Arlen Ness or Dainese or Alpinestars???
 

First of all in a one piece for track riding, which make would you have? and.........where would you get them from for best price???

None of that foreign muck - the best leathers are English, English I say (adopts best Pub Landlord accent) - get 'em made to measure direct from the manufacturer (BKS, Crowtree or similar small firms scattered up and down the country) for less than the price of a big name fashion suit.

seconded.

They actually all work out pretty much the same, according to the quality you want to opt for.
You can be unlucky with seams giving way of course, but that is less likely if you spend more, so long as you dont buy the 'latest fashion' at the latest price :)
Modern suits with hard armour all survive going down the road so much better than anything with soft armour.
Buy what fits you - remembering that if you go for a custom suit you have to go to them at least twice to ensure it fits properly, and that all costs more money.
The other advantage with a custom suit of course is you dont have to have all those stupid swirly bits of leather stiched on.

I like the kangeroo arlen ness ones..............I was hoping someone could find me some somewhere at a steal of a price.

I went for Alpinestars when I was looking last year - got mine at MCA in Leicester, and there was also a place in Southend who seemed to be reasonably priced - can't remember who sold what though....

'Proper' leathers
 

try Cissbury Leathers mate, that's where I got my Arlen 2 piece from

Prefered the fit of the Spidi 1 piece on me tho' so got the NRG Pro

G

Wolf make a decent set of leathers.Were some kangaroo sets on fleabay for £400,Cissbury Leathers were one seller.
RST are they British?, always been cheap,but Andrew Pitt,Whitham wear them,could be a good buy.

What the top racers wear are NOT the same as you could get of the peg.

Remember its almost the end of the season, so bargain time is coming soon, with the London Bike show being the best place for bargains. It used to be at Ally Pally but is moving down to the Exel centre so they can have more space !

Would have thought you were in the ideal job to know of someone who could steal some for you. :rolleyes: :frog:

I`m still looking for a decent chrome studed leather thong, with armour to complete my outfit!.................woops wrong web site!!!!!

There is a honda dealer near me selling last years kangaroo jobbies for £650 which from what I can tell is a good price but not specatular imo.

Got a Dainese suit which has held up well to a few off's so far, although the seam's have split on the legs twice now, not good for a 1000 quid suit, good fit though.

Now use my A-Star Haga suit most of the time and never (touch wood) had to try out the armour etc, not as comfy as the Dainese jobbie but it was cheaper, saying that Lily has been down the road 3 times maybe 4 in her A-Star suit and it's still intact if not a little battle scarred.

I did see a fantastic Arlen Ness suit at Brands (WSB) on one of the trade stands but it was not for sale I think it may well be one of next years suits so no doubt no deals to be had, but it did look good

Being the owner or both Dianese and bks I can honestly say that BKS is by far the better product. The dianese is fantastic in its design and a good fit but the seams come undone and they are almost imposible to repair if you have an off. BKS meanwhile are almost 40% heavier but are the finest I have seen for contruction and can be repaired to as new condition.

Just my sixpence worth any way!

Peter

I've had my BKS allmost 8 years, great suit.
Worth contacting BKS as the do an off the self range, and may even have offers on them , worth asking.

None of them for crashing in. I use and have tested my Scott made to measure ones 3 times now, all times the leathers have come away with scrapes only and weren't repaired between 'test' sessions ;)
They cost £600 4 years ago which is cheaper than some of the off the peg fashion leathers.
If you must buy off the peg I have seen first hand texport leathers fair very well, I have also seen HG stuff tear apart and cause injury, the suit was refunded in full and the explanation was a poor batch of leather, made the injured party feel so much better.

I guess everyone has different views/experiences of off the peg leathers but I have yet to hear a bad word about any of the MTM suits by Scott,BKS,Crowtree etc..
They are well worth waiting a few weeks to have a set made :) I can see no reason why you would buy off the peg suits for more money than a MTM suit ?

Just another thought when MartinH lowsided a Oulton a few weeks ago at possibly the slowest corner his BKS leathers didn't fair well at all, there's a hole about the size of a cricket ball on his backside! :o luckily they have an inner leather lining but considering the reputation that comes with BKS I would of expected a hell of a lot more to be honest.

I am lucky enough at work to have the MTM bks stuff.....allbeit in black!

Which Honda dealer was that............also been looking at a german A/ness dealer the kangaroo stuff is e999............which makes around £680 delivered.........sizes are a bit strange though

The DSC Sussex meet is held in the bar next door to Cissbury Leathers in Findon, if you turn up in person and flash your DSC membership card you can usually get a discount (depending on how favourable the manager is looking upon us at the time), they always have end of line items in a sale too ;)
If you make it on the 3rd Sunday of the month just before noon then you can pop next door and buy me a coffee :D

buy?:lol: ;)

Theres a sale on at mca Leicester as well.......ahh decisions decisions...

Avonvale Honda
790-820 Stratford Road
Solihull
West Midlands
B90 4BQ

0121 744 7744

http://www.solihull-honda.co.uk

I tried on a Medium I think was to big for me. Not that it helps you!

HTH

after a lot of checking out and trying i went for alpinestars race replica suit not cheap at £1450 but i found them to have protection everywhere with out be bulky or uncomfortable had them 2 years still fitt and feel like new even after a heavy impact with tyre wall last year. hein gericke did have them on offer at one time £995 must admit do like them arlen ness tho

I'd have to go for MTM Scott leathers too. Got measured up at the Ally Pally show a few years ago, and the leathers arrived well before trackday season :) I've only managed one crash test session in them so far, about 70mph off at Brands. It was wet, so not as much damage as there could have been, but they're just very lightly scuffed in a few places. For what it costs, I'd go MTM every time. Might not have the fancy designer names, but I'd rather have something that did the job than looked nice :)

Why do people buy this off-the-peg rubbish? For a similar price you can get a tailor-made suit from Crowtree that is vastly superior in build-quality and protection.

I use Crowtree for race & road. I will never buy anything else. I've been using them since 1991. My current race suit has withstood 3 100+mph spills on the track basically unscathed.

Crowtree's service and support is second to none and in the unlikely event that you damage your suit seriously they will repair it for a pittance. They know their customers by name, the suits are beautifully constructed by caring hands, they take their reputation seriously and will never let you down. You won't get that service or protection from Dainese, Alpinstars or whatever.

I'm another MTM convert, I like my hideout suit and they've been really good with after-sales support.

They'll do a leather MTM suit, reasonably plain, quite cheap. Even cheaper if you had your ACU license Andy ;) give em a call ...

... and very ladylike it looked too as I rode between you and your bike ;)

I bought a second hand Spidi 2pc suit and had it altered by 9-Lives to fit me properly as a 1pc suit for racing and it survived a couple of spills and tumbles with just a few scuffs :D
If it fits you well with no saggy bits then it's less likely to catch any imperfections in the road/track and make you tumble or "ruck up" underneath you and cause bruising on it's own, but then it will feel tighter and more awkward if you want to walk around in it. So it's a compromise that only you can decide on.
I work on the opposite principle of bulking up to fill out whatever suit I'm wearing :roll:

I agree my Scott MTM was £600 and has performed brilliantly. I don't understand spending £1k upwards on non MTM stuff. However these non MTM suits do look better and some value looking good quite high, especially if they never crash :)

Never crash???? Either they don't try hard enough or are riding gods......ummmm...or we're ****! :lol:

Yep...pretty much any mtm suit is leagues ahead whereas OTP is prolly made in Pakistan or India.

Arlen ness........made in hong kong! same as the berik.........

crashed at coppice in Berick...they held together very well indeed

As ladylike as you can be skidding up a track on your arse I suppose :lol:

Ooh ooh, found a bargain..........

Is this me.........

Nope, best leathers are French, Furygan can't be beaten :D

:lol:

The best leathers aren't leather ;)



What's that Skip? You want to protect my skin?

Wicked :D

Except by 'old men' on CB500's ;)

Have to say I've crashed plenty of times (half a dozen or more) in my Dainese and while they don't look like new they haven't fallen apart yet either!

Only one repair needed so far to patch a rip, which cost me £40 from Hideout in Safron Waldon. No bust seams either, but I have disintegrated one of the logos!

Yes yes and yes :)