Does any of their stuff meet the standards for protection?
EN17092, the current standard for abrasion resistance for motorcycle gear, replaced EN13595. They say EN13595 was for "professional" riders, couriers and police. It seems to me that if I ride as I do, I'm going at least as fast as either of them are. Note how it says, the minimum standard was twice as strict as the AA standard that is being touted as being enough for all of us. Also note the speeds are in km/h, not mph. 70 km/h is about 43 mph...not that fast.
All you have to do is pick up a jacket or pants from 10 years ago and compare it to the current garments. The older clothing is significantly heavier.
The old EN13595 standard was not mandatory though. I do believe manufacturer's were at least trying to aim for that quality for their gear. The new standard is mandatory...but they lowered the bar significantly.
Where does that put us? Maybe just using some common sense. In one of the other threads, someone bought a Held jacket. Cost -- over $1000. (I'm using that only as one end of the spectrum, not as a criticism.) A few hundred less at $450 is the Tourmaster Summit Waterproof Motorcycle Jacket. A few hundred less again at $250 is the Tourmaster Mariner Waterproof Motorcycle Jacket. And at the low end for cost is the HWK Adventure jacket at $110.
Here's a screenshot putting it all together.
- The most costly jacket has the same rating as the one at half the cost. It's cost is 10X the cost of the lowest priced jacket.
- The TM Summit jacket in the middle of the cost comparison has the same material as the cheapest jacket.
- The Mariner jacket costs over 2X what the HWK jacket does.
- The HWK jacket has no rating but is made of the same material as the TM Summit jacket.
- This doesn't try to account for anything other than the materials, cost and safety ratings.
Under the old EN13595 standard, few manufacturers met the standard...quite possibly because of the cost for testing. We made our buying decision based on what some might call common sense or informed decision making. I think we are at the same point in comparing what we get for that safety standard.
If you look at the pictures on the HWK Adventure jacket page on Amazon, there are a few pictures of what their jacket looks like after a customer took a spill. They look pretty good.
So when the certification standard is set as low as it is for EN17092...is it a factor in a purchase? I ordered a jacket this last summer that absolutely floored me for the quality of it...at about $80.
Chris
