1977 Motorcycle Cold Weather Riding Clothing - 3-Page Vintage Article

Description

1977 Motorcycle Cold Weather Riding Clothing - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
• Being cold takes the fun out of
riding a motorcycle, and few things are as
miserable as a bone-chilling trip down
some highway in freezing weather. Stay-
ing warm in cold weather has always been
a problem for motorcyclists. Pavement
riders especially have difficulty staying
comfortable in wind-lowered tempera-
tures that are made harder to endure
because street riding requires little heat-
producing physical exertion
Often motorcyclists solve their prob-
lems by leaving their bikes parked in the
garage and taking the family car instead.
Knowing this, most manufacturers of
motorcycle clothing concentrate on gar-
ments that function marginally at an am-
bient temperature of 45 degrees, work
adequately in a 50- to 80-degree range,
and look more stylish than an Eskimo
outfit at any temperature.
But sometimes the cold can't be
avoided. Weather changes or the setting
sun can turn a warm, sunny cruise into a
dark, freezing ordeal. Geographic dif-
ferences can have the same effect, partic-
ularly such drastic changes in altitude
inherent in riding out of the plains into the
mountains. More than being uncomfort-
able, a rider’s exposure to cold can lead to
hypothermia—a subnormal lowering of
body temperature—with frostbite, slowing
of reactions, hallucinations, unconscious-
ness and, in extreme cases, death.
Adequate clothing for safe and com-
fortable cold-weather travel must do two
things: conserve heat and protect against
the wind. Since a street rider isn’t moving
much, his body is not generating much
heat, and what heat is produced must be
saved. By carrying away heat from a
rider’s body directly—or through drafts in
the rider’s clothing—wind amplifies the
effects of low temperatures.
Insulation prevents the loss of body
heat by providing dead-air space—heat
does not travel easily through still air.
Assuming a garment is properly con-
structed, the more loft (air-trapping thick-
ness when not compressed) a piece of
clothing has, the warmer it will be. Very
THE
FREEZE
BREAKING THE
ICICLE AGONY IN
COLD COUNTRY
BY JOHN ULRICH
tightly-knit nylon and polyester fabrics—
as well as leather—are windproof, but not
all garments made of these materials seal
effectively against the wind
Clothing made and sold for motorcy-
cling use in the United States is generally
inadequate for cold weather protection.
Some pieces of clothing for bikers are
windproof, but not warm. Some are warm,
but not windproof. Many are neither
Some companies try to sell snowmobile
suits for motorcycle use, but these bulky
suits are often not as draft-free as neces-
sary when used on an unfaired motorcy-
cle. The biggest single problem with most
garments sold for motorcyclists is that
they are not versatile enough to work well
when temperatures fluctuate 40 or 50
degrees during the day, or when the tem-
perature barely climbs past the freezing
mark all day. Under such conditions, you
must have a fairing if you’re wearing stan-
dard motorcycle garb. With or without a
windbreak, you’ll get cold.
Backpackers often face the same sort
of problems confronting motorcyclists,
but with a few added complications.
Frosty mornings in mountain elevations
can give way to scorching days, followed
by chilling nights. Alpine winds make
hikers vulnerable to hypothermia, but the
exertion of walking at high altitudes while
carrying a backpack produces a lot of
sweat. In this case windproof clothing
must breathe, so that sweat can escape;
otherwise the backpacker creates his
own mobile steam bath.
The key to dealing with these vast
ranges in temperature and wind condi-
tions is layers of clothing. Using several
garment layers remains the best way to
stay warm in a variety of conditions. As
temperatures rise and fall, removing or
adding layers keeps the hiker comfort-
able. Just as important, the clothing must
be lightweight and compact so that it can
be stowed in the limited space available in
a backpack. As a result, the backpacking
industry has developed warm and wind-
proof clothing that adapts well to cold-
weather motorcycle riding
Goose down has long been the pre-
ferred fill in backpacking jackets and par-
kas, the best of which have specially-
woven ‘rip-stop’ nylon fabric on the out-
side (to prevent snags from turning into
long tears). One ounce of prime silver-
grey goose down typically fills over 700
cubic inches of space inside a parka. With
that kind of loft, goose down is the best
material known for holding dead-air in-
sulation space. It’s also the most com-
pressible. Stuffing a giant goose-down-
filled expedition parka that’s good for
below-zero temperatures into a six-by-
twelve-inch bag isn’t unusual at all.
But there are problems with goose-
down garments in motorcycling. When
compressed, down loses its dead-air
space and with it the insulating effect. The
same thing is true if the down gets wet.
For example, a goose-down-filled set of
mittens will provide almost no insulation
where the nylon outer fabric is stretched
tight across the knuckles.
The largest difficulty with goose down
is far more basic: supply. Most of the stuff
comes from Red China; it has been tradi-
tionally channeled into the United States
through some neutral country like Can-
ada. In recent years the worldwide de-
mand for down has risen about 200 per
cent. At the same time the People’s Re-
public of China has restricted exports of
goose down to levels 40 or 50 per cent
lower than those reached in 1975-1976.
Some observers believe that the re-
striction is related to a high loss of life
suffered in the main Chinese goose-rais-
ing area which was struck by a major
earthquake in I976. As a result, prime
goose down is now a rare commodity, and
DEEP FEES
even lower grades of goose down
very expensive.
The goose down now commonly avail-
able to clothing manufacturers fills about
550 cubic inches per ounce of weight,
approximately the same as a good grade
of abundant duck down. A jacket with six
ounces of 550-fill duck down will have the
same loft and performance as a compara-
bly-constructed jacket with six ounces of
550-fill goose down, yet will usually cost
to less in a retail store. Avoid
ultra-inexpensive garments filled with
chopped chicken feathers which don’t
work very well as insulation.
Synthetic fiber filler materials have
gained popularity as the price of down
has risen. Synthetic fibers don’t loft as
well as down, so it takes more synthetic
fiber (in terms of weight) to produce the
same insulating capability. Also, syn-
thetics do not compress as much as
down, so storing a jacket filled with syn-
thetic fibers takes more room than an
•^.KPiy-warm down-filled jacket.
On the other hand, synthetics do not
lose all their insulating properties when
wet, and they are much less expensive
than down A jacket with two inches of
insulating loft will be just as warm as any
comparably-constructed jacket with
equal loft, even if one is filled with down
and one is filled with synthetic fibers. We
compared two equally-warm jackets from
one manufacturer. One, filled with Polar-
guard (a brand of synthetic fiber) cost
. The other, identical in construction
but filled with down, cost 5.
Some commonly-used synthetic fillers
include Fiberfill II, Polarguard, Kodel, and
Hollowfill brands. Polarguard, the most
heavily advertised, is gaining in popularity
with manufacturers, primarily because it
comes in large rolls and can be automat-
ically quilted by machines. Other fills must
be hand-quilted, a process that pushes up
manufacturing costs. While Polarguard
performs well, a jacket made out of Hol-
lowfill may be lighter while just as warm
because Hollowfill has greater loft per
ounce of weight.
An jacket doesn't necessarily
have to be wind-tight around the sleeves,
waist and neck because a wind-proof
outer jacket, shell or anorak can be worn
over the insulated jacket. But remember
that any insulated jacket is only as good
as its ability to hold dead air. If weak
seams or easily-torn material allows the
filler to escape, the jacket is worthless. A
tear-resistant outer and inner material
(like rip-stop nylon) is better. Double-
stitched seams are stronger than single-
stitched seams. A lock-stitched seam is
less likely to tear out than a chain-stitched
seam, but few manufacturers still use lock
stitching because it requires sewing ma-
chines that are no longer produced and
takes longer to do than the common chain
stitch found in many insulated jackets.
Selecting a good garment is essential,
but how it is used is just as important. In
extreme cold, the body does whatever is
necessary to preserve the normal tem-
perature of the internal organs and the
brain. At the same time, 80 per cent of
body heat loss is from the head and neck.
To make up for heat loss from that area,
This cold weather system starts
with street clothes applied in
layers: tee-shirt, work shirt,
Woolrich wool shirt, Buffalo
Breath rugby jersey; briefs,
long underwear, cotton socks,
light wool socks, heavy Wigwam
rag-wool knee socks, blue jeans
and 14-inch leather boots.
Trailwise goose-down filled
expedition pants made of rip-stop
nylon material retail for about .
Heavy-gauge zippers run outside
the length of the legs, making it easy
to put on the pants over bulky boots.
From BackCountry Mountain
Sports, Buena Park, CA.
Five-foot long, seven-inch
wide double-layer knit wool
scarf has tube construction.
Wrapped around the neck,
one end runs down the back
while the other goes down
the chest to stop drafts...
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