Can't find anything to fit you, come to Hideout Leather for a personal service

I just wanted to comment on the excellent service you gave on my leathers alterations.  They feel so much better off the bike I can only imagine that they are going to feel just as good on the bike - call me a wimp but I'm going to let the weather warm up first before I do that.

Secondly, a comment on the workmanship.  Once I got home I tried to spot the alteration - I've spent a good 10mins staring at the front of the knee and can't find any obvious signs of 'new vs. old' only a small bit on the back of the knee - outstanding.

I'd just also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Xmas and a fab New Year for 2012.  No doubt I'll find an excuse to visit the shop in the spring.

Pascal

 We are back from an exciting yet gruelling ten day stint at the Motorcycle Live show in Birmingham. It was great to see many of you there. We caught up with John and Andy and joined in their TT success for the season. We had a lot of positive response to our new Hi-pro textile suit and took pre-orders for delivery in the New Year. With over 100 000 people through the door the show was an outstanding success and a vast improvement than in previous years

It was great to catch up with John Holden and Andy Winkle the F1 Side Car TT Winners, They've secured a deal with Kowasaki so we'll be hard at work over the winter making some green leathers for them.

Cleaning your Textile motorcycle kit

It is inevitable that your textile clothing will get dirty, even if you are just motorway crunching the dirt and grime from the road will block the pores of your kit destroying the breathability of the fabrics. All waterproof liners need to breathe to stop you overheating and feeling damp on the inside. The Cordura outer fabric which is used in most jackets loses its waterproof coating or DWR just through wear and tear. This needs to be restored to help the water bead off and not get absorbed into the outer making you feel cold and damp.

I would recommend washing your kit at least once a year for occasional users to twice or three times for regular users.

What should I do?

There are a few products on the market which you can use in a normal washing machine. Remember to remove all the armour in the suit before washing. We use Storm products which come as a pack, you firstly wash the garments in the Tech wash with no other detergent or softener, and then you run the garments through the wash again with the re-water proofer. The cycle should be no more than 40degrees. You can either hang them out to dry or put them on a cool setting in the tumble dryer.

Where shall I do it?

It is of course not the job of your wife so due to popular demand we can wash your garments for you. This service costs £40 per garment and the turnaround is about two weeks.

Call the girls at Hideout Leather for further information 01799 584828

FireBike is a Road Traffic Collision (RTC) education and publicity initiative through which we engage positively with Essex’s motorcyclists on a range of safety and related issues. This helps us to promote safer riding and reduce the number of motorcycling casualties in Essex.

Last year according to Essex Police, there were 204 motorcyclists killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the roads of Essex. Although motorbikes account for less than 1% of all traffic, they make up nearly 25% of overall KSI figures.

The FireBike product seeks to reduce the number of motorcyclists and their pillions becoming KSI casualties on the roads of Essex.

FireBike is run by Essex County Fire and Rescue Service with support from the Essex Casualty Reduction Board and in partnership with Cannon BMW Motorcycles, based in Braintree. Husband and wife team Bill and Sue Cannon, have loaned a top of the range BMW S1000RR to the Service (to join its BMW K1300s) as a way of attracting the attention of motorbike enthusiasts to the scheme.

Our FireBike riders are both operational firefighters and highly qualified motorcyclists. They use their experiences as both firefighters attending RTC’s and as motorcycle enthusiasts themselves to engage with riders and their pillion passengers at motorcycle events and venues throughout Essex.

Our key FireBike messages are:

• Train as if your life depends on it
• Protect yourself and your pillion
• Learn to share the road

We want this website to be an information portal of choice for motorcyclists in Essex, providing a wide range of information, advice and guidance on safety and related issues.

Please check our other pages and be sure to visit the site regularly for updates and information.

For web links to other useful motorcycling related organisations, please click here

We would welcome your feedback on the content of our FireBike pages and any suggestions you may have for improvements or additional features you would like to see. Please use this link for this, or to contact us generally.

‘Become a Better Rider’

Hideout Breakfast Club - Starting in May the first Saturday of every month Hideout Will be hosting a breakfast club between 9 and 10am free tees, coffees and a bacon butty. With all contributions going the Essex Air Ambulance.

Police Motorcycle leathers - manufacturered to EN 1621-1. Cambridgeshire police force use Hideout Leather to manufacture their bispoke leather suits.

Natural or synthetic?
The first choice is whether you want a natural or synthetic fabric. Never use cotton as a base layer you'll just end up damp uncomfortable and smelly.

Merino Wool is favored by many as a natural base layer that remains odour free even after days of wear. The wool is from the Merino sheep so is a natural and renewable source of fabric. Merino fiber are particularly fine and woven in such a way as to eliminate the itchy feeling usually associated with wool.

Unlike Synthetics which wick moisture away from the skin, Merino actually has the capacity to absorb up to 3 times its own weight in liquid, locking it away from the skin. For the cold weather there is nothing like wool to keep you warm and dry.

EDZ Merino Wool
Polyester is highly absorbent and is incredibly efficient at wicking moisture away from the skin and allowing it to evaporate quickly. Most do not have a natural anti-odour properties so the majority of manufactures treat their fabric with an antimicrobial chemical treatment.

EDZ Base Layers
Polypropylene repels water and creates a non-porous surface that lets the water sit on it to evaporate.

Knox Dry Inside
Fit
A quality Base Layer is designed to ensure you have complete freedom of movement. You will certainly be wearing your base layers for long periods of time so it is essential that they fit close to the body to be comfortable.

For racing and under one-piece suits a one-piece base suit is ideal.

EDZ one-piece suit
For touring a separate top and bottom is a better combination, with a choice of a long zip necked top (such as the EDZ zip neck shirt), crew neck (such as the EDZ crew neck base layer), or a short T-shirt (such as the EDZ short sleeved t-shirt) with long trousers (such as the EDZ leggings).

This is a step by step video showing how we carry out an alteration of a 2 piece leather suit and add some artwork and lettering to the back of the jacket.

We thought we'd share these great photos of local rider Luke Mossey sporting Hideout Leathers when he fought his way to victory for the Sondelsport Yamaha team at Silverstone last month. It was a tight race, Mossey beating Florian Marino (Ten Kate Race Junior) by only 0.036 seconds.

Pete Eliot earned his first IGSA World Cup victory of the year yesterday in a hotly contested final at the Padova Grand Prix.  There was a a controversial crash at the start that took both number one qualifier Labarthe and Santolamazza out of contention right off the line.

Eliot lined up against number one qualifier Yvon Labarthe, newly crowned World Champion Luca Santolamazza and Swiss ace Cedric Robert in the Final.  Labarthe was on the left side of the track, Eliot next to him on the right, Santolamazza on Eliot's right and Robert on the outside right.  As they left the line Labarthe pulled away from the line first and started veering slightly to his right in front of Eliot.  Santolamazza also pushed away hard and was veering hard to his left, also in front of Eliot.  Eliot had nowhere to go and was essentially sandwiched between the two riders.  Eliot's feet made contact with Labarthe's tail and sent him spinning out of control and collecting Santolamazza in the process.

Miraculously Eliot came out of the incident unscathed with Robert hot on his tail.  The two riders went down the entire course nose to tail with Eliot coming out on top.  Labarthe restarted and finished third.  He filed a protest at the finish not knowing fully what had happened at the start.  The IGSA official at the start used both eyewitness accounts and video to review the incident and determine that Santolamazza was responsible for the incident.  Since Labarthe had finished third and Santolamazza fourth, there was no penalty that could be applied that would move Labarthe's final placement up.  The results stood and Eliot celebrated his first World Cup victory of the year.

"Eliot came in for a made to measure fitting, the Luge suits need to be tight fitting for optimal aero dynamics, therefore Eliot needed a few fittings to get things perfect. The custom Union Jack finish was created with overlay pieces of leather, he was keen to be patriotic in this world event and the end results look fantastic!"

Kate Jennings - Hideout