suit Articles
Gear: Alpinestars Vika leather suit
By now, you know the standard formula for making a women’s leather suit: take an outdated guy’s item, widen the hips and sew on some tribal roses. Make sure it’s only offered in a condescending color palette and, voila, job done, yet more women put off riding. But not this new Alpinestars Vika range. Specifically created to flatter the female figure while offering significant protection it s...
05 November 2012
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
Go Aerostich, go black
Near elbow down on The Snake. 3,000 miles on a Honda Goldwing. Alone in Death Valley on a 636lbs motorcycle. Through water, in town, in the cold, in the hot desert. “Looks like moderately armored Prada,” according to our buddy Alan. Now you too can dress like two-thirds of the HFL staff; Aerostich is adding a version of the Roadcrafter allegedly inspired by Sean’s custom suit to its catalog....
10 May 2012
Dainese D-Air: the safety race is on
Both Dainese and arch-rival Alpinestars have spent the past decade developing real-life, airbag-equipped superhero suits and now they're ready for public consumption (even though no dates have been given on purchase availability). Alpinestars spilled the beans on TechAir back in August and, this week, Dainese did the same with this new D-Air suit, finally ready for public consumption. The safety a...
27 January 2012
News
How to stay warm on a bike
Have you ever been cold on a motorcycle? If you answered no, you're either lying or you only ride on sunny days in the summer. The rest of us know that even if it's 65º out, you can still freeze your ass off. It's now November and even in LA, most people have parked their bikes for the winter. Here's how you can stay warm and ride year round. Layers It's the obvious answer but in practice, laye...
04 November 2011
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
News
Traffic cops sue LAPD over illegal ticket quotas
“These kind of quotas undermine the confidence of citizens in the Los Angeles Police Department,” said the lawyer for one of two LAPD traffic officers who just won a $2 million settlement after being ordered to write a minimum of 18 major moving violation tickets per-day. Their victory could put an end to riders and drivers being illegally fleeced in the city and will hopefully inspire police ...
14 April 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