chickey191
Well-known member
First Gear TPG Impressions
Finally have a few miles under my new First Gear Rainier Riding Gear and can post something a little more detailed than first impressions.
For the record – I am testing this gear for Mark Kincart and Tucker Rocky – so though I’m not affiliated with them – I am an interested party.
Background:
TPG Gear has been developed by Tucker Rocky to be a all around riding “system”. It consists of under wear – pants and choice of jackets (Rainier (3/4 length) and Teton – ½ length jackets) – same pants for both. And Pant’s liner and a very cool jacket liner. They also have a women's jacket the Monarch. More about the individual parts below:
Underwear:
I don’t have this, yet – but it is similar to UnderArmor – the loose fitting kind. Key differences are that has SPF and Anti-Bacterial features imbedded (somehow – don’t ask me) into the fabric. Meaning that this stuff should offer a certain amount of UV protection should you be wearing it exposed to the sun and should smell better longer than your typical UnderArmor undies. I haven’t tried this yet – so this is just the features I’ve been told about.
Jacket:
Pros: The jacket consists of a zip in liner and a waterproof shell. The Rainier is ¾ length with a longer tail section so that it doesn’t expose your back when bent over riding. Compared to a Darien jacket it would be a little short in the front and a little longer in the rear – I’ll compare them this evening. Perhaps it is the same length in the rear and just feels longer because it is shorter in the front.
Lots of waterproof pockets – using the YKK waterproof zippers on all pockets but they still fold over (in case you don’t want to close the zipper – you can still fold over the pocket and remain pretty water proof). Not all pockets have the fold over… but most do. Nice left arm change/token pocket that is small and good for hiding a couple of bills, change or spare key. There is one of these on the right shoulder, too – not really sure what that is for. Very cool cell phone pocket with a little tab that when pulled – lifts the cell phone out of the pocket for easy access. Neat feature if you cell phone fits. Some larger phones like my Motorola Q doesn’t fit. D ring on right side breast pocket and a very handy Polaroid right side breast pocket. Lots of inside pockets – but one I really like is placed just inside the zipper, but between the shell zipper and the liner zipper (even if liner is zipped in) that allows you to get to something without unzipping the liner – but you don’t have to open the entire zipper to get to it.
Jacket is absolutely comfortable to wear out of the box. Requires no break in – washing – etc. Very comfortable fabric.
Inside the collar is a nice little feature – a hood folded into the collar. It is a rain hood that is thin enough to fit under a helmet and drain rainwater over the coat instead of down your neck. Hasn’t rained enough for me to check this out – but looks good.
Set and forget sleeves – allow you to set the tightness of the sleeves at the wrist and then use the zipper to open when putting on or off. Pretty long zippers on sleeves to accommodate gloves if you wear gloves on the inside.
Adjustable straps on the waist to tighten up – and zipped gussets on the lower sides if you have bigger hips than waist.
Very cool features are the arm vents. Most vents when zipped open – eventually close on their own. This jacket has two bungee cords that you can pull that force the vents open. This DOES work. Matching vents on the back sides of the shoulders.
Nice reflective qualities to the jacket – built in – and an active flasher light can be added to a loop in the back of the jacket to put a flashing bicycle type light for night time riding.
Another nice well thought out feature is a grommet in the left side of the jacket. You can run your electric gear through the left side pocket (which exits out the back to keep it weather resistant when opened) run the cord through the grommet and into your electric vest or coat. No running wires through the bottom of the jacket or through openings to the weather – Very cool and good thinking.
Good Knox CE armor – elbows and shoulders and back padding. Jacket is made out 600 Denier waterproof/breathable fabric and it is Kevlar reinforced Teramid in the shoulders and elbows. All zippers are YKK waterproof type. They are a little tight at first, but a quick shot of silicone grease and they loosed up nicely.
Jacket CONS:
Most of my nits are pretty small. Some would apply probably only to me.
Sizing. There seems to be a little bit of a gap in sizes. The XL was slightly tight on me with liner, etc. I probably should have gotten it – instead of the XXL as I’m losing weight again – but it was too snug to consider wearing much underneath it in real cold weather. However – the XXL even with adjustment straps tightened down – is a tad too big. Probably be ok with a vest and sweater or something under it. But it seems that that there is a little gap between where XL is too Small and XXL is too large. Not sure how this would apply to other sizes.
Straps – there are adjustment straps in the waist. If you pull them all the way tight, then there is little Velcro to attach them too. Same goes for wrists. The straps align perfectly if you don’t adjust them – but when you do they over hang. On the waist this is annoying as the strap will flap in the wind. It will be an easy fix to either cut the strap shorter or sew an overlap into the strap.
I wish the collar had more adjustment and a bigger piece of Velcro to facilitate closing with gloves on. There is a snap – but they also use Velcro (older jackets just used a snap which sucks).
Venting - the shoulder vents work pretty and with the "hold open" feature they work better than their size would suggest. However I've never really had a problem with overly hot shoulders. I would prefer some more venting under the armpits and perhaps another vent in the lower back to push or pull some air deeper into the jacket. Pits are where you get hot and venting here would be better. A side benefit to the hold open bungees - when riding with windshield down - they actually open enough that there is some drag on your upper body - lifting you slightly off the bars. Less so when the rear vents are open. A little bit like a drag chute.
Liner – I REALLY LIKE THIS THING.
It is not insulated but it is VERY warm. This is a water resistant – wind proof liner fashioned after a similar Mountain Hardwear climbers jacket. The same water proof zipper are in the liner and vents match up to vents in jacket. I would be waterproof except the seams are not sealed. Seal them and the jacket will be great in the rain. I’ve been wearing this liner out side the jacket and find it very comfortable. Has pockets (inside and out) that zip shut – has vents – is windproof and for not being insulated is very warm. I would buy this liner in a second – but it is only sold with the shell.
It is comfortable – goes on smoothly – doesn’t grab – doesn’t look like it would pill. It is damned near perfect. The shell has a draw string on the bottom to seal out cold wind – I wish it was on the shell as that would make it perfect. Nice smooth non-chaffing collar and zips all the way up. Also has zipper in back to all the shell to still zip to the pants.
Escape Pants:
Pro
They fit a bit large. You might get away with one size smaller than you usually use. They are sized to fit over pants. So order your waist size (or maybe one smaller). Pants of the same material and match colors. They will also zip together with jacket. Nice feature is 5 pockets – all waterproof. Two in the back and two jeans style but one on the right top of your leg. Nice spot to stick the wallet – so you know where it is – remains waterproof and you aren’t sitting on it. Very nice feature.
Pants have a liner which I have used only once. I can’t comment on the insulating qualities at this time. Liner does zip into pants and attaches at the bottom with typical snap down loops. Knee armor and hip pads – and zips to jacket. Pants have vents built into the upper leg. I always forget about this vent, so I haven’t used it – but it is well placed.
Identical reflective materials sewn into the pants – integrated into the design. I haven’t looked at this stuff at night, but lights up pretty well with my flash light in the garage.
Pant Cons – I think the knee armor should be a little higher. It fits perfectly when on the bike, but when walking seems more like a shin guard than knee armor. Just a little uncomfortable. Perhaps the armor could be taller – but also my pants are a little bit long for me so they might be just right for others. The pants only zip open on the legs up to the knee. You CAN put your pants over your boots, but it is a little bit of a dance. This will work better when the liner is in. I wear Aerostich Combat Tour lites – and they have a pretty sticky sole – which also aggravates the problem. I wish that the pants had a zipper at the top or access to your jeans. If you leave change or wallet or money or whatever in jeans pocket there is no access from the outside – so you will have to pull down your pants at the gas pump. Zipper at the top would allow you to unzip from there and reach in and get the wallet. Only a problem once on a trip as you can then remember to put the wallet in the very cool front leg pocket designed just for this.
Final comments
Prices on this stuff is pretty darned good. Retail is as follows:
Rainier - $399.99
Teton $369.99
Monarch (women’s) $369
Escape Pants $249 (men’s and women’s sizes) –
less than Aerostich and offers a lot of flexibility. I have always like the Darien more than the Roadcrafter and this suit fits that bill well. If you are more of a two piece Roadcrafter fan – then you will probably like the Teton version – and = THERE IS A LADIES VERSION OF THIS STUFF, TOO called the Monarch jacket and women specific sizes for the Pants, too.. I would say that overall I’m very impressed with this gear. For a first attempt at creating a whole new riding concept for them – it is a home run. I wouldn’t say it is a Grand Slam, but still a homer. A lot of thought and design went into this and I think it fits the long distance rider pretty darned well. I can’t comment on longevity of materials, but the build quality seems excellent. I have a zipper that need looking at – but overall the materials seem first rate and craftsmanship seems excellent.
Not sure where the stuff is made.
Finally have a few miles under my new First Gear Rainier Riding Gear and can post something a little more detailed than first impressions.
For the record – I am testing this gear for Mark Kincart and Tucker Rocky – so though I’m not affiliated with them – I am an interested party.
Background:
TPG Gear has been developed by Tucker Rocky to be a all around riding “system”. It consists of under wear – pants and choice of jackets (Rainier (3/4 length) and Teton – ½ length jackets) – same pants for both. And Pant’s liner and a very cool jacket liner. They also have a women's jacket the Monarch. More about the individual parts below:
Underwear:
I don’t have this, yet – but it is similar to UnderArmor – the loose fitting kind. Key differences are that has SPF and Anti-Bacterial features imbedded (somehow – don’t ask me) into the fabric. Meaning that this stuff should offer a certain amount of UV protection should you be wearing it exposed to the sun and should smell better longer than your typical UnderArmor undies. I haven’t tried this yet – so this is just the features I’ve been told about.
Jacket:
Pros: The jacket consists of a zip in liner and a waterproof shell. The Rainier is ¾ length with a longer tail section so that it doesn’t expose your back when bent over riding. Compared to a Darien jacket it would be a little short in the front and a little longer in the rear – I’ll compare them this evening. Perhaps it is the same length in the rear and just feels longer because it is shorter in the front.
Lots of waterproof pockets – using the YKK waterproof zippers on all pockets but they still fold over (in case you don’t want to close the zipper – you can still fold over the pocket and remain pretty water proof). Not all pockets have the fold over… but most do. Nice left arm change/token pocket that is small and good for hiding a couple of bills, change or spare key. There is one of these on the right shoulder, too – not really sure what that is for. Very cool cell phone pocket with a little tab that when pulled – lifts the cell phone out of the pocket for easy access. Neat feature if you cell phone fits. Some larger phones like my Motorola Q doesn’t fit. D ring on right side breast pocket and a very handy Polaroid right side breast pocket. Lots of inside pockets – but one I really like is placed just inside the zipper, but between the shell zipper and the liner zipper (even if liner is zipped in) that allows you to get to something without unzipping the liner – but you don’t have to open the entire zipper to get to it.
Jacket is absolutely comfortable to wear out of the box. Requires no break in – washing – etc. Very comfortable fabric.
Inside the collar is a nice little feature – a hood folded into the collar. It is a rain hood that is thin enough to fit under a helmet and drain rainwater over the coat instead of down your neck. Hasn’t rained enough for me to check this out – but looks good.
Set and forget sleeves – allow you to set the tightness of the sleeves at the wrist and then use the zipper to open when putting on or off. Pretty long zippers on sleeves to accommodate gloves if you wear gloves on the inside.
Adjustable straps on the waist to tighten up – and zipped gussets on the lower sides if you have bigger hips than waist.
Very cool features are the arm vents. Most vents when zipped open – eventually close on their own. This jacket has two bungee cords that you can pull that force the vents open. This DOES work. Matching vents on the back sides of the shoulders.
Nice reflective qualities to the jacket – built in – and an active flasher light can be added to a loop in the back of the jacket to put a flashing bicycle type light for night time riding.
Another nice well thought out feature is a grommet in the left side of the jacket. You can run your electric gear through the left side pocket (which exits out the back to keep it weather resistant when opened) run the cord through the grommet and into your electric vest or coat. No running wires through the bottom of the jacket or through openings to the weather – Very cool and good thinking.
Good Knox CE armor – elbows and shoulders and back padding. Jacket is made out 600 Denier waterproof/breathable fabric and it is Kevlar reinforced Teramid in the shoulders and elbows. All zippers are YKK waterproof type. They are a little tight at first, but a quick shot of silicone grease and they loosed up nicely.
Jacket CONS:
Most of my nits are pretty small. Some would apply probably only to me.
Sizing. There seems to be a little bit of a gap in sizes. The XL was slightly tight on me with liner, etc. I probably should have gotten it – instead of the XXL as I’m losing weight again – but it was too snug to consider wearing much underneath it in real cold weather. However – the XXL even with adjustment straps tightened down – is a tad too big. Probably be ok with a vest and sweater or something under it. But it seems that that there is a little gap between where XL is too Small and XXL is too large. Not sure how this would apply to other sizes.
Straps – there are adjustment straps in the waist. If you pull them all the way tight, then there is little Velcro to attach them too. Same goes for wrists. The straps align perfectly if you don’t adjust them – but when you do they over hang. On the waist this is annoying as the strap will flap in the wind. It will be an easy fix to either cut the strap shorter or sew an overlap into the strap.
I wish the collar had more adjustment and a bigger piece of Velcro to facilitate closing with gloves on. There is a snap – but they also use Velcro (older jackets just used a snap which sucks).
Venting - the shoulder vents work pretty and with the "hold open" feature they work better than their size would suggest. However I've never really had a problem with overly hot shoulders. I would prefer some more venting under the armpits and perhaps another vent in the lower back to push or pull some air deeper into the jacket. Pits are where you get hot and venting here would be better. A side benefit to the hold open bungees - when riding with windshield down - they actually open enough that there is some drag on your upper body - lifting you slightly off the bars. Less so when the rear vents are open. A little bit like a drag chute.
Liner – I REALLY LIKE THIS THING.
It is not insulated but it is VERY warm. This is a water resistant – wind proof liner fashioned after a similar Mountain Hardwear climbers jacket. The same water proof zipper are in the liner and vents match up to vents in jacket. I would be waterproof except the seams are not sealed. Seal them and the jacket will be great in the rain. I’ve been wearing this liner out side the jacket and find it very comfortable. Has pockets (inside and out) that zip shut – has vents – is windproof and for not being insulated is very warm. I would buy this liner in a second – but it is only sold with the shell.
It is comfortable – goes on smoothly – doesn’t grab – doesn’t look like it would pill. It is damned near perfect. The shell has a draw string on the bottom to seal out cold wind – I wish it was on the shell as that would make it perfect. Nice smooth non-chaffing collar and zips all the way up. Also has zipper in back to all the shell to still zip to the pants.
Escape Pants:
Pro
They fit a bit large. You might get away with one size smaller than you usually use. They are sized to fit over pants. So order your waist size (or maybe one smaller). Pants of the same material and match colors. They will also zip together with jacket. Nice feature is 5 pockets – all waterproof. Two in the back and two jeans style but one on the right top of your leg. Nice spot to stick the wallet – so you know where it is – remains waterproof and you aren’t sitting on it. Very nice feature.
Pants have a liner which I have used only once. I can’t comment on the insulating qualities at this time. Liner does zip into pants and attaches at the bottom with typical snap down loops. Knee armor and hip pads – and zips to jacket. Pants have vents built into the upper leg. I always forget about this vent, so I haven’t used it – but it is well placed.
Identical reflective materials sewn into the pants – integrated into the design. I haven’t looked at this stuff at night, but lights up pretty well with my flash light in the garage.
Pant Cons – I think the knee armor should be a little higher. It fits perfectly when on the bike, but when walking seems more like a shin guard than knee armor. Just a little uncomfortable. Perhaps the armor could be taller – but also my pants are a little bit long for me so they might be just right for others. The pants only zip open on the legs up to the knee. You CAN put your pants over your boots, but it is a little bit of a dance. This will work better when the liner is in. I wear Aerostich Combat Tour lites – and they have a pretty sticky sole – which also aggravates the problem. I wish that the pants had a zipper at the top or access to your jeans. If you leave change or wallet or money or whatever in jeans pocket there is no access from the outside – so you will have to pull down your pants at the gas pump. Zipper at the top would allow you to unzip from there and reach in and get the wallet. Only a problem once on a trip as you can then remember to put the wallet in the very cool front leg pocket designed just for this.
Final comments
Prices on this stuff is pretty darned good. Retail is as follows:
Rainier - $399.99
Teton $369.99
Monarch (women’s) $369
Escape Pants $249 (men’s and women’s sizes) –
less than Aerostich and offers a lot of flexibility. I have always like the Darien more than the Roadcrafter and this suit fits that bill well. If you are more of a two piece Roadcrafter fan – then you will probably like the Teton version – and = THERE IS A LADIES VERSION OF THIS STUFF, TOO called the Monarch jacket and women specific sizes for the Pants, too.. I would say that overall I’m very impressed with this gear. For a first attempt at creating a whole new riding concept for them – it is a home run. I wouldn’t say it is a Grand Slam, but still a homer. A lot of thought and design went into this and I think it fits the long distance rider pretty darned well. I can’t comment on longevity of materials, but the build quality seems excellent. I have a zipper that need looking at – but overall the materials seem first rate and craftsmanship seems excellent.
Not sure where the stuff is made.
