oldrascal
Registered user
The first thing to admit is that I am easily seduced and led. 
So what you are about read should not lead you to think that I am recommending a similar course of action - quite the opposite as I hope my experience will hope you undecided but budding Tossers which way to go with your first grown-up kit. 
Amongst the praise, you will also read a lot of negative comments about the BMW Rallye Pro 2 suit - know by all and sundry as the 'Prat' suit on the basis that all those who wear it and who are not actually participating in the Dakar Rallye look like..............yes, that's right.........prats. Well 'bolleaux' says I, they're just jealous.
So here is the outfit (although not in proportion of course
):
Now coming from the superbike world (2008 Hayabusa) and being a riding-god and dressed accordingly in bright leathers
, I was not too informed about textile kit. I certainly didn't fancy spending the thick end of £750 squids for some marketing man's wet dream. So I didn't. What I did instead was head off down to Heine Gerick and try on their HG Tuareg Rallye GTX III outfit. At £560, it was nearly £200 pounds cheaper than the 'Prat' suit and, as far as I could tell, as good.
Here it is:
I wore this outfit for about a month and had nothing but compliments for it - with one exception. I am a 33" inside leg in civilian clothes. The HG Touareg trousers are 32" and they are not made in a long fitting. Now this seemed all right in the shop but with my legs bent on the bike, the trousers kept riding up my boots and sitting on top - natch that's cold and wet in the rain. So I decided that they had to go, and go they did to a very happy member of this parish.
The next kit to catch my eye after much research was the Bikers Suzuka Goretex outfit at £460. Here are some piccies:
The first thing to say about this kit is that it is very solid and amazingly well made for the money. It also has long legs and a very good fit with a number of venting options for the summer. All-in-all and if I were counting my pennies, this is where I would put them. As long as you can put up with the black, black, black........
Talk about sombre, you really do need to think of wearing a reflective yellow vest because this kit only comes in black, funeral tones. And so I decided to carry on looking and sold the Bikers kit to another happy Tosser. 
But what pops up on the For Sale section of this forum?
A modestly priced Rallye Pro 2 suit in my exact size. So I went for it. Expecting the worst, when I opened the package I found what I took to be something that had fallen off the back of a lorry, so clean and new-looking was it - seriously good value.
And trying it on in my house showed that the sizing and the position of the adjustable armour was spot on. So today was its baptism-of-fire - a 50 mile blast around the leafy lanes of West Sussex. And bloody brilliant it was too.
In fact, so well made is this suit, so comfortable to wear and good at doing its job that I would have bought a new one immediately had I realised. The way that everything is thought through is just head-and-shoulders above the rest in my view and worth every penny. My son, who lives and works in Sydney wears a 'Prat' suit on his forays into the bush and says that the venting system is just brilliant, even in the elevated temperatures of that location.
There are others, the best being Rukka (very, very expensive in my view for a new Tosser) and Rev'it which is on a par with Heine Gerick
So here is my advice if you are thinking seriously about joining this mad world of Tossers; if you are buying your bike from a dealer on finance, why not get a 'Prat' suit added to the total. Its not going to hurt much spread over 3 years and the suit will still be worth good money at the end of it. Like old sodiers, BMW Rallye suits never die, they just fade away.
Go on, just do it.
So what you are about read should not lead you to think that I am recommending a similar course of action - quite the opposite as I hope my experience will hope you undecided but budding Tossers which way to go with your first grown-up kit. Amongst the praise, you will also read a lot of negative comments about the BMW Rallye Pro 2 suit - know by all and sundry as the 'Prat' suit on the basis that all those who wear it and who are not actually participating in the Dakar Rallye look like..............yes, that's right.........prats. Well 'bolleaux' says I, they're just jealous.
So here is the outfit (although not in proportion of course
):
Now coming from the superbike world (2008 Hayabusa) and being a riding-god and dressed accordingly in bright leathers
, I was not too informed about textile kit. I certainly didn't fancy spending the thick end of £750 squids for some marketing man's wet dream. So I didn't. What I did instead was head off down to Heine Gerick and try on their HG Tuareg Rallye GTX III outfit. At £560, it was nearly £200 pounds cheaper than the 'Prat' suit and, as far as I could tell, as good.Here it is:
I wore this outfit for about a month and had nothing but compliments for it - with one exception. I am a 33" inside leg in civilian clothes. The HG Touareg trousers are 32" and they are not made in a long fitting. Now this seemed all right in the shop but with my legs bent on the bike, the trousers kept riding up my boots and sitting on top - natch that's cold and wet in the rain. So I decided that they had to go, and go they did to a very happy member of this parish.
The next kit to catch my eye after much research was the Bikers Suzuka Goretex outfit at £460. Here are some piccies:
The first thing to say about this kit is that it is very solid and amazingly well made for the money. It also has long legs and a very good fit with a number of venting options for the summer. All-in-all and if I were counting my pennies, this is where I would put them. As long as you can put up with the black, black, black........
Talk about sombre, you really do need to think of wearing a reflective yellow vest because this kit only comes in black, funeral tones. And so I decided to carry on looking and sold the Bikers kit to another happy Tosser. But what pops up on the For Sale section of this forum?
A modestly priced Rallye Pro 2 suit in my exact size. So I went for it. Expecting the worst, when I opened the package I found what I took to be something that had fallen off the back of a lorry, so clean and new-looking was it - seriously good value.
And trying it on in my house showed that the sizing and the position of the adjustable armour was spot on. So today was its baptism-of-fire - a 50 mile blast around the leafy lanes of West Sussex. And bloody brilliant it was too.In fact, so well made is this suit, so comfortable to wear and good at doing its job that I would have bought a new one immediately had I realised. The way that everything is thought through is just head-and-shoulders above the rest in my view and worth every penny. My son, who lives and works in Sydney wears a 'Prat' suit on his forays into the bush and says that the venting system is just brilliant, even in the elevated temperatures of that location.
There are others, the best being Rukka (very, very expensive in my view for a new Tosser) and Rev'it which is on a par with Heine Gerick
So here is my advice if you are thinking seriously about joining this mad world of Tossers; if you are buying your bike from a dealer on finance, why not get a 'Prat' suit added to the total. Its not going to hurt much spread over 3 years and the suit will still be worth good money at the end of it. Like old sodiers, BMW Rallye suits never die, they just fade away.
Go on, just do it.
Mind you, the Picasso 'Blue' period was followed by his 
After all, you just have to read it, I am the one who has to colour the bloody writing and that's damned tiring on my wrist which aches all the time. I think that's what's doing it......
which exploded because, during preparation, centimeters were read as inches and then never questioned thereafter. 
