While looking at various textile jackets from the Joe Rocket website I found it very confusing to "rate" or just understand the material used to make the Jackets.
By this I mean, what is the difference between:
- Heavy duty 630 Hitena® twill nylon
- Airguard™ 400 nylon shell
- Rock Tex™ 660 shell
Is there a difference or is this just a marketing thing?
What's better? (I know Leather is better, but humor me)
IMHO: that is advertising HYPE. There is no material called Rock-tex and so forth. I'd recommend going with some nice leathers anyday of textile stuff, why? b/c leathers vent just as well and will protect you much better in a slide/crash. I bought mesh for the FL heat and after trying a perforated leather jacket I will never go back. Did I find the leather a bit warmer....sure I did, but better to sweat a tad more than bleed.
Also consider motoport's gear, I've heard great things but can't justify the $$$ they want. I will admit I do ride with my Firstgear FUEL pants a lot and its a leather/textile combo ( for $84 I couldn't beat the deal). I'm just waiting until I can FIT into leather pants like the Cortech Perforated's. I've also read about companies using a PU coating that actually heats up and gets embedded into your skin in a slide situation. My advice go LEATHERS and research research and research some more. New enough is always having good sales on their closeout seciton. Good luck
I have a 1-piece Aerostich Roadcrafter which is a customized heavy duty textile riding garment with armor in the shoulder, elbows and knees. Never gone down with it, but there are guys here who have and swear buy it. It's great for the moderate temps we have in Michigan 8-9 months of the year (and probably Montreal too)...also doubles as rain gear. But come summer I'll probably be looking for perforated leather. All in all, you can't go wrong with leather, kevlar or a Stich...they're all pricey, but as JBY28 noted above it's better to sweat than bleed...buy the best you can afford.
Firstly, you need to know what the brandnames refer to: what kind of man-made fibre is it? (Polyester, nylon, polyacrimide, etc.) Then you can compare apples to apples, or Cordura with [some other brandname of the same thing].
The brand-named materials themselves will vary a bit anyway, so that is a complicating factor, but as far as the numbers go, the more threads (higher the number) the better the fabric should be for abrasion resistance. A complication to this may be the actual weave: how many threads are themselves wound into other threads before being woven to the cloth?
I know this doesn't help much, so if you could get some sort of tie-back from "Hitena" "Airgard" and "Rock Tex" to tensile strength and abrasion resistance testing that would be a big help when judging whether the garment is good or not.
At the end of the day, other things come into play too:
1. Fabric thickness
2. How it's sewn together (seams constructed in a way that ensures the garment won't come apart when abraded?)
3. Does the garment fit /is shaped in such a way that protective surfaces and armour don't move away from what they're supposed to protect.
3b. Are enough fractional sizes available to guarantee number 3?
etc.
These apply for ALL fabrics, including leather.
Yes, leather is best, for abrasiuon-resistance at least, but only in consideration of 1 -3, and if it meets other criteria.
(Rambling? - Yes; my meds are doing that...)
OK. I have an old and semi-loved Teknic Hurricane jacket. I bought it because my all-leather gear didn't keep me warm enough, cool enough, or dry enough, and I could neither afford several suits nor predict the weather. I figured I'd give it a go, and see how it was.
After wearing it a few times, I sold my leather jacket. I've recently stopped wearing leather pants too, since I bought some Spidi GranTurismo pants.
My Teknic jacket has had a lot spent on it in repairs, mainly because of the abrasion-resistance thing: the kevlar pads in the elbows and shoulders didn't take the brunt of the interaction with the asphalt (jacket moved? pads in wrong place??), so the sleeves and shoulders were oversewn with leather.
My ideal suit would be probably a new version of the jacket I have (with its leather mods and double armour), and the same as the pants BUT with leather on the knees, outer thighs/hips and seat (already has this latter feature). It would also have more vents. I *did* try something like this (Macna brand) which looked ideal but for two things: the price (I could've bought a reasonable leather outfit PLUS a textile one for the price), and the fit of the knee armour (the Spidi is far superior).
Aaarghh - enough rambling.
Weigh up your needs, and if you can't afford multiple suits, or don't ride in cold and/or wet weather, then buy leather. If you need multi-condition versatility like me, then buy something textile with leather where it counts (knees, hips, seat, elbows, shoulders) and a fit that keeps the armour and protective panels where they should be.
On my second Aerostich Roadcrafter - I wear it in weather from 20 degrees to 115 degrees and it is always great. My first suit saved me tons of skin loss on a low side at 50 mph avoiding a left turner in front of me - only one small burn on my arm from where the suit was rubbing from all the friction. Suit was totalled but I walked away an road to work the next day (on a different bike - my 04 Interceptor was totalled) wearing my backup PowerTrip textile.
I have PowerTrip. Joe Rocket, and Honda (Joe Rocket) jackets also - Aerostich is by far. most heavy duty construction. That said, I occasionally wear the others but do not like having my legs in just jeans (shredded the skin of the right one in a low side with jeans on at 35 mph about 7 years ago.
I've been down a total of 3 times in the last 7 years - the Aeorstich gave me great protection; the PowerTrip also worked great for upper body.
:unsure:
Look hereGear review siteand check outMotoport I have Motoport gear and it is great expensive but very well made.
After reading about the material on their website, it's hard to argue with the statistics of Kevlar for abrasion resistance and being cool in the summer too. And no plastic coating on it to melt on your skin.
I started out with a Tourmaster Cortech Fusion jacket, i believe it is 600 Cordura, but i upgraded to a Vanson jacket later, my wife suggested it, who am i to argue.
I have a pair of Motoport pants, luckily i live not too far from them. I had to be measured on how i am sitting on the bike so the pockets for the pads match up on my body. Yes it was expensive, but absolutely worth every penny on the quality. There is a how to on measuring yourself on their website if you live too far from them. The only downside is they are backed up and it takes some time to get stuff from them, took me 2 months. So i have a combo of Leather jacket and Kevler pants, the pants are kevlar/Cordura weave.
End of thread · 9 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 17 Mar 2015