RIDE’S first winter jacket test
MOTORBIKES MIGHT BE faster, safer and more economical than they were 20-odd years ago, but they aren’t the only things to benefit from years of development: the clothing we wear to ride them has come a long way since RIDE was launched in 1995.
For our first-ever winter jacket test, 20 jackets were comprehensively tested by an enthusiastic young staffer called Geoff Haigh. First, he handed them out to local despatch riders to accumulate over 1000 road miles per jacket. If anyone could pull off a zip or rip open a pocket, a despatcher would. They failed.
Then Geoff carted the undamaged pile of clothing off to an Arctic clothing research laboratory, where they were each worn in turn by a human guinea pig in a freezer for 10 minutes at -24°C. When the subject emerged, shivering, the jacket’s heat loss was captured by a thermal-imaging camera.
Next up, Geoff invented a two-stage waterproofing test. As well as riding in the rain with every jacket, he added a control test that involved dowsing a rider sat on an MZ250 (not sure why) from a distance of 10ft with a fire-hose for ten minutes.
Finally Geoff helped construct an abrasion rig, comprising a sanding belt and test head, to which samples of shoulder and elbow material from each jacket were attached and dropped onto the belt. Copper wires on top of and beneath the material were connected to a timer, which then indicated the start and finish times of the test. Sounds complicated, and probably was.
The most expensive jacket in the 1995 line-up was a Dainese Anchorage, which boasted Gore-tex waterproofing, back, shoulder and elbow armour and a zip-out liner. Back then, the jacket cost £345 (around £650 in today’s money). But though it performed well, it wasn’t the winner (due, in part, to its price). Top honours went to the Scott Roadjacket, thanks to its combination of abrasion resistance, heat retention and value.
The test concluded with some questionable winter riding advice – survival tips included; “stuff your clothing with newspaper. You’ll rustle, but it works” and “eat a lot — the calories will keep your boiler stoked” and finally; “get a car...” None of which, thankfully, we need to recommend with today’s fully-featured winter kit.