocap from Australia https://motocap.com.au/

TLDR

1. Shima has poor qc (n=1, your mileage may vary)
2. Shima has relatively poor support in India
3. Small Shima boots review
4. Rynox downtown pro jeans looks great, fits me great, poor qc, wait a bit
5. Armoured inner layers are the best fit for armour, use gear mainly for abrasion
6. CE rating are not a good marker for gear
7. Motocap is better than European CE ratings
8. Indian gear is probably not all that bad
9. European gear might be worse than Indian gear in terms of safety
10. If you know a friend coming from Europe who has cargo room to spare, please contact me

[neochanger]

Hi everyone!

Has anyone here tried out Bronson boots from Viaterra? Please share your review if possible. Also, what may be the alternatives for 7k budget for good/decent riding boots.

Thanks!

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by neochanger

Hi everyone!

Has anyone here tried out Bronson boots from Viaterra? Please share your review if possible. Also, what may be the alternatives for 7k budget for good/decent riding boots.

Thanks!

In the 7K price range, you can look at Royal Enfield boots or Gadsyll G7 and G9.

I use Gadsyll G7 and they are quite decent for incity riding without shin protectors.

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Now despite all this, I doubt that Royal Enfield will sell out both these jackets in India (a journalist mentioned that there are limited numbers). Even with the store discounts, it is a decent chunk of change to put down for something that you cannot use all year around. I wont be surprised to find these going at 40% discounts on the next Royal Enfield sale. The market response in India isnt something that Royal Enfield's boffins will be surprised by. I can see these jackets doing well in international markets. The fact that Royal Enfield has launched these products in India, despite the current maturity levels of our market, is something to be appreciated. More riding gear choices for you and me, is never a bad thing!

You predicted it right (well almost). These are being sold at 25%. I am tempted to pick one up as I find the Taichi all weather pants excellent. They help me a lot in the cold conditions that I mostly ride in. This jacket will be a nice complement. But then my RE mesh jackets are just over a year old and I can't justify the replacement this soon.

[shyamg28]

Looks like the RE-Rev'it gear has made its way to stores.

Here's the HSR store Insta video on it - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ANvQvyw8K/?hl=en



I don't see them on the website yet.

On that note, the new Nirvik looks amazing!

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp

This jacket will be a nice complement. But then my RE mesh jackets are just over a year old and I can't justify the replacement this soon.

Its never a replacement, just an add-on. Just like helmets. YOu can always have more than one

[shabih]

I am in the market for a full-face helmet. Primary use will be city and highway rides. My preferences are fiberglass construction with a dropdown sun visor, less noise and weight should be less than or around 1500 gms. Will be ordering through FC Moto and keeping a budget between 14 - 16k before delivery and customs. So far my shortlist looks like the following

1. Shark Ridill/Dskwal
2. Nexx Y100R
3. HJC i71
4. AGV X3000 (slightly over budget and lacks support for Bluetooth comms)

Are there any other options to consider? I am open to looking at polycarbonate shells as well, as long as the weight is around 1500 gms. Thank you for your recommendations!

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Its never a replacement, just an add-on. Just like helmets. YOu can always have more than one

Yeah, but not a theory my wife agrees with. And with limited storage options at home, I will always be on the losing side of the argument. Not that we men will ever be on the winning side.

On a serious note, can anyone tell me how the Gravity Drystar compares with other RE jackets, for e.g. the NIRVIK in terms of safety and ventilation? The Nirvk appears to be made of Nylon and Cordura whereas the Drystar is made of only Nylon. So, not much of a difference? Is it only non-detachable rain-liner that makes the Drystar a complete water-proof jacket?

I also wished the Gravity Drystar was sold in shell only option, that way, I can save some money by using the protectors from my current jacket.

[MileCruncher]

Got myself the Gadsyll G Star 11 Tourer last week

https://gadsyll.com/product-category/g-star-11-tourer/


Used during ride from Delhi to Devprayag, 2 days back - Roughly 12 hours with the shoes, and today about 5 hours with the shoes.

Do I like them? Yes. They have broken in well and it is nice and cozy. Has been extremely helpful while tackling broken and non road sections. At Rs 8300/- I think they are absolute value for money especially when you see full riding boot prices.

Highly recommended for touring!

[BB311]

I have switched from Interceptor to Himalayan recently as I plan to convert myself from a "paratha" rider to a tourer. As such I need to buy some additional riding gear, suggestions would be welcome.
1. I have Bikeraati Riding Jeans, and I plan to buy a pair of riding pants.
2. I have been using RE city riding boots and now I plan to buy a pair of adventure touring boots to protect the shin as well.

My total budget is 20k give or take, and I stay in NCR (the national oven) so I want something that helps me weave through the heat wave as well as ride the storms in Himalayas. I know the ask is huge, money is less, but if challenges were not there, why would I be here?

Also, has anyone heard or used these Amaroq Valiant shoes : https://www.amaroqindia.com/2023/10/...ize-boots.html

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by BB311

My total budget is 20k give or take, and I stay in NCR (the national oven) so I want something that helps me weave through the heat wave as well as ride the storms in Himalayas. I know the ask is huge, money is less, but if challenges were not there, why would I be here?

Also, has anyone heard or used these Amaroq Valiant shoes : https://www.amaroqindia.com/2023/10/...ize-boots.html

So this is what I would budget:
1. Jacket - Touring jacket -8-12K depending on brand and armour level. Look at Rynox Storm. They are good and there could be a discount. Even RE Nirvik jackets are good.
2. Touring pants - 6-8K. Again I say, check Rynox Storm Evo. I bought for 7500 approx. I even have a Tarmac riding pant bought for about 6K but they are not suitable for long rides. I don't think they can be your stand alone.pants.
3. Boots - I have seen Amaroq online but never seen in flesh nor tested. So can't comment. Long boots range from 8k -40K. I have been using Gadsyll short boots and long boots and pretty happy till date. I also tried the RE E-39 mid rise boots and they are good too!

So at the bare end we are talking - 8+6+8 =22K.
However my advice would be to use your existing jacket, get good boots and a good touring pants. This considering you already have full gauntlet gloves.

Hope this helps!

[shabih]

Hello, good folks of TBHP, I need some advice. I am looking out for a new helmet for myself. A friend will be visiting Germany this month and I was wondering whether ordering from FC Moto or Motard.in and getting it delivered to my friend's place is better or going to a physical store in Germany to pick up a helmet from a cost point of view.

[Mik]

So my ask is a bit different here.
Over last 17 years of riding i have gone through 3 riding pants (cramster, fieldsheer, rynox) and a riding jeans. The trouble with being 5ft 7 inches and three quarters(i have to eke out every milimeter ) and more on the happy tummy side, the waist sizes (generally 36) that have fit me have pretty big inseams (32) and that leads to very baggy looking pants which do nothing for my rider cool quotient.
Is anyone aware of a new age brand which does custom pants, or has shorter inseams while not being baggy touring variety stuff.

[Sebring]

Overseas, in physical stores they have a section with amazing discounts. Like I found an ARAi at just Rs 30,000. BTW FC Moto has been delivering used/returned/damaged helmets, in few cases, so another reason to visit a store.

Otherwise, convinces factored in, (and you trust a website), it's always better to have it shipped to address (Provided there is free shipping).

Originally Posted by shabih

wondering whether ordering from FC Moto or Motard.in and getting it delivered to my friend's place is better or going to a physical store in Germany to pick up a helmet from a cost point of view.