After 7 months of extensive riding, I've been slowly upgrading my gears as I felt more confident being on the bike. I've upgraded my jacket and gone for full leather gloves from my first cheap RM20 mesh gloves. Yes, read the reviews for gloves on this thread and went for it... heheh

Gosh, the leather glove is a game changer. Night and day in terms of comfort and feel. It's a full glove but not gauntlet gloves as I think I'll save that for when I 'graduate' to the next stage. Not sure if I need gauntlet gloves though because it seems a bit excessive.

I'm also looking at upgrading to a streetfighter style helmet soon but from what I can see, the streetfighter style helmets are mostly considered half helmets because the chin protectors are removable plastic pieces and not considered protection. I'm looking at you MT Helmet Streetfighter and Scorpion Exo Combat 2.

The Bell Boozer looks too rounded for my liking pulak and Simpson helmets are way outta budget for now...

Also to update on riding, my early jitters are still there each time I get on the bike but at least I don't feel my heart thumping wanting to jump out of my chest when I start the bike. Not from the excitement, mind you, more from the anxiety.. hahah

Believe me, I have 2 pair of gauntlet racing glove. But my main is normal street leather glove.
helmet wise can take MT helmet.. not recommend Scorpion EXO Combat 2 as Harley has it rebadge into Harley Pilot 3 in 1 and the chin part will degraded just past 2 years.

This post has been edited by shyan90's: Jun 26 2025, 03:23 PM

Careful. Not all convertible street fighter helmets are P rated. Some only J (jet/open face). Know what you are buying.

My convertible Zeus 613 is P/J rated..but it's a horrible helmet. Even at that price. If you are dead set on a proper convertible..get one from Nolan...or buy a modular.

While street fighter type helmets are undeniable cool looking, they are pretty horrible as a daily helmet, let alone a highway lid.They are loud, constricted (chinbar is very close to the face), badly ventilated and have a very restrictive viewing angle from the extra small eye port...and basically lacks any niceties like an integrated sun visor.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jun 26 2025, 04:35 PM

agreed..... i honestly think those streetfighter helmets are the stupidest things and just meant to be looking cool.. minimal protection as its basically a half helmet and only has a tinted visor....riding at night and in the dark? get ready to get ur eyes wind blasted....can replace visor with clear visor? no u cant... probably dont even have a clear visor version.... i also doubt the visor mechanism was made to be removed.

get proper helmets. full face, dual sport, modulars or even a proper jet helmet like givi or KYT....ur money is better spent elsewhere instead of on those nonsense streetfighters.

also... look at scorpion covert fx. thats a nice looking helmet for not that much money as opposed to simpson etc.

Yes indeed. If you want a cool looking helmet, can just get something like the LS2 explorer ADV helmet and remove the peak. The regular ones (not carbon) isn't all that much more than a MT street fighter...going around 700-800 ish. If budget allows, the scorpion covert FX or the HX1 is a good option.

ADV helmets ( with the peak removed) are great as a daily helmet because of the increased ventilation and HUGE eye port , making it easy to see traffic and dangers in your periphery.the only downsides are they are not well suited for extended high speed highway use due to noise and aero compared to a proper sports or sports touring lid.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jun 27 2025, 12:33 AM

My first proper helmet was an adv with the peak removed. And i used it for long rides....even my first ride to Thailand was with that helmet. I used ear plugs though for the thailand ride as by then i already upgraded to the z900 n a stupid loud exhaust lol.

But for the aero, mine actually cut through the wind very very very well especially at high speeds... no feeling of lift n barely any pushback.. Its still one of the better helmets i own to cut thru the wind. That sharp front profile really helps.

If there is one thing I'm never going to downgrade, it's nothing less than a full face. That's why the MT Streetfighter SV, Scorpion Exo 2 are out of my list as the chin part is just that, a plastic cover.

Even the Boozer with the certified protection detachable chin part is a 50/50 for me because I don't know how the 'detachable' part will react under the stresses of a crash. Would have preferred it to be a one-piece helmet.

The Scorpion Covert FX does look good though. Just the look I like. might just go check it out over the long weekend. Hahah.

I legit didn't know peaks from ADV helmets are removable.. cause the last time I tested one, my head was 'primed for lift-off' whenever I accelerated and I think it's the peak that exacerbated that feeling. But I do like that ADV helmets have a wider visor area allowing a better FOV. Will look around and test it out.

Noise isn't really an issue for me as I wear earplugs whenever I ride so not too concerned about sound insulation.

What ever helmet you buy. Just do yourself a favour and look for one that is either pinlock enabled or comes with one. Possibly the best thing you can do to any helmet.

Suggest dont wear earplug when you ride. Last time i did and someone shout on me i also din notice.

bro, i dunno who you're, but i don't suggest you driving bike, not safe, really when you don't have much experience. All my co-workers that ride bike, nearly most of them had accidents throughout my 4 year work at my company.

Instead, use public transport, rent nearer or leave earlier, or later, find something to do at office or near office to burn time to allow traffic to clear up.

just my 2 cents, ok thks bye, GG

Yea. For someone don't really owned a bike like you..will say like this.
Just individual preferences. Not hard feeling.

I would encourage more ppl to ride, so when they drive, they know better

Yes..one of my childhood friend just become biker last year and he has went thru alot which he never get it when he driving car.
It also change some of his driving habit.

congrats to that friend

Yeaps, one of my 'requirements' for helmet as well. Haven't actually had a pinlock system installed though my helmet has the 'hooks' ready. Been through a few wet rides but the water repellant spray that I've gotten from MrDIY has been doing a decent job keeping water off the visors.

Was thinking of getting the Pinlock when I upgrade my helmet soon. Install once kind of thing.

Doesn't make sense to install it on my current helmet because the pinlock itself would probably cost more than half my current helmet price

I cannot la. Tried riding without few days without earplugs and my ears were ringing when I reached the office. A bit hard for me as my ears are very important in my line of work.

The earplugs I got doesn't isolate all sound though, it just brings everything down to more manageable levels for my ear. I still can hear car horns or if they are speeding past me.

Ok..if your ears very important in your line of work then can be understand.
Due to exhaust note or what? Or you have very sensitive ear?

I have sensitive ear. Used to spend hours on end per day being on headphones due to my work which started this issue.

No longer doing it but long sustained noises above certain decibels can cause me to have a slight ringing which I realized once I started riding. So I went and got a pair of earplugs that helps cut down the issue significantly. Still can hear my surroundings la so it's all good.

Funny thing is, bassy exahust notes does the exact opposite for me. It's soothing somehow. Maybe cause you're feeling the low rumble with your body instead of hearing it? I don't know..

After nearly a year of riding, today marks a memorable day for me as I've moved up to the next comfortable level for me at 600cc. The power difference is quite drastic, keeping in mind my experience with larger CC bikes were confined to the driving school and friends who let me to take their bikes out for a quick spin around the block.

Really thankful for the few otais who convinced me to go with a smaller CC bike lest I kill myself before even learning to ride. Few close calls I had on the 250cc would have been disastrous on this 600cc like poor throttle control and holding the clutch during turns during my early days of riding. (Single Cylinder bike with their massive engine braking )

Few key differences I've noticed
- The throttle on this bike is so much more sensitive than the 250cc that I was daily-ing previously but the power on tap makes my commute much more exhilarating and smooth. Just have to smoothen out my wrist because my bike sounds like I'm rev-bombing each time I'm launching off as it's quite rev-happy.
- The 4-cylinders really made a difference in the smoothness and vibration but the heat between the legs were, let's just say... toasty. (Lucky I've decided not to have more kids or I bet this would have somehow affected my lineage.
- 4-cylinders are REV HAPPY..seriously..
- Highway cruising was so much more fun as the bike doesn't sound like it's stressed much. 100km/h at 4.5k revs in 6th gear.
- The 220kg weight was no issue when moving and even when going slow + lane splitting, it's really quite manageable. Must be the intensive training I had due to daily riding the 250cc.

As I mentioned many times before, it's been a journey and I can still scarcely believe I went from not knowing how to ride to upgrading my bike today. I foresee it's a continuous journey with many more things to learn during my rides to come. All said, my quality of life has returned and I'm a lot less tired these days with time to spend with family instead of getting stuck few hours on the roads. I get to enjoy my morning coffee and send my kids to school without getting caught in the morning crawl and I'm there when my kids come out of their daycare in the evenings. Riding is everything I thought it would be and more..

Closing things off, I'll see you guys on the road! Keep the rubber side down and shiny side up!

Obligatory bike pics

Congratulation, so what led you to the Benelli BN600 (if Google was accurate)?

And I remember you commute via federal right? How do you find the experience given such drastic change in motorcycle weight and size?