Hunting for leathers…

Posted by Rashmi Tambe on Apr 2, 2006 in Motorcycling | 0 comments

Woke up later than I expected, considering that I’ve been waking up at 6 everyday during the weekday as it’s getting light out earlier and earlier. Made a list of all the dealerships with the gear they carry and their addresses. See it would be wonderful if there was one store which stocks every known brand of women’s gear, but noooo… the way it works is – RideWest BMW carries Vansons and RevIt, Ducati Seattle carries Dainese, Seattle Cycle carries Tecnic, University Honda carries Joe Rocket, Icon, Firstgear et al, Renton Motorcycles carries Alpinestars, Eastside Motosports carries MotoGP and so on…

Since folks had highly recommended the Vansons, I headed to RideWest BMW first thing. The thought of seeing all the lovely, lovely Beemers had absolutely nothing to do with it. :P Turns out that might as well have been the only stop I had made that day. I tried on some men’s pants and they fit okay except they were looser at the waist and longer. I thought I might as well buy them and get them altered, but the guy helping me said that they could order the women’s fit for me instead. Apparently they run in the same sizing as jeans sizes, so he could order me pants in my jeans size or we could take measurements and he could fax them over to Vanson’s and let them decide which ones would fit best. I decided on the latter, little realizing what lay ahead.

The measurements took the better part of 45 minutes. He (Josh) had a form, on which he had to fill out the minutest details. While he was kneeling down and looking up at me, he asked me if I was totally okay with having the measurements done (aww… what a gentleman!). I shrugged and said that it wasn’t a problem at all (I’ve only ever had male tailors so it wasn’t really a big deal), and he said that they didn’t get too many women in there (meaning none. :P). I tried to remain stoic throughout the measurement, but it was hard to not burst into giggles when he read things from the form like – “Measure around the fullest part of the hips” without a change in expression. There were various other assorted measurements of an even more awkward nature like butt, inseam (literally measured from crotch to ankle – fear not, I had to hold the crotch end of it :P), crotch to beltline on both front and backside, and two different bust measurements (oh and the one priceless moment where he asked me to kneel down, and when I did, he hastily knelt down himself). In hindsight, I wonder, wouldn’t it be a *lot* more embarassing to measure a guy’s hips and crotch? :P

When it was finally done, we both exclaimed – “Finally!!” and J. started to say – “You were a good little…” I think he was going to say “girl” but then changed his mind quickly and said “lab rat”. :P Hehe… it didn’t hurt that he was a bit of a cutie in a way that I don’t really fall for, but was rather appealing. I remember there was some other guy who walked close past me in the middle of our measurements when J. was writing down something and when he came around me to measure my shoulders from the back, he quietly asked – “Did that guy run into you?” which I thought was rather decent of him. It’s strange – I can’t stand guys who come across as overly protective and obnoxious, but it did feel nice to have him be concerned in a – “If that guy was messing with you, I’m going to go kick his ass.” sort of way. And yet, it just cracks me up so much at how self-conscious he was throughout the measurement thing and how concerned he was at not wanting me to feel uncomfortable. I almost told him that he now knew my body better than any of my boyfriends had ever done, but thought better of it. :P

He went to send off the fax, while I wandered into the bike display room and sat on some of them and I found a used F650GS that FIT ME PERFECTLY! It was factory lowered and fit my well in every possible way! I could have ridden it out of there and never have had to alter it in any way, unlike with the SV which is still far from optimum. *sigh* If not for my wanting to do trackdays, the 650GS would have been THE bike for me. :|

I wandered back to the front desk and asked J. if they had any gloves in my size (without much hope really). He showed me a pair of Held gloves in size 6 which were a perfect fit and were made entirely of kangaroo leather. Only hitch – $185. Worse hitch – cute guy selling them to me. I bought them.

I left the dealership after almost an hour and a half of being there, went to my car and laughed till I cried for a good five minutes at the measurement fiasco. Two days later and I’m still giggling. If that suit ever gets made, it’s going to be one nice fitting suit! ;) He said he’d call me in a couple of days and let me know what Vanson said so I can decide if I want to order or not.

Next I went to Ducati Seattle and tried on some Dainese pants which fit me okay but were a bit too long and $500. :P The customer service was really awful (typical motorcycle dealership if you happen to be female). I left sooner than I expected and headed to University Honda Yamaha to meet and . We hung out a bit, tried on a couple of things and chatted with the salespeople who are the absolute nicest out of all the motorcycling places I’ve been to. I’ve bought a major part of my gear from them just for this reason. I found a nice white Tecnic women’s jacket that fit very well, had good back armor and a full circumference zipper. They said the thickness was 1.2 mm and that many women wore the Tecnic suit on the track, but I think I was spoiled after looking at the Vansons which were almost 1.5 mm thick and looked much less flimsy. I’ll have to think about this one.

It looks like I will have to decide between getting Vansons or a Teknic suit. My instincts tell me that the former would be the better option, although much more expensive, and only in black. Let’s see what they say…
Later in the weekend, I also rode the SV around a good bit. Took it to a parking lot (same one I took the Virago to last year. :) and practised slow speed manuevers and got to know it better. I’m still lusting after the BMW I didn’t buy though and it still feels very weird to ride such a shiny bike that sticks out. I’m going to buy a dirty, grungy used tank bra to cover up some of the shinyness in the vain hope that it will look used and gritty. :P