Everybody should be allowed to make one mistake. And for Schuberth that was perhaps the C4. Schuberth had historically ‘owned’ the flip-lid space, and when it came time to replace the venerable, although slightly long-in-the-tooth, C3 Pro expectations were high. It would be safe to say that the C4 failed to meet those expectations. The helmet had issues. Those issues were sorted when Schuberth re-launched the helmet as the C4 Pro. The Pro was a good helmet, albeit perhaps not the great helmet that the C3 had been.

At the beginning of the year, a new helmet safety standard came into force. This standard, known as ECE 22-06, marks a significant step up in terms of helmet protection. The new test requires helmets to be far more energy absorbent, and arguably this is the single most important quality one needs in a helmet. But there are new tests for low-speed impacts, for angled impacts and so on. In fact, there are lots of new tests. The bottom line is that 22-06 helmets are demonstrably safer than 22-05 helmets; in the not too distant future all helmets will be 22-06. But, for now, the choice is still quite limited.

A lot of us dream of dropping everything, loading up the bike and heading off into the sunset. I particularly feel like this most Sunday evenings after a long weekend in the shop. The chances of me getting around to actually doing it are, of course, pretty slim, but we all have our dreams. And I do spend too much time on the internet looking at the route I would take and the kind of bike that I would like to ride on such an adventure.

It was about time, we felt, to update everybody on what’s going to be happening at our Open Day. We’re still in discussion with lots of people about activities on the day, so you can expect more news before the day itself. But here’s an outline of some of the things that are booked in, and so set in stone.

Let me kick off by saying that this review, and the video that accompanies it, are probably aimed at less experienced motorcyclists; those who are perhaps a little confused when it comes to choosing a motorcycle helmet.

Now even though we are far and away the largest seller of Klim in the UK, their range is so huge that we have to admit to not knowing it as well as we would like to, which is why we had not originally selected the Carlsbad suit for this season. Instead, we elected to offer Klim’s signature Badlands Pro A3 adventure suit and their upgraded Kodiak road suit.

We first saw the Outlander boot when we were at a product development meeting at Klim’s offices a couple of years ago. Ironically, the boot wasn’t part of the presentation. Klim wasn’t planning on selling it in Europe, but we saw the potential, and decided to buy up all their spare stock in the US in order to have a ‘de facto’ UK exclusive.

It hasn’t stopped raining for almost a week now, but taking the view that our collective luck has to change at some point, I thought the time was right to talk about mesh jackets.

This is the second in our series of guides about what you need to know, and what you should look for, when buying motorcycle gear. In our first article, we focussed on jeans. This time round we are looking at jackets.

In the fifties and sixties, all the cool kids rode in a pair of Levi’s or Wranglers. This was before the thought of protective wear had even occurred to anyone. Think James Dean, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen et al.. Over here, of course, the Ace Cafe boys would not have worn anything else.

Looking for the best motorcycle jacket for summer riding? Perhaps a mesh or leather motorcycle jacket that keeps you cool when it is hot? See our top 10 summer jackets, and buy online from the UK’s premier motorcycle clothing store, with free shipping and free returns on all protective orders.

Read our Arai Rapide helmet review. Finally a technical, full-face, retro-styled motorcycle helmet that looks just right on any modern retro bike.

You can get cold on a motorbike; you can get very cold. And when you get very cold, riding a bike is no fun. What’s more, when you’re very cold you won’t be riding at your best. When you’re shivering you are simply more likely to miss that guy in the white van at the turning who hasn’t seen you because he’s chatting to his mate on his mobile.

Here at Motolegends we often get asked who makes the best motorcycle clothing. And, of course, there’s no easy answer. Dainese does pretty stonking, one-piece leathers. Rokker make amazing jeans. Halvarssons does great value-for-money technical wear better than anybody else. Spidi does exquisite leather. And Belstaff does the best wax cotton. Whilst Klim are the boys when it comes to equipment for adventure riding.

It’s that time of year. The new season is here, and the latest products have started to turn up, so clothing retailers like us are keen to put out lists of their favourite styles. But because we receive the bulletins from all of our putative competitors, we have seen some pretty poor Top 10 offerings in recent weeks. And this may be because a lot of the gear we are all anticipating hasn’t turned up yet.

The Shoei NXR 2 is, as the name would suggest, a replacement for the outgoing NXR helmet. The new helmet is, in concept, very similar to its predecessor. It is an upgrade in a number of quite notable ways, but the greatest change is that this helmet is accredited to the new, higher ECE 22-06 safety standard. This is only the second helmet ever to meet the standard, the first being the Arai Quantic with which it will compete almost directly in the marketplace.

Where to start? That is the question. This is the latest iteration of Shark’s well-known, 180º flip-lid helmet, a series that started with the Evoline, before becoming the Evo One. The idea is a great one. It is an evolution of the standard flip-lid helmet. Whereas, on a normal flip-lid, the raised chin piece sits over the brow, thus imbuing a helmet with the aerodynamic qualities of a barn door, on the Shark Evo series, the chin piece rotates through 180º, and therefore sits at the back of the helmet, totally out of sight. The result is a helmet that works equally well as an open-face or a full-face helmet.

Even though we’ve not been in the motorcycle business long enough to become jaded and cynical, it still takes something a bit exceptional to get us really excited. But the suit we are talking about here is, in our opinion, worth shouting about.

The first thing that we need to make clear is that this is not a brand new helmet. It has been around for a number of years, but the Arai importer tells us that they no longer bring it into the UK for any other retailer because, in all honesty, it is just too expensive for most of them to want to stock. I hasten to add that we have not decided to offer the helmet because of its price. We never seek out expensive products, per se.

If we are being totally honest, we would normally expect the European brands to be at the forefront when it comes to technical, motorcycle wear. But Klim is the one company that bucks this trend. Klim has most definitely become the foremost name in adventure wear, for example. They use only the very best components, such as SuperFabric, Gore-Tex, D3O, Koroyd and so on.