LAND OF KLIM AND HONEY
FEBRUARY 2022
47
By Duncan Bennett, Member #4171
Y
es that’s right. I actually thought that Klim was started by ex-dairy farmers who wanted to keep their past in the brand name; just spell Milk backwards in memory of Buttercup. Genius!
We are often asked about our Klim riding suits by members, and I am also asked by random people who care little for fashion, so I thought it time to do a review. The history through riding suits was Dririder (still have my original one from 1995), more Dririder, Dririder Adventure and BMW GS Dry. Of course I wanted Klim because I was way past enjoying making guesses whether to stop and put linings in, but that meant $$. Very big $$. The top suit is the Badlands Pro, and you won’t be getting much change out of $4,000. Minimum for something decent is in the $2,000 range, which causes some hesitation - surely it can’t be that good. The turning point came in New Zealand in 2018. Last day of our trip, riding from Kaikoura south to Christchurch, around 180km. It was raining when we started, and rained the whole way, with a temperature that peaked around 7°C. The GS Dry suit had been quite good until that day, but when you want waterproof you want all of it waterproof - you don’t buy a boat with only half the hull watertight. Still to this day the most miserable ride of our many, and only the kinder climes of SE QLD saved the GS Dry. What finally killed it was that the pants pockets weren’t waterproof, it was always great fun sitting a bloated saturated leather wallet on the heater in the room. Lots of googling started - the European brands, American brands, and anything with Gore-Tex were thoroughly checked. The learning was that no matter what, Gore-Tex rhymes with Powerball. Thank heavens for Covid. We couldn’t spend money on overseas trips, but we could spend it on Klim. Loads of reviewing what was on offer, didn’t want to go too heavy or extreme. Cindy went with the Artemis suit - especially designed for women, even with ventilation under the Lady Lumps. After agonising over the Badlands and Kodiak suits, I went for the Carlsbad because the bloke at AdventureMoto had one and he could show me how it worked. Gulp, hand over $1,200 for jacket and $800 for pants. First weekend ride was the July 2020 Frigid Digit. Anyone who sat through the therapy sessions afterward will tell you - it just never stopped bloody raining. The Carlsbad? Not a drop inside. But what about the dreaded SE QLD summer, with sweat wicking into your shirt then pooling in your belly button when the shirt is overwhelmed? The Carlsbad ventilation is amazing - sleeves open up, collars pin back, and with vents open on the jacket and pants the air flow is much greater than you’d think. The Gore-Tex is really quite thin, one of the early traps was to not put enough on underneath on cool rides, there is little insulation. What about my old bugbear, pockets? Millions of them inside the jacket, and a little pocket on the chest for the Garmin InReach emergency GPS thingo, plus a huge pocket on the chest that could fit a small laptop. All fully waterproof. Pants pockets are huge although my only complaint about the entire outfit is that I can’t stand around with my hands in them easily.
So if you have a child or grandchild underperforming at school, sell them and use the cash to get yourself a Klim suit. Unlike little ne’er-do-well Jaxsyn who’ll almost certainly end Cindy & Deb Klim Artemis Twinsies up in prison, the Klim won’t let you down.
