What REALLY provides the best protection in the event of a crash- leather or armoured jackets? I have gotten used to wearing my armoured jackets and really they ( with the liner in) keep me plenty warm here in our so called winters in SOCALif. I do have a leather jacket but it is very heavy and ackward to fold up and put in the tour pak when stopped and dont want to wear it so I have not worn it in a while. Anyone seen any articles on what actually protects you better and why?

 

To Each their own. I ride year round in a Vanson's leather jacket with built in armor. It has zippered Vents in the sleeves that help in the summer.

At all the NHRA Drags and all the road races, every rider is in Leather. If there was anything better than leather to hold up to heat and abrasion they would be wearing it.

 

Leather by far protects the best. There's an article in here somewhere that
does a breakdown of the "skid test" among different materials and leather
wins hands down. Do a search and you'll find it.

I wear a perforated leather jacket for warm weather and a heavy one
for the colder weather. The perforated jacket works great with just a
tee shirt underneath and only gets warm when stopped on hot days.
I like the protection.

 

That certainly is an ongoing debate. I also choose to wear leather year 'round because of the protection factor.

SportRider magazine had promised an actual test of this a while back but it hasn't been published yet.

One fact that I can state is that some guys from the Kawasaki forum I'm on have crashed in the popular armored mesh jackets and they did NOT hold up. They had some pretty nasty road rash. Better protection than a t-shirt, but far from the quality of leather.

 

Armored leather. The armor provides impact protection/force attenutation, while the leather provides abrasion resistance. It's really not an either/or question as it was framed.

 

So where do you get a good, armored leather jacket? Without spending the $500 at the HD dealer?

 

At various motorcycle gear and accessory stores and outlets. Or online if you know your size and what you want. Some folks won't fit off-the-rack gear well, and need to get custom fit leathers, but that's a different subject

 

You can bet its leather otherwise the GP racers would be wearing the best.

 

I got my HD FXRG jacket, leather with armor with front and rear vents. It fits great has great features is well made. It is heavy, only comes in black and is fairly expensive. IMHO though its the best around and I trust it.

 

Is perforated leather very abrasion resistant? Leather comes in different thicknesses and quality. To say that leather is better is too broad a statement. Steerhide is better than rabbit for example. A good, strong, very protective leather jacket will be heavy but you will be surprised how it does not seem heavy when wearing it riding. It does take up a lot of storage room though. I have a heavyweight FXRG leather jacket with armor and it is very comfortable.