Mid-Life Rider

I’ve been wearing cycleport gear for two years now. I bought my first jacket and pants after a low speed get-off wore holes in a fancy set of Dainese textile gear. Maybe I had the concept wrong, but I was expecting more abrasion resistance than I got. Which led me to cycleport.

After wearing all-black for a year I decided that being seen is good so back to Wayne and the crew I went, this time for a 3/4 length jacket in high viz. Over my black air mesh pants I look like a proper British moto-coper.

Besides the eye-popping color, the obvious difference between my new jacket and the all-black is the fabric. The all black is made of an open kevlar mesh that is rougher to the touch and definitely flows more air with the liners out.

The high viz is a blended fabric that has a much softer hand (relative). Beyond that, there are some detail differences in venting and sleeve straps, but the two jackets are otherwise similar.

The big attraction in my book is the fabric. Here’s what the cycleport site has to say . . .

It’s 10 times stronger than leather and less than half the weight. The world’s first all season 3/4 length Ultra II Air Mesh Jacket that will take you from -20F to 85F with optional two part zip in Aero-Tex liner. Remove the liner and have a fully breathable jacket or pant that will take you from 60f to 120F. You don’t need two or three different riding outfits for different weather. The Ultra II Air Mesh Kevlar jacket is great for any weather.

The new Ultra II Kevlar Air Mesh material has the highest tear strength of any motorcycle jacket ever made! 500 Denier Cordura (the best material companies use for overall construction will tear at 22lbs). The Air Mesh Kevlar material tears at 1260lbs!! Take your body weight and multiply that by the speed on a motorcycle. All the other nylon jackets and pants made can tear at a low speed tumble! If the best material of all other synthetic jacket/pants tears at 22lbs. imagine how poor the seam strength is! No other leather suit or synthetic suit has proper seam strength. Cycleport Safety Lock Stitches all of the construction seams that will provide more than 2000lbs. of strength

Those are big numbers and big claims, both of which I took seriously after my sliding adventures. At the present time, I’ll just take Wayne’s word on the performance under stress. I’ve gone sliding in leathers at 40 mph or so and came up with little damage to show for it . . . me or my gear. I like it that the kevlar gear is even stronger.

I speced my Air Mesh with the single layer liner (no insulation), extra reflector strips, and the new optional Quad layer-Armor, all of which adds heft to the tariff. It’s less than Rukka and on par or maybe a bit more than Aerostich gear, the other two obvious choices. I figure gear is lots less expensive than body parts. FWIW, cycleport backs the product with a big time guarantee: IF YOU EVER CRASH IN THE ULTRA II AIR MESH KEVALR JACKET AND CYCLEPORT/MOTOPORT CAN’T REPAIR IT WE WILL REPLACE THE JACKET FOR FREE.

The shakedown cruise for my new kit was a ride to Tubac Arizona and back, a journey that would last two weeks, 3800 miles or so, and see temperatures from the low forties to 106 . . . a pretty fair test. My observations . . .

It’s heavy. The jacket and pants each weigh about 5.5 pounds with liners in. Lifting them is an effort. Walking around in them is done purposefully. None of which bothers me. All that weight is due to all that armor, triple stitching, and heavy duty fabric. It’s serious gear. The good news is that the weight seems to disappear once on the bike. In fact, the mass of the jacket gives the impression, if not the reality, of providing some extra support over a long day in the saddle.

It’s visible. People that I rode with all comment that the jacket is a real retina burner. They joked and poked and smiled and smiled. That’s the idea.

All day comfort. I mentioned that during the trip I saw a temperature swing of 40 degrees. I saw that in one day! With gerbing heated gear I find the jacket comfortable down into the mid 30s. With jacket, liner, and thin and heavy poly pro, I find the jacket comfortable down to the forties. With the liner out and just a tee shirt, I was good into the low 90s, even a bit higher for short periods of time. Above that, I added in a techniche evaporative cooling vest and an aerostich evap-o-dana and was good to 104 four hours. The jacket doesn’t flow as much air as the black version does due to the differences in fabric, but it does a decent job.

Weatherproof: I spend a day in pissing rain and two barely out of it. It works.

Storage. There are more pockets on and in this thing than you can imagine. I was afraid to use them all out of fear that I’d never remember where I put everything. There is a lot of storage!

Fit and Finish. Everything on the jacket just flat works. All the zippers are big and beefy. Everything is ticked and tied . . . no loose ends. It’s a quality piece of gear. There is little more annoying than getting halfway into a big trip and find that some part of your gear has decided to pack it in . . . failed zipper, seam come undone, that sort of thing. Other than picking up the inevitable road grime, the jacket is just as it was when I pulled it out of the box new.

Everyone brings their own decision criteria to a purchase like this. I’ve looked at a lot of gear, and in my book, the cycleport gear maxes the scale on crash protection, usability in a broad range of conditions, and quality. It’s not the snappiest looking kit by a long way, it’s heavy, and it’s expensive . . . all trade-offs I’m happy to make.

Tags: CyclePortUltra II Air Mesh Kevlar Jacket, Rukka, Aerostich, gerbing, techniche evaporative cooling vest, evap-o-dann, midliferider