Daily motorbike news, views & reviews
Motorcycle pants are no longer just Levi jeans or racing leathers. Today’s pants come in a variety of styles and types. There are leather pants, jeans and textile pants suitable for dirt biking, cruising, racing, touring, adventure riding and more. They offer a variety of levels of weather and crash protection, and some offer style both on and off the bike. We preview coming products and road test current trousers and jeans for practicality, comfort, protection, cooling, warmth, fit, value and more, sorting our the good from the bad.
Motorcycle clothing safety ratings program MotoCAP has set a target of testing 10% of available jackets, pants and gloves in its first year of operation. MotoCAP launched last month with only 10 pairs of protective jeans and 10 leather jackets tested, and no gloves listed. We have tried to contact a MotoCAP spokesperson for details …
The world’s first rating system for motorcycle clothing protection, MotoCAP, has been criticised for testing only 10 pairs of riding jeans and 10 leather jackets. MotoCAP was launched last week to give riders a guide to the safety standards of their gear, as well as price and comfort. Despite eight years of independent university testing …
A program of testing and rating the safety of motorcycle clothing available in Australia is about to go into its next phase of testing with the ratings eventually made public. The five star ratings system will be called Moto-CAP and will be a voluntary system that manufacturers can display on their gear as information for …
Have you ever noticed that your textile riding gear is not as waterproof or breathable as it used to be and doesn’t fit as well after you’ve washed it? That’s because some textile jackets, pants and gloves are made with material that needs to be washed in a certain method to prevent shrinking, stretching or …
BMW Motorrad will have a new boss when Markus Schramm takes over as director in May and the company has a new look in riding gear for 2018. Schramm, who will succeed Stephan Schaller, is 55 and a “passionate motorcyclist”. He has been with the BMW Group since 1991. There is no word on which …
Do you know what you should look for in a leather jacket, pants or suit? We’re not talking about style, but protection. Is cow or roo leather best? Should the gear have triple stitching? What do the EN numbers mean? What armour should it have? Do perforations make it weak? We asked Brisbane leather exert Andrew …
Riders have been warned again about single-layer protective rider jeans after Swedish company Halvarssons released their version. It follows the release last year of single-layer rider jeans by Australian companies Saint and Suus. Draggin Jeans boss Grant Mackintosh says they have been working on the technology for a few years and have still not been …
A new polyethylene nano fibre that is thinner, tougher, lighter and cheaper than Kevlar and Dyneema could be the next big thing in motorcycle clothing, especially riding jeans. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a process that can easily produce ultrafine polymer fibres that are exceptional strong, very thin and inexpensive to …
Riders should buy leathers that are a firm fit so they won’t flap around, but with stretch panels for comfort and movement says Ricondi Motorcycle Apparel founder Andrew Smart. He says most riders buy leathers that are loose for comfort. However, when I visited his new shop at 532 Seventeen Mile Rocks Rd, Brisbane, to borrow …
More great products from the some of the best producers of motorcyclist clothing have arrived for the summer ahead. We take a look at five of the latest rider products which you can now buy online or in stores near you. Tourmaster Pivot Touring Jacket. This new jacket is waterproof with a convenient hood that …