The Icon Men's Accelerant leather jacket is simply a quality piece of riding apparel. Icon has a reputation for being a company that appeals to the young and trendy segment of the riding community. Some of their gear is, in my opinion, a little "over the top" ...

Riding to work at this time of year has its appeals. You tough out the cold morning, the street still untouched by the warming massage of all those particles of light, and you receive your afternoon reward of a beautiful fall ride past fields and fauna. These are, at least, my circumstances.

Tour Master ...

Alpinestars' C-1 Windstopper gloves caught my eye for the very reason they shouldn't have. They are surprisingly humble, coming from their otherwise ostentatious Alpinestars roots. There's nothing showy or striking about the C-1. I dare say they look generic, but Alpinestars has not overlooked their function.

Constructed of thick Windstopper nylon for insulation, ...

Armored coats always make me feel like Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story," wrapped head to toe for weather, holding my arms straight out at my sides, and only then realizing I have to go to the bathroom. But armored coats, once you get used to the feel ...

Bikes across the northern parts of the country are spending more and more time sitting still in driveways, garages, parking lots, and the occasional living room. The hazards of sitting may not be quite as high as those of the road, but they're more universal. Wind, dirt, theft, moisture, and moisture's ...

You'd think that someone designing a product for motorcycles would have more sense than to call it a bike diaper. The last associations I'd like to make with my bike are of parenting or incontinence. I'm going to call it an oil sling.

The oil sling mounts to the bike using a harness and comes ...

Chase Harper's Dual Purpose bags will fulfill almost any functional needs you have for a set of saddlebags. A long feature list accompanies this product, so beyond the short time we are about to spend together, you should look up all the specs.

To start, the one feature that Chase Harper is ...

Bread, eggs, term papers; all things that pose a unique problem on the bike. It's not so much that you can't strap them to the tail, or toss them in your soft bags, but that you'll probably end up with destruction or a terrible mess. Hard packs don't make it much easier ...

Cruiser seats and motocross seats are different animals. One is meant to cushion you for hours and hours of lazily sitting, and the other is for the short, hard ride. Cruisers baby their seats, covering them in inclement weather, whereas the motocross riders are willfully abusive to themselves and their equipment, ...

Sometimes you look at a product and you don't have to give two thoughts about its purpose. River Road's Basic leather motorcycle jacket is just that: a basic motorcycle jacket. You look at it and you know that it's cut and designed for riding because it looks like the jackets ...

When, albeit in the far flung future, I get to retire, I may just give up this whole "house" thing. I know folks who sold their legal residence and went on a two-year camping trip. As zen-like as I'd like to be about the transience of physical possessions, I do like having ...

August went out with a heat wave here, but now that September has arrived, it's been cool. This is not the best weather for me to be thinking about a mesh textile jacket, but last month, stuck in traffic with the heat beating down on me, I gave some serious consideration ...

I like green. I like jackets. This is a green jacket. Two things I like! And, you get it through the American Motorcyclists Association, so a portion of what you spend goes back into defending your rights as a motorcyclist. Not a bad deal and a ...

I've been itching to get out for a fall camping trip lately. Perhaps it's because the weather is growing colder and I know the riding season will soon be ending. Either way, it's time to throw a bag on my bike and hit the road for a few days. If you ...

Most tank bags are oval, or at least have rounded corners. This might make sense for the shape of the gas tank, but it makes little sense for a lot of the things I want and need to carry on my bike. First aid kits, laptops, camera cases, and boxes of ...

My brother-in-law just bought his third riding jacket. Third. He has a leather, a textile, and now another textile that has "Kawasaki" written on it. Each of these serve a purpose to deal with specific riding conditions, including that riding condition where people are looking at you and wondering what brand ...

As long as the weather holds, I will be doing every chore on my bike. That can get cumbersome, but I'm stubborn and still pretty sure you can transport a 6-foot piece of conduit on a bike. There's got to be a way...

Regardless, a good bag will hold most of what ...

Tail bags are a great alternative to tank bags. You can use both, but if you have a great paint job that you don't want to cover up, a tail bag will serve every non-map purpose of the ever-popular tank bag.

Cortech's Sport tail bag is an excellent example of the versatility these ...

Not so long ago, I headed north for an annual motorcycle trip. On the day I headed home, there was news of a storm front passing through and I was lucky enough to miss it, but another huge storm followed on its wet, soggy heels.

The only way to slip between ...

A big bag with a narrow profile, the Recon 11 tank bag by Rapid Transit cuts down on the wind-catching bulk of some other tank bags. If your bike has a raised indicator panel, like mine, this bag will be situated on your tank behind the panel, so the air is ...

For those long trips, saddle bags are often not enough. Sometimes a big duffel bag is the most practical place to throw all of your gear. It makes sense. It is easy to pack, easy to tote, and easy to squish a lot of stuff into. Rapid Transit's Brigade Duffel ...

I am not meticulous in the way that I pack. I tend to take everything I want to bring on a trip and place it in a pile on the living room floor. Once the pile is complete, I shovel it into my bag and go. Knowing this, you can probably ...

Leave your favorite jeans and your chaps laying around together too long with some Barry White playing, and you just might end up with something akin to River Road's 5-pocket pants. These combine the best features of chaps with the convenience and styling of jeans.

Designed for women riders, these pants ...

Why is it that we tend to get more cautious the longer we ride? It would seem that the more time we spend on a bike without going over, the more we think it could happen someday. If you've been riding with just a vest or an armor-less jacket and you're ...

While protective gear for motorcyclists continues to improve, there are still gaps in our armor. One of the products to help chink that gap for street riders is Icon's Field Armor for your legs. Or shin guards, if you prefer.

It's not just a simple knee-pad; these are larger than they ...

Here's something for the ladies: A textile riding jacket that is soft yet rugged and replete with CE-approved armor in the elbows and shoulders. Tour Master's Trinity Series jacket offers the rider more flexibility than leather, and nearly as much protection. No textile jacket is going to give the abrasion resistance ...

The days of saddlebags being single-compartment rectangular boxes are long gone, and for the best. Firstgear's Silverstone saddlebags are a shining example of the advanced luggage systems that are now available to riders who need more than a box.

Tough 1680D nylon with 1200D polyester make up the outer shell, which is coated in ...

Riding with a good waterproof coat, or even a 2-piece rain suit, won't stop a torrent of rainwater from running down your back, into your pants, or through any tiny gap in your gear. If you know the weather will be foul on your trip, suck it up and throw on ...

Sometimes, you have to see something to believe it. If someone described the Power Trip Stiletto jacket with the zebra design, all I would think would be, "Yeah, that will catch some attention, a zebra on fire!" Power Trip seems to have pulled off the design better than I could ...

If you're keen on Icon quality, but not so keen on Icon prices, they feel your pain. Icon makes a great jacket and they're worth the cost, but they're not so despotic as to leave those of us with light wallets light on protection.

Icon's Merc women's textile is one of their cheapest riding jackets. ...

Tour Master puts out some great textile accessories. They have superior textile jackets and luggage, including the their nylon slant saddlebags. Unlike jackets that move with the body, saddlebags are subject to consistent wear. I'm happy to see that Tour Master has given these bags all they need to wear well and ...

Icon's Tarmac gloves are not unlike today's nimble street bikes. They are small and they are complicated. I mean complicated in the best way possible -- complicated the way a watch is complicated, complicated because they pack everything you need into a small package.

The outer construction of these gloves is nylon and ...

Tank bags are not only useful but reassuring. Your stuff is right there under your nose and you don't have to get off your bike to dig our a camera or a few coins for toll. Also, I have an irrational fear that my saddlebags are too close to my pipes ...

Regardless of the kind of riding you do, your shins take a lot of hits. Even riding a cruiser you get bugs, rocks, and (sadly enough) the occasional bolt that shakes loose. This does not even address the violent existence of a trail and track rider's shins.

Icon's Field Armor leg guards ...

Suzuki and Joe Rocket have brought women riders a jacket that has gone the extra mile in fit and function. I've got to give them kudos on the physical structure of the Superstock jacket. A waist that narrows and then flares out at the hip provides a perfect fit for the ...

I do everything I can on my bike when the season is right, so it's no surprise that I ride to the grocery store. Usually this means I run lots of small trips, but if you've ever been to the store hungry, you know you can buy more than you need, ...

Zac Speed states that their philosophy is: "There is always a better way." They have followed their words in the production of the Exotec RP-3. An innovative storage and protection system, the RP-3 is ideal for riding trails where you want extra protection for your upper body but also need ...

A bike is not a couch, and while many touring bikes sport comfortable butt-holders, long road trips can seriously infringe on one's ability to sit anywhere at all. You can shift position some over the long haul, but it's a little restrictive where you can go, obviously.

A seat ...

I am in the market for a new set of saddlebags, so I've been going over my routines to find out what features I need. Right now, I have classic leather bags with no bells or whistles. They pack as well as cardboard boxes and to remove them I need ...

Some parts are easily replaced in their entirety, but sometimes a broken piece is ridiculously expensive. Or you break certain parts regularly, or like me you simply prefer fixing things yourself. And if perhaps you've done some damage to one of your plastic parts by performing a modification, ...

The best thing about a tail bag, in my opinion, is that it's out of the way. I'm talking about soft-sided, easily-removable tail bags. Because they're flexible, you can stuff a ton of clothing and sundry items in them -- and because they're small, they're easy to handle. Even ...

I have four bags on my bike: a fork bag, a saddlebag on each side, and a tail bag. My saddlebags are my main storage area because the others are small, but if I had the Nelson-Rigg CL-200 tail pack, I could really clean up the look of my bike.

The ...

A quality moto hoody is an essential piece of clothing every rider needs in order to properly compliment his image. Don't roll your eyes and act like you don't care about your image. Those gnarly graphics kits, unnecessary foam seat humps, and anodized valve stem caps aren't exactly performance mods. Don't ...

I'll get my own immaturity out of the way first: "Deuce" is a horrible name for pants. Really? Deuce? Come on, marketing people over at Scorpion, get your heads in the game.

Anyway, despite the atrocious branding, they are actually some pretty nice riding pants. They have been crash tested, and the ...

There's nothing quite as jilting as plopping your rear down on a freezing cold vinyl seat on your quad. For those frigid winter riding days, you can either pile on more and more movement-restricting layers, or you can go spring for something like a heated seat cover.

Better than your old ...

Hooray for rain gear! I learned a lesson last year when the remnants of hurricane Gustav came north. I was on a long trip and I knew I'd be seeing some rain so I oiled up my leather and wore rain pants. Unfortunately, the rain was too much and after overcoming the ...

What's happened in the world of motorcycle luggage is really the fault of us all. First, we just wanted a place to carry a few simple things, but we got greedy and turned our bikes into beasts of burden with bags strapped and stacked from tank to tail.

Cortech's Super Mini ...

Locks only stop the honest and the lazy. It's a sad fact that if someone really wants to steal your bike, they are going to get it. Fortunately, most thieves are not that dedicated and rely upon convenient access.

Putting a good, strong chain through the front tire and around the ...

Don the Domain 2 and you'll feel like an icon. Maybe.

This is Icon's best-quality offering in helmets, and comes with a spoiler on the back. The spoiler is said to reduce the air uplift while riding to give you less of that helmet-being-pulled-up feeling. It's seamed in nicely ...

This is an off-road must-have. Once, in a light rain on a wide trail coated in greasy mud, I was in third gear and moving right along when I noticed my back wheel nearly parallel with my front -- at the wrong angle, though. I shot sideways into ...