Holiday Gift Guide for ADV and Dual-Sport Motorcycles
- Oakley L-Frame MX Goggles
- Stop and Go Portable Mini Air Compressor
- Long Way Round Dvd Set
- Scott Dual Raid Gloves
- SPOT Gen3
- Klim Krios Helmet
So first off, how do you know that the person you’re buying a gift for is an ADV or DSer?
Well their bike probably looks something like this.
Check for spoked wheels, long suspension, knobby tires … but also a license plate, otherwise we’re just talking about a dirt bike.
Anyway, a great gift idea is goggles. Every dual-sport rider should be using a pair, but you’d be surprised how many of them don’t.
Oakley L-Frame MX Goggles
These are the Oakley L-Frame MX Goggles and I chose them for three reasons.
One – they’re affordable. Friends are worth about 50 bucks to most people and goodie goodie, that’s exactly what these goggles cost.
Two – the face foam is closed-cell .
That means dust particles can’t work their way through here and into your eye… which is important because big ADV bikes kick up a lot of dust.
And three – they’ll work for pretty much anyone, which is good because there’s always some uncertainty when buying a gift.
For example, the L-Frame was designed to fit over top of glasses, if need be, but it’s not overly tall for contact users, either.
And if we’re dealing with an ADV helmet with a small eye port, that’s no problem. The L-Frame is a petite goggle and its made from O-Matter, which is just Oakley’s fancy name for flexible plastic. So this goggle can fit, or be made to fit, almost any helmet.
But what if the person I’m buying for already has goggles?
Well that’s okay, because the L-Frame comes with a clear and tinted lens… so it can be a great secondary pair with whatever lens configuration your secret santa isn’t using. For what it’s worth, I prefer the grey option. Makes it a lot easier to pick out colours… like the slightly darker dirt that can wash out a tire, or the slightly lighter trail edge that can give way.
After that it’s just basic kit. The Lexan lens is anti-fog and anti-scratch, which of course means it will fog and scratch once the protective layers wear off… but at least you’ll delay the inevitable. And the strap has silicone printing for grip, as it should.
Stop and Go Portable Mini Air Compressor
Next up – the Stop and Go Portable Mini Air Compressor.
If you follow our channel, you’ve probably seen me natter on about this thing before. The premise is simple. ADV and Dual-Sport riders like to take air out of their tires when they go off-road. And with this little guy tucked under your seat, you can air up at the end of the day without wasting a dollar at the gas station.
Long story short, I’ve had a generally positive experience with the Stop & Go. Used it for two riding seasons, it’s probably filled 100 tires at this point, and still going strong.
You’ll notice that the fabric sleeve for the hose is fraying. That’s a design flaw, because it’s the plastic case that cuts into the fabric when you tuck the hose away.
My other complaint is the pressure gauge. I’ve checked mine against better tools and yep, this one reads about 4psi too high.
But hey, it’s a 50-dollar air compressor and it blows. What more do you want?
By Bike - Well, maybe multiple filling needles and two difference hookup options. Or a flashlight to help you use it at night.
Stop and Go – you’ve done pretty well.
Now, what if you have less than 50 bucks to spend. Like… closer to 20 bucks.
Long Way Round DVD set
Well we’ve all got enough pen gauges, keychains and tire irons at this point. So, check out Long Way Round instead.
Sometime before ADV riding became trendy, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Charley Boorman rode from London to New York.
Only they went the long way, through Russia, Mongolia, Alaska… it’s a brilliant adventure riding series.
I found digital versions for 15 bucks, and used DVDs for even less. Makes a cool cheap gift and you can actually use it during the winter.
Scott Dual Raid Gloves
Next idea- the Scott Dual Raid . We got these into FortNine recently, and they pretty much ruined me for other ADV gloves.
The chassis is something called Schoeller Dynatec, which is a hard-wearing, abrasion resistant material that feels amazing . Really soft, really breathable.
The armour setup would make Sir Lancelot proud – hard sliding panels on the knuckle and outer hand, and they’re backed up with memory foam so they don’t rub and pinch all annoyingly. Then on the palm it’s classic leather, doubled-up in the high stress zones with silicone grip on the lever fingers.
One thing I don’t like – Scotty – is that you said this glove has “reflective elements.” Well it took me a full minute to find this tiny sliver of shiny material and that’s not good enough.
Fitment-wise, my palms are 9-inches in circumference, which puts me in this size large. It fits well, but with all the memory foam padding on top of the fingers, beware that they will feel a bit tight at first. All around, I think this is the best ADV glove under 100 bucks. And it only costs 80, by the way.
Now, what if you really like the person you’re buying a gift for?
SPOT Gen3
Well if you want to keep them around, there’s the SPOT Gen3 . You’ll normally see one of these on my shoulder in motovlogs, especially when I’m off-roading alone. It’s 170 bucks for the device, plus another 150-or-so for a service plan.
If I press this button, it sends a text to my wife saying where I am, and that I’m okay. If I press this button, it tracks my location so I can go online and download a map of my adventure. And if I press this button, it sends a prearranged text or email to up to 10 different people .
Mine is set to email my boss, saying I’ve gone beyond cell range and couldn’t possibly do any work.
Then there’s the two big buttons. This one tells my personal contacts that I’m stuck somewhere in need of assistance, but won’t be dying anytime soon. And this one brings the full monty, flashing lights and helicopters.
Everything else is what you’d expect. Waterproof, dustproof, drop-proof. It runs on four AAAs and that normally lasts me a month or two. Obviously it depends how often you have it communicating with a satellite.
On that note, you’ve got to mount it face-up with a view of the sky, using this Velcro strap and the carabiner. And please tell your loved one to put it on their person, *not* on their motorcycle. People make that mistake all the time.
Klim Krios Helmet
Finally, if you want to go all-out on an adventure gift – it’s the Klim Krios .
This is probably the biggest thing to enter the ADV market in 2016. Klim rules when it comes to off-road apparel but they haven’t offered a proper dual-purpose helmet… until now.
A few things you’ll notice right away. It’s crazy light. Lighter than pretty much everything in its class. Thanks to the Carbon fibre shell, my medium is only 1340g.
It’s also functional – the visor comes off with these thumb tabs and a few spare seconds, and the sun peak goes up, down or off with this thumb screw. Very easy to swap configurations for different riding scenarios.
And lastly, it’s loud as shit. Klim calls the helmet “acoustically peaceful” but that’s bull, because these chin bar vents whistle above 80km/h. I actually contemplated taping them shut for our last group ride.
But noise aside, this is still a highly-desirable, off-road oriented ADV helmet. Nobody has ‘em yet, everybody wants one… if you’ve got 750 dollars to spend it makes a stellar present.
And that’s it for our ADV and Dual-Sport gift guide. Ho-ho-hold on because we’ve got more comin’ up.