Comfort

I chose the boots a size larger than I normally am as it was quite difficult to get them on in the beginning due to the quarter zipper (as with most motorcycle boots). Looking back now I am so glad I chose a size too big (they don’t feel big at all) as I have experienced NO discomfort at all. I wear the boots all the time which is mainly on my commute and I keep wearing them when at my destination. They look perfectly presentable when under trousers/pants which is mainly due to the lack of toe slider and PU hard shell. I like this as very rarely does one get their knee-down on the morning rush hour.

They are perfectly comfortable to wear all day while walking around and are of course equally at home on a motorcycle. I have tried them on several different bikes; cruisers, naked and sports and they fit all well.

Protection

The protection is nothing when compared to racing boots, but as I have said before who goes racing in the rush hour? Protection is adequate and reflects the design, they faired well when my bikes weight was crushing my lower leg in an accident where a blind taxi driver decided to u-turn in the road so they have gained my loyalty! Teknic is a fairly well known brand and this does put your mind to rest a little.

As far as specific protection goes there are reinforcement plates in the shin, ankle and toe. They aren’t the sturdiest boot on the market but they don’t claim to be. The toe shifter is reinforced as well and the whole boot is made of leather.

Looks

I love the looks; they look perfectly normal under jeans and look the part when I have race gear on too. I’ve found that the best look is with them under Jeans, a leather jacket and leather race gloves. But since when do I give out fashion advice? I’d brand this look under the “Streetfighter” category and they go best with cruisers and naked bikes.

Weather Proofing

The weather proofing surprised me actually. I have NEVER been wet while wearing these. I have been knee deep in snow, ankle deep in rivers and have felt like I have ridden through a monsoon but the boots kept faithful to their end of the bargain and kept me dry the whole time. It is seriously like they are 100% waterproof, and for leather I just can’t believe it! Top marks here then!

The warmth factor is also impressive and I have ridden with these in everything from 30C to -6C (admittedly with double socks) and they have kept me warm from start to finish.

Generic

A handy little feature within the boots are the “anti-slip” soles. Although I have rarely needed this while riding the bike I chose to wear these boots through the snow which accompanied the worst winter in 30 years and while everybody else was slipping and falling on their arse I was stood up like Hercules helping the damsel in distress. This has also saved me a couple of times from an embarrassing fall when I have been riding in icy or slushy conditions and had my foot slip out from beneath me.

Another bonus is that in all this time I have cleaned the boots 3 times. 3 TIMES! That is insane, I admit that they were absolutely filthy but my excuse was that it all added to “the look”. By the time I cleaned them there must have been 4 months of road salt and shit on them and they still brushed up perfectly!

Overall

Overall then the boots are fantastic; they would suit most riders perfectly, whether you’re touring, commuting or just hooning around on some twisty back roads. They are certainly worth it for the relatively cheap price tag. I would be happy to buy another pair but am now looking to widen my collection with some race boots next (as I will be changing bike soon). I’ll still keep these though and will use these for the normal commute and everything else which is probably about 90% of my riding.

*Sorry about the horrendous picture quality but I snapped these with my phone today in a utility room haha. I’ll crop some of when they are in the sun for tomorrow.

Safety:

When buying a helmet which is produced from a company that is not well known I do some research before just to make sure the helmet won’t fall to pieces when I accidentally nudge it with my foot. So far I have never been let down and in fact one brand (KBC) has made me a life-long supporter.

The RSV121 has a 4* SHARP rating (the UK’s new advanced helmet rating system), this is frankly incredible for a flip-up helmet and to put that into comparison both Shoei and Shark flip-up’s which will set you back around £400 only scored 3*. Fortunately I have not had the first hand experience of crash testing this one but I am pretty confident that it should hold up. One more point is that the helmet is ACU Gold approved which means that you can also use it on track while talking to your buddies who are sat in IKEA’s kitchen department because they spent their money on a wedding.

Design:

The helmet looks quite classy. It won’t attract massive amounts of attention like my other helmet (see top right of the banner) but nevertheless people will take interest when they see the blue flashing light on the side. I got mine in Silver as it matches my Winter gear better and the all black wouldn’t be as visible when I am riding at night – which is everyday in Winter. The Silver is nice as it shows the helmets lines well. The other colours available are Gloss Black, Matt Black and White.

Some of the nice touches to the design are of course the internal visor which makes you look like Maverick out of Top Gun. Always a plus with the laides. Yet another plus point with the RS V121’s internal visor system is that it covers your eyes completely, I found similar models obtrusive as the internal visor only covered a portion of my eyes. The Bluetooth button unit is also impressive with its blue flashing LED to scare off those rowdy drivers (it’s not that effective). The base of the helmet also looks top quality as it is made from leather and suede.

Wind:

Wind is a large factor when choosing a helmet and as I use mine to “vlog” this becomes more of a concern. Comparing it to my KBC full face helmet the wind noise is quite high, this may be because the helmet is a flip-up and other flip-up helmets may be the same. The wind noise is not unbearable and you soon get used to it. What may be more of a concern is that this wind noise is accompanied with wind chill. The helmet is quite cold when travelling at speeds of more than 50MPH. This of course would be great in Summer and is not terrible in Winter – just a little colder than I’m used to.

Comfort:

The helmet is quite comfy to say that you have two speakers shoved alongside your ears. The padding is thick and feels good and it fits well, if you get the right size of course. The weight of the helmet is a little under 1900g, which is heavy, but it seems to do a good job of spreading this weight as fatigue levels are not any greater than any other helmet.

Features:

The Bluetooth is by far the most prominent feature on the helmet and will be the feature which makes or breaks the deal for most riders. I’ve never ridden with a Bluetooth unit inside the helmet before and I rarely listen to music while I am on the bike but the Bluetooth is so easy to use it could change me. The installation is easy once you figure out the amazingly complex drawings in the instruction manual. Pairing it with my phone took a minute and like a normal headset the device connects instantly once paired.

The twin speaker system is good quality but does get a little hard to hear if you are travelling at speeds of over 50MPH. To my surprise and somewhat confusion there is no visible microphone. The mic is somewhere inside the helmet so that you are able to still call with the helmet flipped up. From what I’ve been told the quality is decent as well and people have no trouble hearing me. The unit is very easy to use with gloves on and has one large button which controls the volume, call answer/disconnect, on/off and pairing functions.

The internal visor is also a life saver (sometimes literally). I’ve never had the chance of using a helmet with an internal visor in before but always loved the idea, and what an idea it is! There are times in the morning when the sun is out (yes, I know in England you wouldn’t believe it) and I simply cannot see the road when I pull up to a junction, this is where the lifesaver function comes into play. The visor also looks great and I found that even in fairly low light looking out of the visor has no effect on vision yet people cannot see through from the outside.

The flip-up feature is also convenient and saves the annoyance of taking all of your gear off to walk into a petrol station. The flip-up is also great as it gives you the freedom of vision to be able to unlock the bike easily without getting your head soaking wet. The strap is also a very easy to use buckle which is yet another great feature if you are wearing gloves.

Overall:

Overall the helmet is great value for money (£150 = $250) for the everyday rider or the business rider who likes to keep in touch. I use this helmet primarily for commuting as I have other helmets for when I just want a blast around or a show boating cruise. This is a serious helmet with great features which makes motorcycle commuting that bit easier. If you are looking to do a long tour with groups of people, or looking for an all-round helmet on a budget then this is truly great. If your type of riding is more based on Summer Sunday mornings blasting around back roads or cruising down town you would be better off opting for another helmet. Unless of course you love the idea of being in touch with the rest of your life? Kind of defeats the object of motorcycling though eh?

Summary

Good:

-         Comfortable

-         Good safety rating

-         Flip-up

-         Internal Visor

-         Bluetooth

-         Buckle fastener

Bad:

-         No fancy paint scheme’s

-         A little windy

COMFORT [4/5]

The first time I put them on they were extremely thick and I was slightly afraid of riding with them as I didn’t have much throttle control. However after a couple of hours wearing and riding with them they were broke in well enough for my heart rate to drop a little. The gloves are very comfy and have moulded to my hand quite well. The lining is soft and warm (Thinsulate) and the adjusters work quite well too. Unfortunately they do not fit under my jacket as the gloves are on the large side; although they are perfectly fine over the top (even with heavy rain) as the draw string does an amazing job. One thing I did notice though was that in hot or even mild weather they get sticky quite fast.

WEATHER RESISTANCE [4/5]

As far as water resistance goes they are excellent. My hands are always dry whatever the amount of rainfall. They do get soggy if your handlebars are wet before you ride but this can be expected from any pairs of gloves. The warmth factor is not that great, once the gloves are broken in the lining becomes quite thin and after about 20 minutes of riding at an average of around 35 MPH (some 70 MPH in there though) your fingers become cold. The rest of my hands are fine but anymore than 35 minutes of riding at outer city speeds and my fingers will start to feel it quite badly. These are at an air temperature of around 0C (36F) however and not that many people will be riding in conditions colder than that for longer than that. I found that a pair of inner gloves works wonders but this jacks the price up to around £30 ($55) so why not just buy a more expensive pair in the first place you may be thinking?

PROTECTION [3/5]

As with all motorcycle gear one of the main aspects is protection against a possible accident. There is no hard armour in the glove at all, yet there are raised section at all the joints in the fingers and a large padded section on the knuckles. The palm is leather which is a good sign and all of the major layers are double stitched. I had an accident in these involving a taxi driver who u-turned in the middle of the road and they held up fine then although it was a relatively low speed collision. I am unsure to how they would fare at a high speed impact but am confident that they would be sufficient.

LOOKS [4/5]

I find that the gloves look quite nice… as far as winter gloves go. The 3M reflective piping is a nice feature as is the red and silver sewn logo. The gloves are a very deep navy blue and in the real world look almost black. They go with anything to my racing leathers through to my Textile winter suit.

QUALITY [2/5]

The Tuzo TZG-4 are not the best quality in the world, but what do you expect for the price of a DVD? In fact I have had to take them back to the dealer once as the first time I opened them and put them on the plastic buckle to adjust the cuff fitting snapped straight off. Since I got the new pair I haven’t even bothered to touch the buckle again as it does look rather fragile -although this is not needed anyway. The material quality is decent and a few of the stitches have frayed. The lining is proper Thinsulate however and the textile outer is Hippora so the quality isn’t that bad.

VALUE [5/5]

In terms of value these gloves are excellent, for £15 ($25) you can’t really go far wrong. The quality is ok if you ignore the buckles, protection is adequate and the materials used are branded and do an ok job.

OVERALL [4/5]

The overall verdict on these then is that they are a great low cost winter glove. Have them for one season and then get rid of them if you ride through the winter or purchase them for those odd chilly days. I can’t really recommend them for touring as they get hot far too quick in temperatures above 10C (50F). However what I do recommend them for is anyone who rides in cold weather and is on a tight budget. These will do you just fine until the money starts rolling in.

I bought both parts sometime around early October as the weather in England was starting to get a little chilly. Both items do zip together however I found that I hardly ever use this as I normally wear the suit on my commute. In the 2 months that I have had these I have done around 1500 miles in ALL WEATHER! Snow, frost, severe flood causing rain, heat and whatever else nature would like to toss my way.

Both pieces of the suit have the same setup in which they have a resistant, windproof outer layer (textile), a fully waterproof liner and inside that a thermal layer. For the most part I have had all layers zipped in.

The Akito Desert suit in its natural habitat (Me)

COMFORT

The suit is incredibly comfy. The lining is quilted and feels like silk (actually nylon I believe) but nevertheless it provides excellent comfort. The Coldest days feel like room temperature and even as I found myself commuting home in the snow last week the great warmth kept me in good spirits. However, don’t for a minute presume that all those linings will have you swimming around after a few minutes, as the lining appears breathable although it does not state it. Not that breathable really matters when you have countless vents on all different areas of your body though and these do actually work, especially if you have the thermal lining out on those occasional hot days.

The light CE Knox armour is also unobtrusive and I haven’t found a slight problem with it. It also does its job as I had the unfortunate chance of finding out when a taxi driver u-turned in front of me knocking me under the bike in November. I and surprisingly the suit had not a mark on “us”. But that’s more of an issue of quality.

Also I found that there are so many clips, button studs, and whatever else that you can actually tailor the suit to your exact body measurements. The standard settings seem to work fine for me, yet there are occasions when it is nice to have the jacket hugging the contours of your body… just not too many of them.

WEATHER RESITANCE

The weather resistance is great and the multiple liners really help. This means that for any occasion you are completely ready; be that travelling through the dunes of Africa or facing the traffic of England’s city centres at rush hour on a cold winter morning – you get the picture.

The rain proofing is great and I have ALWAYS arrived at my destination dry and acidic free. The outer layer seems to be able to combat most showers while the inner lining is a more heavy duty layer aimed at stopping the most torrential rain. Either way it does the job fine and that’s all I am bothered about when the monsoons are hurtling down.

For hot weather the suit also fairs well. When it is summer you have the ability to strip out all the layers and open every vent, allowing the fresh air to keep you perfectly cool while still having the security of armour. This is why the Desert suit is perfect for touring. One jacket for all weather conditions.

QUALITY

The quality seems about average. Don’t go expecting Hein Gericke stitching, but at the same time, you won’t need to take out a second loan. After the miles I have done there are only a few loose stitches towards the bottom of the pants. However, I have not been the kindest of owners as it has not seen the wash cloth too many times… if ever. Plus I have tortured the poor thing by both clashing with the ground once and the wall many times when I am fumbling around trying to get the chain off of the rear tyre in the early hours of the morning.

VALUE

The value is possibly the best thing about the suit. For under £200 ($350) for the full suit (£125 for the jacket and £75 for the pants) you can’t really go wrong.

OVERALL

The Desert suit would obviously be best for one of two things; touring or Winter commuting. It can cope quite well with every scenario thrown in its direction. However where it really shines is its ability to transform from a cosy winter suit (when you set off from England) to a “Desert” defeating summer outfit (for when you arrive in Africa). This is why it makes the perfect touring suit and all-rounder. The price is just an extra to sweeten the deal.