Routers and riding pants

 

I woke up this morning to discover, through the process of elimination, that my D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G Wireless Router had died.

So, after picking up the mail at the post office, I continued my ride down to Best Buy where I inspected their wireless routers and settled on a Linksys E2000 Advanced Wireless-N Router that was on clearance.

I’m embarrassed to say that I never bothered to secure my old D-Link, so our wireless network was wide open to anyone who cared to sniff out the signal. I wasn’t particularly worried, though, since we live in a rather remote spot and anyone close enough to the house to steal our signal would be immediately noticeable.

The E2000 automatically creates two signals – one a heavily encrypted secure access point for authorized network members and the other a password-protected guest access point – so we’re locked down tight, or at least tighter than we have been for the past six years.

The signal seems much more stable than the old router and preliminary tests suggest our Wifi-enabled Blu-ray player may not have the infuriating signal drop-outs with this new router.

It was a steamy 92 degrees about 2 p.m. when the UPS guy delivered my First Gear Mesh-Tex pants, so I pulled them out of the box, put them on and went for a ride.
I was absolutely stunned at how much cooling air gets through the mesh. Wearing these on a hot day is like riding in shorts. They have padding and armor in all the right places, but it doesn't seem to interfere with the air flow. I can see right now that this will be a good summer. In fact, these pants may be downright chilly on a cool morning. I have some nylon warmup pants that may provide a windstopper barrier when worn under the riding pants.
I'm used to riding in cargo style riding pants, so I noticed the reduced pocket space right away. There are two zippered front pockets with horizontal openings at the waistband and another zippered pocket just above the right knee. I can get my wallet into the thigh pocket, but the two front pockets don't seem particularly useful.
The overall fit is good. I normally take a 30-inch inseam, but the 33-inch inseam on these pants works out just fine with my knees bent and my feet on the pegs.
If you shop around, you can find these for less than $60, which is an absolutely killer deal.