The Protective Gear we allways use. Even for a short trip around the corner we do not go without.
We learned to use our protective gear the hard way at our first longer trip on the bike to Greece… but that´s another story…
Touratech was so kind to support us with two new Helmets Aventuro Mod´s for Kerstin and me to try out. How Funtastic is that??? A BIG THANK YOU!! We wanted them anyhow badly and we have been not disappointed, but find out yourself:
Helmets: We had already bought our Schuberth C3 Helmets a year before and we appreciated them a lot and the next step was the Touratech Aventuro Mod. The C3´s are kind of OK air ventilated (at the new version they worked on that), having a sunscreen, and they are silent – actually the most silent ones we ever tried. One big plus as well is that there is a Lady Version which fitted Kerstin´s head just perfect. All in all we couldn´t find anything negative about them. We wore them on a daily basis 2 years in a row and they lasted 7+ years. Well done Schuberth!
After 7 years of constant usage of our Schuberth C3´s (Kerstin had the Lady’s version) it was time for something new. And we thought to give Touratech a call to see if they like to support us, as they helped us during our journey and beyond this it was an easy conclusion for us. And guess what they said that we can test two of their brand new Aventuro Mod helmets. It was a big surprise for us because actually we are not on a round the world trip at the moment and the plan to continue the journey, we started 4 years ago, is still growing (but for sure is that the next big leg on our trip will be the PanAM). Ok in 30 days we go off for our 2nd Balkan Adventure… but that’s a different story which will come soon…
We did more than 100.000km on three continents with the C3´s and did the one or the other drop with them. It was clear that we have to have flip-up helmets again. When you are travelling on a bike the first thing to establish contact is your face, in my VP45-Tankbag there is always the camera in easy reach and with that flip-up functionality you do not have to take off the helmet to take a picture. There we are, already at the first big advantage; when the Aventuro Mod was created one idea was exactly to merge this in the design, so the field of view of the helmet was designed a bit wider when you flip it up so it does not interfere with the camera.
Touratech Aventuro Mod
We always think about safety and comfort at all your safety gear, and because we have been satisfied with our old Schuberth’s for some years we believed in staying with them. So we looked at their range of helmets and found that something, somewhere was missing to fit our needs 100%. And then suddenly we saw the Aventuro Mod, made by Schuberth in cooperation with Touratech. The improvements they made sounded fantastic, the first big point we saw was that the air flow was increased dramatically and that was one downside of our long-standing C3´s, sometimes in Asia or Australia we thought that our brain is well cooked. Even everything else which was outlined in the description of the helmet sounded absolutely great, it looked like somebody have actually asked us how to build the perfect fitting helmet for us.
The designers thought this entirely through to make it fit for various settings. Within 10 seconds you can completely remove the Shield (which turned out to be very useful if you have to go for some km´s on the highway), the same goes for the visor, you can take it off and mount off-road goggles if you like. Of course the integrated sun visor, which we already knew from the C3, was built in once again. Another great feature is the build in filter for the front ventilation which protects you from dust and insects. The inner lining is out of COOLMAX® and is completely removable and washable which is very useful especially if you are riding for days and days in a dusty and/or smoggy environment.
Sometimes we wear our Helmets for about 10 hours a day so we have looked for something which is not only safe but it has to be comfortable as well. And what should we say, we didn´t had the chance to try them before our first (little) trip and just got the sizes we had before with our C3´s, and lucky us, a perfect fit. Of course the old ones have been, after 6 years and more than 100.000km´s, a bit out of shape. Therefore the new Aventuro Mod´s felt a bit tight at first, but after some hours they adapted to our heads. When you look at the details of all the innovations there are a lot of thing you do not realize, such as that the shield flips up together with the chin protector and comes automatically down again to the present position is something you do not realize at first but makes life uncomplicated cause you do not have to take care at all and just can flip it up when ever you like.
If you want all and every of the technical details, you can find it here.
[usrlist “Quality:10” “Durability:10” “Water resistance:10” “Amenities:9.0” “Customer Service:10” “Price-performance ratio:8.5″ avg=”true”]
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Less is more! You really do not need much. Use the “Onion principle”, take things which you can combine and wear layer on layer depending on the temperature. If it is cold you do not sweat and you won’t change quickly. If it is warm, you do not wear much – and we for example just jumped into the lake, river or under the shower with our base layer for cleaning and usually it dries quickly or overnight and you are ready and fresh for the next day. We adored our merino wool underwear and shirts which we had already and proved while hiking. It keeps you warm when it is cold and gives you a good climate under the motorbike clothes when it is hot. This material does not become smelly easily; you can just air it overnight and it dries very rapidly – better than all kind of technical clothes.
As long as you do not travel to the poles keep in mind that you can buy nearly all things everywhere – especially underwear, socks, shirts… But we do not go on any trip without our 100% merino base layers.
Kerstin´s Jacket
When it was clear that we were going to DO this trip, we went to all major stores, tried every brand to find the right motorcycle gear for us. Mostly it was hard to find a Motorcycle Jacket which was specifically designed for woman. As soon as Kerstin tried the REV´IT Ventura, she finally found what she was looking for! We have been looking for several weeks.
Kerstin has this jacket for over two years, used it almost every day, in the “Rain of New Zealand”, through the “Heat of Bangkok”, in the “Dust of Laos”, the “Chaos and Humidity of Indonesia” and the never-ending “Hotness of Australia” . What to say, this Jacket was the perfect choice for her. After all this time and extreme usage it looks like out of the shop, nothing broken, no zipper which does not work anymore, nothing, just great! It fitted perfectly to her body, and believe us it was hard to find such a thing. Useful pockets everywhere, the air vents which you can open all over, the great long zippers at the arms for the ventilation and the collar which you can remove completely. And on top of this it just looks great! Several times women asked Kerstin where she got this jacket from because they liked it so much!
As you can read in our blog, about one year ago we were unlucky one day. When we were looking for a place to stay in Java, Indonesia she carried her liner in her hand, and don´t ask how…, but after the 5th Hostel the inlet was just gone… She left it somewhere, or we simply dropped it from the bike (still in discussion between us – anyhow Kerstin was still weak and dizzy from her food poisoning and this was probably the reason). First we thought it was a “drama” and we looked everywhere for it. Actually she did not miss it really in the beginning because we were mostly travelling in warm regions. But nearly a year later she was missing it indeed; we entered Tasmania in autumn and facing gusty wind and rain… Of course we found a solution; she was wearing many layers under her jacket and added Sascha’s rain jacket on the top. But this was definitely not as comfortable and easy to handle like the original liner…
Later on we contacted REV´IT and told them about our misfortune and hey: “No Problem, we know what can happen on such a journey, you know what? We will send you a new one, have fun and take care…” THANK YOU! (This handsome gesture does not affect in any way our rating, except for the point: Customer Service, here they got the extra 11th Star for “going the extra mile” for the customer!) A great gesture that made Kerstin happy again!
Overall it´s a 9.5* (Actually a ten because the Customer Service got 11 Stars! ;)
Would we choose it for the next Trip? A 100% YES! This is really “Engineered Skin”! Well done.
[usrlist “Quality:10” “Comfort:10” “Durability:10” “Water resistance:9” “Heat, ventilation:8.5” “Amenities:9.0” “Customer Service:10″ avg=”true”]
Now for our next part of the trip we need a new outer shell… We keep you up to date when we got some news…