Clothes for the fat rider!

[CELTICDUFF]

Hi I am new to motorcycling, had my bike since June. It was difficult to get clothes as I am not tall and I am FAT . As winter is approaching ( -1, this morning. Brass monkey) any advice on decent clothing for the larger gentleman?

I bought a Texspeed jacket . Unfollow when it rains heave I’m soaked.

cheers 

[bonio]

Layers are your friend. Especially windproof layers.

I used to wear a lightweight, thin running jacket under my textiles and it did wonders at keeping the wind and the cold out. Under that a fleece, and so on.  

You'll also need something that will at least keep the worst of the rain out. Cheapest are waterproof thingies that go over your textiles. Most expensive are laminated GoreTex textiles.

As for brands, not sure I can help you (I'm twiglet-sized) but any brand sold by the major outlets (e.g. Sportsbikeshop) should be decent quality. 

 

How long is your commute? And what speeds are you doing?

[CELTICDUFF]

Cheers . 

[CELTICDUFF]

I commute an hour each way . Up to 60 mph. 

[RideWithStyles]

Water proof textiles, termal layer and a Heated vest/coat pretty must makes -degrees bare able.

[bonio]

1 hour ago, CELTICDUFF said:

I commute an hour each way . Up to 60 mph. 

An hour's a long time in the cold. I'd have thought if it's more than a quarter of an hour at 60, you're going to need some good kit, plus either heated grips or gloves. If you find you're still cold, then add a heated vest. Makes a good Christmas present. 

[CELTICDUFF]

Cheers 

[Pie man]

If your going to commute all through winter, invest in some good clobber, it took me over 20yrs to come to that conclusion, not being able to afford good clobber at the time. Keis heated gilet and heated gloves, gone are the days I used to shove a news paper up my jumper. If on a budget, I see Nathan Millward suggest buying ex military or French/German gore-tex jacket to go over your motorcycle jacket, not sure of sizes though

 

[Fiddlesticks]

My commute is similar. Motorway speeds, for about an hour. Heated grips and seat help, as do hand guards and screen.

Neck gaiter, skull cap, winter gloves with thin liners if cold. Then T-Shirt, shirt, fleece, down jacket if really cold, textile jacket, waterproof shell if wet. Jeans and textile trousers, goretex boots and army overtrousers if wet. The seat has a Cool Covers mesh cover - good for water drainage and hot weather but bad for cold weather. Textiles were from J&S - IXS Navigator - not the most expensive, but fine for what I need. They go up to 5XL.

[bonio]

+1 for IXS. + another 1 for a screen.

[RideWithStyles]

Depends on what type of person how warm blooded are you? any parts more so than others? For me hands are my coldest if its 12degrees or under my hands suffer even off the bike.

Do you have the money and space to buy for loads of different seasons kit? Or less as possible keep it to a compromise? 

other than a decent kit.
Heated grips are a no brainier because they are always there on the bike, they are very reliable and get the latest oxford ones which even I barely need to go more than 60% there soo efficient.

if your bike design allows it you could add hand guards like off motor croos bikes etc as they will keep wind  blast off the hands to make it a solid double combo.

now you can get heated gloves. Expensive and as gloves get the most wear and abuse they dont last long.

i hate having a heavy chonky weighting the hands and wrists down plus its two more battery packs and wires to mess about with. They dont get super warm, just heat the inside (if so no better than heated grips to start off) or if your lucky the back of the hand but generally not the fingers of the glove properly.

heated vest/jacket, keis is generally regarded as the best of the bunch with prices not much different to the rivals of equal quality, dont bother with the cheaper knock offs.

If you plug them into the bike's battery with a kit you can run the jacket from the bike but not a battery pack.
The vest can be run from the bikes or it own small battery pack so you can use it off the bike or social. If you go the vest it might be good to go up a size to allow space for the BP, or above average build.
Both are wind resistant too so helps with layering. 
you can get pants and shoe insoles from keis too if you really do suffer with those parts.

[keith1200rs]

My Gerbing heated gloves heat the outside of the hand and fingers, not the inside. In combination with heated grips they work well.