Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

It's that time of year again when Aldi hold their bike gear sale.
The range has changed a bit this year, no doubt Aldi has looked closely at what sold the fastest and slowest. The graphics helmets are less graphic than they used to be but the prices are the same so there has been some rationalisation to maintain prices.
I might have a look at the denim bike jeans even though they don't have any CE rating apart from the knee protectors. Not sure what I could do about sizing for those. You can't really take your daks off in the middle of a supermarket to try on some new pants. Well, maybe in some suburbs that may be acceptable but not in my area. You can't really trust the size labels on the gear which can be a bit wonky and not consistent across product lines. Try before you buy if possible.

It might be worth checking on the regular bike gear retailers for competing specials, just in case they want to steal some of Aldi's thunder.

Cool, thanks for the reminder!

Things at my local Aldi seemed a bit subdued this year. I wasn't there when the doors opened but maybe half an hour later. There were only 4 of us milling around the bike gear at the time. Maybe the novelty is waning.

Was pretty busy out here in the dusty west...

I bought one of their jackets last time - great winter jacket. USELESS in summer.*

Also bought one of those long-johns things last time, pretty good. So this time bought a few more (so did the missus). Threw in a few pairs of the socks too - not sure why, I guess the ALDI system works on me - heh!

* I'm going to have my other jacket tailored to fit tightly without the liner - make it a better summer jacket.

(-8

I had a look in at my local store yesterday and for most items the common sizes were all gone.

I did aquire the jeans on Saturday since I have not worn jeans for about a decade and I figured if that if I did wear jeans they might as well have some of that newfangled aramid fibre stuff in them. But, at about a quarter the price of e.g. Draggin jeans are the Aldi jeans a quarter as good? IMO yes.

BrettZZR wrote:I bought one of their jackets last time - great winter jacket. USELESS in summer.*

The textile jacket?
I have their summer textile jacket which fits me pretty well. I haven't used it a lot yet but it seems to do the job. I wouldn't use it in winter, I still have an original Dri Rider Alpine for those infrequent wintry tasks. For a summer jacket, the Aldi surprised me how heavy it is (armour and all), easily comparable with my old Rivet brando jacket.

I still have a nice Tiger Angel two-piece suit for more rapid or risky duties but it's nice to have some variety in the wardrobe. While there is nothing CE rated about the TA's, I have confidence in them.

BrettZZR wrote:Also bought one of those long-johns things last time, pretty good. So this time bought a few more (so did the missus). Threw in a few pairs of the socks too - not sure why, I guess the ALDI system works on me - heh!

Got one of those "Base Layer Pants" things to try out. Pity they didn't have them in merino wool like the tops that were on offer. Plenty more chilly mornings to come in Melbourne before summer hits properly.
The socks are one item that don't seem to have any debate about them and I bought a couple more pairs.

I had a sniff around the net to see what Aldi offers in the UK. It's a little tricky since the Aldi specials webpages go away after the sale so you tend to end up with promo pics in online news reports, forum debates and some blogs. The UK sale tends to happen around the end of March, toward the end of the northern winter. The UK bike gear house brand is called "Crane" while ours is "Torque".

It seems there has been another Euro supermarket chain, "Lidl", doing bike gear specials like Aldi's. I wonder who did it first?
I also wonder when Woolworths and Coles down here in the colonies will catch on. Sorry, rhetorical question.

I had a look (Morley store) but most items were too small for me. I was interested in one of their leather jackets.
I bought a pair of socks instead!
Quite a few people milling around.

billwest wrote:I was interested in one of their leather jackets.

I was half considering one of those. Those leather jackets have plenty of zipped pockets that can be left open for ventilation as well as two zipable vents on the back.