In the hopes of finding some excellent deals on motorcycle clothing, we let Dave loose on the internet. Worrying, I grant you, but sometimes it is worth the risk.
Dave had already done a lot of searching for the article on Laminates, Drop Liners and improvements in Motorcycle Clothing. But finding good deals and then keeping it to ourselves didn’t seem like the right thing to do.
As it is the dark and damp months up here in the Northern Hemisphere, it may be overrunning January Sales. But there appears to be a bit more to it, as some of the discounts are impressive and on good equipment too.
Value rather than Cheap
Before we get into the meat and potatoes, a word about value over cost.
One of the best jackets I own is an old RST Alpha 3 that I bought when the next generation of the jacket was released. It cost me £99. From memory, that was about 40% less than the list price.
Compared to a Rukka jacket, the RST Alpha was amazingly cheap. Even on the second-hand market, Rukka jackets hold their prices.
40% off a Rukka jacket might represent £500, but that jacket could still cost you £650. As to which of those two 40% reductions in cost represents the best value is very much a personal decision.
I still have my RST Alpha, and it still sees the light of day on odd occasions. At £99, it has been outstanding value. Would I get the same longevity from a Rukka jacket? Hell, yes, and more.
But whether the Rukka is worth six times the cost of the RST Alpha …. That is a call only you can make.
If I had the money … well, I wouldn’t have it because I’d have given it to SportsBikeShop and would be wearing a Rukka Jacket, but that is my choice.
Incidentally, the RST Alpha 5 jacket, two generations on from my one, is currently £80 at SportBikeShop. So from that point of view, my epic deal on the Alpha 3 wasn’t so epic after all.
In what follows, “Value for Money” is for you to decide. We just found the deals.
Sizes
The only other rule we set, Dave, was to ensure a range of sizes were available. Seeing a deal on a jacket only to find it is available in super skinny or 4XL isn’t exactly a deal. It is the retailer looking to sell off the less popular sizes.
If those sizes work for you, then great, but to be a deal, we wanted it to be a deal for everyone.
When we checked, there were a range of sizes available. How many the retailer has sold between then and now, or how many they had in stock, to begin with, isn’t anything we can control.
When we looked, there was something for everyone.
Bering Hurricane GTX Gore-Tex Jacket
Laminated Gore-Tex jacket with a removable thermal liner and a Shelltech Extreme removable lining, which is reputedly one of the most effective thermal liners available.
There is elbow and shoulder protection, although there is no mention of the CE rating.
The Recommended Retail Price (RRP) is a penny under £600 but available for £420, which is 30% off.
Oxford Heritage Tech 1.0 Textile Jacket
Dry waxed cotton construction with CE-approved armour at the elbows and shoulders, a Dry2Dry waterproof membrane, and a removable thermal liner.
The RRP is a penny below £200 but available for half price or a penny under a ton at £99.99
Klim Gore-Tex Latitude Jacket
850 Denier outer material, two Layer Gore-Tex laminated jacket. That is an excellent start. Tough and waterproof. D3O CE Level 1 armour in the shoulders, elbows and back. This doesn’t come with a thermal liner, so a Keis Heated Jacket is the best option for colder weather.
It is Klim. It isn’t going to be cheap. However, the RRP is £750, but currently available in black, red or grey with 25% off, meaning you can buy one for £562.50
Sena Impulse Flip-Front Helmet
Along with being an excellent flip front helmet made from a composite fibreglass shell, the Sena Impulse has an integral Sena Bluetooth and Mesh intercom. There is even a Pinlock 120 in the box.
The RRP for the Impulse is £629.99 but is now available for £409.49, a 35% discount. Considering that a Sena 50S intercom on its own is £234.99, the Sena Impulse has to be the deal (steal?) of the month.
Sidi Performer Gore-Tex Boots
I must admit that it was such a good deal that I bought a pair of these.
Gore-Tex membrane and therefore waterproof. Replaceable toe sliders. Shin and ankle protection.
They are even reasonably comfortable to walk in.
RRP £279.99. Currently available for £197.95, which according to my calculator, is 29.3% off
Keis Heated Clothing
There are two deals available on the Keis Heated Apparel website at the moment – the V106 heated vest and the Ladies B501W Heated Body Warmer. Both are £99, including the Vodka (English slang for VAT – Sales Tax).
The Ladies get a 37.7% discount, while the gentlemen “only” get 23.3%, but when we are both paying £99 to not be cold on a motorcycle, who cares?
Finding Deals
There are so many good deals out there that this list could go on for pages. Rather than reprint the retailers’ websites, we asked Dave how he finds bargains.
What he calls “his process”, and what we think is him watching cat videos and calling it research, is below.
Added-Oldest
Start with the clearance sections. Most retail websites have them – SportsBikeShop – Keis Apparel – J&S Accessories – MotoLegends – all do.
Another way is to use the sort function and rearrange the items by Date Added or a similar phrase.
On the SportBikeShop website, this is called “Added-Oldest”. The downside of the Added-Oldest method is that the choice of sizes can be limited. Nonetheless, there are deals to be found.
Retailers want to sell the items they stock. It sounds obvious, but remember, the retailer has paid for the stock they hold and would like to sell it to you so that they can recoup their investment.
If a retailer has been holding on to something for a long time, the prices are made as attractive as possible to help motivate sales. Hence the advantage of sorting by Added-Oldest.
Some say to sort by price, low to high, but this doesn’t necessarily show you a bargain, only the items that are the cheapest.
Variants
Another method is to look at the variants of an item. Helmets in plain block colours are almost always a lower price than the colourful versions. It is the same helmet, in plain white as it is in a fancy design.
Jackets are a great example of the variant method. The Oxford Mondial Advance Jacket in Black or Dark Grey is £290 at SportsBikeShop.
If you are happy with the Blue and Light Grey version, you can get the same jacket for £180, or if you like the Tech Green – which I think is really a different shade of grey – it is yours for £190.
They are all the same jacket; it is just the colour that varies.
New Models
Which brings us to perhaps the best method – Manufacturers’ announcements on new kit.
As soon as Schuberth announced the Schuberth E2, the price of the Schuberth E1 started to attract discounts.
Typically, the manufacturer – who is working on a global scale – will announce a new product a few months before it is available at retailers. This is the magic window.
The stock on the shelves hasn’t been there that long, but a new range is coming, and the retailer wants to make space for the new stuff. So, the price gets discounted, and you get a bargain.
Bottom Line
We all know it pays to shop about and if you have a preferred retailer, most will price match.
Just one word of warning. There are more than a few fakes in circulation, so buy from one of the well-known retailers.
An unscheduled dismount tends to put a dampener on your day. We don’t want our day to go from bad to worse as we watch our kit fall to pieces when we need it the most.
