i've got a First Gear Kathmandu 2010 jacket and its quite nice. i also have a sport jacket and gloves from them and have likewise been pleased. First Gear has good products in my experience.

 

Sad to hear about any rider going down...

I have the Kathmandu jacket and it works quite well except in temps over 85-gets a bit stuffy. The inner liner does a good job of keeping you warm and I have used it in 40 deg weather with no issues. Does a decent job of keeping you dry but it will allow some rain to seep through in a heavy downpour. I have used the armor a couple of times(oops) and aside from some scuffing it is completely intact. I like it.

 

Hope you either have good riding pants or plan to get them, too. Following is a little mishap I had the 1st week in June. I'm just now able to put full weight on my right knee when I'm down on my hands and knees.

"It's going to be 104F in Tucson so it's easy to wear my vest that can be soaked with water and my mesh armored riding jacket, but do I want to put on my armored riding pants? I've dumped plenty in the dirt, but never in 24 years of street riding on the asphalt. So no, just a new pair of Wranglers and riding boots. In Tucson there is road construction that has the limit down to 35mph. I like to stay well back to give plenty of room for adjustments, but the car in front of me slows and swerves slightly for a couple of bicycle riders. I do the same by applying the front brake not all that aggressively, but the front wheel locks up and I'm down. WTF! I was in a patch of fresh tar that was more like fresh snot. Bad news is I go down, but the good news is I slide on it real nicely. Fortunately the car behind me was not right on my butt and he stops with room to spare."

 

As to the FirstGear jacket, I have 30,000 miles on one, not sure of the model (it's discontinued), but has held up well, although faded. Like someone else said, you'll get damp or wet in a downpour, depending on time:rain ratio, especially if the jacket gets dirty. It's tough in hot weather, if not moving fast.

To everyone - tune into your internal ESPN and ride safe.

 

Unless I missed it, no one said. Was the guy wearing a helmet?

 

Almost got squished, totally not my fault, totally unavoidable. I came to an intersection at a parking lot, about the turn left, when this fool turns left in front of me. But he whips around the corner at speed and cuts DEEP into my lane (side walk on both sides of the street so no where to go), if I had been a car he would have wrecked. All I could do was sit and watch, no where to go, no time to act, just braced myself for impact. Scary stuff.

 

He was wearing a helmet. It's legal to lane split in CA but we have helmet laws too.

I was going to get that Kathmandu jacket, close out special was 129 bucks. Upon ordering it I friggn realized they only had XL and 2XL in stock. That won't fly for 5'11 and 140 pounds so I'm back to searching. Annoying. Might try the Aikito Desert or just buy the damn Bilt explorer crap. The Bilt jacket in person fit good and seemed decent but I can't bring my self to buy it. Ideally I'd like to find a close out Klim for 300 or less, that would be sweet but good luck.

I've had on more than one occasion, someone on my left suddenly slow and cut me off to make a right. Morons. Complete morons. We get people who will stop in the left turn lane on a green light, put their right blinker on, then wait until the straight traffic light turns green and squeeze in. They can't be bothered to commit to the left, hang a u turn then make another left to go where they needed. It's even worse because you get all the angry people trying to go around them at the same time. I'll have to gopro 30 minutes of traffic one day and post it up. You'll be so surprised how inconsiderate Bay Area drivers are when the actual amount of traffic isn't THAT bad.

 

I bet that some of the folks from some other countries would call that a normal day. Some of the vids I've watched from other countries just friggin' amaze me that anyone survives that melee.