Do you ride in jeans?

I’m a real fan of wearing jeans and cargo pants when I’m riding in hot parts of the world, but only when they are suitably equipped for motorcycling. I was knocked off my bike in California earlier this year – the classic, ‘Sorry mate I didn’t see you.’ I would have been a real mess, even at the slow speed I was doing, had I been wearing ordinary jeans. As it was the cargo jeans I was wearing were written off. So I started to hunt around for replacements. I found these Proteckt jeans from Aerostich, and thought I’d given them a go.

My search criteria included the following. I want my bike jeans to be breathable, tough, and abrasion resistant. If they look ok on (so I don’t feel like I’m wearing someone else’s cast offs) then great. But I also want knee and hip padding. And I want them to be comfortable enough that I can wear them all day without feeling as if I am stomping around in bike trousers!

Do these do the job? I’ve not abrasion tested them! And I hope I won’t be, but Aerostich are a highly reputable company and have used HT 500D Cordura abrasion resistant, waterproof and breatheable nylon. A bonus of this material being waterproof is that you can sit on a wet saddle with no worries about moisture soaking through to your underwear.

I’m actually impressed by how large an area of the knee, thigh and seat areas the HT 500D covers, and for added comfort (protective material can be really scratchy) they have lined the protective areas with cotton. It’s a really nice feeling against the skin too.
The denim the jeans are built with is a heavier grade cotton than your normal Levis would be, but the cut of the jeans is a fairly timeless jeans style. I very much like the number of belt loops (5) and I also like the zipper. It’s good and long, and it runs smoothly! I’ve been wearing them just about every waking hour, for a week now, and they are very comfortable. Yes, they are heavier and slightly more bulky than regular jeans but as they began to lose the stiffness that new jeans always have, I stopped noticing.

There are two things other things that I really like about them.

The knee pad set up is pure genius. The pads slot into pockets in the knees as you’d expect, but those pockets are accessible from the outside via small zippers. The pads take just seconds to take out, and it’s something you can do in public with no risk of offense. Now, I was lucky. The knee pad positioning just happened to fit my build but it may not be the case for everyone. Like your bike, you may have to personalise them a bit!

The other thing I like is that you can also get super slim but effective looking hip pads. These simply slot into pockets that are Velcro’d into place inside the jeans.

I think I’m going to enjoy wearing these! But would I wear them for constant riding at speed or off roading? No. They aren’t designed for that. I will wear them for mixed riding and for scooting into town they will be perfect.

Aerostich have the jeans available in a huge range of sizes and will deliver worldwide.