Klim Forecast gloves and Klim Inversion jacket

Bought some new Klim gear.  

After seeing The Rolling Hobo with these gloves last fall, I knew I had to buy my own. The Klim Forecast overglove is a bad weather overglove that you wear over your regular gloves.  My everyday riding gloves for spring, summer, and milder fall weather are a pair of Held Sambia textile gloves with a kangaroo leather palm. I really like these for general use, and I have a size 10 (Large).  The Klim Forecast gloves are a split-finger (a.k.a. lobster claw) design, made of a very high quality gore-tex material. Super light, waterproof, windproof and all the rest, with a grippy rubber palm. They are super easy to pack in  your tank bag, back pack, or whatever luggage you have on your bike. I ordered a size XXL, and they fit quite easily over my size 10 (L) Held gloves. 

I will learn to carry these new Klim gloves with me all the time: warm weather, cold weather, dry or wet. When the weather turns to shit, I'll be ready. These are an awesome piece of gear. Expensive as hell, but awesome. Sometimes, you just have to forget about the silly price tag and buy something because it's an awesome product.

I also bought this Klim Inversion jacket. It was marked down about 40% because an updated version was released a few months ago, and this is the old version.  Not really a moto-jacket, but more of a casual jacket. I wear it all the time in Berlin's spring weather. Mornings have been a few degrees above freezing, and it warms up nicely during the day this time of year (not quite t-shirt weather yet) and I'm fine with a light shirt underneath.  I ride my bicycle to work most days and if I start to feel warm, opening the air vents works very well. 

Windstopper, 4-way stretchy fabric, under-arm ventilation zippers, front chest pockets also flow lots of air. Not waterproof, but definitely water resistant. I've worn it in some light rain/drizzle and the water just beads off. Not sure how it would fare in a major downpour.  

Verdict: top quality jacket, super functional, looks and fits great.  I'm 5'11" and 190 lbs, and the size L is a fantastic fit.  

Ghetto brake pedal repair

Bent my brake pedal all out of shape in a minor crash last fall. Bending it back into shape after the crash seemed to have created a couple of small hairline cracks in the marshmallow-soft metal. My fear was that I might jam the brakes on quickly and snap it off.

Yes, I could replace the pedal with an OEM part for about €70, or upgrade to the beefy Rally Raid pedal or the one made by CleanSpeed Racing. Those are both nice pieces. But the damage didn't look too serious, and I think a sturdy repair job may do the trick.

For less than the price of a latte, I bought a long piece of aluminum flat bar, and scrounged some machine bolts and nylock nuts. I spent about 15 minutes to cut the flat bar, then bend and shape it to piggy back alongside the original piece. After drilling three holes for some nuts and bolts, the test fit seemed to be quite strong. I slopped a bunch of JB Weld all over it and let it cure for a day. Definitely stronger than the original piece now.

In case you're wondering, that's a Touratech spring loaded folding tip.

Better than new.

Poland - Forest Trails

Way back at the end of October, I went for a weekend ride into the southwest part of Poland with Jussi (a.k.a. The Rolling Hobo). Great weekend of riding forest roads, easy terrain, and an all around fun weekend. A few photos from our mini-adventure:

Making Starbucks instant coffee with a camp stove.

An abandoned military base building

We saw 4 or 5 of these buildings.

They were used to manufacture munitions

Took a minor spill and folded up my rear brake pedal, 

and buggered up my shoulder a little.

The next few photos were taken by Jussi: