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Textile 2 piece suits
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I'm looking at buying a 2 piece suit and I've got the idea in my head
that a textile one would be cooler and easier to live with than
leather.
I see that Alpine Stars do something called ACR Air-flo but the jacket
looks fairly baggy, almost like the Dainese jacket I've got. I'm
looking for something tighter fitting than that.
Anyone know of such a thing?
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I just bought a Hein Gericke 'Air' jacket which sounds like the kind of=20
thing you want. It's fairly tight fitting, CE rated and has zip-open=20
vents in the chest and arms to facilitate airflow. I didn't buy the=20
matching trousers, but they are available. The jacket was =A380.
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Your jacket is not CE rated, the armour inside is. Read the small print=20
on the back of the label attached to the zipper tag.
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What's your budget?
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Around a monkey but whould go more for the right thing.
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There's the Halvarrssons suit possibly which seems to be getting good
reviews here and elsewhere - CE approved and all that - but ?900.
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I've been looking at the tour master 'flex' stuff. It looks like they
ripped off the halvarssons idea.
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There isn't much in terms of detail on their site, but it looks like
the garment follows a more conventional textile approach. If my
interpretation is correct, the main construction of the garment is a
mesh fabric, to which a number of individual, solid outer fabric
sections attach. By comparison, the Halvarssons product is a terry-knit
inner which is used as part of a modular system, in conjunction with a
selection of full coverage outer layers.
The "pros" of the Tourmaster Flex system might be that there are
several small sections of solid material to stow on the bike, rather
than a whole jacket - handy where storage space might be at a premium.
The "cons" might be that it will inevitably prove easier to lose one or
more small sections of fabric than an entire garment; plus, how
waterproof are the attachment points going to be (rainwater/zips)?
With twin layers in place, the Tourmaster Flex should theoretically
exhibit superior impact abrasion and impact cut test results, but it
isn't clear if the mesh structure is present throughout the garment, or
only where the zip-off solid sections are installed. In laboratory
testing, assessment will take place of the "worst case scenario" of the
fewest number of the weakest layers that will be worn. I suspect this
would be the mesh layers for some Zones of the garment, with single
layers of the solid fabric possibly present in the same and other
Zones, and the heavyweight Cordura for the shoulders and elbows in the
high risk Zone 1 and Zone 2 regions.
Experience suggests the garment might struggle to achieve an across the
board pass at EN 13595 Level 1 - I doubt very much it would come
anywhere near Level 2, the status achieved by the Halvarssons and Scott
garments - but since it has not, in all probability, been tested using
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Do you have any more information on the Scott garments, oh king of
clothing information?
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As used by the Metropolitan Police. Two models: "New Road" - which is
an adaptation of Scott's perennial "Road" textile jacket - and "Road
Airflow", which features zip-operated vents to the high front chest and
to the side chest and underarms. Both are manufactured from a
conventional, air-textured Nylon outer fabric, backed with a layer of
structurally-strong material, which is what does the legwork in getting
the product past the standardised tests. It is little known that
Halvarssons pioneered (but did not patent) the concept in 1999 for
their "Millennium Safety" jacket and "Century Safety" trousers.
The jacket BKS have been developing uses the same approach. I know of
three other companies who have also prototyped garments manufactured in
this way, but have not brought them to market, so currently Scott
Leathers has a monopoly on this technology.
Which is quite useful because Scott Leathers are now offering their
jackets to civilian customers. I don't have prices, but anyone
interested in making a purchase can phone them on 01833 631526 or
email: info@scottleathers.com. Perhaps they'll post the information on
prices here?
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the standardised methods, this is purely conjecture on my part (albeit
conjecture informed by experience, if I might be permitted to say).
I ran a search on the Tourmaster website, to see what single garment it
might recommend be selected for use across all four specified hot,
mild, cold and wet conditions. It came up with ten jackets and three
styles of trousers! Alternatively, I can simply don a single
Halvarssons Safety Suit, irrespective of the weather conditions, and
select solid, part-mesh or full-mesh outers. Works for me, although I
do not dismiss or criticise Tourmaster's efforts, merely seek to
analyse what the product might have to offer overall.
It would be useful to learn more about the technicalities of the
product. What I have said above is all I can offer on the basis of the
(very) limited information available to me at this time. As always,
I'll be happy for my views to be proven, disproven or debated.
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I plan to have a look at the kit in the next day or so. I'll report back
on what I see.
I wear my Stadler Transair stuff in the spring/winter/fall, but even
with the liners out it's still to hot here in summer. I have a Joe
Rocket Phoenix jacket/trousers for summer. It's full mesh with double
layers of padding/armor. The JR stuff is about 5 years old and turned
red (used to be black) from UV exposure so I'm sure it's seen better
days.
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I love the way you write this stuff.
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Hey Paul? Get whichever one of yer coats is appropriate, you have
pulled mate.
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I've already got a textile two-piece, but thanks for the offer.
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I bought a Hein Gericke Tuareg summer textile suit last year - so far
have been very happy with it - even in scorching temps. out in Portugal
it has been comfortable to wear. The trousers also zip-off at the knee
to turn them into shorts to wear off the bike.
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Is it a tight fitting thing or more of a touring style?
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Touring style - they had it listed in the 'Desert Racer' style section
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That's what I don't want. My current jacket is that style.
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of the catalogue.
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