My inspiration, so to speak, for this review, came from a comparison of adventure jackets that I read recently in a magazine. Now I am not a great fan of product reviews that appear in magazines. By and large, motorcycle journalists simply don’t know enough about gear and how it works. They usually don’t ride in the gear they’re testing. And they don’t get the kind of feedback that people like us get from hundreds of customers who buy it; and who then report back to us on their findings.
Some might suggest that we too have a conflict of interest; after all, we sell pretty much everything we review. Well, in theory yes, but in practice not so much. We call it the way we see it. If we don’t think much of a product, we will highlight the issue. And we feel we can do this because we sell lots of products, and what we have found is that customers will often buy a product we have criticised because the feature or facet we are talking about does not concern them. Or, if the issue concerns them, they’ll buy a different product from us.
Conflict or not, rest assured that our reviews do ruffle feathers. We are often contacted about our reviews by aggrieved manufacturers, but our response to them is invariably that if we didn’t highlight issues the chances are that nobody else would. In fact, we are actually performing a useful service for them, we explain. It‘s a view, of course, that they don’t always agree with!
Suffice it to say that our views are just that. As ever in life there are no ‘rights’ and no ‘wrongs’; there are just shades of opinions. But our opinions are based on a considerable amount of knowledge, lots of experience, and the constant feedback we get from the kinds of customers who use their gear in the manner that was intended.
Adventure jackets with laminated membranes may look the part. They will often look right on an adventure bike. They sit longer; they are rarely black, they have lots of vents, and so on. But, in truth, these jackets are really just touring jackets in the ‘adventure’ style. And this should perhaps not surprise us because, in truth, a lot of adventure bikes these days are just touring bikes with long-travel suspension.
These adventure-style jackets can still be fantastic bits of kit. And if you want to go touring somewhere warm, but in the knowledge that it might also rain, then a laminated, adventure jacket may be just what you need. And so, in this review, we are going to make a distinction between what we are calling ‘proper’ adventure jackets where the membrane can be removed, and laminated adventure jackets where the membrane cannot be.
Of course, there are still a few adventure-style jackets out there with drop-liner membranes, but such jackets are little more than slightly cynical exercises in styling, and will not be up to much when the going gets tougher. They won’t vent well, and they will ‘wet out’ in the rain.
Anyway, let’s look at our ‘Top 10 adventure jackets’. Now, apparently, this is what we have to title a review like this in order to rank highly on Google and RU-vid. But here’s our little secret; our Top 10 actually includes 11 jackets. Don’t tell anybody!
6:43 Halvarssons Sunne - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
8:22 Rukka Explore-R - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
11:43 Klim Carlsbad - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
14:30 Halvarssons Mora - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
17:20 Held Carese Evo - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
20:26 Klim Marrakesh - www.motolegends.com/search-re...
23:26 Rukka Trek-R - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
25:58 Belstaff Long Way Up - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
28:59 Halvarssons Myrvik - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
32:26 Rukka Rimo-R - www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
34:44 - Klim Baja S4 www.motolegends.com/motorcycl...
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29 мар 2023
