#Dainese

–We’re constantly on the look for great deals on motorcycle gear. We’ll be updating this post each week with the latest sales on gear and accessories, so keep checking here for new deals.

HEY! Did you know you could help support us MOrons by buying stuff at Revzilla? It’s true. Whenever you click on over there after seeing a thing here, we get a piece of the pie. It’s a win/win situation – especially when the thing is on sale. You get a deal on what you needed anyway. We get to keep eating. Here are a few of this week’s retail therapy opportunities.

Motorcycling airbags systems have now been in development for upward of 30 years. Companies like Alpinestars and Dainese have brought products to market, revised them, updated them, and developed new airbag systems to cover a broad range of motorcycling such as track riding, commuting, and off-road riding. We’ve seen these systems go from being integrated into specific garments, to standalone units that can be worn universally (with proper fitment). Now, we even have subscription-based systems that offer a lower barrier to entry price-wise than initially available. 

Here at MO, we’ve done our best to cover the cutting edge of this technology as new products and airbags emerge. Heck, our own Troy Siahaan has proven himself time and time again to be a most excellent crash test dummy and because of this, he won’t be caught on two wheels without an airbag between him and impending doom. Do yourself a favor and read through Troy’s copious crash tested articles for first hand experience of airbag deployments. Due to his experience, I couldn’t think of a better person to lend a few keystrokes to this article.

Before we get into the five airbag systems we were able to test, we want to address the lack of a major player in the biz. We contacted Helite, which initially showed interest in being involved, but was then later unresponsive. Helite makes a range of airbag products from vests and jackets, to airbag backpacks, and now, airbag riding pants. All of the company’s current product line relies on mechanical tethers to the motorcycle which, when pulled, opens a CO2 cartridge which then deploys the airbag. There are other interesting features to Helite products and we are disappointed to have not been able to include them in this buyer’s guide. 

While we know there are other companies out there, these were the latest products we were able to have on hand to review.

With all that said, let’s take a look at how airbags from the other major players stack up.

For generations, the image of bikers in black leather jackets and blue jeans has been a (somewhat accurate) stereotype of motorcycle fashion. Riders and non-riders alike donned this gear to portray this lone individualist image. In fact, the riding gear I wore during my first, formative motorcycle trip as a newly-minted rider was a black leather jacket and blue jeans. And for a long time, this plus boots, gloves, and a helmet were state-of-the-art for rider protection. However, technology has transformed motorcycling in more ways than just adding computers to bikes. Over the past five years or so, we’ve seen an entirely new market of riding apparel move from obscure to relatively commonplace. Riding jeans have moved from merely being denim jeans with a layer of abrasive-resistant material as an under layer to fully technical motorcycle gear with certified armor and a variety of styles and materials.

Naturally, we, here at Motorcycle.com, thought that it would be interesting to take a deeper look at what this popular class of riding apparel has to offer. In the end, we ended up testing 34 pairs of riding jeans. We spent months gathering them and coming up with a uniform way to look at them and convey their qualities, both good and not-so-good, to our faithful readers. You can go ahead and protest our failure to include your favorite model, but we know we didn’t get them all. It would have been impossible. Really, just getting 34 took a lot of effort.

If the Google machine dropped you directly on this page without seeing the introduction to MO’s Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide, and you are confused as to what’s going on, you should click here to read the introduction and the full listing of jeans. If you’re the adventurous type who just wants to jump to our individual reviews of 34 pairs of jeans, the Table of Contents below will only give you a direct link to jeans on this page. So, we still recommend that you go to the introduction. There’s a lot of good info to cover.

MO Tested: Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide – Introduction

If the Google machine dropped you directly on this page without seeing the introduction to MO’s Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide, and you are confused as to what’s going on, you should click here to read the introduction and the full listing of jeans. If you’re the adventurous type who just wants to jump to our individual reviews of 34 pairs of jeans, the Table of Contents below will only give you a direct link to jeans on this page. So, we still recommend that you go to the introduction. There’s a lot of good info to cover.

MO Tested: Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide – Introduction

If the Google machine dropped you directly on this page without seeing the introduction to MO’s Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide, and you are confused as to what’s going on, you should click here to read the introduction and the full listing of jeans. If you’re the adventurous type who just wants to jump to our individual reviews of 34 pairs of jeans, the Table of Contents below will only give you a direct link to jeans on this page. So, we still recommend that you go to the introduction. There’s a lot of good info to cover.

MO Tested: Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide – Introduction

If the Google machine dropped you directly on this page without seeing the introduction to MO’s Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide, and you are confused as to what’s going on, you should click here to read the introduction and the full listing of jeans. If you’re the adventurous type who just wants to jump to our individual reviews of 34 pairs of jeans, the Table of Contents below will only give you a direct link to jeans on this page. So, we still recommend that you go to the introduction. There’s a lot of good info to cover.

MO Tested: Massive Riding Jeans Buyer’s Guide – Introduction

If there’s a piece of apparel most associated with motorcycling, it’s undoubtedly the leather motorcycle jacket. The leather jacket is part of our uniform, but even non-riders search the bins for cowhide when it’s time to dress up for Halloween, or down for any occasion that calls for cool. No matter what you ride, the best leather motorcycle jackets are versatile enough to look at home nearly anywhere, and on nearly anything. A premium leather jacket will never go out of style, and the more you wear a quality one, the more comfortable it will feel – there’s just something about leather that other materials can’t match. Bountiful and ubiquitous, with seemingly endless options to choose from, it would be impossible for us to feature every single jacket out there. So here we’ve gathered a small sampling of the best leather motorcycle jackets the market has to offer, listed in alphabetical order.

I’ve worn gauntlet gloves for years because I like the superior protection they offer. However, it always came at a cost of no cooling air flow up the sleeves. So, when I found myself looking for a new set of gauntlet gloves, I thought I’d try a pair with gauntlets that go inside the sleeves to see if they allowed for the ventilation I was craving. I ordered up a set of Dainese Steel-Pro In Gloves because of both the protective features and the fact that they had a low-profile cuff that would fit inside of jacket sleeves. When they arrived, a visual inspection showed the features to be every bit as stout as I had hoped they would be. The funny thing is that when I first put them on, I didn’t like them at all. It had been a while since I’d worn a pair of gloves that required more than a minimal break-in period. However, after the all-day use afforded by my multi-day tour in Virginia and North Carolina, I changed my tune considerably as the Steel-Pro In gloves had molded themselves almost perfectly to the shape of my hands. 

I am quite fond of my Dainese Torque 3 Out Air Boots, and they have been my three-season boots here in warm, dry SoCal for years. Unfortunately, the exceptional venting means they are not waterproof. When I started planning my Ducati Multistrada 4S tour in Virginia and North Carolina, I learned that, on average, there is a 30% chance of rain during the week I would be there. That’s before the current weather patterns were considered. So, I figured I better be prepared for all eventualities. What I settled on were the Dainese Axial Gore-Tex Boots. They offered the two features I was most concerned about (other than excellent protection) on this trip: venting for hot weather and waterproofing for April showers.

When is a pair of street motorcycle gloves worth $240? When you know they’re going to last a good long time, that’s when. If these new 4 Stroke 2’s are going to hold up as well as the 4 Stroke Evo originals I’ve been wearing for about the last decade, then 240 bucks is probably a bargain. I’ve got more than a few pairs of cheaper gloves that grew holes or fell apart over that ten-year interim – including some lesser Daineses – but then I’ve also got some cheaper ones that have held up really well.

In motorcycles, we frequently see tremendous loyalty in consumables like brake pads and tires. Because of their long life cycle, riding gear isn’t usually thought of as a consumable (except, perhaps, from crash damage), but if you use something long enough, it will eventually wear out. Boots and gloves suffer the stresses of everyday use more than other riding gear and, consequently, fall into this category. 

Airbags are kind of a big deal around here, ever since I had the unfortunate pleasure(?) of putting one to the ultimate test. Since that fateful day, however, I never hop on a motorcycle without wearing an airbag, and I’ve been an advocate to anyone willing to listen that they should wear one, too – no matter who makes it, and no matter how it’s activated.

In the field of smart airbags – that is, airbags not requiring a physical tether to deploy – the choices are a little slim, though options are slowly expanding. This brings us to In&Motion and its smart airbag system. US customers may not be as familiar with the brand as its origins are in France, but the company has been widespread in Europe for a few years and partners with Klim in the US, where its airbags have slowly been gaining traction.

UPDATE 2/7/2023: We’ve since published a huge three-part motorcycle denim buyer’s guide that features 34 different pairs of denim, with selections for both men and women. Some of them are featured in the story below, but you can see them all by clicking over to the Buyer’s Guide.

It’s a little strange that, considering how long people have been wearing jeans and riding motorcycles, the idea of riding denim is still relatively new. Nonetheless, we’re happy apparel manufacturers far and wide have developed jeans we can wear both on and off the motorcycle. In case you’re not aware of why this is important, allow us to fill you in. Your standard pair of Levis may be really comfortable, but regular denim is terrible at protecting you if you fall off your motorcycle. When denim meets asphalt, it shreds to pieces in seconds. Not to mention that it provides no impact protection to your knees or hips.

Riding denim addresses these issues by incorporating some kind of reinforcing fiber to greatly bolster the jean’s ability to withstand road rash. Built-in pockets are made to accept different levels of armor to protect your knees and hips from impact with the ground. The tradeoff is a slightly heavier garment with a little less airflow, but overall riding jeans are a more comfortable alternative than dedicated technical riding pants.

Below are our picks for some of the best motorcycle riding jeans on the market today.

Updated May 2021