#Spidi

When I find riding gear that I like, I tend to wear it quite a bit. With the exception of the discontinued waterproof Dainese boots, the items I wore at the 2023 Harley-Davidson Road Glide CVO and Street Glide CVO introduction are the current uniform I wear on almost all of my rides. It is comfortable, practical, and if I weren’t in the business of reviewing riding gear, it would keep me happy for years to come.

I feel like an impostor in this jacket, really. I only rode in it in the rain once, and only for about a half hour. I stayed warm and dry, but the temperature was only in the low 50s F. Plus, I was behind a nice big fairing. I really can’t speak to how it would work for you Duluthians and people who ride 80 miles to work all winter in freezing sleet on an ‘86 XR600; I can’t even relate. When I moved to SoCal, I laid down one of those Scarlett O’Hara dictums: I swear, as God is my witness, I’ll never be cold again!

What I was looking for was a lighter-weight perforated leather jacket for use during the hotter parts of the year, when MO is most active, to share duties with my beautiful but aging Dainese Street Rider. When the Spidi box arrived, the light weight was there but not the perforations. Turns out there isn’t a perfed version, but maybe that’s only a personal problem for me, since my old unperforated  Vanson AR-3 has been my go-to black leather jacket for most of a decade now.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Updated April, 2021

Updated March 2021

Updated March 2021:

Updated March 2021

Updated March, 2021