Aerostich Transit Suit
Aerostich Transit Suit
CW EVALUATION
Riders on the storm
IT’S THE MOTORCYCLE TOURIST’S dream: A set of truly waterproof leathers, so you don’t have to waste your precious luggage space on rain gear that could otherwise be used to pack, say, a more fragrant shirt for dinner. We won’t even mention your socks.
Is deliverance at hand?
Seems Aerostich-makers of the famous Gore-Tex Roadcrafter and Darien riding suits-has introduced a jacket and pants combo made from a new (and costly) waterproof leather called Gore-Tex Pro Shell Leather.
It’s real leather-top-quality cowhide-but chemically treated with silicon compounds for waterproofness and dyed for UV reflectivity to reduce heat, and it’s also micro-perforated for breathability. Adding to the suit’s weather-tightness are waterproof zippers, backed by drainage-flap “gutters,” should any water seep past. Aerostich sent us a suit, and we ventured forth on the first seriously rainy day-and on many days after that in heat, moderate temperatures and cool gloom.
First impressions: Beautifully made, impeccably crafted but a bit heavy and stiff when you first don the suit.
Aerostich is using a new foam armor called TF5 that stiffens on impact, but it feels stiffer, sans impact, than the old foam. After you’ve had it on a while, however, it seems to soften somewhat with body heat and form itself more naturally around your sculpted physique. The leather also feels initially rather thick and unyielding but gradually breaks in as it begins to wrinkle in the right places.
DETAILS Aerostich RiderWearHouse 8 S. 18th Avenue W. Duluth, MN 55806 212/722-1927 www.aerostich.com Price... $797 jacket/$697 pants Waterproof leather Exquisitely constructed Can be purchased and worn separately Downs Seven pockets but not a tot of storage Not the best choice in hot climates Nearly twice the price of a oneor two-piece Roadcrafter
Rain-proofness? We rode for about two hours in a toad-strangler and found the suit to be waterproof as adverti sed-except for the usual seepage down from the turtleneck and up from the glove/cuff junction. The leather is supposed to absorb only about 10
percent of its weight in water (versus 30-50 percent for untreated leather) and dry out quickly, but it still gets damp in a downpour, and it dries out better on the road than in your motel room, where ours still felt clammy in the morning-but only on the outside.
Aerostich advertises good hot-weather reflectivity, but you may find-as we did-that this is a pretty warm and heavy suit for temperatures above 70 degrees; better for spring and fall trips than the dog days of summer. A wide, zippered rear vent helps, but there’s not much flowthrough. We tried the pants over jeans and also over riding shorts, and, either way, they bunched up behind the knees while riding a sportbike, but they felt better on a cruiser or tall adventure-tourer.
The jacket has slim but usable pockets-internal, hand-warmer and chestand the pants have flat front pockets and easy over-boot side zippers, with hook-and-loop tightening panels at the cuffs, which fit better over boots than inside them.
Overall, a good cool-weather suit, but it might be a bit too heavy to be the only one you’ll ever need.
