Will A Textile Motorbike Jacket Protect Me In A Crash? 

This is a really insightful video. Thanks for taking the time to explain the testing and standards

Just what I need as I'm looking on new gear. Top information, nice one!

here in america and southern california even street riding in town can exceed 60 mph easily......many many major highways are 55mph zones....and of course traffic never goes speed limit........our streets are 45-65 and freeways are 65-90 mph zones,,,obviously on a bike easy to go past those numbers.......i would probably feel better in leather pants and high level 2 jacket even textile vs opposite.....lower half will eat more slide time than upper half most of the time......just got A stars track V2 pants and will get celer jacket to use in place of faster airflow jacket have......1 pc suit will be RST

RST gear is brilliant. My favourite brand.

Great video. I agree with the levels of protection. I'm also a fan of RST. They offer great protection at affordable prices and I own several of their leather products. The EN17092 is a rubber-stamp standard largely introduced so lightweight textiles would have a chance of passing. It's an example of regulatory capture by heavy hitters in the industry (Dainese, Alpinestars etc). However, there is a higher standard which will end in September 2022. EN 13595 but this will be replaced in the UK with the BS 13595 probably around early 2023. The reason being that scientists and UK police forces aren't convinced that EN17092 is sufficiently rigorous. They are correct. AAA would be around level 0 in EN 13595 terms, but there are levels 1 and 2, maybe 3 in the future for BS 13595. EN17092 is not a suitable test of leathers so you'll find gear from some companies still using EN 13595. EN 17092 is fundamentally flawed, particularly the abrasion test. Here's why: There is no impact at all. The sample weighs 3.5kg (too light) and is "dropped" from 10mm (3/8"). That is not a realistic drop height. 1 metre would be more appropriate since most unsuitable clothing fails on impact then the holes just get bigger during a slide. EN 13595 is slightly better but not by much. The drop weight is 5kg from 50mm (2"). The original scientist who developed the Cambridge impact abrasion machine suggested 1 metre drop for zones 1 and 2 (high risk) and 50mm for zones 3 and 4 (medium to low risk). The concrete surface has a low coefficient of friction (0.52) with cotton canvas reference material. The concrete is polished with aluminium rollers to achieve this quite smooth surface. How many UK roads are concrete? I doubt very many at all. I did some coefficient of friction tests on a variety of surfaces (asphalt of different states of wear and concrete) using cotton canvas reference fabric. The ranges were 0.65 to 0.8. In other words, much more abrasive. The Cambridge machine used for garments, gloves and boots uses a sandpaper belt (OP60 for garments and boots, OP120 for gloves) calibrated to be equivalent to a top dressed road (chip and seal) or asphalt for gloves. This is a much nastier surface. Would you rather your kit be tested on a best case surface (polished concrete) or a worst case (chip and seal)? Finally, the test ends and a sample passes or fails. There's no indication of how well it passes or fails. They don't know when it failed. They don't know how well it passed. It's useless for R&D or relative abrasion assessment. The Cambridge machine will go until the sample fails giving a very useful relative abrasion performance. I conduct research on motorcycle PPE, mainly drop testing on actual roads, as an independent researcher. It's just for education. My tests are meant to mimic a real accident, rather than a relative abrasion test (Cambridge). I drop test 5kg samples from 1 metre onto medium asphalt at 45km/h then slide to a stop in about 18 metres. I found that textiles in single layers fail immediately or shortly after impact. Anything with a second layer (could be a second layer of the same material, 3d mesh or aramid) usually improved the performance by 4-10x. In any case, most combinations didn't survive one drop without holing all the way through. Some survived 2-3 drops and slides usually samples with a 2nd layer. The best performer by far was 2 layers of competition grade cowhide (1.4mm or thicker) which survived 10-11 drops and a total accumulated slide distance of 200 metres. One was still intact after 11 drops and the 2nd layer was barely scuffed. I couldn't kill it and ran out of time. My take is textiles will only protect you where there is armour. The armour is incredibly impact abrasion resistant. So even if the outer layers fail (which they probably will), the armour will NOT wear through unless you have a freak accident. I tested a few pieces of armour (D30 and SAS-TEC level 2 pieces) to destruction AFTER the fabric had failed (Dyneema denim). They went another 200 metres on asphalt. Also, those plastic caps/cups on shoulders and elbows are extremely impact / abrasion resistant. So if you do get a textile jacket, try to pick one with TPU caps/cups AND a full suite of level 2 armour. The jacket may still be unusable after a fall but you'll probably be okay. I realise I'm quite anonymous so I suggest you check other sources. The most reliable one is motocap.com.au/ which gives safety results for many brands, including the most common ones. RST gear ranges from poor to excellent, depending on material type. You can safely ignore the EN17092 levels because they are fairly useless for buyers.

RST is awesome.....and they didnt set up the certification they just abide by it......this is only for a slide god help you if go in the air or hit something..if your going farther than the grocery store down the street buy leather...,,2pc or 1pc and air bag ... just completed a 2 pc and upgraded all the armor and included extra.....i see these dudes on sport bikes on you tube going on open highways or freeways pushing stupid speeds with t shirts and jeans.....there are tons of em and its only a matter of time although @ 180 mph not sure anything will work, but i actually like my skin so leather it is

Thanks for this! And wth... I thought lowest level was for road and highest was for competition. So none of my clothes are OK for highway speeds. And all the gear that is that I found so far is leather. I really do not want to look like a power ranger. Expensive power ranger. Now I need to search for real life accidents and see how the regular A gear really holds up.