What rain suite do you use?

[Igo]

I've had a Dry Rider rain suite for 30 years but the plastic is stiff (always has been) and is now becoming brittle. As soon as I bought the NT I started looking for a new rain suite. I opened my truck of old riding gear and to my surprise I found a one piece TourMaster rain suite. I had completely forgotten buying it but I do remember wearing it from Smokey Mountain National Park to Dallas in hurricane and it showed very little for leaking. It has a mesh interior wall so it doesn't stick to you and a lot of felt in the collar so it doesn't rub your neck. My guess it is about 3 pound and compresses down to about the size of a football.
What are you using for rain gear and why?

 

[JQL]

Rain Suite?

Is this a settee on your shoulder as in 3 piece suite :tongue:?


I'll get my (hard) hat...

 

[elizilla]

I have the Tourmaster Elite II jacket and pants. I can't recommend them. They are lined in something that wicks water up inside them and once the lining is wet they stick to your leathers and are very hard to take off, and this lining also takes a long time to dry. I know it's supposed to make the suit feel less like a garbage bag, but frankly I buy a rainsuit to keep cold water from coming in, and the "breathable" thing is a lower priority for me. If it's so hot that my rainsuit turns into a sauna, I'll take it off and just let myself get drenched. But if it's 50 degrees and a frog strangler, and I have 600 miles to go, I don't want to have icy cold water getting sucked up into my rainsuit from outside, and I want to be able to stop for lunch, take my rainsuit off, and then put it back on again without a huge struggle. Also, one other annoyance about this rainsuit is the cuffs at the ends of the sleeves, they have strong elastic that holds them tightly around my wrist, which would be great, except that if you wear your glove gauntlets outside your rainsuit, water pours in at the wrists - and getting these freakin' elastic cuffs to the outside of my glove gauntlets is an ordeal. (Sorry I keep remembering more annoyances and coming back to edit my post - it really is an awful rainsuit, and I'm angry about it because it cost a small fortune.)

I tried Frogg Toggs and can't recommend them either. My complaint is a strange one, but here goes: They have this fibrous texture on the outside, and bugs embed themselves in it, unlike other rainsuits where the bugs just rinse off. Getting embedded bugs out of Frogg Toggs is near impossible. I would ignore this - as a motorcyclist you just have to get over the "ick! dead bugs!" thing. But then one day, not long after I got the suit, I rode through a cloud of some kind of stinky gnats, and they made my rainsuit smell. And every time it got wet, the smell was refreshed. There's some kinds of icky that are just too hard to ignore.

I'm in the market for a another rainsuit. Looking for one lined in mesh. Like the cheap Suzuki rainsuit I used to wear over my 'stich. I gave it away since it was like a giant flapping sail after I lost weight and bought smaller gear. I have regretted it ever since, because it actually did keep the rain out.

 

[karl]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/suite

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/suit I believe what you mean.

 

[Chuck 500]

I don't currently have a dedicated rain suit. I have Olympia riding gear, GT Air Transitions Jacket and AST mesh pants. Both have internal liners that are very effective at keeping me separated from rain. The only complaints i have are that they are hot when it is warm and raining and that it takes a major operation to install and remove them.

I have though is would be beneficial to have a rain suit sized to fit over all my gear.

Chuck

 

[Dee G]

Two piece Aerostich Roadcrafter. Keeps me dry in a sideways Montana downpour. And I don't have to stop and put it on while parked on the side of the road.

 

[Phil Tarman]

I tried Frogg Toggs and can't recommend them either. My complaint is a strange one, but here goes: They have this fibrous texture on the outside, and bugs embed themselves in it, unlike other rainsuites where the bugs just rinse off.

That's only one of the problems I had with the Frogg Toggs; that texture stuck to stuff other than bugs and on top of that, snappers pulled out of it on only the 2nd time I wore it.

 

[Phil Tarman]

My one piece Roadcrafter (from Aerostitch) has only gotten me wet when I rode it for an hour in a torrential and totally side-ways rain...with the vents open. Wouldn't have gotten wet if I'd had the vents closed.

Mine has never leaked at the crotch, but that's a complaint that I've heard about the one piece.

It works for me very well.

 

[elizilla]

That's only one of the problems I had with the Frogg Toggs; that texture stuck to stuff other than bugs and on top of that, snappers pulled out of it on only the 2nd time I wore it.

I never wore mine long enough to have it come apart. I put it through the laundry to get rid of as much stink gnat as possible, then gave it to a friend who wanted it for his wife. I saw his wife wearing it some time later, and she hadn't had any further problems like that. She only rode on the back, so she probably didn't get so many bugs on it.

 

[JQL]

I use a BKS jacket (a Spanish Motorbike Clothing Company) which is excellent.

It is a general purpose winter/cold weather jacket with removable lining. Until recently it was 100% effective (at present after an hour or so of heavy rain it can start to feel a little damp - not wet and no wet marks on my clothes yet). As it is now 2 years old and in daily use from October to April (ish) it is in need of reproofing.

Does anyone have any suggestions on suitable reproofing sprays?

In the Summer I use the Bering Aeromesh which has a separate waterproof over jacket.

 

[Phil Tarman]

John,

My favorite for re-newing the durable water-proofing has been 3M's green top spray. Nik-Wash has a line of cleaning and re-water-proofing liquids that are used during the wash and rinse cycles for garments like my Cordura/Gore-Tex Aerostitch.

 

[elizilla]

Here in the Pacific NW rain is the default weather for about half the year.

It's not that we don't have enough rain to wear out our rain gear, here. It was the stinky gnat incident that caused me to replace it without waiting for it to wear out.

 

[Dee G]

Does anyone have any suggestions on suitable reproofing sprays?

NikWax makes an excellent re-proofing spray. Or you could use the 'in the washer' version. Grangers also sells some.

once a year the Aerostich gets washed with either Grangers or NikWax, and when it comes out of the washer, I use the NikWax spray and stick it in the dryer.

 

[keystone]

I use the Tourmaster 2 piece Sentinel rain suit in yellow. I've ridden with it in some downpours and really like to protection it offers. Highly visible too.

 

[MAC]

My wife and I have the Tour Master Defender, comes up high on the neck and has a built in hood for under the helmet. The suit folds up small and comes in a pouch. It fits in the pass through Hole nicely.

 

[Buckeye]

I'm currently using the Tourmaster II jacket and pants and have had a Frog Tog in the past. I don't really like the Tourmaster because moisture gets in. The Frog Tog did a good job keeping the water out but the ziper on the jacket busted the 3rd or
4th time I used it. I'm currently shopping for something new...

 

[Ripshod]

This will be my third season with the Tour Master Elite II One Piece suit and I haven't had the problems others have had. Never got any water inside the suit. With a little practice it's not too hard to put on. My suit has velcro cuffs and my gauntlets cinch down tight over them. But I'm always sure not to let my hands drop straight down while the sleeves are soaking wet. Learned that a long time ago.

On the Roadcrafter: If they made it in mesh, I'd already have one.* But then it wouldn't be a Roadcrafter, would it? I need maximum airflow. My riding buddy has one and he stopped bringing it along on summer rides because he just couldn't stay in it on a hot day and though it's a fantastic piece of rain and cool weather gear, it just takes up too much cargo space to bring along.

I need the mesh. And I don't mess around with installing the rain liner when riding into rain. I just slip on the one-piece over all my gear and get back on. I do carry the liners because they make good windbreakers when the temps dip and they pack small.

By the way, MotorcycleGear.com (formerly NewEnough) has the Tourmaster one-piece on sale for $40 in some colors.

* In Duluth at the Very Boring Rally I met Andy Goldfine and he asked me why I wasn't wearing his gear. I said that very same thing to him. He said he'd like to make a mesh version but he couldn't afford the R&D costs at that point. Fair enough. They've gone on to include leather gear (really nice stuff, too) since then but haven't done a mesh outfit yet. I suspect that if he lived in Tennessee, he'd probably find a way to make a mesh Roadcrafter by now. Not that it doesn't get hot in Minnesota, but I'm just saying ...

 

[Dee G]

While I was being fitted for my 'stich (at the VBR II in 2008), I got to chatting with him and begged, pleaded and offered to give him my first born if I could get a suit in pink (to match my brand new pink Dispatch and Letter bags). He refused. And when I got called up to the stage to get the Lilliput, Put Put Award (for riding the smallest bike to the rally) I asked again for the pink suit. Again, he refused. ~sigh~ Stubborn guy, I see.

 

[Ripshod]

I know that there are a lot of very satisfied Roadcrafter owners out there. That's a wonderful thing. They don't work for me. We can agree on everything else.

 

[maupen]

Ripshod, I cannot find the Tourmaster one-piece in MotorcycleGear.com . Can you post the Link?