Alright, so I’ve been riding for a while now, and I’ve always been kind of a stickler for safety gear. You know, the whole “dress for the slide, not the ride” thing. Recently, I started thinking more about my riding pants. I mean, I always wear them, but I started wondering just how good they were at actually protecting me in a slide.
So, I did what any normal person would do – I started digging into it. I found a bunch of stuff online. I saw some material called SuperFabric which said it provides high levels of abrasion resistance for motorcycle apparel. Okay, cool. Sounds good. And then there’s this other material, Cordura, which is apparently some kind of nylon-based elastic stuff that’s also supposed to be really good for abrasion resistance. Sounds useful for me.
But then I stumbled upon some comments about this other brand, Leatt, and how their 1800d stuff is probably polyester. Now, polyester is fine for like, low-speed dirt impacts, but I’m mostly on the street, so that got me a bit worried. And I got to thinking, what are my pants even made of?
So, I pulled out my trusty riding pants and checked the tags. Turns out, they’re made from a mix of materials, but there’s definitely some polyester in there. Now, I’m no textile expert, but that didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. This got me thinking, what are my pants even made of?
I decided I needed to do some actual testing. I grabbed a few different pairs of pants – some regular jeans, some riding jeans with that SuperFabric, and my regular riding pants. Then I took them out to an empty parking lot and got to work.
First, I tried to do some hand-held abrasion tests. I basically just rubbed the different materials against the asphalt to see how they held up. The regular jeans tore pretty quickly, which was no surprise. The riding jeans and my riding pants did better, but it was hard to really tell how much better.
Gravel Test
Next, I decided to try something a little more…intense. I took an old pair of riding pants and filled them with some padding to simulate a leg. Then, I dragged them behind my car at around 20 mph, first with the jeans then my riding pants. It is a low speed but I think it might work.
- Jeans: The jeans shredded almost immediately. Big holes, lots of damage.
- Riding Pants: My riding pants held up much better, but they definitely showed some wear. There were some scuff marks, but no actual holes.
Finally, I did a drop test. I took a watermelon, wrapped it in the different materials, and dropped it from shoulder height onto the asphalt. Again, the jeans didn’t do much to protect the watermelon. It split open pretty badly. The riding jeans and my riding pants did a better job, but the watermelon still got pretty bruised.
So, what did I learn from all this? Well, it definitely confirmed that riding pants are way better than regular jeans. No surprise there. But it also showed me that not all riding pants are created equal. The SuperFabric stuff seemed to hold up pretty well, but my regular riding pants, while better than jeans, maybe weren’t as tough as I thought they were.
At the end of the day, I decided to invest in some new riding pants, specifically ones with more of that SuperFabric or Cordura stuff. It’s an expensive investment, but your skin is pretty important, you know? And hey, maybe I’ll do some more testing with the new pants when they arrive. You can never be too safe, right?
