The Cycleport Gear is here!

Talk about a great start for the day, I got a call on the cell from FEDEX telling me that they had a box from Cycleport aka Motoport for me that required a signature and the time frame they'd be at my house to deliver it. It's my riding jacket and overpants that I ordered on 17APR08. On a sidenote, when did FEDEX start letting people know about their arrival for stuff that required signatures? This is a great service as it allowed me to make arrangements with my wife to be onhand to take receipt!

Link to previous posting re Cycleport, contains links to other sites that have reviewed this gear.

Wayne Boyer, the owner had emailed me that it would take 22 business days to get it to me so its early! I had figured it to be shipped to me on 19May since that would be 22 business days from the email. I emailed him today and he confirmed it was the complete order and sent along the FEDEX tracking number. It was shipped on 9may08 which makes it 17 business days! Good stuff!

1600hrs:

Got home and opened up the plastic wrapped packages containing the jacket and pants. First impression: WOW, this stuff looks and feels tough! That's a good thing by the way.

I put on the jacket first and it fit very nicely, I think its designed this way but the sleeves reach about an inch further than my shirt sleeves or old riding jacket did. Not an issue, just an observation. I did not have to do much adjusting of the straps on the sleeves or around the waist but they're there if you want to snug things up!

Took me a while to figure out and put on the kevlar pants but finally got them on. I think next time I'll be able to do it without having to take my riding boots off first as I did for the first attempt. The pants are definitely more snug than my Joe Rocket Alter Ego Overpants. This ensures I believe that the armor will stay where its supposed to during a fall, again this is a good thing. Note, I was still wearing my dockers underneath the kevlar pants.

Of course I then went for a ride to see how it all felt while moving. It felt great! I could feel air where I'd not felt air before when wearing my Firstgear Kilimanjaro Air Jacket and Joe Rocket Pants. It's going to take an hour of riding time for the armor to conform to me according to the instructions that came with the package but they felt initially fine as well.

Pretty good fit eh? (flash on)

yeah, I know, better when you can't see my face!

The suit fit very well as I rode, the only binding I could feel was behind my right knee and I think that's where my dockers pants leg were bunched up, will have to investigate that further. I normally tuck in my workplace pants into my boots since my old riding pants were a bit short, now there's no need for that. The length of the pants is perfect!

Following are some closeup shots of some of the features of this great gear from Cycleport.

Front right pocket, note the zipper for inner second pocket (flash on)

Left front pocket with Cycleport's Logo (flash on)

Lower Pockets (flash on)

Jacket Front (flash on)

Jacket Rear (no flash), the white square on left sleeve is my pass/id holder

Jacket Rear (flash on), can you say: conspicuous at night?

Right Sleeve Zipper/Straps (no flash)

Back and Chest Armor, nice and big

Expansion Gusset at the shoulders, nice touch (no flash)

Right leg zipper goes all the way to waist (flash on)

Front of Pants with everything secured (no flash), I elected no logo on flap cover.

Hip, thigh and knee/shin armor (flash on)

The above photos are a combination of shots taken with and without flash. The flash tended to make the kevlar material "shiny" and I did not want you to get the impression the gear is "shiny", it's nice and almost flat black I would say in daylight. The exterior does kind of feel like a cheese grater but it flows air beautifully.

I tried on my rain jacket and it fits fine over the Cycleport Jacket, ditto with the Sheltex Liner that came with the Firstgear Kilimanjaro Jacket. I did not buy the insulated or waterproof liners from Cycleport this time around. I'll try it without them in cold/rainy weather and see how that goes.

In summary, very pleased with the quality of the product from Cycleport, I'll report more on its performance in the days of riding to come. Thanks to Wayne Boyer, Cycleport's owner, for such a fine product.