bmw prorace leather suit

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AUTHOR: Shahram Shiva
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy BMW
BMW
PRORACE
LEATHER
SUIT
L
eather and motorcycling have
been synonymous since the
very early days. Leather
riding gear is the ultimate
choice for most riders regardless of their reason for riding. Leather
makes us feel tough, young, invincible and
yes, sexy. Is it any wonder that leather has
become the universal riding outfit of
choice for young and old, men and women,
rich and poor, outlaw and law enforcement? The credit for today's popularity of
black leather goes way back to 1953, in a
monumental motorcycling film called
“The Wild One,” starring the most influential actor of the past several decades,
Marlon Brando. In this movie Brando in
leather, rides with his “Black Rebels
Motorcycle Club” into a small town
(meant to represent Hollister) on a
Triumph. The release of “The Wild One”
brought about an immediate craze for
black motorcycle jackets, a “trend” that
has lasted for over 50 years and continues
to grow. A visit to any motorcycle rally
will prove that.
Leather is not only the most popular
type of riding gear; it also feels the best
too. The feel of leather while riding as it
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smoothly cuts through the air is
unmatched. You can see the wind play on
the slick surface of the leather, like a child
gliding down a waterslide. Of course
leather is not perfect, it's not very warm
in winter, doesn't react well to rain and
tend to be too hot in summer time. I was
reminded of this when I rode a BMW
R1200GS-Adventure in the Arizona
desert. I was wearing a full black leather
suit and by mid-afternoon, dehydrated and
overcooked I wished my gear had the new
TFL “cool” technology that's used on new
BMW leathers. How can you improve on
leather? Leave it to BMW, they have figured out a way.
The BMW ProRace suit offers the
protection of thick leather that all serious
sport riders require, minus the summertime heat issues. Made of 1.2-1.4 mm
rugged Nappa cowhide it is extremely tearand abrasion-resistant. However, since it
employs the new TFL “cool” technology,
it tends to stay much cooler than a typical
leather suit. This technology prevents
absorption of sun radiation and reduces the
temperature inside the suit between 8° and
12° F, and reduces the temperature of the
leather at the surface by approximately
20°-25° F, thus noticeably increasing climactic comfort.
The other interesting quality of this
suit is that it requires no breaking-in. With
many sizes and configurations, the
ProRace basically fits custom-made right
out of the box. I remember several years
ago when I bought my then new leather
suit. I decided to wear it out of the shop.
That didn't turn out to be such a good idea.
It was so stiff I could barely make it home.
It required several hundred miles of riding
to actually soften up and become comfortable. This BMW suit feels supple on
the rack.
The BMW ProRace also employs the
newest visco-elastic armor technology.
Unlike traditional racing armor the viscoelastic is flexible and moves with the body.
Also this new CE approved protector is
superior to traditional armor because it
reduces the initial impact by spreading the
force of the crash throughout the foam and
actually minimizing the shock to the body.
BMW offers their TFL “cool” technology and visco-elastic armor in their
non-racing leathers as well. ProRace
Boots and Gloves complete this 'speedy'
collection. www.bmwmotorcycles.com.
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BMW
R1200GS
Adventure
"Extreme
Off-Roading
on the
'Humvee' of
Bikes"
About an hour into my BMW R1200GSAdventure Arizona Press ride, at the end of a dusty
canyon road with as many twists and turns as a local
Sidewinder, just as our group was about to pull into
the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town a burro named
Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales decided to skip the
ghost town while dragging behind him a 6 foot metal
pipe welded to a tire rim that he was tied to.
As the burro Gonzales charged out, he headed
straight for our group, which had come to a stop in a
single file on an uphill entrance to the abandoned
mining town. I was the first in line, balancing the 565
lbs Adventure with 8.7-gallon fuel tank and 35.2” seat
height. I hung on the grips and braced myself for
impact. I thought that was surely the end of our trip
as an inevitable domino effect was about to unfold.
Chased by his own cloud of dust and loud noise of
metal banging against the rocks, Pedro began to run
faster toward the line of premium Beemers. There was
no time to abandon the bikes. Pedro and his lethal
weapon were too close. Lucky the burro passed within
a few inches of our bikes and no one was injured. Just
then I knew this was going to be a very exciting day.
The BMW R1200GS-Adventure is a unique
machine with an excellent pedigree. The Adventure as
its name implies is based on BMW's best selling model
the GS. Over the past 25 years the BMW GS has
become the default two-wheel vehicle of choice for
world travelers--similar to the ever-present Land
Rovers in Safari movies. Every month it seems
someone is taking a GS for a loop around the world.
The R1200GS is a very impressive machine; it's been
dubbed the Swiss Army Knife of Bikes, the one bike
that can do it all and well. The R1200GS is light, it
goes fast, corners great, can do off-road, has optional
but switchable ABS, heated grips, trick luggage and is
comfortable enough to ride all day. It's not surprising
that it has achieved cult status.
The Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor and his
buddy Charlie Borman take credit for making the GS
even more popular, following a phenomenally successful TV series called “Long Way Round.” In this
series the actors/adventurers rode two BMW GSAdventure bikes across Europe, through Russia, Alaska,
Canada and the US. Following the airing of that series
the sale of GS bikes in the UK hit a new record.
The Adventure model takes the cult of the GS to
Adventures at the Grand Canyon West.
AUTHOR: Shahram Shiva
PHOTOGRAPHY: Kevin Wing
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Riding the GS-Adventure
through the beautiful red rocks of
Sedona, AZ.
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the extreme. The regular GS
has a fuel capacity of 5.2 gallons, the Adventure expands
that by 3.5 gallons, increases
the seat height by 2 inches,
adds a humvee style brush
guard to protect the entire
fairing, the engine and the
fuel tank, offers the optional
rugged and large aluminum
panniers, larger windshield,
increases the suspension
travel by an inch and the
alternator capacity to 720
watts--all this on a quick
machine with 100 horsepower and 130 mph (tested)
top speed.
We began our GSAdventure ride at 8 AM, in
the
beautiful
Sedona,
Arizona. The plan was to
ride the bikes 250 miles on
mostly dirt to the magnificent Grand Canyon and then
take a small plane back to
Sedona in time for dinner.
The plan included 175 miles
of riding on all kinds of
desert roads, consisting of
dirt, rocks, gravel, narrow
rocky canyon roads with up
to 500-foot drops, fire roads
and a dirt highway, also we rode through mud,
sand and streams. Basically we were served a
seven-course chief's special feast of dirt.
Of course none of us was deluded enough
to consider the mighty Adventure a “dirt bike.”
Dirt bikes usually have 1/3 the engine capacity
and weight half as much. However, it was surprising how capable the Adventure was in the
rough stuff. I am sure the fact that our bikes
were set up for off-road helped the situation.
Each Press bike was equipped with Continental
knobbies and lacked the optional ABS--wire
rims come standard.
For those of you who haven't ridden a
BMW with Boxer engine before, you're in for
surprise. They are some of the easiest bikes to
ride. One BMW myth dictates that the horizontal, opposing cylinders actually create a
gyroscopic effect that help the bike float on the
road and corner with little effort. The new GSAdventure rides with an air of confidence and
poise. The GS-A makes you feel you can go
anywhere and with 400-mile fuel capacity it can.
It is incredibly stable and maneuverable. The
GS-Adventure is the Alpha dog. Introduced in
April it has already achieved a status symbol
like no other bike on the road. In my opinion
it is the humvee of bikes and it turns as many
heads too.
Around midday I hit a long and secluded
stretch of paved road with no cars, people, livestock, not even intersections. Carved in the
middle of the desert with infinite visibility, it
seemed like a perfect place to
test this new BMW's top
speed.
Although the
I rode the GS-Adventure in the
Adventure
is
based on the
desert in racing leathers. It took several
very agile R1200GS, it is
hours to thoroughly clean all the dust
understandably
slower.
out of my leathers and helmet.
However the extra weight
better plants the bike on the
road and the larger windshield
maybe one of the best from
BMW yet. The GS-A quickly
got to 120 MPH in 6th gear.
With the full intention of
recording the top speed for
my review, I switched
between 5th and 6th gears
several times, my best
according to the speedo was
130 MPH and it was achieved
in 5th gear with me tucking
fully behind the screen.
This was turning out to
be quite a day and the best
was yet to come. Our lunch
spot was by the Colorado
River, about 20 dirt miles outside of Peach Springs, AZ.
By then the onboard computer
on the GS-A was indicating
the ambient temperature at
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Adventure on desert roads. It is easy to ride
the bike in high speeds on hard packed roads. It
was in this part that three wild burros galloped
across the road in front of me.
No one on our team confused
the GS-Adventure for a “dirt bike.”
However this imposing machine is
extremely poised and well mannered even on the rough stuff.
Well-deserved lunch by
the Colorado River in 106
degrees temperatures. This
area is 20 miles outside of
Peach Springs, AZ.
106 degrees and I was wearing full black leather
sport suit. Not the best choice of gear for desert
riding, however, the previous day I was piloting
BMW's new, very fast sport-tourer K1200GT
and since I like to travel light packed only the
leathers. I lost count of how many bottles of
water I drank that afternoon. Riding through
the base of canyons on my way to the river, I
encountered some of the local wild life. Out of
nowhere (isn't that always the case) 3 wild and
free burros galloped across the desert road a few
yards in front of me. Their ancestors must have
helped the Pioneers and miners through these
parts. I understood burro Gonzales' urge to skip
the ghost town, he must have been meaning to
join his buddies.
Even though we were part of a group, may
of us rode solo through most of the miles. As
I was cutting through the canyons on this hot
and uninhabitable desert road I thought of
adventurers who travel the remote parts of the
world on their own, with no back up or support.
I found a new respect for these lone travelers.
To reach the picnic area we navigated
through the toughest part of our trip. Our natural obstacle course consisted of a rocky road
with a stream snaking through it for good measure. After lunch we took the same road back
to Peach Springs, hopped on the famous Route
66 on our way to the magnificent Grand Canyon
West.
The last 60 miles of our journey consisted
of spiraling up and down canyons on narrow
winding dirt roads. However, as I began this
long final stretch I hit the best section of our
trip, a dirt highway. This dirt highway was
about 20 plus miles of straight, hard-packed
gravel. The GS-A loved this road. A few of
us were pulling a sustained 80 MPH with
incredible ease. I understood why this Beemer
is called the “Adventure.” It was a moment of
epiphany. Yes, the GS-Adventure maybe
capable of hitting rocks, mud and streams, but
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it was really at home on gravel roads.
By mile 230, as I was spiraling down yet
another dusty canyon road, I came face to face
with the majesty of the Grand Canyon. It
stopped me in my tracks. I slowed down to a
walking pace and gazed at the shades of red,
orange and pink shimmering in the late afternoon sun. What an awe-inspiring moment. I
rode the last 20 miles with the full view of the
Canyon and our ride culminated with a visit to
the Grand Canyon West. It is truly grand and
it is breathtaking.
BMW has another hit with the R1200GSAdventure. It is meant to take you around the
world, with infrequent stops for fuel and bring
you back home in one piece. Although large
and impressive, it is very versatile and maneuverable over most of what the world can throw
at it. This BMW looks great at your favorite
Sunday gathering place or in the middle of…
well, Grand Canyon.
BMW R1200GS-Adventure under
Arizona night sky.
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The new GSAdventure now sports an
onboard computer and a
well laid out dash.