Do you prefer riding jeans, or textile?

[Bugnatr]

Don't be a cheap arse. Buy the quality textile. Be sure the jacket will zip to the pants to avoide it from riding up your torso in case you end up sliding down the road.

In 2012 Bambi totaled my 04 FJR near Mt St. Helens and I spent some quality time sliding down the center of the highway at 55 mph. I was wearing Motoport gear, BMW boots, Racer gloves and a Schubreth helmet. Over 2K invested in gear, no skin touched the pavement thanks to quality gear and the a watchful eye from above. The ambulance crew was blow away after getting checked out that I did not need to be taken to the ER. They kept asking how fast I was going and what gear I had on. One guy mentioned in all his years driving the emergency vehicle I was the first that didn't to go with them.

I still ride today thanks to quality gear.

 

[chazglenn3]

Roadcrafter Classic one-piece!

 

[John Scottorn]

I’ve unfortunately been down in (Levi’s) jeans and full track leathers.
Jeans provide no protection. Full armoured leather is the best way to go, but I can appreciate that compromises are made for comfort and weather protection.
Spend the most you can to protect yourself in the best way you can. And get the right fit - it should be snug, not loose “because it’s more comfortable”. The better it fits, the closer to your body, the better chance it stays in place on impact.
ATGATT!

yes i can bear witness to the fact that poor fitting protective gear moves around the limbs almost immediately upon impact .
When sliding down the road after the front 'let go' recently, i slid some 25 yards and for all but the initial contact with the road my protective pads in knees and thighs were rotated around so that unpadded areas of my jeans were left to take the abrasion.
Luckily it wasn't at high speed and luckily I do have some well padded jeans in the immediate areas of impact.
If i'd been going faster.e. above 25mph i reckon i'd have been down to skin.

 

[BlakeCG]

since 2020 riding the FJR I became an ATGATT guy. Good helmets have saved my life on bicycles and my last FJR. I wear riding pants with kevlar liners, knee and hip armor and use Cycle Gear to order all I want too. They may not have a top name brand riding pants, but they have good to great gear and they love helping riders out with returns. They encourage me to ship to the store (free) and then returns are easy.

 

[BlakeCG]

No, it was the Level 1 D30. The pads that came with the jeans were about 16" long, thick and absolutely unflexible; it almost hurt to stand up the way they were shaped.

Papabird, where did you purchase your L1 D30 armor? I see lots of options, not sure the differences.
thanks

 

[bonami00]

i usually wear clothes when driving, and shoes, gloves and the last 4 months a schuberth helmet , and i feel fine with that

 

[Bionicpork]

yes i can bear witness to the fact that poor fitting protective gear moves around the limbs almost immediately upon impact .
When sliding down the road after the front 'let go' recently, i slid some 25 yards and for all but the initial contact with the road my protective pads in knees and thighs were rotated around so that unpadded areas of my jeans were left to take the abrasion.
Luckily it wasn't at high speed and luckily I do have some well padded jeans in the immediate areas of impact.
If i'd been going faster.e. above 25mph i reckon i'd have been down to skin.

This is part of the armor certification process. I.e. for pants they have to prevent movement of the armor, and prevent rolling up the leg or down the hips. The Saint armor I mentioned before is CE approved, meaning it was independently tested and passed all aspects

With the huge caveat that you mentioned: it must fit you properly! Don’t buy loose armor to add layers later

https://us.saint.cc/blogs/journal/c...&utm_medium=Refferal&utm_campaign=AU-Redirect

 

[classicrocker]

UPDATE;
I have narrowed it down to these tree choices, but am leaning towards the Alpinestars Bogota Pro pants;
https://fortnine.ca/en/alpinestars-bogota-pro-drystar-pants
https://fortnine.ca/en/alpinestars-ardent-3-in-1-adventure-touring-pants
https://fortnine.ca/en/revit-offtrack-2-h2o-pants

I normally am a fair weather rider.
Not afraid to ride in the rain. Then again, none of us wake up to a pouring rain, and say " MAN it looks like a great day to ride"

I do have a {revit adventure type}, jacket, so the H20 might be a contender as well.

 

[Pete-o]

I've been shopping at Cycle Gear for years. I am also a Revzilla customer. The combination is awesome. Now you can watch multiple videos at your leisure, then purchase in person. Bonus, I support my local economy. ATGATT

Pete-o

 

[classicrocker]

I've been shopping at Cycle Gear for years. I am also a Revzilla customer. The combination is awesome. Now you can watch multiple videos at your leisure, then purchase in person. Bonus, I support my local economy. ATGATT

Pete-o

I agree with the videos on Revzilla, YouTube as well. Unfortunately I live in a small town, So I have little opportunity to spend local.
Fortnine is my go to in Canada. Thats about as "local" as I can get.

 

[BlakeCG]

UPDATE;
I have narrowed it down to these tree choices, but am leaning towards the Alpinestars Bogota Pro pants;
https://fortnine.ca/en/alpinestars-bogota-pro-drystar-pants
https://fortnine.ca/en/alpinestars-ardent-3-in-1-adventure-touring-pants
https://fortnine.ca/en/revit-offtrack-2-h2o-pants

I normally am a fair weather rider.
Not afraid to ride in the rain. Then again, none of us wake up to a pouring rain, and say " MAN it looks like a great day to ride"

I do have a {revit adventure type}, jacket, so the H20 might be a contender as well.

We're similar, I commute to work about 40 mins and will ride if it's above freezing and not raining when I leave for work. Thanks for posting, will check out that 3 in 1 pant. I may be able to combine lots of riding pants into that.

 

[mophead]

The link takes you to a company website. Which pants in particular are you referring to?

I got the Stretch Street Kevlar Jeans, no back pockets. Jacket is GP2 stretch kevlar in HiVis. It fades pretty quickly when you don't leave it in the closet.

 

[Decker]

I've taken to Bull-It jeans/cargos (AA rated) when commuting with a Tourmaster jacket. When out for a pleasure cruise, I toss on either the matching Tourmaster over pants or a pair of Bilt mesh pants, also on top of the jeans. Yes. It is hot. Very hot.

Being a fat guy with a really long torso and really short legs makes it hard to find gear. I'm 6' tall, 29" inseam, and I wear a Tourmaster 4x jacket (ADV for the length), 3x short pants, and 12.5 XWide Tourmaster boots. I also have a 3x jacket and 2x pants. They fit some months, and some months, they don't. (Sometimes it's days! Diabetes sucks.)

Would I prefer leather? You bet your lunch money I would, but no one makes off-the-shelf leather that fits, and I hesitate to spend $3K on leather that might not fit next year. I tried on an Alpinestar ADV jacket. The only one that fit was a damned 6x.

 

[Bounce]

textile. it gives me more options, both on and off the bike.

 

[Whooshka]

I got the Stretch Street Kevlar Jeans, no back pockets. Jacket is GP2 stretch kevlar in HiVis. It fades pretty quickly when you don't leave it in the closet.

Damn that's a lot of coin for pants that you have to buy the padding separately. At that price they shouldn't fade so fast either.

 

[mophead]

I didn't buy padding separate. It was included in the price. They do have additional armor that is extra but the stock stuff is pretty good and it conforms to your boney knees and hips every time you put it on. Wash the suit with armor left in. No need to remove the armor.
Someone mentioned TourMaster Flex. I have that same suit that used to be black and is now more of a faded brown. I really love the zip in panels that make that suit an all weather piece of gear. Who wants to stop on the side of the road, take your pants off, put on a liner, pants back on. The Flex suit is one of the best designs for long distance travel ever and they made it in tall sizes which almost makes it fit me. Fortunately I have never tested the crash protection of either suit but if I go sliding down the tarmac I want the Motoport suit on.

Every suit I have is faded. They get that way when you use them.

 

[Oldjeep]

.

Every suit I have is faded. They get that way when you use them.

Just a sign of bad fabric.

 

[classicrocker]

Ended up getting the Alpinestars Bogata Drystar textile pants, from FortNine here in Canada. They do come with lvl 2 hip and knee armor, Thermal liner, and rain pant that can either wear under or over the pants.
Went for a nice twisty ride today. About 160 miles. And so far so good. Think I am going to really love these pants.

Heads up!
I am 5'10", about 180 lbs (athletic build), wear size 32 x 32 jeans. I tried a large, ( thinking that I was going up a size). Needed to return for an XL! good thing fortNine offers fast, {almost free, cost me $7} returns, and shipped out the new pants the next day.

 

[Whooshka]

....... When out for a pleasure cruise, I toss on either the matching Tourmaster over pants or a pair of Bilt mesh pants, also on top of the jeans. Yes. It is hot. Very hot.

......

That's OK. I'd rather sweat than bleed. It's hard to get the screams out of my mind of a tough guy who was getting his skin scrubbed in the ER after a slide in T-shirt.

I've also seen videos of an FJR newbie who rides in a mesh shirt and fingerless gloves. Why even bother?

 

[Lawrence]

That's OK. I'd rather sweat than bleed.

Yup, (been there, done that) that why I'm also a long-standing member of the ATGATT crew... Aerostich RoadCrafter 2-piece for last almost 30 years (almost 200K miles) ... in Death Valley in 120+ degree weather, mountains in the snow. I commuted for decades... folks got used to the look [Power Ranger, parachutists, fill-in-the-blank, etc] and I didn't care. Loved being able to step out of suit in seconds.