Textile Jackets

There is so much information out there.  I need a safe textile jacket, something that will protect me, include armor, and will hold up and not "melt to my skin".  It also needs to be reasonable affordable.  I need to know what to look for, what compaines to search- any help appreciated.

Thanks!  

I recently got a Fieldsheer Conga Air Mesh from Competition Accessories for about $90. It's mesh is is perfect for summer (have worn it in 103 degree temps with no problems). It had elbow and shoulder armor and a backpad (which does get a little hot). It's made from what Fieldsheer calls polytitanium mesh. Don't know about the melt factor, but the jacket feels good, has excellent air flow, comes with a nylon liner and has rainproof and quilted liners available. I think it's a great deal for the money, and that was the best price I found.  

I have a Joe Rocket Reactor, body armor, mesh, but with perforated leather on the outside of the arms, and across the shoulders. It's fairly light leather, but it's over the top of the mesh. The newer model does have a waterproof liner (mine doesn't).
It's about 4 years old, and it's showing signs of wear. My Cortech 3/4 (solid textile) is about 8 years old, and just showing signs of wear.

I'm thinking about the TourMaster Flex II jacket. Mesh, armor, liner, and zip on full textile. It's gotta take up less room on the bike than 2 jackets for the long jaunts. I just hope they start making it in yellow, to match my bike.  

Since most injuries are impact related, manufacturers are more likely to tout the padding (armor) they put in their clothing than talk about the cloth materials they used.

For the cloth, the choices are surprisingly limited, with most being polyester or polyester blend. Since most crashes happen at 35 mph or less, polyester is adequate for sliding on pavement most of the time. The melting problem at those speeds is pretty much limited to the liner, when it is made from nylon. If the liner is also polyester, then it won't melt at those speeds. Nobody is willing to talk about how much protection their polyester materials provide at highway speeds.

A third party testing lab tested 58 textile jackets, ranging in price from mid to high end jackets. They were testing the jackets to see which actually passed the EU standards for protection. One of the surprises was that price was no indication of how well the jacket did in the testing. Another was the results of the abrasion testing, which only 5 jackets passed. While the article I read didn't identify which brands or models of jackets passed, it did point out that a single layer of cloth was not going to stand up to sliding at highway speeds, no mater what the material was, so if you're serious about protection at highway speeds don't ever wear an unlined textile jacket.

Currently, Kevlar is the newest fad. It's also very expensive and has a serious problem that is not commonly mentioned. Kevlar has very poor abrasion resistance. Surprisingly, there was an exception found several years ago, knitted Kevlar gloves. The gloves were made for handling sharp materials in industrial applications, such as handling recycled glass and metals, but abrasion testing revealed that they were far more resistant to abrasion than anything else that safety gloves were being made of at that time. Supposedly, the difference is because of the structure of the knitted material, which allows the fibers to give and rebound, a capability not normally found in Kevlar fibers. Of course, large knitted garments will flap, sag and stretch all out of shape in the wind, so knitted kevlar needs to be the lining, rather than the outer layer. If you look at DragginJeans jackets and pants, you'll find the Kevlar used in exactly that way.

Other manufacturers selling Kevlar jackets have other ways of using it. Some use a polyester/Kevlar blend of fibers in a woven cloth. Some use a polyester coating on woven Kevlar. Some just use woven Kevlar and ignore the problem. You have to look really closely at what you're buying with Kevlar, since it's still in the catagory of 'buzzword'. Tightly woven, bare Kevlar fibers, on the outside of the jacket won't hold up to abrasion much better than a layer of denim would.

There's a whole array of wikipedia articles on textile motorcycle jackets, with a whole bunch of references. Here's one you might want to look at for a starter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety_clothing

regards,
Joe