From: martin@adpgate.UUCP (Martin Golding)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Hippo hands
Date: 13 Oct 92 17:02:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: adpplz.1624
Organization: ADP Dealer Services R&D, Portland, OR

spgo@is.morgan.com (Stefan Goellner) writes:
> Ok all of you who live in nice climates can tune out and spare me the
> snide remarks about moving someplace warm...

_I_ live in a nice climate. With the appropriate gear, I'll be biking
all winter (except maybe for five days of actual ice, if I can't fix
the sidecar), and we went mushrooming last weekend and found 
agaricus campestris, lactarius delicioso, coprinus comatus and a flush
of lepiota naucina just popping up. And that's just the edible ones.

The northwest may be wet, but it's _green_, and the rain is the only thing
keeping the Californians out.


> I've been wondering about hippo-hands.

You've come to the right place. I have real Vetter Hippo Hands (tm, BTW) on
Treaty of Leningrad, and Langlitz versions on the FOTB. Langlitz uses real
leather and dead sheep fuzz, which is a much nicer texture but needs greasing,
my used Vetters are scratchy dinosaur pelt (vinyl and pseudo-fleece). Both work.

They let me use summer weight or lightly insulated gloves all year, which is
particularly nice since my claustrophobia makes heavy gloves uncomfortable.


> How safe are they? 

Don't buy them unless you know where all your controls are. If you still
have to look to figure out where your turnsignals or horn botton lives,
do something else this year. Other than that risk, and once turning into
my driveway while pushing my garage door opener and discovering that my
clutch was inside and my left hand was outside, I've never experienced
a hippo-hands induced event. 


> Will they keep you attached to the bike in a crash?

I haven't had a serious crunch with them on; I'd expect them to increase
rotation if I'm thrown forward (they'll probably give the forearms a jerk
before they're released). Other than that, they're loose enough they ought
to pull off easily. 


> How easy are they to slip into? 

Quite simple, except for emergencies. Don't scratch your nose if you may
need to brake suddenly. At speed, the wind pushes and whips them a little,
so it's a bit harder than when stopped.

But I do adjust my helmet and glasses when required (after checking for
the likelihood of an emergency) and never had a problem getting my arms
back in.


> Will they increase the curse factor at tollbooths?

Not particularly. They're easy enough to slip into and out of that the diving
into the damned pocket with the damned gloves on will completely overshadow
stuffing your arms up to the elbows in the fuzzy fleece.


My personal recommendation is _go_ for it, the Langlitzes beat the Vetters
but the mirror slots need to be hand fitted, and since I happen to be in
the neighborhood, send me your motorcycles and I'll have it taken care of
in less than a year. They'd be perfect for an FJ.


          Martin Golding           |        BMW R100/7  "Britt"
 DoD #236  BMWMOA #55952  WMTC #2  |  BMW 750/6/2+Ural  "Treaty of Leningrad"
              KotP                 |     Ducati 860 GT  "Mouse"
  There's always More,             |         Honda 150  "Dreamboat"
    That's what More _means_!      |      Yamaha RD350  "Nippon shu"
[motcsd!]mcspdx!adpgate!martin     |     Yamaha XV750J  "Julia Tiberius"
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles