Vanson Leathers' Ventilated Jacket
It gets dang hot up in the California canyons. It was just perfect cruising up the Pacific Coast Highway, but those sweet ocean breezes just a few miles back are nowhere to be found now. It's a hundred degrees, the air is stagnant, and the black asphalt is slow-roasting anything passing over it like a pig at a luau. No, I don't expect any sympathy from those readers trapped in the flatlands, where a freeway on-ramp is the sickest curve for a hundred miles, but that isn't going to stop me from complaining. Nor will it stop me from riding, so I'm in frequent need of a jacket that can keep me cool, while providing some degree of protection if the gravel gremlins make a surprise visit from around a blind curve.
Vanson Leathers' nylon mesh "Vent" jacket to the rescue!
The folks at Vanson Leathers apparently couldn't resist putting a few extra cow trimmings to use, as this jacket features a racing style leather roll collar, zip-closed leather wrist guards and leather wrist trim. Though it isn't intended for racing or track-day use, this combination did give me a secure feel, without impeding airflow.
On the highway, the jacket stayed-put like leather, without flapping and tugging like some other textile . When I rode inland and entered the 103 degree heat of the San Fernando Valley, I was still hot, but the Vanson kept it from being the heat-stroke situation that would have most likely developed in a standard leather jacket. When you are riding in the Vent jacket, you don't notice any perspiration, because it instantly evaporates in the wind-blast. However, after I made a roadside stop and did a little sweating, the ventilation gave me the added-bonus of turning my perspiration into instant shock-cooling when I got back on the road. It was almost worth it to stop every 5 minutes or so, just to repeat the refreshing sensation.
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