THE RIDE VERDICT
Rev’it offers best combination
AS ADVENTURE-TOURING SUITS have to cater for many different types of riders and riding scenarios, they will always end up with certain compromises and areas in which they excel and others, where they fall short – they can’t all do everything. And that’s how these suits were split in the final result.
Overall, we found the Rev’it Sand 4 H2O suit offered the best compromise for all occasions, with an excellent balance of performance that adventure riders demand and the comfort and plushness road-riders expect. It wasn’t the toughest suit we tested; that was certainly the hard-as-nails Klim Carlsbad. Neither was the Sand the most plush-feeling but it delivered a nice balance, as well as lots of well thoughtout and executed features, earning a Best Buy Award.
The next best all-rounder was the RST Pro Series Adventure-x jacket and jeans combination which, although being a bit bulky and heavy (it might well bed-in after more miles) performed well in every test and had a reasonable price and high level of inherent safety. As a result, we feel it is worthy of a Recommended triangle.
Despite its toughness, the Klim suit was just too focused on trail riding for us while the beautifully comfortable T.UR J-zero was left lacking in some areas (zipping adventure boots under the trousers most noticeably) and we felt the Spidi 4Season was a bit too thin for all-year-round use.
However, despite the lowest score (mainly as it was the only one to leak during the water test), the performance of the budgetfriendly Spada should be applauded. An adventure suit with most of the features of ones that cost two or three times as much and, aside from extreme wet weather, did almost as well is an impressive achievement.
‘These suits have to cater for all riders’