Tourmaster Rainsuit review

When I woke up for work this morning, the rain storms from last night had not come to an end as I had hoped. Starting the day by worming my way into a one piece rain suit is not a pleasant method. I picked up a Tourmaster Elite II one-piece suit about a month and a half ago when it became apparent that I would be using the bike as a primary transport and I would need something to keep me comfortable on rainy afternoon (a fairly common occurrence during the summers here.)

My experience today is as follows: The suit is top notch when it comes down to construction and material and features. They have a range of color options to suit you, mine is head to toe bright yellow for high visibility. Add to the color a fairly impressive amount of 3M reflective piping and I feel as good about being noticed as I do with my Icon vest. The suit has several large pocket, water proof and easily accessible, for me to put things like keys to the office in. It also has a comfortable liner and a very nice microfiber neck. The final feature that is noteworthy is the under-the-helmet hood that Tourmaster puts on most of their rain gear. It is a great way to keep the back of your neck dry when you have to move your head when riding in the rain.

As far as comfort, it's fairly good once you get on the bike, I may have one slightly too small for me, but the crotch to shoulder length is just short enough that it becomes too tight to crouch into a riding tuck. The under foot elastic stirrups are fantastic at keeping the leg from flapping around and the aforementioned microfiber neck liner is good at keeping water from seeping down as well as keeping your neck warm. The full front zipper is a little difficult to open after riding for a little while, but I think I discovered the trick to that this morning, hold the neck closed when going to unzip and that releases pressure on the zipper allowing it to move more freely.

My only complaint, and this may be to my lack of experience with properly sealing the suit, is that water leaked through either at the seams of the crotch or at the base of the front zipper, where the suit bunches up while seated. I noticed this after about 15 minutes of only moderate rainfall on the highway. As a note for clarity, what I consider moderate the Weather Channel marks as bright yellow on their storm tracking Doppler. However, rather wet jeans and a comfortable ride in are far better than a very wet me and a chilly ride in. I'd venture to say that even with a leak, this suit is more pleasant than my last one, which had zero breathability due to its PVC construction and became a sauna within minutes of putting it on.

Overall, I would recommend the suit, but you may be better off looking at Tourmaster's two piece suits that may not bunch up and collect water at the seams. Though in a storm, it may be that any suit will leak some.

Here is Tourmaster's stock picture, mine is fully yellow, even where this one has black legs.

One last thing to add, I really need to pick up some water proof boots. My feet are freezing as my socks dry. (I should probably also wear wool socks when I know they will get wet.)

Mental Conditioning

From what I have seen, many riders try and avoid hitting the roads when they aren't dry. Well, most of us try to avoid hitting the roads at all, but you know what I mean. I generally will stay off the bike when there is a pretty good chance that I'm going to get poured on, or if I would have to start the ride in the rain. But I made an exception for today since the weather after 7 am was forecast to be amazing (along with sunny days for the rest of the week, but I digress.) Riding to work on wet roads and a light sprinkle got me thinking about something: how should road/weather conditions change the way you ride?

Riding a motorcycle, especially for commuting in Atlanta, is always an exercise in defensive driving. Wet roads before dawn just magnifies that. I'll try to give a list of things to be more conscious of while riding in these conditions.

First, wet roads:

• Give yourself more space for stopping, the tires will be more likely to skid under hard braking.
• Take turns more slowly, for the same lower-traction reason as adjusting your braking.
• Be on the lookout for debris that rains might have swept into the road.
• With light rain, beware of oil rising to the road surface.
• Watch out for the paint on the road, the lane lines, turn lanes, etc. The paint has very little traction to begin with and a layer of water only makes it more slick.
• Lastly, remember that drivers seem to forget how to use turn signals, brakes, and the gas pedal when it's raining. (At least this is the case here.)

Second, when the sun is down:

• Be as visible as possible, for me that means my reflective vest.
• As a corollary, use lane positioning to be sure your lights are out of other drivers' blind spots.
• Use other vehicles lights to aid in seeing the roadway. Motorcycle lights are notoriously dim, if you have cars in front of you, look at the section of the road they illuminate, too.
• Flash your brake lights when slowing down, a flashing light attracts more attention than a single, steady light.

And remember, never trust the drivers around you, no matter what the conditions are. I had a truck try to merge into my lane this morning; had I not have been watching him I may not have slowed down before he had more than just a tire in my lane.

Ride safe.

Touring

Last weekend my wife and I decided to ride our bikes to our friends' wedding in Tennessee. Rather than take the interstate system, which she had never ridden on, we decided to go for the scenic and leisurely route. So most of our roads were two lane, sometimes three or four and never had a speed limit higher than 55. Total distance was 200 miles each way. If you ever have the time to plan a trip not using interstates, do it. Either on a bike or in the car it's by far the prettiest way to go.

On the way up, we watched rain clouds gather to either side of us and we stopped at one point to put on our rain gear for the remainder of the ride. I think that had we not stopped we would have actually been rained on rather than riding over the freshly watered roads. As it was, we road between the storms. This trip was a good reminder that while the bike does still have most of it's traction with wet roads, you still need to be much smoother and more cautious under adverse conditions. For instance, I felt my back tire begin to slip during the exit of one turn. I slowed down even further for the next one and was fine after that.

On the way back home on Sunday, we left early to give ourselves plenty of time to get home, as my wife had to be back for work in the afternoon. It's a good thing we decided to take the extra time. First we had to jump start her bike to get going in the morning. Then we decided to take an easier road back down to Atlanta, but it swung wider out of the way than the roads up had and had a lower speed limit since it went through more small towns along the way. We discovered that every time we stopped and turned off the bikes, we had to get her bike jumped. So after eating in Chattanooga I had to run across the street to AutoZone to borrow their jumper kit, and after getting gas in Dalton I had to run over to the Wendy's next door to find someone with cables. Many thanks to both AutoZone and the Wendy's manager for their help. (Really, who's ever heard of a gas station that doesn't have jumper cable?)

By the time we were in Dalton, we realized that US-41 was going to take up way too long to get home in time for her to get to work and we were about a block away from I-75. So we decided to hop on the interstate system for the last 100 miles home. We discovered her one-cylinder Buell Blast can easily keep up with highway traffic, and even pass when required.

Finally, we also discovered her bike gets far better gas mileage than mine in a touring situation. I got about 70-75 mpg the duration of the trip. She was managing about 90 mpg. All in all, even with taking two vehicles, we came out ahead in the gas game for the trip.

Rain suit leak

Another rainy day ride this morning. My Frogg Toggs have developed a leak at one of the seams. Tonight I've put some clear silicone sealant on the spot where it was leaking - hopefully that will fix it.

Yes, I rode when there was a tornado watch in effect...

Although, when you get down to it, cars aren't much safer in a tornado than a motorcycle. Your best defense against those if you're faced with one while out on the road is to jump into the nearest ditch if there isn't a solid building to take shelter in.

Normally I would have stayed home with a very high chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, but for this month I'm pressing on anyway. They didn't declare the tornado watch until I was at work. However, I didn't actually encounter any high winds on the road. The storm hit before I left work. Four hours later, it still hasn't completely blown over.

The morning started out cold and foggy. Misty mornings can be good for folk song and blues lyrics, but they're not so great for riding a motorcycle. The roads are as slick as if it's raining, sometimes slicker because the various slimy things that rise to the surface in the rain don't get washed away. And you get tiny droplets on your visor that are harder to shake off than big raindrops. I found myself pondering whether it's worse to ride in a cold, foggy morning or in a thunderstorm.

Well, this afternoon I got to make a comparison. It was one of the worst storms I've ridden through at times. For a short ride, I'd rather take the thunderstorm than the mist as visiblity is, believe it or not, better, and the right gear can keep you dry. But on a long ride, my gloves and boots started to soak through. Alpinestar Drystar gloves proved that they are not, as the name implies, rain gloves. They will keep water out for maybe 15 to 20 minutes, but they don't shed water, they absorb it. About halfway through the ride I found I could wring some of the water out just by balling my hands into fists. I need some truly waterproof gloves. The Frogg Toggs held up just fine, though.

One other rain riding tip: Tuck your gloves into the sleeves of your rainsuit. If you go the other way around and tuck the sleeves into your gloves' cuffs, you'll get a lot wetter. It seems more rain trickles down the sleeves and into the gloves than blows back up the sleeves at speed.

Glad I didn't ride

The intermittent but torrential downpours outside and on the drive home made me glad I didn't ride. Even if I had a rain suit, I think that I would have wanted to pull over and wait it out. Waiting it out wouldn't have been feasible as, according to the radar, it would have been about another 4 hours before it all past. The other option in a rain storm, taking cover, also would have been difficult for me, since I take back roads through residential neighborhoods.

Rain or shine

Now it's my turn to start my month of commuting. As luck would have it, today had a light rain in the morning followed by some pretty decent weather in the afternoon. I had a couple good-natured questions about my sanity when I arrived at the office on a dripping wet bike.

However, riding in rain isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. You just need the right equipment and the right caution. Your gloves and boots should be waterproof. My boots do pretty well (they're actually construction boots instead of "official" riding boots, the only part of my riding gear that didn't come from a motorcycle gear shop). The rain gloves I have (Alpinestar Drystars) keep my hands dry but their outside doesn't shed moisture too well, so there's some room for improvement there. Getting a soaked outside can mean cold hands even if they are dry.

There's a variety of rain suits meant to keep a rider dry. I wear Frogg Toggs over my riding suit. They're kind of all purpose rain gear; I think they were originally designed for fishing. They seem papery but work pretty well. There's really only two difficulties with them: they billow instead of fitting tightly (which can be a bit annoying at 60 mph), and you must keep them away from hot exhaust pipes. I picked a set in bright orange; you can't have too much visibility when it's raining and foggy. Loud jackets save lives.

I'll post some comments about techniques later, probably on the next rainy commuting day.

I recorded the GS500's odometer reading at the start of the commutel it was 8,246.3 miles.