Leathers - the good, the bad and the bloody disgraceful - Superbike Freaks worth a read if you are looking to buy
I've only ever had one crash. I had all alpinestars on with a shoei helmet on. Everything worked as it was supposed to. The boots saved my foot and ankle, the suit saved a lot of my, the accordion panel above the knee hit a roundabout and was cut/torn, leading to a serious abrasion of my knee, the gloves saved my hands.
Excellent article. I hope the next instalment lists the best companies and some science as to why they say so. Big fan of Crowtree personally but i dont think they are still in business. BKS also, and i used to have great respect for swift leathers in northanmpton when Paul Varnsvery owned it. Come to think of it the authors of the article really should be speaking to Mr varnsvery.
If you look at what the tt riders wear it's a good indicator of what might be half decent given that many of them don't have big sponsorship deals with the brands unlike the gp and other guys
I must say that now Crowtree is no more, I'm more than happy with the fit, finish and service from my new Kushitani set. A blast from my past and I'm sure they will do the business if I need them.
I can certainly recommend Hideout...they did a great job at limiting damage* to me on a 100mph-ish highside at Brands. * still fakkin hurt though!
Hi guys, article author here, glad you found it useful & informative. The next part will definitely include the brands we highly recommend including detailed information on why we're happy to endorse them and how they make their products. Many of the names in this comment thread (Hideout, Kushitani, Furygan, BKS) are in our top picks and Crowtree would be right up there too if you could still get them. I haven't heard of Paul Varnsvery - I'll look him up (unless you can connect me?) The TT grid can be a useful benchmarking exercise but bear in mind that, even though there isn't the same level of sponsorship as there is in GP racing, many brands (such as RST) make a completely different line of gear for racers so the suit you or I can buy is nothing like Hutchy's... Thanks for the positive comments and the second installment will be out before the end of May.
I'm guessing payment was per word? Nice introduction to an article.... but give me a poke when "the good, the bad, and the bloody disgraceful" are actually revealed....
Why would you think there was any payment involved? SBF is completely independent & self-funded. The title was a reference to the quality of different companies' leathers and the facts we highlighted in the article.
Could have been a good article, but the "tune in next time" cliffhangers smacked of maximising ad-revenues... The fact it was an incomplete story was rather annoying. It's not like they'd run out of Internet to print on... I understand that turning out high-quality content requires time and commitment, and it might well be that those ad-revenues are needed to keep the site running, but I'd never heard of SBF before clicking that link and my first experience of it is an incomplete article. Can't say I'm hooked. As I'm about to start thinking about 1 piece or 2 piece leathers this was a must-click link, but other than being a bit more savvy about construction I've still no further idea as to whether the manufacturer that consistently fits me (Dainese) are as good as, say, Scott Leathers or going and getting a cheap and cheerful alternative like RST or Furygan. In terms of buying help it had limited utility. Hope that doesn't sound too negative? 8/10 for quality of content, 3/10 for clickbaity title and it being half a story.
It was more a dig at the words:information ratio than a question of improper payment. Did the article specify a good/bad/disgraceful manufacturer? No, as stated before it was a bit of an intro/teaser with the promise they will be revealed in the next article. The article itself is fine as an introduction to understanding the components and manufacture, but it is not as the title suggests, so a frustrating read purely because of the misleading title. Just my opinion...
Actually I just turned off my ad-blocker and had another look... no ads. In which case that is even weirder. :-D Seems like it's a personal project, in which case fair enough. If you're going to use ad-tricks though, at least get some ads up or you'll not make any money
Well, I crashed very heavily in the 2005 practice for the TT and can happily report that Hideout leathers more than stood up to it. I'm joe average, paying my own money , on full retail price and will not wear anything else now. 100+ , bounced into a wall and then got up . No ripped seams, I could have carried on wearing them but I had the backside repaired as it had nigh on worn through. Some would say the downside is that they are a bit heavy and they took a lot of wearing in but that's what you pay for in full protection. On top of this I had two big smashes on normal tracks like Cadwell and snett. I'm sure others will be as good, but from my arse on the road reporting, Hideout will pass any test.
There's no ad revenue at all. There is an affiliate link on the home page (whereby if someone clicks through from SBF & ultimately buys something, there is a tiny commission percentage paid but this hasn't happened yet!) but no paid-for ads. I'm considering removing this as I don't want it to look like there's any ad revenue when there isn't. SBF is fairly new; it's a personal project I launched in October and I am trying to build it up as an unbiased, non-sponsored, fun, informative site. The other publications which write about gear receive so much free stuff and paid advertising that their impartiality and credibility is pretty dubious. That's not what I want for SBF. The article clearly states it's split into installments, partly because the amount of info I've collected from a number of manufacturers made it impractical to put into one giant article, partly because I'm still waiting for some key info from Kushitani, and partly because of the time it takes to put a piece together around my full-time job. The first part was more about what to look for in a set of leathers and the short-cuts that can be taken during production, to hopefully help people make a more informed purchase. Unfortunately it's not as binary as saying "brand A is brilliant & brand B is rubbish" and although I've heard some awful stories about the big brands, a lot of it is stuff I can't publish without risking a massive lawsuit so there will be some reading between the lines required. I appreciate all feedback so thanks for the comments. Of course I get that it's an attention-grabbing headline but I don't think it's sensationalist or misleading and I'll have part 2 out as soon as I can.
Brilliant and i would love to get involved and unleash the aspiring journalist from within! Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Hi "Freaks" Mr Varnsverry went off to work in the standards side of the industry, i believe he is, or was, heavily involved in the authorship of protective clothing specifications. Sorry but i dont remember the correct term. If you had access to trawl through old motorcycle magazines like fast bikes when it was a decent publication you would most likely find his name associated with many articles just like you are updating now. Thanks for doing so by the way, much appreciated. Sorry i cant be of more help. Regards keith
Excellent article, we need more good honest independent reporting! Too many sponsored reviews and comparison tests (thinking tyres ATM) that clearly have bias. Some products are difficult to know if good quality or not without knowing what to look for. :thumbsup:
