question about riding pants

on a general level of protection, assuming all pants in discussion have knee and hip pads is rating of protection like so:

#1 Full Leather
#2 Textile
#3 Mesh
#4 riding jeans


I currently have some riding jeans with kevlar lining, knee pads and hip pads. I was interested in getting another pair of pants thinking of getting a mesh pair but wasn't sure if mesh pants offered more protection then a good pair of riding jeans if they didn't i'd probably go textile instead.

All things considered, mesh riding pants should offer a greater level of protection than Kevlar riding jeans.

The greatest level of protection will come from perforated leather pants followed by textile. There simply isn't enough Kevlar in those riding jeans to satisfy my safety need. Kevlar is normally applied only to the knees, and hips... thats it!

At minimum, I would wear a pair of mesh riding pants over a pair of Kevlar riding jeans.

I guess this all depends on your intended use. Textile is great for touring or commuting, while leather is great for simply riding. I've got some Alpinestars Street Cargo pants, and I find them really good. I can put them over any other pants for commuting, and go over my boots no problem. They are vented just above the knees so, for me, they are cool enough, but wouldn't be much good if it's really hot. Pretty durable and have good knee armour. Only problem with textile is that, for some reason, they all seem to have fairly wide ankles. I actually added another strip of velcro felt to mine so I could tighted up the ankle closures.

I rock the Joe Rocket Alter ego pants all day long.

they have full zippers up the sides of the leg so you canEASILY toss them on over jeans, shorts or a bathing suit and still have full protection.

also while riding if its really hot you can just open up the sides a few inches from the top (2nd zipper at the bottom holds them firm at the ankle) and you get alot of wind flow.
great ventilation, VERY comfy and come with an incredibly warm liner which I rode with at -10*C comfortably. Best textile pant out there IMO

+1 on the Joe Rocket Alter Ego pants. Love mine. I also wear ICON hooligan jeans.



Some interesting stats I found out this weekend about pants during my Motorcycle Instructor Training. This was stats from a test down a few years back, just before textile materials were starting to become popular.

They took various pants, filled them with 75Lbs of sand, then gently lowered them onto asphalt at 80Km per hour. Here are the results of how far each made it before they wore away.

Racing Leathers = 85 feet

Designer/Fashson Leathers = 4 feet, 4 inches

Denim Jeans = 3 feet, 8 inches

Pretty eye opening stats!! Textile pants were not included in this test.

damn now itch in full effect gotta get me some textiles, do they make not insanely tight a$$ leathers?

mercm3 said:

damn now itch in full effect gotta get me some textiles, do they make not insanely tight a$$ leathers?

Click to expand...

One of the other reasons that form-fitting leathers protect well is because of the relatively tight fit. When we wear loose fitting protective gear we introduce the prospect of getting "bitten" by the very gear that's supposed to protect us. A bite occurs when the loose material grabs a hunk of your flesh and then rolls the flesh up in the folds of the material. Not a pretty sight.

The forces that get exerted on gear in the event of an accident can be pretty extreme/intense -- think about the way that an aircraft's tires smoke when they hit the runway. The wheels/tires go from zero to the speed of the aircraft in a split second, that's sorta what we're talking about here (granted, we're moving at lower speeds but the concept is the same).

I'm not suggesting that all gear has to be as form-fitting as leathers tend to be, but this is one aspect to bear in mind when making gear selection.