No problem. Side-stepping the main topic here, I did a LOT of research on riding gear, after discovering by accident (fortunately not mine!) how essentially little-to-none protection my Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket and pants (my initial riding gear) offered. Here I was on my first day, thinking I was adequately protected:
![](http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/vidrazor/day-one.jpg)
Kinda goofy-looking, huh?
![Very Happy :grin:](http://forums.banditalley.net/Smileys/banditalley/biggrin.gif)
Man that bike looked great then, I really should give it a bath and a polish!
![Sad :sad:](http://forums.banditalley.net/Smileys/banditalley/sad.gif)
Because synthetics offer the ability to give you effective protection while allowing realistic ventilation for use in both hot and cold environments, I decided to look into what was out there and what and how it would provide whatever level of protection. Not that I don't use leather, as you can see here:
![](http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/vidrazor/new-yawk.jpg)
But of course that gets awfully hot when temps are above ~60°F (it was ~35°F in that shot)
Anyway I learned a lot about synthetics and denier densities and all that good stuff, and of course discovered that you have to pay a lot to get something that's going to give you some form of realistic protection and still allow you to ride in 100°F weather (as I did on a trip back from Boston 2 summers back) or 20°F (as I did last Sunday). In my case is was an $1100 Kevlar Motoport outfit, but as I had mentioned, the new Tourmaster outfit I linked in the previous thread looks very promising and is a hell of a lot less expensive. I may get one as an alt outfit.
Now getting back on this topic, I really like this little map thingie, I think it lots of fun and if nothing else inspires you to go out and ride so you can fill in more empty spaces!
![bandit :bandit:](http://forums.banditalley.net/Smileys/banditalley/bandit.gif)
![](http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/vidrazor/Visited.png)