Well you can for sure get a new suit for that price. Leaving Bonneville out of the equation for now puts you easily into retail and will keep you a bit cooler at Maxton. (I do beleive we are keeping the leather rule the same as the 2007 rules but I know I'll be corrected if I'm wrong!) There's a few good brands that have one piece suits with the hump. The tricky part is getting the correct size.
Drag Specialties caries a bunch of different suits which can be ordered through any Drag Specialties dealer:
http://street.parts-unlimited.com/41Tucker Rocky is the same deal:
http://www.powersportrider.com/CGI-BIN/ZCATJPG?catpub=AP0208C&catpage=241.00While you're in there you can find the individual manufactures and view their site directly like Alpinestars. I personally have a lot of Alpinestars gear & am very happy with them. The woman's sizing leaves a little to be desired but the end product is good.
Alpinestars:
http://www.alpinestars.com/pl/c/131.html(BTW, when we were at the MC show in DC Alpinestars was clearing out last years model of one piece suit with a hump. Brand new suits for about $700. Right there to try & buy. I would have snagged one if I needed a suit & had money!)
If you can do a little web surfing and find some options you can go out shopping for the best deal. Ebay often has people offing closeouts. Call your local sportbike stores to see if they carry the gear & have any in stock. I like to go to a dealer that carries the brand I'm interested in & try some gear on to see how accurate the sizing is. Having to return an internet/mail order suit to exchange size gets a little expensive. (BTW, when I do this I make sure to let them know I'm browsing & not buying on that visit so I don't waste their time!) You can also see who might live near you, if they're a similar size & go try their gear on. We're completely open to that with anyone & most racers are generous enough to help out.
http://www.newenough.com is another good resource. I believe they do new gear closeouts and slightly used gear. A lot of racers use them with good success.
You can have a suit made from
http://syedleathers.com/ for about that price with armor & your color choice of their design. There are other places to get a custom suit made & I'm sure others will chime in. Although I think the others run slightly more expensive.
I recently bought a new suit & what I did was to buy an off the rack Alpinestars suit (the girly one) and used an additional back protector vest which I'm now looking to upgrade to a new model of a back protector "jacket". I removed the back protector from the suit & use the better one underneath. Good gloves, good boots and a relatively inexpensive snell 2000 helmet. If I remember correctly, by shopping around & choosing wisely I was able to put together the whole thing for about $1500.
There are a lot of other opinions out there so hopefully others will chime in as well. While you're shopping around make sure to look for what armor is included & if they give the CE rating. Level 1 is good, level 2 is better. I usually assume, if they say CE but don't give the rating, that it's a level 1. I do believe the back protector vest I was using during my get off was a level 1. It served me well & I used it again when I got back on but now that they offer a level 2 I'm going to upgrade. The level 1 worked well but for as much as it was utilized, that's one piece I'd like to upgrade! BTW, the level rating in regards to the back protector is how much force it will absorb. Level one does a certain amount & I think the level 2 was around double the level 1. If you think about accidentally slamming to the ground with your upper body (common way to go) it will absorb more of the impact and dissipate it rather then transferring it to your upper body & internal organs.
Deb
PS: sorry about the minnie book, if you can't tell I'm a little passionate about personal safety gear!
I was before the get off & I'm even more convinced now (living proof as they say!)
