liner | Motorcycle Accessories and Apparel

I have gained a healthy respect for REV'IT! protective apparel. I have found their stuff to be well designed and well made. However, the company makes a lofty claim with the name of the REV'IT! Ultimate Pants.

On first inspection, these armored textile pants look solid enough. The ...

Wow! Do they still make these? A traditional, no frills, no nonsense dirt helmet?

The HJC CL-X5N solid helmet is refreshing in its simplicity. This helmet doesn't pretend to be anything but a well-built off-road helmet. Rest assured, in the case of this helmet, simple does not mean low ...

The Icon TiMax 2 textile jacket is a rider favorite for good reason. Interestingly, the titanium is not just a sales ploy (although it is certainly that, too). There is actually exterior titanium armor plating and titanium reinforced textile panels in critical areas.

The TiMax 2 comes ...

I recently reviewed the Arai Corsair V for SpotMotorcycles. As one would expect, I gave it high marks. Here is a helmet that I am even more excited about: the Arai RX-Q. Arai describes it as a "Corsair V for the street".

Simply put, Arai has ...

Back to basics. That's how I would describe the Gaerne Balance Oiled Boots. Adventurer tourers and dual-sport riders are decidedly less prone to buy the multi-hued and trendy gear that is so popular with the motocross crowd. These Gaerne boots have a traditional leather look and feel ...

Most riders avoid weather extremes like rain, hail, snow, sleet, and blazing heat. I know adventure riders who actually seek out these extremes -- preferably in the same day! Obviously, riders with this mindset seek out gear with the ability to adapt to this full palette ...

I am intrigued by the premium (and pricey) motorcycle apparel brands as much as anyone. However, in these tough times, finding a company that continually produces quality protective wear at an affordable price is nice. Olympia is just such a company. I have found Olympia gear ...

In some people's eyes, the problem with armored motorcycles jackets is… well, they look like armored motorcycle jackets. The Teknic Women's Diamond Jacket offers a good measure of protection while still looking good off the bike.

Let's start, as we should, with protection. The Teknic Diamond features Knox Lite ...

The Dainese Santa Monica Perforated Leather Jacket carries a name that conjures the beauty of the West Coast. This varied terrain ranges from cool coastal temperatures to the toasty desert inland. This jacket should perform well in this spectrum of temperatures.

First off, this jacket is perforated for ...

Speed and Strength (SS) is a company with an eye for appearance but also solid attention to detail. The Speed And Strength Moment Of Truth SP Men's Mesh Motorcycle Jacket is no exception. It is a good-looking jacket that will keep you cool and protected in ...

The Alpinestars Royal Drystar Textile Motorcycle Jacket is a true foul-weather friend. This piece of riding apparel has features that will protect in extreme conditions. It is geared toward the commuter or the full-on touring rider.

The shell is nylon with PU-coating construction for strength and abrasion resistance. It ...

Joe Rocket is a well-known and respected manufacturer of motorcycle jackets, pants, boots, and riding suits. Aside from a name that will inspire an occasional, good-natured verbal jab from riding buddies, I have found Joe Rocket gear to be well-made and functional.

On the other hand, when I think ...

Because they are such a hot item right now, I've been reviewing a lot of "new concept" helmets. I've looked at modulars, convertibles, and crossovers. Marketing lingo aside, the basic concept is to offer a helmet that adapts to different riding conditions and different riding styles. ...

Transition… now that's a good name for this jacket. The Tour Master Transition Series 2 jacket is well equipped to make the transition from warm, to cold, to wet riding conditions.

This three-quarter length touring jacket has a 600 denier shell and a warming 100-gram Polyfill removable ...

Revolutionary. This new Shark Evoline Absolute Helmet is certainly that. It's hard to know where to start. I guess it makes sense to start with the helmet's most striking feature: the patented Tech-Move System Chinstrap. The chin bar unlocks, moves to a back ...

The Icon Men's Accelerant leather jacket is simply a quality piece of riding apparel. Icon has a reputation for being a company that appeals to the young and trendy segment of the riding community. Some of their gear is, in my opinion, a little "over the top" ...

Mt. Kilimanjaro is an extreme mountain environment in Tanzania. The Firstgear Men's Kilimanjaro Waterproof Jacket is a jacket designed for extreme motorcycling conditions. If you spend much time around touring and adventure motorcyclists, certain jackets tend to come up in conversation. Premium and extremely pricey jackets like ...

Having lived in Arizona for over 4 decades, I know a little something about heat. Having been a motorcyclist for almost as long, I know a little something about hot weather gear. I don't know if Joe Rocket invented the armored mesh jacket, but they are at least ...

Leather is protective, heavy, and expensive. Cordura textile is versatile, waterproof, and relatively affordable. An increasing number of quality motorcycle jackets are mating these two materials with very positive results. By placing leather in the impact-prone zones of the jacket, like the forearms and shoulders, the ...

Let's start with the technical features of the Fox Racing V3 Latinese motocross helmet. Most importantly, it is Snell and DOT certified. The shell is constructed of carbon fiber, Kevlar, and fiberglass. These are the premium materials for modern helmet construction. Fox Racing knows dirt ...

I have always felt that there are two areas where a motorcyclist simply cannot cut financial corners. One is tires, and the other is helmets. My experience with helmets is relatively extensive. I buy a new helmet every three years. However, I always seem to ...

Personally, I'm not into the whole "fear and intimidation" aspect in a lot of today's motorcycling gear. I have never donned flames, bones, or skulls. However, I am a realist, and I know this is a marketable aspect of our sport.

Icon's Men's Skull Leather Motorcycle Jacket plays ...

Riding to work at this time of year has its appeals. You tough out the cold morning, the street still untouched by the warming massage of all those particles of light, and you receive your afternoon reward of a beautiful fall ride past fields and fauna. These are, at least, my circumstances.

Tour Master ...

There are plenty of bike covers to choose from now that it's bike covering season. Trikes, however, are often neglected the comfort of a well-fitted cover and instead don a frumpy tarp for the winter season. A tarp traps moisture that will contribute to rust and degradation, which is not what you want ...

The KBC Ed Hardy "Death or Glory" Nomad brings me a weird kind of joy. The Ed Hardy tattoo designs, which don't shirk their responsibility of transmitting a certain disregard for an under-lived life, give this helmet an uncompromising look.

This particular model of the Nomad is in no way subtle, ...

Hawk helmets have been doing creative acrobatics with their helmet designs. The Advance green and white helmet takes the broad tapering stripes that have been the fashion in decals since, well, as long as I've seen full face helmets with decals. A little twist and they've added a strong, almost typographical art ...

Cats and dogs. Truckers and bikers. Leather and synthetic. Usually, these things are in opposition, but every now and then they come together in the spirit of peace and harmony. River Road's luggage liners bring the beneficial attributes of modern synthetic materials to your leather saddlebags, but tuck away and ...

Chase Harper's Dual Purpose bags will fulfill almost any functional needs you have for a set of saddlebags. A long feature list accompanies this product, so beyond the short time we are about to spend together, you should look up all the specs.

To start, the one feature that Chase Harper is ...

The Suomy Vandal Bayliss Limited is Suomy's new entry-level helmet designed for sport riders, sport tourers, and "urban riders", whatever that might mean. The Vandal features the same features found in Soumy's top-shelf premium helmets such as an ultra-luxurious liner with special "anti-nap" fabric the provides comfort, durability and hypoallergenic qualities. ...

The streetbike community is overrun, drowning in a deluge of textile jackets. Don't get me wrong; there are companies, like Icon, that make some great leathers for the street rider. There is, however, a particular style to this kind of jacket, and manufacturers will charge you an arm and a leg ...

Full-face helmets are not for everyone. The claustrophobic, for instance, might find them restrictive. Heck, I find them restrictive and I'm one of their most avid defenders. I'm inclined toward the half helmets for their style and the wind-in-your-face experience. Scorpion's Spitfire is a nice compromise if you're ever feeling ...

Sometimes you look at a product and you don't have to give two thoughts about its purpose. River Road's Basic leather motorcycle jacket is just that: a basic motorcycle jacket. You look at it and you know that it's cut and designed for riding because it looks like the jackets ...

Helmet branding is important. My natural inclination is to reject branding due to its relevance to status, which is a bunch of bull in my opinion. Branding, however, has function beyond that superficial stuff. It's a way to know that you're getting a good product without having to conduct crash tests in your ...

The AGV Miglia (Italian for "miles") is a modular helmet that comes with some surprisingly good features. If you've been considering a modular but didn't want to pay the investment price of some of the upper-end models, the Miglia brings high quality to a very affordable range.

At a fairly light 3 ...

Anyone who knows me knows that I like versatility. I'm terrible at making the big decisions because I always want to make the "right" one. Any product that can assure me it will accommodate me during a sudden snowstorm in a desert has my vote. Maybe the AGV Sport Evolution/Rally ...

I'm going to get right into the AGV S4 specs, because it's an impressive list.

The shell is constructed with carbon Kevlar fiber stratification and high resistance and absorption thermoplastic resins. The composite fibers keep it light but strong. To ensure this brain cage fits, the rider has the selection of ...

My brother-in-law just bought his third riding jacket. Third. He has a leather, a textile, and now another textile that has "Kawasaki" written on it. Each of these serve a purpose to deal with specific riding conditions, including that riding condition where people are looking at you and wondering what brand ...

Where I grew up there were miles and miles of woodlands with ill-tended 2-tracks snaking throughout them. You could ride off into the forest and not see another human for hours. Most popular sports involved guns, and most popular clothing was camouflage.

Many of THH's helmets are designed with flaming skulls and ...

Old tech is cheap, so there are a few manufacturers of helmets who decided to take what works and sell, sell, sell. Like everything today, your cutting-edge helmet is going to be old news in a few weeks, so saving your pennies might be smart.

Cyber helmets are not at the cutting ...

HJC has been the best-selling helmet brand in the US for years. I don't know if they will hold that title for 2009, but I would guess it likely, considering the quality they deliver for prices that make you nod. The cost of their helmets is not ridiculously, quality-questioningly good, but ...

Nolan makes some of the most aerodynamic helmets, including the Outlaw full-face model, which is surprising as they still have a stabilizing spoiler. Spoilers often lead to greater wind resistance and noise, but Nolan's engineering has gotten around those pitfalls with their unique polycarbonate shell. Even though it's a modular, it's ...

At Xelement they make a variety of leather apparel items as well as saddlebags. New for their lineup is the Cruiser Premium Vented jacket. It's called a vented jacket because the two upper zippers are actually vents, and there's a matching pair of zippered vents on the lower ...

Most things are designed to last these days, and what doesn't last is so fragile that it wears out before it wears in. You hardly ever see a nicely worn leather jacket anymore. My riding partner has had his jacket for seven years and it still looks new. Yes, I ...

The Shoei Na Company has been making helmets for motorcyclists since 1958. Their newest off-road offering is the VFX-W, introduced in 2008 and bringing some new designs for 2009. While a top-quality helmet with unique features, you'll also pay for this uniqueness in the same ballpark as Arai or ...

Here's something for the ladies: A textile riding jacket that is soft yet rugged and replete with CE-approved armor in the elbows and shoulders. Tour Master's Trinity Series jacket offers the rider more flexibility than leather, and nearly as much protection. No textile jacket is going to give the abrasion resistance ...

My first riding helmet was a matte black shell without any kind of symbol or emblem aside from the DOT sticker. After a while, I cut a few designs out of reflective tape and decorated its plain exterior. One of my riding buddies told me later that the ...

This helmet is what I call a blank canvas. The matte black TZ-R by Shoei is as simple as they come in appearance and will happily take your stickers, reflectors, paint, or whatever else you want to use to personalize it.

While the exterior is plain-jane, the inside carries a long history of ...

Sometimes, you have to see something to believe it. If someone described the Power Trip Stiletto jacket with the zebra design, all I would think would be, "Yeah, that will catch some attention, a zebra on fire!" Power Trip seems to have pulled off the design better than I could ...

The Tour Master Saber Series 2 jacket is prepared for anything. The design makes this a great riding jacket for rain, shine, cold, hot, day, or night riding. My first response to any textile is to balk at the thought of replacing my leather, but I've had to spend time under ...

I've always worn a leather jacket with armor, but it isn't the most comfortable item in my closet. If everyone around you is ranting and raving about the leathers, but you're just not interested in cow hide, Tourmaster offers their Range denim jacket made for bikers.

In appearance the Range looks ...