Cruiser Motorcycle Jackets and Safety

The right gear makes motorcycling safer and more comfortable through a wide range of conditions. Yet motorcycle apparel buying decision may be based on little more than what the wearer sees while standing in front of a mirror. Consider a riding jacket. Most riders buy on style, but a real riding jacket should do much more than looking 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.

The Look Good and Feel Good Strategy

You can actually be cooler in a solid crash-resistant motorcycle jacket than in a T-shirt in hot weather, but the jacket must have good venting in places where the moving air touches it. If you ride behind a large windshield, that means that it must have vented out on the sleeves, perhaps even on the outside of the sleeves. I have a Raw Denim Jacket, for example, with a unique scoop on the outside of the forearms to catch air flowing around the shield. If you don’t have a windshield, then large vents in the upper chest, such as the tuck-away panels on some motorcycle jackets, are a cool solution. What goes in must come out, so the jacket should have exit venting on the back too. If you are buying a jacket just for warm weather one of the pekev motorcycle jackets can actually keep you cooler while moving than riding in just a shirt.

The Length of Motorcycle Jackets

Jacket length is also an issue. Short jackets tend to be the most popular from a styling standpoint, but I have noticed that few experienced motorcycle riders use them as their primary jacket. Short jackets have a tendency to pull up in a slide, leaving you exposed between the bottom of the jacket and the top of your pants. I prefer a jacket that reaches my hips since it is less likely to ride up that far in a slide. It also keeps breezes from blowing up my back on colder rides.

Remember that anything you want to reach while riding must be accessible to your left hand, so change pockets for tolls, map pockets, etc. should be on the right side. Zipper pulls should be large enough to grip with heavy gloves. If you are planning on mating the jacket to pants, it’s nice if it comes with a zipper for that purpose, though that can be sewed in later. One feature I find indispensable when I’m not using the jacket is a hanging loop.

Points to remember

Massive zippers, fancy snaps or big chrome buckles may look cool, but they can also scratch your bike’s paint, especially on the tank. Sleeve zippers and snaps will also come into contact with your bike more frequently than you might suppose. However, don’t abandon these kinds of closures in favor of a knit cuff. The problem with knit-style cuffs often found on aviator-style jackets, is that they permit the sleeve to ride up your arm if you are sliding on it in a crash. The sleeve should close snugly enough that it can not pull up and expose your forearm. 

You probably want some adjustability in the cuff area though to accommodate additional layers of clothing, watches or gloves. A closure using hook-and-loop material can provide great flexibility. Our preference is for a system that uses hook-and-loop material or snaps to adjust the size combined with a zipper (independent of the adjusting system) for closure. The least convenient cuff systems are those where you must zip and adjust each time you put the jacket on. This is also true of waist adjustments. The adjustments help you accommodate varying layers beneath, but I’d rather just zip the jacket and not have to mess with the belt each time I put it on.

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