Looking for a new Cafe Racer, what am I missing?

Just a quick note about the construction of Aero and Vanson jackets with regard to zippers and motorcycle safety. We have a lot of customers who ride in both jacket brands (and we’ve repaired quite a few crashed Aero and Vanson jackets over the years) and both brands hold up incredibly well in crashes, despite having different sizes and brands of zippers. The main cause of a zipper failure in a motorcycle crash is the metal parts being ripped off (zipper pull or teeth) in a slide. The construction of the jacket helps to protect zipper parts. Aero’s vintage construction technique works well to protect the zipper--Aero installs the zippers such that the leather covers most of the metal parts (save the very end of the pull). Additionally, all of Aero’s external seams (even the front zipper!) have a hidden internal seam that holds even when the exterior seam has been compromised. Race suits use the same construction—except that most race suits use plastic coil YKK zippers (#8 front, #5 sleeves) due to plastic zippers being very flexible and corrosion-resistant.

Zippers can come apart (any size, any material) due to improper garment sizing (typical race suit issue—gain a few pounds and your front zipper doesn’t hold!), faulty sliders (defect or worn out), worn out teeth (this is very rare, even on vintage jackets) or user error (pin not properly seated in box). These issues will arise as soon as the wearer zips up their jacket or suit…almost never in a crash!

Of course, the best idea is to never crash... …

 

Absolutely agree. Thicker, heavy weight leathers also don't guarantee more durability of the jackets. I believe some of us here are a bit addicted to (and obsessed with) several terms, Horse is one, heavy weight hide is second.

 

Tumbled FQHH is a nice balance of heft and flexibility.

 

If I were in your position, I'd be tempted to see if Aero would add shoulder gussets or at a push a full action back to a Board Racer for the added flexibility in the riding position.

Tumbled FQHH and an armoured shirt underneath that would be a good bike jacket imo.

 

I would prefer small shoulder gusset than full action back,

so far in few crashes I've ever had in the past, I didn't slide enough if anything to prove any theories (stopped right away in a wet pothole and the other time the bike fell on me , and stopped right on the spot), but just by its design full action back, with its huge expansion fold on the back has potential to drag the asphalt more rather than slide smoothly...just my unproven guess.

 

+1; that sounds like a great combo.

 

Does the BR's arm positioning and general close fit not make gussets or an action unnecessary? I don't ride, but I've never felt that it was had a particularly restricted range of movement.
That said, if I was going with some sort of addition to the back, I'd go shoulder gussets to minimise any additional weight and not spoil the overall sleek look of the jacket.

 

Denny told me they won't fit Shoulder gussets to BR.

 

Yeah, I had the BR on in the car today and at no point did I feel restricted.

 

I like this one:

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Thank you very much. If you are interested I can show you details and new jackets that I presented in Berlin before 10 days.

 

If you're wearing an armored shirt already I recommend a kangaroo cafe racer. When worn sans armor it's very light and great for casual wear. But on the bike, it has much better abrasion protection than cow and twice as good as goat. Just a question of what jacket attributes matter the most to you.

 

ykurtz not disagreeing but what research informs your claim?

 

that is what Dainese's opinion about moo vs roo

 

Rumor has it Vanson makes Jacket just for your needs: the AR3, an armoured variant of the AR2, based on the homebrew modifications Wes from rideapart.com used (https://rideapart.com/articles/best-motorcycle-leather-jackets-700?page=2).

It exists on Vanons' site (http://www.vansonleathers.com/SearchResult.aspx?KeyWords=ar3) but no text or image is to be found... curious.

Living in Europe I shunned from the hunt for such an elusive garment, but maybe someone can shed some light on this issue.

EDIT: interestingly enough, it is available in Germany, though quite expensive. Some pictures as well: http://www.24helmets.de/VANSON-Lederjacke-Motorrad-schwarz-AR3-mit-Protektoren