Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Riding Jacket and Pants Review



After my recent accident, I have become more safety conscious thus ordering riding pants and shit like that. Jumping on the bandwagon was some of my friends who decided to join me on my purchase. My partners and I have dealt with this company before in purchasing riding gear. He bought a vest and I bought my custom gloves รง click on the link.

Anyway, so I was checking out some of their products, and as usual I was trying very hard not to look like a superbiker on a chop. I found these really nice pair of pants and decided to order them. On of my customers decided to order a riding jacket from my supplier too so it was great! I got the opportunity to test out some new gear.

THE PANTS: When I ordered them, I was worried if they would be of shabby quality. But when they arrived, I was quite impressed. I had been to big shops selling riding gear and I must say this was on par. The material was Cordura and was waterproof. Each design has different things in it so I will only talk about the one I got. So there it was, waterproof Cordura material. And to my surprise, there was a removable inner lining to keep you warm, hip and knee pads. This would be great for those who wanted to double this pants for snow mobile riding and stuff. In Malaysia it was definitely overkill. The pants comes with 4 pockets. 2 side pockets with waterproof ykk zippers that are extra secured with Velcro covering them for extra waterproofing. There are cargo pockets that are Velcro protected as well but I forsee water seepage as there were no zippers.

The back of the pants had a zipper that allows you to zip your jacket to the pants as for those that are compatible. The fly of the pants is quite interesting. It is held together by 2 snap buttons, the normal fly zipper and also a Velcro flap that covers the zipper. For added protection, even after you unzip the pants, the fly is covered by a piece of flap across the back of the zipper so rain doesn’t seep in. sucks when you really need to pee, but for those who ride in the rain, you know that your fly is the first place to get wet and YOU KNOW the shitty feeling cold rain water on the crotch gives you.

THE JACKET: Now, before you start with the dissing and saying how fucked up looking the color is and that it looks like you can see it via google earth etc, PLEASE PLEASE know that I already did all that.. hahahah… well this was a special request from the owner of the jacket (which you can see in the pictures) so, unwillingly, I had to order it this way. Anyway, upon receiving this jacket, after being snow blinded by the color, this jacket is made with the same material as the pants. Waterproof Cordura. The build quality is quite good. It comes with 2 outer pockets that are waterproof, 1 inner pocket, 2 pockets on the inner lining, an inner warmer lining, guards on the back, elbow and shoulders, it has zipper vents on the inner bends of the sleeves for cooling and adjusters for the sleeve for a better fit.

The jacket is quite sturdy the fitment is good. All zippers are heavy duty ykk zippers and very durable (the owner zipped it wrong but it still came out undamaged). The product itself was good, the collar was high enough that it just about tucks in for full face helmets to reduce rain seeping into your collar. This jacket supports connecting to a pair of pants so it was quite good that the owner got the whole set. Practically, the entire suit keeps you dry as a bone.

We did run afew tests on the items to see how it would work in simulated events (cant test them because I didn’t own the jacket and my hand was still in a cast)

THE TEST:

Skid test: I ran both items on a skid test. For the pants, I wore em, took a run and skidded across the floor. I couldn’t really wear the jacket but I did test the sleeve the same way by putting on just the sleeve.
Findings: it seems that the pads absorb the impact to the ground (I wasn’t gentle) and I barely felt a thump when I landed. The material held on and there wasn’t a scratch on it. This simulates a slow traffic collision or a “jackass fall”

Splash test: a splash test is to test water RESISTANCE. A simulated event where in light rain or riding through a puddle may wet your gear. Just get a spray bottle and squirt around the gear to see what happens.
Findings: for the pants, the flexible area absorbed the water but it did not feel wet nor did the inside of the pants get wet. As for the normal Cordura areas, water beaded up and fell off. Those beads that did not fall off fell while you moved. Same goes for the jacket, it just beaded up and fell off.

Waterlogging test: in this, it simulates a common occurrence when you are riding. Folds appear on your jacket sleeves and certain areas, the pants crotch area is a common area for waterlogging because when you sit it makes a little bowl where your balls are. This area is always the first to get soaked and makes you feel like you peed.
Findings: cupping the material for both the pants and the jacket, and putting water on it to sit like a bowl (my dogs drank from it), there was no seepage at all after 5 minutes in that position.

Drench test: this test is done to simulate moderate to torrential rain. Many items I have tested in the past never pass the torrential rain part except for rain specific gear. With this test, I use 2 types of water hose heads, medium pressure water disbursement and high pressure focused disbursement (warning, painful to balls.. but fun for the guy holding the hose).
Findings: passed with flying colors, feedback from the drench test idiot dummy: other than the shot in the balls, crotch area just feels cold. No water leaks at all.


All in all, I would say the items were quite good. The only down side is that I should talk to the manufacturer about custom zippers for the pants for ventilation as it get VERY hot on a sunny day.












By Vy

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