Fashion statement, or designers taking the piss?

[thrang]

Just spent my bank holiday Monday putting a new clutch, actuator, and lifter in the wifes (well she will be in a fortnight) 750 Zephyr and gave it a run to Hartside Cafe to make sure I'd not buggered the job up. Anyway after avoiding the blind, deaf and stupid car drivers who always infect the Lakes on Bank Holidays I reached the Cafe which was packed with bike's and their owners.

Anyway sat on the wall in the sun enjoying my mug of tea I started wondering if the leather designers were deliberately going out to make people look like plonkers or what? Because a fair few on show looked to me like there design must have been inspired by the after effects of a night on the strong ale, followed by a extra hot chilli donna, or 'stick the bog roll in the fridge first' curry?

Just curious if anyone else has wondered the same thing?

[nhmaf]

I have some nice looking riding suits, but lately I've also seen some very weird/wild looking ones
that seem to have been inspired by those Japanese anime' cartoon characters.   Usually see those
on the new young riders on their little screaming crotch-rockets, sometimes wearing sandals at the same
time !
 

[SCJJR65]

Yeah, it seems to be either that or the "Hell's Angels" leather vest and ass-less leather chaps look!  (And don't forget the doo-rag!!)  

[milkman]

trying to find an understated but safe jacket is near impossible.
You wither get over the top "brando" jackets (with way more buckles and tassle and rubbish that was never on a brando jacket) or some lurid mulit coloured storm trooper armour.

Surely someone can take one of teh older style Schotts or Lewis jackerts and fit some armour in there?

On saying this, I did see a really nice Spidi jacket that fit the bill the other day. A couple of jackets from Triumphs range look alright too - I like the Romero, but since I dont have a triumph, I'd feel like a bit of a tool riding around with Triumph emblazened on my back.

[Lowen]

I like my Powertrip jacket.

http://www.rapidracer.com/potrsacrleja.html

[Justin B.]

There are a lot of jackets out there that are not gaudy.  My "mid-weight" is a First Gear Chief III:



My summer jacket is an old First Gear Mesh-Tex, except in a silver-grey where this is red:



My dead-of-the-winter coat is a Joe Rocket Balistic 4 in basic black:



All of these are very subdued and conservitive in colors and cut.

[Ed Miller]

Just spent my bank holiday <snip>
Anyway sat on the wall in the sun enjoying my mug of tea I started wondering if the leather designers were deliberately going out to make people look like plonkers or what?<snip>after effects of a night on the strong ale, followed by a extra hot chilli donna, or 'stick the bog roll in the fridge first' curry?

<snip>

I haven't noticed anything interesting about the riding gear out, but it's early yet this spring here in Western Oregon, so there aren't that many riders out yet.  It's plenty warm, but plenty wet most days too.

But:  where are you from, Thrang?  I don't know who has bank holidays, don't know what plonkers are,  definitely know and love what a strong ale is, but don't know what the other two bits of food are.  But they sound really good!

I wrote a few weeks ago about reading about a couple of riders wrecking on a road that I also ride, within a few minutes of each other, in high speed wrecks.  One at 80, the other at over a hundred.  My joke at the time was, I wanted to know what kind of riding gear they had on, because I wanted some, because neither was hurt too badly.

It turns out one of them works at the BMW place where I buy parts, I've known him for some time.  Neither he nor the other guy were wearing much of anything, but he insisted I wasn't wasting my money on riding gear, as he was still recovering from some icky leg wound; didn't say anything about hte other guy.  Oh, and since I know he rides all winter, I can't blame the wreck on the first nice day in several months, like I did when I mentioned this before.  Oh well.  

[thrang]

Lol Ed!
I am in Northern England, The Lake District (Same place as Beatrix Potter & Will Wordsworth wrote about).

A plonker is English slang for someone who looks/behaves oddly, or is a little thick...

The Bank Holiday was for Easter (Good Friday and Easter Monday are both bank Hols here).

A Chilli Donna is a kebab (processed lamb in pita bread with soggy salad) doused with super hot chilli sauce, traditionally eaten after a skin full of beer on your way home from the pub.

A 'bog roll in the fridge' Vindaloo or Vindi, is a type of super duper hot Curry that has a reputation for ruining your taste buds and tongue when you eat them, and your burning your arse the morning after. And guess what, Vindi's are also traditionally consumed after a skinfull ale.

There you are a bit of Brit culture for you
Tony

[milkman]

I love the drunken kebab too..........usually from the dodgiest looking roadside carvan you can find. We didn't adopt the booza curry love as much though over here (as a generalisation)

For me the meat pie still reigns supreme

That power trip jacket looks good. Never heard of them before though.

[Ed Miller]

...drooling....   Those foods sound even better now that you've described them.  I can't believe the British could have ever aquired a reputation for not having a good cuisine.  And to think I only wanted to go to England to drink beer!

[SCJJR65]

About the only things I've heard of that I don't think I could stomach are Kidney pie and Eel pie!   :-/

(And maybe Haggis, but that's Scottish cuisine!)  

[nhmaf]

After all those years of the British Empire, they have to have something still to show for it -
yummy foods from many foreign lands (and, a few somewhat questionable foods like
Haggis, eels and kidney pie from the homeland).  Well, at least I like authentic
bangers and mash, and practically every British -or Irish for that matter - beer I've
ever tasted !

 [smiley=beerchug.gif]

[milkman]

you dont usually find the kidney pie by itself, more often steak and kidney, and its priamrily steak. really tasty.

There beer is good too, but like teh US, it could come out of the taps a bit colder, te closer to Zero the better. [smiley=1drink.gif] [smiley=1drink.gif] [smiley=1drink.gif] [smiley=1drink.gif] [smiley=1drink.gif] [smiley=puke2.gif]

Triumphs and most of the great rock bands  came out of there aswell, but not THE greatest......

ACDC

[thrang]

We've invented a few things for sure, but the UK's crowing glory has got to be Cask ale. The best ones tend to come from the smaller brewery's. Personally I'm a tad partial to Moorhouses Pendle Witches Brew, (5% abv and very smooth) unfortunately it tastes like a 4% pint. Which can be a bit of a problem as the crone likes to creep up behind you and wallop you over the head with her broomstick when you want to stand up.

Greatest rock band AC/DC, naw... Its got to be Rush for me (who have a new album out next month). Talking about Rush, the drummer Neil Peart is a big 8valve boxer fan who has done (and written a book about) some humongous trips on his gs1100  after discovering the joys of rinding putting his life back together after losing his wife and daughter with in 12 months of each other in the late 1990's.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road

He also has a 2nd book out now The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa

And apparently the man loves the pen...Article in July '96 M/C Tour & Travel magazine.


Thanks for that, thrang.

Say ... you don't know of some lads that go by the name of Slade, do you?