Nowadays, almost all motorcyclists wear safety gear when they ride, and the reason for this is clear. Safety gear, also known as riding gear, includes specialized clothing and equipment designed to shield motorcyclists from abrasion during a fall and to protect them from severe weather conditions. A motorcycle's safety gear typically includes a helmet, hand gloves, jackets, and biker chaps. Biker chaps are usually made of leather and cover the leg from the top to the ankle.
As the leg is one of the impact areas that breaks a rider’s fall, it is pertinent to insulate it from any injury that might occur due to a fall.
But sometimes due to preference or dictate of occasion, a rider might not be comfortable with biker chaps. Thankfully, there are now jeans made specifically for riding in which are embedded the adequate protection measure that other safety gear offers.
This jean strikes an ideal balance between casual style and serious protection, so a rider that wants to blend with the crowd and not stand out in his biker-pronounced outfit, might opt for this instead.
What are Motorcycle Riding Jeans?
Motorcycle Riding Jeans are regular-looking but protective jeans specifically worn by riders for riding a motorcycle. Worn for a protective cause, these jeans are made with strong fibers which are used to create tear and abrasion-resistant areas, so a rider’s skin doesn’t suffer in the case of a fall.
Motorcycle riding jeans grew out of the demand for protective and street-alluring riding apparel. It looks like regular denim on the outside but is complemented with a handful of proven abrasion-resistant fabrics, with which a rider’s protection is guaranteed. Although other materials may be used, the commonly used abrasion-resistant materials are Kevlar, Covec, and Pekev.
More often than not, the protection offered by motorcycle-riding jeans is complemented by impact-absorbing body armor, some of which are adjustable while others are sewn with the jean.
Either way the armor comes serves its advantages; for instance, the detachable armored pads ensure comfortability while the sewn one provides better impact protection because it doesn’t get easily detached in the case of a fall.
Can I Wear Regular Jeans Instead?
As a rider, there may be times when you might not feel like riding pants or chaps, or perhaps the occasion doesn’t call for it and jeans would be more suitable. This doesn’t mean though, that you should don your favorite regular jeans and hit the road; your regular jeans will not offer you as much protection as safety gear will.
Regular jeans are not made with the same layer of cotton fiber that motorcycle denim or riding jeans are made with. Their materials are not made to resist abrasion, and as such, they do not have the density or strength to withstand the impact of a fall, a road crash, or an accident.
Therefore, a pair of your regular or street jeans do not have a slide time and will certainly split open on impact with granite, leaving your skin to provide abrasion resistance.
And since the protection of life is more important than short-lived comfort, motorcycle jeans will be more suitable. Unlike your regular pair of jeans, motorcycle riding jeans are made with abrasion-resistant fabrics or textiles to protect a rider’s skin from the impact of a fall.
What are the Best Riding Jeans?
There are different materials with which motorcycle riding jeans are made, some of which are discussed:
KEVLAR RIDING JEANS
Of all anti-abrasion materials used in making motorcycle riding jeans, Kevlar is said to be the most common. Having an age-long and excellent reputation for its resistance to tearing and abrasive energy, Kevlar motorcycle riding jeans adequately a rider from abrasion and cut in the course of a fall.
A pair of Kevlar riding jeans has its interior lined with Kevlar fabric so in the case of a crash, even though the outer part of the jean (denim) gets torn due to the impact, the Kevlar fabric takes over to withstand the abrasive forces of a slide or tumble on the pavement. If visible across the inside lining of the jeans, Kevlar is usually yellow.
Kevlar Riding Jeans may be partially lined or fully lined with Kevlar paneling and the difference between both is that the partially lined Kevlar jean only has Kevlar paneling in some parts, thereby providing protection only in certain impact areas like the thighs, knees, and buttocks. A fully lined Kevlar riding jeans, on the other hand, extend its protection to all impact areas, that is, the whole length of the leg.
The downside of a Kevlar riding jean however is that it is non-breathable; this means that it is incapable of transmitting air and moisture and as such, it can get stuffy when worn. So naturally, partially-lined Kevlar jeans are more comfortable to wear in hot weather than fully lined ones because partially-lined Kevlar jeans still some degree of air, albeit very little.
However, what partially-lined Kevlar makes up for in comfort, it lacks inadequate protection. And with fully-lined Kevlar jeans, a rider can get extremely stuffy especially in hot weather, but with it, you can boast of full protection.
COVER MOTORCYCLE RIDING JEANS
Being made of five layers, the Covec Motorcycle Riding Jeans boasts of high heat, abrasion, and cut resistance. The innermost part of the jean is cool mesh which is laminated to the Covec fabric which is in turn laminated to the denim. The Covec textile in the center of the jeans helps to create a microclimate that allows the jeans to be able to isolate the rider from the heat outside, either from the exhaust pipe or the atmosphere. This thus allows for an enjoyable degree of warmness and comfort even during summer; a feature that Kevlar motorcycle riding jeans cannot boast of.
Again, the Covec Riding Jeans have low moisture retention of 0.01%, unlike aramid fibers that retain up to 7% of moisture. This low moisture retention feature helps prevent a rider from becoming too sweaty in hot weather conditions. It also improves the durability of the jeans since it is not affected by rain, sleet, or sweat.
The Covec jeans also have low friction heat, which implies that in the event of a crash, the rider is protected from sustaining consequential burns which may occur from gliding against asphalt concrete or pavement.
PEKEV MOTORCYCLE RIDING JEANS
Made from the world’s toughest polymer-based material, the Pekev material possesses extremely fine properties like having low moisture (sweat) absorption, self-lubrication, and such high resistance to water and abrasion that it is estimated to be 15 times more resistant to abrasion than carbon steel.
These properties make the Pevek fabric to be desirable for motorcycle riding jeans, as it ensures that a rider is well protected from abrasion, snow, sleet and that a rider is kept warm during summer riding, hence ensuring his comfort.
The Pekev motorcycle riding jeans also boasts deep-rooted durability unlike aramid fabrics like Kevlar. For instance, ultraviolet rays, bleach, moisture, and detergents all affect the life cycle and long-term performance of regular aramid fabric but Pevek material stands above this setback. The materials used in making the Pekev jeans do not only weigh less when compared to other materials, but they are also highly breathable. This particular quality makes a rider comfortable even under hot weather conditions because heat is adequately dispersed and the jean does not feel heavy or stuffy, unlike other materials with high heat retention.
Taking this comfort further is the fact that Pekev Riding jeans have detachable hip and knee armor, as opposed to having it sewn with the jeans, a feature that calls for discomfort.
Addedly, the protection of the Pekev riding jeans extends to all the garment areas and not just the impact areas. Consequent upon these features, it is often said that the Pekev motorcycle riding jean is a triad package of safety, durability, and comfort.
Conclusion
In the end, no abrasion-resistant material has it all; there are pros and cons to using any one of them. The important thing is just to choose one that is more suitable for your purpose; might be street riding or track riding. To this end, there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a pair of motorcycle riding jeans that is best for you; the weather you intend to ride in, the kind of riding you’ll be doing (whether it is leisure riding, urban riding or track riding) as well as what you’re comfortable in.
Regardless of the kind of riding jeans that tickles your fancy, you should ensure that it is suitable for your purpose and that you are adequately protected against road impact, abrasion, and cuts. Consider waterproof riding jeans if you are planning to ride in wet conditions.
You might also want to ascertain the safety of a pair of motorcycle riding jeans by checking that it is CE-certified. CE certification ensures that motorcycle safety gear is protective and user-friendly, and the certification is divided into three classes; A, AA, and AAA. Each category shows the distance and speed for which a riding jean is suitable.
