Just wondering from folks that have experience with them. Have one ready to pick up at my mail box...has to be better protection than a tee-shirt.

I ordered it because the Wing Command Chief named me to lead/put together/host the a quarterly safety ride. I didn't want to be "that guy" leading a safety ride while showing up in a long sleeve hot temp t-shirt, which is almost zero protection...but does meet the minimum requirement.

Yeah, I'm an H-D gear *****, it's one of these:

http://www.harley-davidson.com/mcm/m...bmLocale=en_US



Has built in armor pockets at shoulders and elbows. The ones I looked at here (local dealer in Korea) had the armor pads with the jacket, not sure if that's a standard deal for this one as the HD site doesn't mention them as being included.

Thoughts?

 

They shred like denim when you slide longer than just a few feet.

I have seen a handful of threads on sport bike forums (they are more popular with that crowd) where people went down at highway speeds and the mesh pretty much shredded the moment they hit the pavement.

Still better than nothing, but not even in the same league as leather.








I won't ride in anything less than my track ready 1.4MM leather jacket with an upgraded Dianese spine protector.

Sometimes that means its 95F and humid, and I don't ride because its too hot...but most days I suck it up and ride anyway.

I'm a gear ***** and I'm unapologetic about it. Doesn't matter what bike I ride.

I did a charity run this weekend with 400 other bikers and I was only one of three people there in a full race jacket, and FF helmet.

No one treated me any differently, or said anything about my gear.

We are all brothers on two wheels, in my opinion.

 

went down this year with a Tourmaster armored mesh jacket
low sided an X1200X
it did what it was designed for, so did the gloves

jeans were another story gotta quit going commando.

 

Curious what speed?

I think for around town speeds mesh is fine, but on the highway is where they tend to fail in crashes.

Very glad you were ok.

I've been down, it sucks. My gear saved my skin and my skull.

 

I have a mesh textile jacket that has the armor in it. I used to ride sport bikes and had a wreck during the summer with it on many years ago and it definitely did the job. I had zero road rash from the accident...So it was the logical thing for me to do when I bought my Harley. I have one that I wear MOST of the time... when I know I am going to be moving allot and not sitting in traffic. Some of the Harley jackets have the armor in it and some do not... the armor I think its like 30 dollars In MY opinion its a great option and keeps your from getting scorched from the sun if you have fair skin.

 

Not that it's funny, but that made me laugh.

I understand its not the same as leather, but has to be better than what I've been wearing.

 

Totally, its way better than nothing, or just a vest, especially for around town speeds.

Its just long slides on pavement where it starts to not perform so well.

Also: Make sure whatever jacket you gets, fits you snugly. If its too loose, the armor can shift around and may not protect what its supposed to protect in a crash.

 

Thanks for your input, and especially pictures. Do you mind if I use those for my briefing?

Quote:

I'm a gear ***** and I'm unapologetic about it. Doesn't matter what bike I ride.

No need to justify ATGATT the way I see it.

 

I dont think any textile really holds up in a slide. But if they have some
sort of CE armor in key areas there are lots of stories of riders walking
away without significant injuries.

Textile is really just to keep you cooler.

 

Of course not, I borrowed them from a public Google Image Search.

If you head over to sportbikes dot net they have a crash thread with a huge collection of gear pictures and how they held up after the crash, lots of mesh stuff in those threads also.