Motorcycle Jackets Overview

What should you look for in a motorcycle jacket for protection, comfort, and durability? What kind of riding do you do? What is the weather like where you live? Do you prefer leather, mesh, or textile motorcycle jackets? Thinking carefully about these questions can help you make a better decision as to which motorcycle jacket is best for you. For some people, a leather motorcycle jacket is the best option. However, textile and mesh motorcycle jackets have grown increasingly popular in recent years, due to advances in motorcycle jacket material technology. Textile jackets offer much improved abrasion resistance and better armor than the models of a few years ago.

It is important to select the right size jacket. A proper fitting motorcycle jacket is designed to fit you correctly when you are on the bike, not walking around. Too much excess material in the chest area will allow the jacket to bunch up and flap around in the wind.

Most riders buy on style, but a real riding jacket should do much more than look good. With a bit of augmentation (layering), it should actually increase your comfort throughout the range of temperatures you ride in, serve your needs on the road, prevent damage to your machine, ward of gravel and bugs, and on that day when something goes wrong, provide significant protection from abrasion and even impact. That's the difference between a motorcycle jacket, and good-looking but functionally empty jacket.