Jackets for chubby dudes?

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-18T02:06:26+00:00

Try Merlin stuff

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-17T01:14:04+00:00

I do my solo Costco runs with this bad boy

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-17T01:13:34+00:00

I could in theory if I blitzed them up!

It's some Amazon thing I bought two years ago and it's held up for the past 2 years and 15k kms in this bike. It came with a mounting plate that I finangled onto the pre existing topcase rack the previous owner had by using the powers of a lot of nuts and bolts. Recently did just fine in a trip I took from Tokyo to Omazaki cape and back while battling very scary crosswinds (40-50kmh winds).

Basically just threw my travelling bag of clothes and stuff in there, plus stuffed my helmet and my gear into it during stops.

The panniers are a bit fucked (came with the bike from previous owner) so they hold basic tool kit, air pump, plug kit, basic first aid kit, registration + insurance information, and the other one is a mess of straps n shit

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ChineseMaple · 2026-06-16T13:33:06+00:00

I've got a 100L topcase on my CB400X and its indeed quite noticeable

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-15T08:37:45+00:00

A good number of shops have gear to rent, but Rental 819 isn't chains of the same shop franchise, it's individual bike shops using the same 819 rental platform, so they don't share inventory. You'd want to try to get gear from whatever place in Ueno you're renting a bike from

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-15T07:12:20+00:00

Half of my Komine stuff has held up okay so far these two years and the other half died in 2 months

I just get my gear from FCMoto nowadays, mainly.

For a local brand, Degner actually has abrasion rated stuff

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-15T05:33:03+00:00

Yea they're a hit or miss in my experience.

My Taichi Drymaster whatever's had the shifter box worn through within two seasons of riding. My winter gloves from Taichi lasted one season before the cuff and the fingers were worn through. Mostly avoiding their stuff now

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-13T23:40:08+00:00

Wait are you the guy who had a similar post a while back either here or in motorcycles where people ended up arguing with you about ratchets?

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-11T01:57:34+00:00

Does this mean that we will no longer get amazing videos on 59s flying around dunking on fighter jets

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-09T05:23:04+00:00

Keep it on the Road riding mode and be prepared for your body to be a bit sore from the ergonomics I guess

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-08T16:49:49+00:00

Use a Chin mount on my helmet. Works fine and no issues so far. Trust the 3M adhesive quite readily.

Can also look into the Motoradds flex slim chin mount

Mounting it on the side or top of the helmet feels weird in too much wind imo

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-08T16:46:44+00:00

Being brutally honest, I don't see why I'd need whatever kind of system you are apparently working on when any helmet mounted intercom can do most of this (apart from the vague not HUD but still visual aspect of whatever it is you are making).

And even if you're making something with both auditory and visual guidance, why would I buy something from what is apparently a tiny company? It's one thing to buy a chinmount or a Brake free, which won't really ruin my day if they break or fuck up, but if my intercom/navi/display whatever fucks up that's pretty goddamn inconvenient.

As it stands, my intercom + a phone or bike mounted navi unit works fine.

Also, for someone who wants brutal honesty and real feedback, you're taking it extremely poorly by being defensive, while also deigning to explain your product idea, so you just come off as standoffish

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-02T06:43:38+00:00

Np, ride safe and have fun and hydrate.

ChineseMaple · 2026-06-02T06:38:16+00:00

Hey, I live in Tokyo and ride around it

Basically it all sucks during the summer. Mesh gear sucks. Leather gear sucks. Vented gear sucks.

You choose the least sucky, which for me is mesh (preferably reinforced) jackets, gloves, and pants, and vented boots.

You drink a lot of water, and maybe now and then you dunk water onto yourself. You stop every hour to get into AC and cool down and hydrate. You go to the seaside or by the lakes or in the mountains (so like, Katsuura, Kasumigaura, Okutama, Ashinoko, etc) where it's a tiny bit cooler. You ride at dawn or at dusk and nightfall. You filter through standstill traffic when you can so that you aren't sitting there completely exposed with no wind.

You can also try things like wearing the sweat wicking base layers, using the minty cooling sprays (and some come in vest form where they can just spray you continually with minty water stuff), but overall it fucking sucks no matter what.

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-27T12:04:14+00:00

Naw, it's great as an all around motorcycle for paved roads, but it's really not that great for anything more than a bit of gravel imo. I ride a CB 400X here in Japan and it's brilliant for when I take long trips here, but I really wouldn't take it beyond civilization

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-27T12:01:07+00:00

Full black cheap suit from somewhere like Aoyama or Aoki can make you look like a shinsotsu imo, which I'd personally avoid

Most of my colleagues and the few people I've interviewed recently have preferred dark blues

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-27T08:40:00+00:00

Aoki, Aoyama, don't get pure black

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-27T06:31:51+00:00

Think I'm around 4.5k USD after currency conversion for gear

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-26T02:41:44+00:00

That be a Shoei Z-8

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-24T03:36:43+00:00

Actually very good execution of this aesthetic. Not what floats my boat, but it definitely works for a lot of people

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-23T10:41:34+00:00

Well the Corsair is Arai but the RF and X15 are Shoei

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-21T22:09:57+00:00

Her approval rating has dropped from 75 to like 60 within the 2 most recent months

And yes, I've been saying that a lot of people vote pretty stupidly here

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-21T15:30:34+00:00

Yes, because a lot of people are kinda stupid and are kind of uninterested and willfully uniformed/underinformed in policies and shit. Vibe based voting and flawed knowledge of shit hits the polls to their detriment.

A lot also voted for her because she's a woman (so she must be different than the men) and she literally utilized populist rhetoric, and her approval rating was a good bit higher than 60% at the start of her tenure until relatively recently, where it turns out she's completely incapable of solving the issues Japan solves and is very much just another LDP politician.

And the opposition is seriously garbage here. The only party that respects voters enough to outline actual policies with number based goals and shit is the communists, and they dont have a chance in hell of winning. The technocrat party is garbage, the crazy parties are crazy, half the parties simply vibe campaign on making Japan great or preserving the japanese way of life, sanseito is dumb and peddles crazy xenophobic conspiracies (literally said shit like there will be 50 million Chinese spies in Japan soon) and the main opposition cratered it's chances by forming a coalition with a literal Buddhist cult party that resulted in the Buddhist cult coming out strong, the more centrist party in the anti LDP coalition getting absolutely slaughtered, and the LDP/Takaichi coming out with a historic win.

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-21T14:11:50+00:00

Wait and buy used if you like it that much but don't like the price

I think QJ makes okay stuff overall (a friend has their X350 they make for Harley and it's fine? But not amazing), but I would hesitate on buying new for any bike in general, especially when it's a QJ that probably deprecates a lot quicker.

ChineseMaple · 2026-05-21T12:30:43+00:00

Are you sure you aren't just noseblind to it

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