Choosing a Motorbike Jacket

I decided to write this guide after making several purchases on eBay of motorbike jackets. I totally believe in good driving for optimum safety, however, in order to find the limits of my riding skills or my bike I fully expect to take a fall. Indeed, I am practicing falling off my bike as much keeping it on at least one tyre. I, therefore, needed some protection as well as bobbins.

Like vehicles, and other shiny objects, these can often look good in photographs on eBay but fail to live up to expectations miserably.

Leather out performs any kind of textile for skin protection. Its a fact. Research it for yourself. If humans were so clever they wouldn't have run out of cork. If you want to walk away from a controlled bike dump & slide you should be wearing leather, preferably, cow hide but nappa is fairly good too. Some of the very thick textile jackets work too like RICHA's top range but these can have 20mm thick material with armour.

A study done in Munich in 1986 found that motorcyclists wearing protective gear (heavy jacket, gloves, boots etc.) could expect a reduction in injuries of 30% or more. ("Modern Armor", Motorvike.com). During the 1980’s there were some seriously good jackets made.  These can sometimes be picked up on eBay for very little money. Many are in poor condition in that they are ripped or torn but aside from this kind of extreme damage they are great value.

A good jacket will be made of nylon, leather, or Kevlar and be well constructed.  Check out the seams at any of your sharp points (elbows, shoulders, etc).  The stitching should be strong and enforced at these points.  Also, a good jacket will include heavy padding on the elbow, spine (yes, that's very important!) and the shoulders.  Additionally, if the jacket is nylon or Kevlar, it might include reflective stripes unless you spot everything on the road. Whilst An ill-fitting jacket might result in injury if the protective parts of the jacket shift during a fall or accident they will move during an accident so have to be much bigger than the area being protected. Buffalo hide is best but rare. 4mm thick leather is the best available. Lamb & pigskin is very soft, tears easily and is not durable enough for motorcycle riding. 

Man-made materials are increasingly common choice for motorcycle gear as they offer improved weather protection and can often be more comfortable than leather.  Common materials include ballistic nylon (also called Codura nylon), Kevlar, or blends of several materials. 

When you are buying synthetic gear, be sure to check out the strength of the piece of clothing.  The piece should be able to maintain its structure and integrity in a crash.  Be sure that it has an ability to slide, not grab the road.

The best jackets use Level 3 CE armour. Practically all jackets use Level 1 armour which is only good for up to 30 mph spills. This is what the CE certificate says. This is why modern jackets are useless, because they use Level 1 armour just to get the CE rating. Its just another scam, thank you, your majesty - I hope you were suitably entertained, playing with our lives.

I have listed some of the brands which I can have come across. You are more than welcome to submit your own reviews & comments.

CE Protection
You are surely glad that the government have stepped in to create a standard for good protection of motorcyclists.

CE protection is useless. There are various grades. The CE standard does not need to apply to the whole item but just to the armour. Armour? Armour can be anything from soft foam , hard [/memory] foam to carbon reinforced plastics. In many jackets it is worthless and significantly scanty compared to older jackets. Older jackets are often found to have significant padding that you would not miss when trying the thing on in order to achieve a sale. Old Belstaff jackets are good in this respect. New Belstaff jackets, made in Italy (Belstaff went bust and sold their name) cost around £500… I have not been able to test one.

For me it is definitely worth trying things on in shops; checking the quality and then looking for bargains on eBay. I dont think this works universally. Buts this is a good thing. You don't get too many rapping chav dumbed down education victims on bikes, do you? A scooter isn't like a bike at all. The quality of fastenings and stitching is important because the jacket is naked to the elements. Painted zips are no good. You need steel or chromed rust proof metal fastenings to withstand cold and rain.

The best jackets feature pop studs rather than velcro. Some of the worst jackets feature cheap break after a week pop studs. Velcro is absolutely evil on beards... real men always have natural length beards - but then I am Mr Joe King.

Professional leather features level 3 armour, extremely supple leather and doubled up pop stainless steel studs. You get the picture?

The GOOD
Modern RICHA textile jackets have good armour and fit well. The CE protection can be excellent carbon based. Very expensive, waterproof the textile material tears after about 2-3 years.

1980-90’s Belstaff jackets are fantastic; Supple to move in, very well padded and good quality stitching and fasteners

Lewis Leathers from 1990-2007: supple, thick leather & very well padded and good quality stitching and fasteners like Belstaff.

THE NEARLY GOOD

HK branded jacket. This was a mix of fairly good cowhide and cheaper strips of nappa/goat & pig. The elbow protection was not along the elbow. CE armour is all foam which is poor but is was twice the thickness of the foam in the VOTO & stiffer because of ply layers. You can feel the armour in this jacket which might result in some compensation riding. A top of range RICHA jacket has several times more protection but you cannot feel it as much because there is more padding throughout the jacket evening everything out. I like the look of this jacket aside from the wasp like reflector patches. The lack of folded ribbed seams and the use of weaker leather strips means it will tear quickly. XL is a 46 and it was a nice looking fit; not bad for the £20 I spent on eBay incl postage.

Frank Thomas use thicker leather than both HK & VOTO. Better made than most budget jackets, they will last much longer, with re-inforced ties & edging. They have useful featrures like zipped air vents rather than perforations. Supple despite the extra thickness; often lack a good thermal lining; fits well with ribbed joints; looks high quality with good quality hides.

The BAD & THE UGLY
VOTO ~ These are actually in practice only sold on eBay. There is a linked web site with much higher prices but it is not really real (?). They come with a money back guarantee  & the promise that you will be surprised at the quality. The return postage is, of course, prohibitive & the quality of the jackets is surprisingly bad given the retailer’s claims. The leather is poor quality and ill prepared without flexibility; no suppleness at all except in the folded stretch areas which are well designed but without these the jacket would tear quite soon; it has been painted matt black to cover its low grade flaws; the fastenings & buckles are very cheap. The plastic belt buckle can fail with the first frost. It looks ugly. The remove-able lining is way too thin. My example off eBay had faults in the glue, stitching, lining & hopelessly soft foam protection. The VOTO jackets look dreadful in real life, have weak protection but even being cheap they are a non starter. It would be much better to spend the same money (£40) on an old Lewis or Belstaff etc.

A £200 RICHA textile jacket is about 10 times thicker than a £40 VOTO leather jacket. You can save money, sure, but you could as well have wear a fleece and save even more.

BACKGROUND
Personally, I don’t believe in insurance or the obligatory wearing of crash helmets or safety belts. I know what some of you are saying. I can even hear the shouts but just try to hear me out. If you still don’t get it then thanks for reading but we cannot help each other further. Hopefully, all of you will take away some useful tips about choosing a leather jacket on eBay.

The enforcement of a particular type of safety product takes away the incentive for manufacturers to research and design new safety features unless they can work with safety belts. BMW designed a motorbike that did not require a safety helmet. Honda designed a motor car that could not crash (if you can trust a computer). The latter was blocked by Thatcher. Governments want to support their sister big corporations. The 3 point safety belt was researched by Volvo. It is a good idea but further research has effectively been capped by its enforcement and a lack of competition between manufacturers. As with any product supported by legislation, its price goes up and big corporations make bigger profits.

Since the compulsory introduction of safety belts, it has not been demonstrated that road fatalities have decreased. Some have proposed that the number of deaths was influenced by the development of risk compensation, which says that drivers adjust their behaviour in response to the increased sense of personal safety wearing a seat belt provides. (ref.: Wiki & others)

Please check out my petition to improve road safety to the primeminster at petitions pm gov uk RTACare

Remember, you can always choose what safety features you wish to use. I am simply targeting the future research and healthy competition which drives innovative safety design features.