To mesh or not to mesh. Also to our bikes and others use...

[TheGoodGuy]

I just got one of these..

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/item.aspx?style=11886&department=112&Division=1

works good for me.. I rode it this past sunday in the rain.. worked great for the most part.. i got a bit damp on the forearms but nothing major...

Anyway for 99 bucks its not a bad deal if they got your size. I must say the collar is a bit of getting used to.. it was pinching my adams apple.. but otherwise its fine.

[Hi-T]

Yes, we,ve all heard about mesh jackets melting. i can guarantee you that it would not be available for sale if even one person recieved serious burns to their skin caused by the jacket. Yes, we,ve all heard about mesh jackets melting. i can guarantee you that it would not be available for sale if even one person recieved serious burns to their skin caused by the jacket.

It's hard to sue when you're dead...  Anything is better than nothing- especially if you're just tooling around town.  but I'm inclined to believe that if you low side at 65, a mesh jacket is just as good as nothing.

I was a supervisor at a water park.  We used to test ride the slides in the morning.  We had an extreme gravity slide that if you goofed off on, you could push to over 70 feet per second.  If you were unlucky you might hit a dry patch of slide and you would either burn yourself or MELT your board shorts.

[notoriouskeef]

Well I was set on the mesh, but now a whole nother argument was thrown in there, so now i'm stuck to where I was before. With the jacket I linked mesh or no mesh.  Safety is a huge issue.  I don't care how I slide I want the jacket I buy to protect me the best way a jacket could, wether it be mesh or not, I don't like hearing that mesh jackets may just be good only if you slide a certain way or what.

I'm stuck.

Matt

[Nomak]

I wear a perfoated 1.4 mm thick leather jacket with tonnes of padding ... I also own a 3/4 tex jacket with padding (bought as passenger jacket) And i live in geogia. The only mesh apparel I have is a Joe Rocket Phoenix pants but plan on buying a pair of nice leather pants. Bottom line I try and follow the motto dress for the crash not for the leather ... but make sure that whatever you buy you know that you are going to wear it EVERYTIME you ride. If you feel that you will occasionally feel the urge not to wear the leather then go with the mesh because mesh is much better than nuthin at all .

Just my 2 cts

[jag69]

I agree with Nomak.  Mesh is better than nothing at all.  Here in AZ it gets real hot.  When I am joy riding and taking it easy (which is 90% of the time) I use my Firstgear Mesh jacket and pants.  I am very pleased with the quality of the product.  Some people give me a weird look in the summer.  Most bikers are in short sleeved shirts and jeans or shorts   .  Whatever you do buy something that you are going to use.  Leather or textile won't do you any good in the closet.  

dgyver is also correct.  We don't see racers were textile, but they are also riding very aggresive at extreme speeds.

Good luck

[notoriouskeef]

Well,  looks like i'm going w/ the non mesh.  I don't ever plan on riding w/out protective gear.  But I'll feel a little more comfortable and it does have air vents. plus it does get cooler here so i'll just put up w/ a little more heat.

Thanks guys,
Matt

[Blueknyt]

I had what looked like a brand new Perrelli Dragon rear tire, but had a 2" gash in it, and it was threw and threw. what i did, i patched the gash from insided, then doubled over that patch with a larger patch, then installed a 17x3.5 tube into it. it worked GREAT. once it was fully inflated i squirted glue into the gash and let it dry.

[Afterburner]

If you only get one, get non-mesh.  No question about protection.  Better for when it gets cool.  And maybe even better when it gets really hot -- riding thru 110 degree air could actually heat you up.  For warm temps, the vents work well enough when you're moving, but you do get hot when stuck in traffic etc.

[Jeff P]

Maybe a good supplement to a mesh jacket would be one of the Kevlar shirts made by the Draggin Jeans company?  

jeff

[aslam]

It's the Joe Rocket phoenix jacket that melts.  And yes I have seen photos of this from a crash test.  I wish I could go find those and post them here, let me see what I can do.

Plus -everything- sucks from Joe Rocket.  They make shitty products.

Anywhoo... you should be fine with the Icon mesh jacket.  The material is different than what they use on JR.

ASLAM.

[aslam]

Well here you go.  I found the photos.  So anyways, I would not recommend JR Phoenix or for that matter, anything JR...




ASLAM.

[Jeff P]

I may be wrong, but I believe that guy somehow got caught underneath a car, and those injuries were caused by him being stuck against hot engine and exhaust parts.  Leather probably would've worked better, but I doubt any textile, mesh or not, would have done better.

jeff

[Aceluck]

I have the ICON Motorhead Jacket. It's 1.4 mm thick leather, CE armored and has got really effective vents on the front of the shoulders and on the lower back, as weel as perforated inner sleeves. When the vents are open, I feel a huge amount of cooling airflow on my back. I love the feeling of safety that it provides.

I tried my dad's Joe Rocket textile jacket and it doesn't "feel" as safe.

Leather is Better

[aslam]

Yeah it was from CBR forum.  The guy got caught under the car and the radiator touched his jacket.  But he said the burns came from the slide also in other areas.

ASLAM.

[cozy]

It's hard to sue when you're dead...  

True that.  I still love leather, and it'll be the first choice for me unless it's really hot.  Hopefully i won't be the GSTWIN test case for mesh.  

[dgyver]

Here is my JR Speedmaster leather suit after a 60+ mph lowside over a year ago. There are some scrapes on the knee area but the puck took most of the grind. I still wear them with no problem with tech inspection.

[chuey]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH That Road Rash Was Ugly!!!!

[notoriouskeef]

ok, after seeing that pic I'm going to go ahead and order the non mesh.

I'll let you know what I think of the jacket and the other ICON gear i'm going to get.  I guess they are a fairly new company, bout a year old, not many reviews out there on their parts.  I love the style of their gear, and look forward to testing it out, well hopefully not crash testing

I just ordered this helmet today, I'll let you know allong with my other gear reviews what I think of it  http://www.helmetshop.com/itemdesc.asp?CartId=8-ACCWARE-959150FFXLL862&Ic=836570&Cc=&bMatrix=True&tpc=

Thanks for all your input!!!
Matt

[spdracer75]

Hrm,  I swear up and down on my Brosh kevlar jacket.

www.brosh.com  

Decent prices,  and good Isreali kevlar engineering.

For a few bucks extra you can get crash pads for your shoulders, elbows and back.  They also have riding pants and dew rags to keep your helmet from getting all nasty.

[zoltan]

those pictures are very misleading. those burns actually came from the guy being trapped underneath a car and being pressed up again the block and exhaust. like it was mention, leather may have helped in that regard, but mesh was never meant to protect something like that.

no one has said that mesh protects as well as leather, it doesn't. nothing does actually. but you also have to weigh in other factors as well. yes, racers need the protection of leather, but then again, i'm not tooling around at 100+ mph and pushing my bike to the limit. also, being stuck outside in the sun, in traffic, on a hot day is actually very dangerous. you can dehydrate very quickly or get sun stroke. a mesh let's a lot in that regard, it doesn't trap heat and let's any little breeze help cool you. sure, i've heard all sorts of stories about the horrors of mesh, but i've never met anyone who's had it happen to them, while i have met quit a few people who've gone down in mesh and it protected them. sure, the jacket was trashed but they were fine.

if it's get hot and hummid around where you live, and you plan to ride in that weather, i would suggest getting a mesh jacket. you can always put on layers if it's get's cooler. honestly though, it's best to have at least 2 jackets, a mesh for hot weather, and something else for colder weather.