First off thanks for all the reply's! I live in western nebraska and we do have 5 months of fairly crappy cold weather. I guess my intentions were to go with the most universal, plus cover my hide if i did hit the asphalt on the fly. I only have so many options available to me as well being a large man. I'm 6'6" and love to eat, I need a tall but HD only makes tall up too 3XLT, they do however make a 4XL and 5XL for the short and fat, however i'm tall and fat, and i'm in need of a 5XLT.

 

You're gonna struggle to find decent riding gear at a reasonable price. You might need to contact one of the custom leather makers like Langlitz, but make sure you're sitting down when you get the estimate.

 

They can say what they want. The DOD, the Nat' l Peace Officers Assoc, and UL all say that it is not as abrasion resistant as other cheaper materials. Kevlar's strength in resisting impact comes from it's fiber's abilities to distribute energy while breaking, and you don't have to take my word for it. Kevlar vest are covered in CORDURA! You notice they don't cover them in Kevlar?

Before anyone gets bent about this. I"m not saying the material sucks because it doesn't. I'm just saying that one shouldn't pay a premium to get it versus other acceptable materials.

From Dr. Rod Wood (a designer of Motosport clothing and one of the developers of the CE safety standard for motorcycle clothing):

Kevlar® is lighter than nylon and has greater tensile strength. It won't melt like nylon after touching a hot muffler (or from the friction-generated heat of a high speed slide on hot pavement). Unfortunately, it's expensive and difficult to work with, which limits design and construction possibilities. And believe it or not, pure Kevlar® fabric actually is much less abrasion-resistant than Cordura nylon. Kevlar® fibres have far less elasticity than Cordura® nylon fibres, a crucial handicap in a crash. Even the smoothest pavements have a rough aggregate surface that causes abrasive pulling. Nylon's stretchy fibres will elongate, ride over the surface irregularities, then snap back into the weave (like a tree bending in a strong wind), but Kevlar® fibres quickly reach their tensile limit and snap.

 

From Motoport site:

"In order to give it the proper motorcycle abrasion strength Kevlar must be woven together with other threads, like Dynatec and or Lycra, ei Schoeller's Keprotec. These are the only suits approved for road racing other than leather. Some gear manufacturers use small portions of pure Kevlar as a gimmick. Quality full suits of it can be found. This gear is lighter, offers greater protection and it breathes. It slides on pavement the same way as leather and dissipates friction heat better than leather. Due to its' innate toughness during construction and the fabrics limited availability it is not widely marketed so it will take a bit of looking to get one."

Personally I'm happy with heavy Cordura. Almost every manufacturer of higher end textile gear uses it or a derivative material and it has a long history of performing well in crash tests. Used by (higher end AlpineStars gear, Aerostitch, Olympia, Ruka, Klim, Rev'It and many others). Do not confuse the nylon materials Joe Rocket, HD, Tourmaster and others use for Cordura.

 

I like the Tourmaster stuff. Pretty inexpensive and the armor on the shoulders, elbows and spine seem like a good idea. The summer mesh jacket is almost as cool as a t-shirt. Maybe it can melt but that's probably better than leaving your hide on the road when you're not wearing any protection because the leather was too hot.

 

I prefer leather personally, for both the road-rash resistance and for wind resistance. I don't like the leather at the HD dealers for a couple of reasons: it's mostly made in China and in my opinion is overpriced for the quality compared to other manufacturers such as Fox Creek. I only wear a jacket in winter - summer I just wear t-shirts. I know, that's being hypocritical because I mentioned leather's road-rash resistance, but it's the same reasoning as those folks that don't wear helmets...

 

Personally, I use denim, synthetic, and leather. Some are cool. Some are warm. Some are armored. As I go by the closet, I just pick up whatever seems right for the day. On the other hand, the wife looks for the most expensive, most stylish jackets.

I don't doubt that polyester will abrade quickly in a slide. But, if I go down, I sure hope that's what I'm wearing--it has the best armor.

Pay your money and take your pick.

 

Having had nasty road rash in years gone by, I'm keen to always wear my leathers - gloves, jacket, chaps and boots. The armor in the polyester jackets will quickly come apart because the material doesn't resist abrasion. A leather jacket with armor would be the better alternative, IMHO. On average leather is measured as 4X more abrasion resistant than Kevlar (unless you read the Kevlar sales info sites that seem to inflate their figures), and I don't like the thickness and feel of the Cordura jackets. I'll stick with leather, at least until the cows come home...

 

The only problem with Tourmaster, Joe Rocket and other low end textile gear is they have the abrasion resistance of Kleenex. Tourmaster uses polyester in their gear which is very low on the abrasion resistance. Joe Rocket use thin nylon they like to call RockTex 600©. Neither hold up in a crash over 20mph. Textile gear when it's well made can hold up in virtually any situation but when it's made out of 400 denier polyester it won't be much more protective than jeans plus polyester melts into your skin unlike say Cordura.

 

Leather...have one textile jacket but it never gets worn.