leathers Articles
Finally, a leather suit designed for ladies
24 million people in the US rode a motorcycle last year. Want to take bets on how many did so in full leathers? Yeah, a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of that total. But why would the vast majority of riders risk their lives and comfort by skipping protection? They either don’t like the way it looks or don’t understand its benefits. That’s where this new Vika suit by Alpinestars comes in. It seek...
28 August 2012
Pictured: the future
In the future, our race suits will be capable of predicting crashes, inflating prior to impact in order to absorb forces exceeding even 23g without injury. In the future, those suits will sync to mobile devices more powerful than the computers used to put men on the moon. In the future, all those components will add only 450 grams of weight and require no additional space in the suit. In the futur...
13 June 2012
My new favorite thing
First, let’s note what you don’t see in these photos: No grotesque over branding. No Day Glo colors. No logos the size of your thigh. No unnecessary speed hump. No tacky metal stick ons. No functionless air scoops. Instead, there’s just supple, strong, perforated kangaroo hide thats been stitched together by hand in Italy. This is my new custom one-piece from Icon. I love it. “We call it...
14 July 2011
Thank you Alpinestars
So I had a little crash on Sunday. Lowsided at about 40mph and slid down the road, chasing a tumbling bike. You know what? It was actually kind of fun. That’s because it didn’t hurt. Not a bit. That’s because I was wearing head to toe Alpinestars safety gear. I don’t want to say which bike as the we haven’t sorted out the details with the manufacturer but, suffice it to say, that a sli...
23 June 2011
Rossi’s new leathers
“Although everything is still far from ideal shape, I'm doing therapy, but for now I suppose get 100 percent fit by May 1.” These are the first images of Valentino Rossi wearing his new red, white and yellow Ducati leathers. At the multi-day team launch, the rider was finally able to speak about his early experience with the Ducati GP11 and his hopes for the 2011 season. He’s realistic ab...
11 January 2011
Dainese D-Air: satellites, accelerometers and the safest suit ever
This is the final production version of Dainese D-Air, the new airbag equipped racing suits that you’ve seen Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo racing in this year. Dainese’s is the most sophisticated motorcycle airbag yet. 10 years in the making, D-Air incorporates GPS, three accelerometers, three gyroscopic sensors, the ability to fully inflate in .05 seconds, deflate in 5 seconds and it will...
27 October 2010
News
Attention manchildren: you can now dress up like Iron Man on your bike
Always wanted to be a depressed alcoholic with daddy issues and an inability to relate to women? Finally, there's a motorcycle suit for all the repressed Tony Stark's out there. From the same company that brought you the Dark Knight leathers comes the Iron Man Motorcycle Suit. A "screen accurate" replica of the Mark V suit Tony throws on in Monaco to battle Mickey Rourke, it's makers are adamant t...
14 July 2010
News
The gear that saved Guy Martin's hide
This is the Dainese/AGV gear that Guy Martin crashed in during the Senior TT. It's actually amazing how well this stuff survived the 150mph get off that ended in a huge fireball. Guy only suffered broken ribs, fractured vertebra and bruised lungs in the huge crash, not bad considering the speed and the TT's obstacle-rich environment. The neat thing here is that you can buy and wear every single on...
23 June 2010
News
BMW DoubleR adds gear to S1000RR
BMW will be launching a helmet (not for the US), leathers, boots and gloves combo to accompany the 2010 BMW S1000RR. Lots more than just unique colors on existing gear, all the BMW DoubleR items are tougher, lighter or fancier than before, while the price is described as "affordable.">Helmet Based on BMW's Sport helmet, the DoubleR adds a carbon fiber shell and a unique rear spoiler that should ...
21 September 2009