Firstgear P-51 Jacket
FIRSTGEAR P-51 JACKET
CW EVALUATION
Style and function unite
OKAY. YOU’RE GOING TO A PARTY AND it’s a beautiful evening (but cooling off fast) and you want to ride your motorcycle, but you’ll be the only motorcyclist there.
You look in the closet at your regular riding jacket, festooned with stiff body armor in the elbows and shoulders. Stiff elbows at a party? Not ideal. Works great on the bike but suffers from what Charles Bukowski called “obviousness” at parties, movies and restaurants. Also, it’s not very comfortable to stand around in.
Enter Firstgear by Hein Gericke’s P-51 bomber jacket (a P-51 is not a bomber, but never mind), an entry into that category of garb nearly all of us own-a jacket that works on a motorcycle, but is comfortable-physically and sociallyelsewhere.
Essentially, Firstgear (Intersport Fashions West, 333 So. Anita Dr., Suite 1025, Orange, CA 92668; 714/9787718) has taken the classic Army Air Force A-2-type flight jacket and added a few modern and bike-minded touches for the rider. Unlike the WWII version, it has a fully sleeved snap-in liner and neckwarmer, underarm zippers for ventilation and hand-warmer pockets behind the main front pockets, which have zippered tops. It also has a collar that can be unsnapped and zipped all the way up, as well as a wind flap under the main zipper.
So, how does it work?
Like most Hein Gericke products we’ve sampled, leather quality, zippers, snaps and workmanship are excellent. The top-grain, dry-milled leather is thick but medium-soft. It’s “cafe black” in color-really a very dark brown, almost black.
The cut is fuller than a standard flight jacket’s, to make room for the liner and/or sweaters, but fortunately the leather is heavy enough that there’s almost no flutter at speed, even around the turned-up collar. Wind leakage, with the vents zipped up, is nil.
Before buying a P-51, though, the buyer should make sure the sleeves are plenty long. The size 42 we sampled fit testers well in the standingaround mode, but the sleeves crept up long, simian arms when riding a sportbike with low bars. Although the
sleeves are rotated forward slightly for motorcycling, this one works better on more upright machines than laydown sportbikes.
The only other minor complaint is that, in our opinion, the collar doesn’t look very good when snapped downit’s almost flat on the jacket, missing that elegant stand-up collar line of the old A-2. Off the bike, most people will wear it in the cool, turned-up James Dean mode anyway, which looks much better. Just don’t try to get into the Officer’s Club.
Overall, the $421 P-51 is a versatile, beautifully made jacket. With its ventilated nylon-mesh lining-and the underarm vents open-it makes a good summer jacket for all but the most searingly hot days. Vents closed, it’s plenty warm for cool nights, and with the liner snapped in you can ride deep into late autumn. Or wear it to parties, movies, restaurants and other fine establishments where body armor is not strictly required.
