[REpozer]

Ken,
 I found something on eBay.Is this the flight suit you are referring to?


http://cgi.ebay.com/MINT-WINTER-FLIGHT-SUIT-COVERALLS-CWU-1-P-BLACK-LABEL-M_W0QQitemZ220296400905QQihZ012QQcategoryZ4729QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

[DVDitman]

A full face helmet, leather over-pants (NOT chaps), Under Armour tights, leather neck protector (very nice one available from our host), winter-grade riding gloves with long gauntlets, double-lined riding jacket (it's actually my summer mesh jacket - the liners really do work!), heavy socks inside of high-top riding boots. Dressed this way I can ride about 50 miles at a pop and not feel like the Stay-Puft man, and still be warm.

[The Garbone]

I know it is out of style but I like to put on my winter furs,  keeps me warm.

Fur linky<------

[dewjantim]

Full leathers with wool socks and motorcycle boots, gauntlet gloves, respo mask (aerostitch), full coverage helmet, wool military sweater, and regular underwear. If its still to cold, I go home and watch old 1960s' biker movies on the TV......Dewey.

[kensar]

Thanks REpozer. That suit does look similar but much more technical than mine. Mine had no pockets anywhere. One big zipper down front and a shorter zipper on each leg. When I bought mine the bottom half of the left leg was ripped off! My wife sewed a new bit off an old pair of trousers onto the existing material. I let the suit go when I sold my last bike (A BSA M21) A Belstaff Trialsmaster suit too. That guy got one hell of a bargain. That was in 1970. The suit was from a ex WD store in Kettering Northamptonshire. I bought loads of great equipment very cheaply during the 60s. Still have a canvas bucket and an Army sewing kit. Thanks for reply, Ken

[REpozer]

I know it is out of style but I like to put on my winter furs,  keeps me warm.

Fur linky<------

I just could not stop laughing,....... 1/2 the price of a winter flight suit . I wounder if someone could shift gears with those feet?

[cowboysculptor]

I got myself a big pair of Darth Vader style winter gauntlets last year, and I love them!  They're the Fieldsheer ones, extremely warm, and they have built-in rain covers if I need them.  My girlfriend loves it when I make a fist in them and tell her she's my son . . .

I also plan to build a pair of wind deflectors for my hands, something like these:

http://www.motorcycle-journal.com/forum/attachments/cruisers/2689d1134422711-hand-deflectors-handshields.jpg

I'll post an image after I make them.

By the way, I rode my bike most of last winter.  Some of you may know what winter in Chicago was like last year.  It can be done!

Peter

[mtrude]

Hello, I believe the key is to be windproof, I like the plastic type rainsuits with layers of breathable clothing underneath. Winter boots, and gauntlet type gloves. Windshields work well, I hate the looks but they are good for the purpose. Its  pretty brutal conditions if you think about it, 20 degrees with a 40+ windchill factor. Oh yeah, we have a winter storm warning tonite, 6 to 12 inches of wet snow, 45 mph gusts and  temps in the high 20s.  I can usually handle the temperature, its the conditions of the roads and concern about other vehicles thats stops me. Have fun, mtrude

[jest2dogs]

Someone asked about goggles over prescription glasses...

Our host sells a nice pair which I use regularly with my HCI retro helmet (expensive but they are the real deal!). For cold I wear a lycra balaclava with a brushed lining (Schampa). Scrumptious even with the retro helmet, at least down to mid 40's as it's been here at night. Fits better than the fiberpile-lined nylon bandanna I bought last year.

Shiny black snowmobile bibs with full leg zips over jeans (with wool or polypro tights for the really cold). I haven't been able to fit into them for 18 years but now they fit just fine. (The absolutely fantastic no draft riding jacket that I bought with them was stolen from my garage the very next spring. :O( Hmm, that was the last garage I had, too :O(

My 28 year old Belstaff Trialmaster is &^!*%$ in winter. I road from Elizabeth City, NC to Boston, MA in late Sept 1978 and when I took my Belstaff off I stood it in the corner like a mannequin. Unless you buy one size larger than than your normal you can't fit much of anything into the tight fitting arms. And in the summer you swelter in it. I love tradition, but that jacket is a spring and early fall jacket only. The pants work well on long road trips in mild weather but are not slippery lined nor full zipped and are a bear to don at roadside (tuck your pants into your socks and get good at balancing on one foot).

My Pakistani made ($149) black leather jacket by River Road has a zip-out liner and is draft free and all around great. Loads of room for merino wool shirts and great miracle fabric zip turtle necks. Multiple thin layers works for me.

Red Wing engineer boots (very tight at first but they will break in believe me!) over Smartwool socks.

Gloves are the bummer. I have a pair of mittens but they feel clumsy and without using the "hot pocket" chemical packs they are no warmer than my gloves. Might try an Aerostich overmitt or the Fieldsheer mitts someone mentioned here.

I used to ride the round trip from Boston to Youngstown, NY on frequent weekends, three seasons of the year. An old hand-me-down red quilted nylon snowmobile suit was my favorite then, complete with man-made fur collar. But then I was younger and had more mo-jo to burn.

In winter the windshield goes on the Enfield, f'sure.

-Jesse, always stop for pie and coffee, it's part of the trip, man.

[dogbone]

I winterize myself with Basil Heydon, Jonny black, and sometimes a nip or two of Crown

[yogi bear]

Dear Suitor_Stu
Hear a few tips for you on winter riding.1 wear a vest.2wear a pair of longjons
3wear a pair of thick wollensocks {if you are wearing a pair boots that are furlined
then wear a thiner pair of socks}4 wear a good pair of trousers don't wear leather
I find leather a cold garment. 5 wear a thck woolen jumper that goes right up to your neck.6 wear a good motorcycle suit I see you mention belstaff, belstaff are a very
good make I can thourghly recommend them.I wore them for years and to me they are
a very good suit.7wear a ballaclava to keep your face and neck warm.
8 weara pair of overgloves that you can put a pairof gloves in we in England call them
overmitts,and bellstaff used to make them they will keep your hands nice and warm.
Yours in Enfield
Yogi Bear

[rumple4skin]

Well in the U.K we smear ourselves in goose fat,proper biker protection..lol!

[AJY]

Layers, Leathers, good gloves, chaps or ski pants over jeans, turtle necks and the ski mask with gogels over glases, I use the old style britsh red baron type, and I have a pair of very thin flexable glasses that I use just for riding, that fit under the gogels prety good.  The best thing is the fleece neck ring > I do not know the name< just a large cylinder of fleece that you pull over your hlemet and cover  your neck and anything else that might be exsposed.  You get them at the ski shop

[Slider]

You can make a neck warmer by cutting the neck off an old turtleneck sweater.

[Emmet]

As it gets colder I go from jeans to leather chaps, then snowmobile bibs with heavy MoD kilt hose up to my knees. Gauntlet-style gloves keep the wind out of my sleeves, then on to thick poofy smowmobile-style gloves. I've a balaclava made of some space-age material that really cuts the wind and keeps my ears warm, yet is thin enough to go under my helmet comfortably and doesn't get wet from my breath. It has a long bib fore and aft which I tuck under my wool jumper. Around my neck and down in front is a Donegal tweed woolen scarf, right under the zipper of a leather flight jacket with a quilted liner. I wear Emgo over-the-bifocals goggles.

Once she's safely tucked back in the garage, it's into the hot tub with a nice glass of Islay whisky to defrost.