Body armour and Leather jackets?
 

I've been looking around at different protective clothing solutions for a Japan to UK motorbike trip. I've checked out the synthetic jackets etc and unless you pay big bucks the protection seems flimsy. I was wondering if wearing motocross style body armour under regular clothing would do the trick. Alternatively, is leather any good (combined with rain jacket in the wet) for this kind of trip?

Check out Bohn Body Armor, it's good stuff designed to go under riding gear.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Bohn+Body+Armor will give you plenty of info.

Re leather, we did our trip rtw with leather, and were happy with it. Most of the time. Ours was custom with plenty of venting, so it was actually pretty good in the hot climates. But it's heavy, and takes a long time to dry out if it gets wet. We did of course use rain jackets, which worked out fine, but wading across streams etc means you still can get wet.

We've switched to Rukka nylon suits. Not cheap though. OTOH good leather is very expensive, in fact I doubt there is much difference in price in the end, and especially if you add rain jacket and pants on top of the leather, it's probably more for that combination than the Rukka (or BMW) suits.

I like Rukka and BMW's removable inner Gore-Tex liner a lot. Cooool when out.

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Grant Johnson

One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I've got a BMW Atlantis 2 leather suite. They claim it is waterproof with the gortex liners and water resistant without. I spent most of Sunday last in the rain with it and stayed very dry: So far so good. Downside is it will be hot in the summer and it's pretty expensive.

Kurt

Thanks Grant and Kurt for the advice.

Cheers
Viktor

Oh, and leather may not be cooler, but it is way COOLER, if you know what I mean. It takes a real cool person to look COOL in red nylon.

Kurt

Hi-Ya
Been on the road for 7 months now through Africa, started with well padded "Hein-Gereke?" type jacket but ditched it in Dakar - too damn hot. Got some body armour instead, way cooler and easier too warm up or keep dry by adding extra clothing or rain jacket over it.
Good Luck
Andy

Nothing will protect you from road rash like leather. I would go with decent leather and get some raingear to go over that in wet weather.