Textile vs Riding jeans

I ATGATT no matter what the weather. I survived Thailand at 46+ degrees in full gear, so in comparison summers here are nothing.

I wear Joe Rocket Mesh jacket/pants combo with armor inserts in elbows/shoulders/knees. Both jacket and pants come with a liner for the colder/rainy days.

What about just wearing regular jeans and wearing something like this underneath: https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/dainese-d-core-armor-pants

Those armour pants give you impact protection, but no abrasion. Jeans don't do much. Though, I gotta admit to riding in jeans a lot.

I still haven't tried out the Kevlar jeans like the Resurgence, but they seem pretty good. Currently rocking the Airglide suit as my every day commuting gear and wear the Motoport Kevlar 2pc suit for the long distance stuff. In the spring/fall, I also wear an Olympia Ranger suit which is not breathable, but it's waterproof (outer shell) and more suited to colder riding.

The armour in the Airglides moves around on my svelt knees, elbows and shoulders and I don't expect too much protection if I go for a slide. The Ranger suit has much thicker fabric and will no doubt protect much better than the Airglide stuff. The Motoport stuff is really nice and I have no doubts it will perform as advertised, especially considering that I have crash tested it already and it performed flawlessly.

Too hot for leathers, but lets put on a layer of armour embedded underwear under a thick pair of jeans. Won't that be even hotter?

kiwi said:

agree with MacDoc. My pants inners melted to my Independant knee protection. I had just changed to using that a few mths earlier. (I used to have photos.. but photobucket is gone now. )

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I have some of your photos that I took, before and after the repair, but can't upload them. I really need to put that article up sometime soon.

I always seek out photos of mesh gear that has melted in a crash, but they are quite rare. The mesh can harden, which must mean that it heated up in order to adhere, ball up and become shiny somewhat. I would not say that the mesh fabric had melted. Often when you get skin rubbed off it is not the outer layer than caused this but your skin rubbing on the inner layer. With sufficient violent movement your skin will simply rub off from a friction burn. I have never seen on the web, any situation where the outer mesh has melted and become molten and has hardened onto someone’s wound.

That said, there have been rare cases. I have documented some. The overwhelming majority of other cases show me that mesh does not melt, but it is not impossible. Compare to the many other images of mesh and polyester than have abraded.

To make you happy, here are two photos I took of an Olympia Nomad jacket that partially heated up and shined over. I was looking for proof that his textile had melted, but there was none. The owner...is on this board. He will be here shortly. I would post the photos here but they are too large, or some other reason.

Olympia Nomad textile jacket. ...lowsided in Pennsylvania at 80 kph in May 2012... This is a closeup of the textile at left elbow that did melt a little but did not rip through the inner liner. Inner liner and armour were undamaged. The textile jacket did its job.

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If you have photos of mesh gear that melted, I'd really like to see them and hear about your crash situation. I'll also document them for others on the internet to see. Other bikers around the world ask the same exact question about mesh.

Both mesh and textile are a one crash type clothing. Sure they might be repairable, but that would only be a bonus. If they have taken the blow of the initial hit and mostly saved your skin from a major graft, they have done their job.

Ethereal said:

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Firstly, thanks for a very large and clear image. Upon as close inspection as I can get from an image I'd say that there was no melting of the outer layer. I can see the slightly fluffy edges of the polyester fiber. You have scuffs and rips, it abraded through the inner layer as well, but no "pants on fire" melting.

rust0r said:

definitely had to pry myself out of my gear but am able to enjoy my ride a bit better ...

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Try wearing a long sleeve underarmor type shirt. My tight leather jacket slides right off even if shirt is wet.

bigpoppa said:

Looking for new riding pants, if both are high quality and designed for riding in mind, does it matter which route you go? Textile vs jeans?

Does one offer more slide protection than the other?

Anyone actually have any crash tested pants that they swear by?

Thanks

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Having a hypersport bike and not being a commuter or long distance rider, I prefer kevlar jeans for coffee and posing, and full leathers for riding. Just works best for me that way.

I have crashed on kevlar jeans. They held up quite well considering I lowsided around 90-100 kph, . I still have them, they only have a bit of a distressed look, lol. Just remember, no armour or impact resistance. And 99% don't even notice they are kevlar jeans.

The crashed jeans that held up so well were Draggin jeans. I now own some Drayko kevlar jeans and they appear to be reasonably equivalent to me.

Now if I was a traveler, commuter, high-miler, or had a different bike I could easily pick textile instead. And, as always ymmv.

Textile, mesh, leather or Kevlar. As long as you have something that will protect your legs and something that you will wear instead of it hanging in your closet when you go out riding is better than regular pants any day if the week.

I ride in icon kevlar jeans they look like a normal pair of jeans and comfortable. Yes they are a bit warm in the sunnier so I unzip the knees zippers a little (where the knee armour goes) to add a little more air flow.

It's not always going down you have to be worried about. I hit a wild turkey doing 90kms an hour this summer . Flew out of the ditch and hit my clutch lever, bar and hand My windscreen decapitated it and I took the body of he bird to my left leg. (30lbs+ bird hurts at that speed.) Not one cut or scratch to my legs and I could have been easy hurt by bone fragments or dumped the bike. I got off luck and glad I was wearing full gear.




If you don't take risks while your young, you'll have no great stories when your old

Its melted. One thing you cant get from the photo is how the smoothed out parts are to the touch. They are now brittle and crusty. Even the under side of the the smooth areas has lost its texture from the heat. Also note the shrinkage around the smooth spots

"Textile" covers too many options and so do "jeans".

Many riding jeans are just regular jeans with some reinforcement and armor. Well I can tell you regular jeans can rip just if you trip while walking so I wouldn't expect much protection. On the other hand there are some that have really thick and heavy kevlar lining which will hold up quite well.

Textile can cover anything from thin nylon that costs like $50 to Motoport kevlar that claims to be 10x as strong as leather and costs $500 for a pair. One of those will protect and other not so much.

So basically it's more complex than simply jeans vs textile but in general I would expect textile to hold up better as denim itself is not very strong. Usually the good jeans are basically textile pants with denim over it to look more casual so you might as well just go textile unless you really want to look like you're just wearing jeans (and most of them end up looking weird anyway).

Ended up getting the resurgence pekev jeans, they do have them at a good price @two wheel motorsport in guelph

bigpoppa said:

Ended up getting the resurgence pekev jeans, they do have them at a good price @two wheel motorsport in guelph

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I didn't realize they carried them. Recently picked up a helmet and boots from them and definitely would've checked out the Resurgence stuff had I seen it there.