At some stage in their motorcycling career, every motorcyclist will own a leather jacket. It's just one of those things. It goes back to Marlon Brando in the Wild One, Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Even the Fonz! A leather jacket is a motorcyclist's staple. And back in the day, a leather jacket made so much sense. Leather provided a degree of protection from the elements, and of course it was the best thing to be wearing if it all went Peter Tong.
No self-respecting rocker would have worn anything else; and then later, of course, leather became the default option with those who followed racing, or rode a sportsbike. For many, a one-piece leather suit became the ultimate expression of commitment to two wheels. But for those who sought greater versatility, the preferred solution became the race-inspired, leather jacket. More recently, of course, the interest in all things retro caused lots of bikers to comb the archives looking for greater authenticity.
But things in the biking world are changing. Sportsbikes are dead. They simply don't sell any more. The custom/retro thing has waned a little. The growth in the market is in 'adventure', and of course a leather jacket simply has no place in an adventure rider's wardrobe. Ironic, really, given that both Ted Simons and Elspeth Beard circumnavigated the world in leather jackets.
And so the fact is that we, and I'm imagining that we are not alone in this, are selling less leather jackets. At one stage it seemed as though every other visitor to the shop wanted to try on a leather jacket. But it doesn't happen like that any more. Yes, we still sell the odd leather jackets; and clearly there are people who still want one. But for many this is a second, or even a third, jacket for those who want to adopt a cooler look now and again. Rarely, these days, is a leather jacket someone's primary outfit.
And that, I suppose, is because it has become accepted that leather is not a particularly practical option.
Leather is still abrasion resistant, of course, although these things are never black and white. We sell lots of leather jackets that are only A rated for abrasion resistance, and lots of textile jackets that are AAA rated.
But leather can be fantastic to ride in. If it's not too cold, and not too hot, and if it's not raining, a leather jacket is just fine. But if it is cold, a leather jacket has no thermal properties. And if it's hot, leather doesn't work so well because it doesn't breathe. Of course, where a leather jacket will be particularly useless is when it rains. Think of a leather jacket as a dry chamois cloth. Now we all know what happens to a 'shammy' when it gets wet. It just absorbs the moisture. This is what will happen to your leather jacket when the skies open. And it's not what you want when you're still two hours from home.
The fact is that, for most people, there's a textile jacket of some description that's going to be more practical. In hot weather, a textile jacket can breathe better. In cold weather, a textile jacket will work better with a thermal layer. And obviously a waterproof membrane works much better inside a textile chassis than in a leather one.
We used to find that people would come into the shop at the start of the summer looking for a lightweight leather jacket as a cooler option to their winter textiles. But these days they are usually looking for something even cooler; a mesh jacket perhaps, or actually any kind of textile jacket without a membrane.
That doesn't mean in any way that there isn't a place for a leather jacket in a biker's wardrobe. Emphatically there is, but if you're concerned about any of the practicalities of riding a motorcycle, you should probably go for a textile jacket rather than a leather one.
But nobody ever said that motorcyclists were rational beings. In fact, we all know bikers to be exactly the opposite. Motorcycling is all emotion. It's all heart over head. And the bottom line is this. You wear a leather motorcycle jacket for one reason, and one reason only.
And that's because you want to wear a leather jacket.
Now whilst we are selling fewer leather jackets than we used to, we still sell sell some of the best. To which end we have put together a selection of some of our favourites.
Watch the video by clicking here, and Chris will talk you through our top 10, and explain what the differences are between them.
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