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Hein Gericke All Seasons (Voyager II)
BY Colin Smith
kit | October 5, 2001

I've had two HG All Seasons jackets. The first was great. It was the older model, a Voyager I. Red it was (sigh).  Pissing with rain, it stayed waterproof and kept me dry. I wore it out in about 9 months/15,000 miles of riding though. So thinks I, that was quite a good jacket, I'll get another one. Black this time though, to hide the muck.

The new HG All Seasons looks the business, fairly similar to the older design but with a few crucial differences that are *not* improvements.

The velcro storm flap down the front of the zip has been replaced with studs. Studs that allow wind and rain through the gaps where the velcro in the older jacket kept you dry.

The robust, chunky zips have been replaced with smaller, finer zips that I don't have 100% confidence in. They are more fiddly and catch repeatedly on the pocket linings, not what you want with motorcycle gloves.

The leather collar has been replaced with a foam/fabric collar that doesn't velcro shut at the front, it looks nice but in heavy rain, the collar soaks up the water and acts like a sponge, releasing the water inside, down your neck. In order to stop this you have to put the zip on snood[1] thing back on and this reduces your head movement significantly. With the older jacket, the snood was handy for freezing weather but not required for the wet by any means.

All in all, the new All Seasons jacket is more of a Dry Seasons jacket, suitable for light showers only and not up to the worst that the UK can throw at a rider.

[1] I'm calling it a "snood thingy" for want of a better name.

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