Sunday, July 9, 2017

New riding gear: Icon Raiden DKR jacket & pants

I've been looking to completely change my dual sport/ADV riding gear for some time. I've tried more than a few different brands and models over the past 8 years and ended up with a RevIt! set up a couple years ago. It just never grew on me so I sold it on Craigslist recently and actively started looking for something else.

As luck would have it, we hosted some family members from the Pacific Northwest recently and one works at Vancouver's Pro Caliber Motorsports (http://www.procalibervancouver.com/). Ozz is a wealth of information and gave me the real lowdown on the different brands I was thinking about buying. While Klim was high on my list, Ozz asked me to consider Icon stuff, specifically the Raiden line. My favorite helmet is the Icon Variant so I looked into the Raiden gear. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive so I ordered a complete set of the Dakar gear (DKR) in tan (I've pretty much quit wearing all black due to the heat and visibility issues).

The pants and jacket arrived right away and look really good in tan. Both top and bottom look and fit well. I wanted full waterproof gear so I may have to see how well it cools. There are 5 venting points that cooled me in 85+ degree heat, no prob.

The jacket's "monkey paw" wasn't as bad as I thought. The pants are wide leg which I may or may not love. I also ordered the summer mesh Arakis pants. Not waterproof but should work well for my Baja rides.

I definitely love that this gear is "developed (not made) in Portland, Oregon, USA.

I rode into work on Friday with the jacket then took the set out for a ride this weekend to see how it all performed. I'm extremely happy so far!

The jacket didn't come with the attachable hydration pack, so I ordered that and will give it a try when the bladder arrives. It attaches to the jacket well and looks good...let's see if it chokes me out (like some reviews claim!).

Ride safe, folks.





@iconraiden #iconraiden #bigtimeadventure #variantnation

2 comments:

  1. Looking good. I will be interested to hear how you like them after a few uses.

    I have stuck with Rev'it as their women's jackets have sleeves long enough whereas most brands don't. And my Rev'it pants are men's since women's aren't long enough. Sigh

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