......as long as my gear has chance to dry out between trips. Recently I have been doing a lot of miles without chance for some stuff to dry. I am mainly talking about the lining of my helmet and my inner clothing caused by water soaking from my neck tube to inside my jacket.
Can anybody suggest any possible solutions other than several neck tubes (which I have) and having an additional waterproof jacket over my waterproofs (which I do).
I will be interested in the advice from the hardier types out there.
You are possibly asking two questions in one:
(1) How to prevent wet getting in
Depending on a host of imponderables, not least the overall quality of your kit, the volumes of water (and the time spent in it) and how dry you are when you set out, there is possibly one cause of your problem.
If we can just for a moment rule out kit that simply leaks, let's look at the most likely cause: wicking, probably caused by the neck tube. Wicking is when water runs along the fibres of certain materials, transfering water and dampness. It is very possible that your neck tube is carrying water down to your undershirt and and, where it is in close proximity to your helmet's neck roll / cheek pads, into your helmet. Once started, wicking becomes almost continuous, a virtual river of water if you like.
As there is little or no airflow into your jacket / helmet you are reliant on your body temperature to dry the damp material. Body heat is usually quite efficient, but not if it is cold outside (as it is at the moment) or there is a steady stream of damp wicking in.
Try without the neck tube, reverting to a simple and less bulky Buff or something similar just to keep the drafts and flying insects out.
(2) How to dry gear when it does get wet
Wet weather and motorcycles don't go together particularly well, but it doesn't really rain that often.... even in Rotherham.....
Good quality clothing made from Merino wool and some of the better artificial fibres will dry very much faster and wick much less than woollen or cotton based garments. OK they are not cheap but will, with care, last a long time even with regular use. They also have the real advantage of being really good insulators and less bulky, reducing the chances of fabric to outside air contact.
Drying. Hang the gear up so air can circulate around it; a coat hanger is good. In very warm rooms the 'one-way' qualities of Gortex are revered, water vapour getting dragged into the garment. If the inside of your gloves, boots and helmet are really damp, stuff them with crunched up newspaper. Like cloth, newspaper is made up of fibres, that all run in one direction. It is why a news sheet rips easily one way and not another. These same fibres will wick the dampness away, in the same way as it wicked in. The mass of the non-fibrous part of the newspaper will then help to soak up the dampness, rather like blotting paper absorbing spilt ink.
Don't put the helmet down on a table, the 'right way up'. You need the large open bottom free to let air in, not seal it up. Same with gloves. If you stuff them into your helmet they will not dry, the wicking qualiies of the helmet's liner will not help either. Try to hang the gloves so that warm air will circulate.
I hope the above is helpful.
(I didn't know where to ask this, os it's on here
)
The trick here is to
think what the question involves and
look whether they are other parts of the forum that might be more suitable.
Motorcycle clothing and wetness are not the sole preserve of 1200 riders. Nor does the question in any way relate to the technical inner workings of a 1200cc BMW motorcycle, any more than 'What helmet should I by?' or 'Where can I buy a present for my nephew?' or 'Should I remove my panniers at night when 100 yards from the safety of my settee?' or even, 'Should I go on an IAM course?'. There is a clothing and gear sub-section, just as there sections for travel, showing pictures, GPS devices, cars, computes, training and road skills, cooking and assorted others. For everything else there is 'the pub'.
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Enjoy your motorcycling 'experience' (everything is an 'experience' or a 'solution' these days)
PS If all else fails on the dampness and weather protection front:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AwQw_lwcRu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is why I drop in here from time to time. 
