Leather Review - Manufacturers Product Information Hunt - Superbikefreaks article

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Westy

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Evening all,Came across the following articles from this bike news site I hadn't heard of before.

http://www.superbikefreaks.com Realised after seeing the Hideout leathers review this would be a good time to share the article. It seems unbiased and covers the very important and opinionated Leathers topic. Hope it helps shed light on the topic and any opinions and reviews of those firms listed below would be appreciated in this thread. http://www.superbikefreaks.com/leathers-good-bad-bloody-disgraceful/

Until you?ve been down the road on your arse at high speed, you haven?t a clue how good your leathers are. Fact.
It doesn?t matter if they?re really comfortable and look cool and you got them for a great price if they?re likely to burst open like a packet of cheese and onion crisps as soon as you hit the deck. So, just how protective are leather suits? How can you be sure you?re getting one which will hold up during an 80mph highside at Craner Curves and not just burst apart at the first impact? How much time and effort goes into making them, and are the materials used strong enough to prevent you requiring skin grafts should you crash in them? Superbike Freaks sets out to answer these important questions. http://www.superbikefreaks.com/leathers-part-2/ In this next part, we focus on the individual brands we spoke with, sharing in detail what we learned about their products to help make selecting your next suit an easier process. There will always be die-hard fans of a particular manufacturer and it wouldn?t matter what we said, they?d always buy that brand. And that?s fine, we?re not looking to sway those people. All we really want to do is to share the information we?ve gathered so people can make a more informed decision. So who did we approach and who was happy to speak with us? In alphabetical order:
  • 4SR ? no response
  • Alien Moto ? detailed response with an offer for us to inspect one of the first suits off the production line (not inspected yet)
  • Alpinestars ? no response to two separate requests
  • AM Leathers ? no response
  • Arc-on ? numerous detailed responses and valuable input around CE standards. Met at Excel bike show.
  • Arlen Ness ? no response
  • BKS ? detailed response, lengthy phone call and lots of valuable information around CE certification provided
  • Cheers ? no response
  • Cougar ? no response to two separate requests
  • Dainese ? detailed response
  • Dannisport ? detailed response
  • DRC ? detailed response
  • Furygan ? detailed responses by email and lengthy phone conversation
  • Held ? initial chat with the MD of Held UK and need a follow-up one for more details
  • Hideout ? invited SBF to visit workshop to see first-hand how they work and answer our questions
  • Kushitani ? detailed response and lengthy phone call. Invited SBF to forthcoming launch of UK store
  • NF Moto ? no response (which is weird considering the frequency with with they spam me online trying to get me to buy a suit from them)
  • RST ? replied to say they couldn?t speak with us as ?their media campaign for 2017 is already planned? but they might be able to answer a handful of basic questions about the quality of their suits in 2018? (seriously)
  • Scott ? responded by email
  • Spada ? no response
  • Spidi ? no response
  • Wolf ? same response as RST

SBF summary

It?s great to get a deeper understanding of how each suit is put together and the care that goes into making them but, now that we have all this information, what do we do with it?
Many people have contacted us regarding this feature and said that they?re really hoping that we will be able to say definitively which suit they should buy as a result of the research we?ve done but of course, it?s never as easy as that. There isn?t one suit which will be the best choice for everyone because there are always so many other factors which go into making a selection, primarily cost, but also availability, convenience and fit. So what we?ve done is listed below which suits we would spend our own money on at different levels of investment, based on the research we?ve done over the last few months. It?s by no means definitive as there are undoubtedly great brands who we have yet to approach or who didn?t wish to get involved with this article for whatever reason, and of course it?s partly subjective too ? we haven?t slid down the road at 140mph in all of these suits to test them out first-hand. Other than that, it?s as objective as we can be given the information we have.
Up to ?500 ? DRC
?500-?800 ? Dannisport & Furygan
?800-?1,300 ? Arc-on & Held
?1,300-?1,800 ? Hideout & Kushitani
?1,800+ ? BKS
This doesn?t mean that you should discount a brand in a lower price bracket than you are happy to spend ? we?d recommend you consider all the brands which are available within your budget. You never know, you might prefer a lower priced one and end up with great suit and money left over for a couple of trackdays.
 
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Hi Westy,

I've fixed the formatting :)
I met Marc of SBF at Jerez. I'm the Alex in his thanks list here http://www.superbikefreaks.com/jerez/.
He's a nice guy, created the website cause he was looking for content he wasn't able to find elsewhere which is cool.

With this article he's led somewhat by the responses he got more than anything proven. Arc-On for instance we've seen Alps Pacino's response on them where he's come out of a very long battle with them. So it's just another opinion on an internet full of them. But it's certainly interesting who responded...and who didn't.
 
I can totally recommend Hideout Leathers as I tested them in 1998 with a massive 80mph highside and a bit of sliding and rolling along the track until I came to a stop. I had no bruises or skin damage at all which was fantastic, the broken bones and nerve damage though were not so great but that was not down to the leathers lol.
Both of my Hideouts suits have been of excellent quality and strength, a little on the heavy side but that is the price I pay for the strength, I might choose my next suit to be made of Kangaroooo skin..

ps thanks Westy for the original post.
 
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I am getting a made to measure rst v4 suit made next month ,I just can't get off the peg suits to fit
 
I had a Texport suit that fell to bits at the seams from a low slide at Donnington ,next suit will be an airbag jobby
ps also had a set of J&S BKS branded gloves that also fell apart at the seams utter garbage
 
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Does make you wonder about qaulity at times, it's a combination of price v what you can afford at the time or indeed what ££s you want to part with.

I remember an old Superbike mag article from 1979 (is it just me that stretches that far back ?) with a golden nugget comment about helmets.. "buy the best helmet you can afford" that comment's often repeated and it's stuck with me ever since...

Leathers/gloves/boots should be no different, generally the more you spend the better the protection.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
 
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RST pro's when I started racing, had some alterations done by a local experienced guy and he was surprised by the good quality. 3 lowsides (one fast) and still intact although well scuffed. Now in Dianese, yet to hopefully not test . Bought a set of Cheers in early days as a backup for race weekends, well, I wouldn't wear them on a push bike lol. In fact, SBF had them to look at/test.
 
had my leathers designed and fitted up yesterday I think they look great and RST were very helpful with my stupid questions and cave man body .Cant wait to get them
Screenshot 2020-02-07 at 16.36.41.jpg
 
@Perkles ...have u got ur leathers yet??
RST emailed me last week they are due end of April but no idea how I am going to get them finally fitted and taught how to use the airbag system as you need to go back in
Even though I cant ride my bike I would like to see them now
 
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