How much protection we wear whilst riding and how much we think is appropriate varies from person to person depending on their interpretation of what an acceptable risk is. Some folks won't get on a bike unless they're wearing full leathers where-as many of us cringe when we see someone riding wearing only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
We all know the risks, and we should all know the consequences of what happens when your skin touches the road at 30mph+. It's not nice. It's like sticking your hand in a sander, or rather it's like a sander landing on you from a hundred feet in the air, whilst it's still attached and running.
With that in mind and from past experiences with the ground, my personal barometer of acceptable-risk floats at requiring a full-set of leathers for any day rides, fast rides and obviously for track-days. Anything else, i.e. around town and I'm happy with boots, jeans gloves, a jacket and de-facto helmet. Hrm, so not much compromise there then.
One piece leathers are where it's at for me, I've owned two-piece ones before, good quality ones, but they're never as well fitting, as stylish, flattering and if you believe the more educated amongst our kind, safe. One-piece suits also make you feel like Valentino Rossi or Shane Byrne.
My last long-term suit was a Dainese Nitro suit, which served me well and ensured I survived a number of track-day off's without injury a while ago. Anything new would have a good bench-mark to compare against.
The REV'IT! Mens Replica Suit
REV'IT! have provided us with one of their top-range suits, the Replica which is as it sounds is a replica of the MotoGP suit that Honda's Randy de Puniet wears whist racing around the worlds circuits at over 200mph each week. Notably, Karl 'Bomber' Harris also wears the suit in the brilliant BSB series, and as you should know, has put it through its paces with a number of cringe-worth crashes. One involving being hit by a flying bike at over 100mph. I'm thinking that if it's good enough for Randy to walk away from his crash at Catalunya last weekend and Karl's experiences, then it's good enough for me.
Features
Two things happen when you crash and both need protecting against: Hitting the floor, and sliding along it. Obviously the first thing that happens as you're separated from your bike is the impact, you're going to hit the ground or some other object. Then you're going to slide along the ground, wall, car-bonnet, etc.
Now, it's only relatively recently that impact-protection has been where a lot of R&D money has been spent. I remember our B's Fieldsheer leathers from his racing days about twenty years ago, they were just leather, no external or much internal protection. So broken bones were quite common back then.
The Replica suit has both external and internal impact-protection, helping to distribute the initial impact, dampen the shock and separate the foreign object from your body. Notably:
Shoulder Protection
A pair of 3D TPU-Alloy honeycomb shoulder protectors stick out like a pair of large lapels. They're made from high-impact resistant TPU material, with an Aluminium shield underneath. Constructed in a honeycomb pattern, they're extremely strong. You need these, as from personal experience, you tend to roll up like a Turtle when you hit the deck and this means rolling around on your shoulders.
ProLife CE Armour
Like most suits nowadays, REV'IT! have put a lot of good-quality CE-approved armour along the limbs which tend to take a lot of battering when you crash. Along the forearms, elbows, shoulders, knee's and shins. This armour dampens the harsh shocks of an impact and give you that feeling of being considerably tougher than you would be on your own.
Back & Hips
Temperfoam is used to pad out these areas, though they're intentionally left unprotected in relation to the limbs and shoulders because you're advised, and as people like to do, to put in your own back-protectors which are becoming sophisticated items in their own right. Some people also wear additional under-suit hip-protectors as well.
The suit we were provided with didn't come paired with a back-protected which we found off as most top suits do. There's no way I would go out in a suit without one. Your back is one of those parts of your body that's ultra-sensitive, like your head. Most other parts can heal, but it's all too easy to land on your back and suffer crippling injuries.
REV'IT! are associated with Knox, the UK company that makes protective gear like back, hip and limb protectors. Their clothing is designed to be fitted with Knox gear. Adding a back-protector to this suit is essential and will cost you anywhere from £30-150. Don't skimp on this. I would recommend a full-length (coxix to base of neck) one.
Leather Hide
So with impact protection covered, the next big thing is stopping you from coming into contact with the huge sanding-machine that is the ground.
The Replica suit is light, made from Agustini cow-hide (bearing no relation to the great Giacomo) is what REV'IT! call their Daytona material, and is 1.1mm to 1.4mm thick, as opposed to the far more common and thicker Embo hide 1.2mm to 1.4mm hide. This makes it a fair bit lighter and more flexible, but not at the expense of toughness, i.e. tear and abbraision resistence. This is the benefit of using a higher quality hide. A bit like how carbon-fiber allows things to be built lighter, but stronger.
Many synthentic materials have been developed and tested to try and better the friction-resistant performance of leather, but evolution holds the winning card here still, with leather being the best form of protection against abbraision. Without the leather layer, your skin and bone would wear away to nothing in a few metres. It doesn't bear worth thinking about.
Leather suits aren't made in one piece though. We're not the same shape as a cow (thankfully), so multiple pieces of leather have to be stiched together. This means that the weak point of any leather suit is often the stiching. A poorly made suit will have its stiches wear through or tear straight away, exposing the skin and the nastyness that comes with that.
The Replica suit is no budget suit, and like all of REV'IT!'s range, the suit guards against this with an approach called Engineered Skin. This is a few techniques such as; firstly all vulnerable stiching is kept away from known friction/danger zones to reduce the chance of the stiching being exposed to the ground. Then the suits Flatlock double-stiching is enhanced with the use of saftey stiching, which is where the stiching materials are changed from leather to more tear resistance fabrics. This stiching is used in all known danger spots.
The seat area, or bottom is double-layered leather, which is clearly a very good thing. You're going to end up on your bum in a lot of crashes due to our instinct to sit up-right when we think we've come to a stop, when infact you're still traveling at 30mph.
Comfort
Perhaps against its name-sake intention, the Replica suit is more suited to prolonged road riding, though not at the expense of track performance. This is mainly due to how the suit is fitted. Hardcore racing suits tend to be fitted in a way that leans you into a prone position, i.e. bent over forward slightly. This often makes them difficult to walk around in, but presumably more comfortable whilst riding hard. But as I'm no racer, I can't verify this, I'm just a regular road rider who loves track-days as well.
Removable Lining
The suit comes fitted with a removable lining which is designed to make getting into and out of the suit easier and to soak up sweat. Once done with the suit at the end of the day, you'd be well advised to remove the lining and throw it in the wash. This will help keep the suit fresh for a long time.
I've found though that if you want to get in and out of a suit easily, you should wear a tight one or two piece under-suit. This will let you slide in and out and manage the sweat better. There's some quite high-tech items out there that help stabalise your body temperature, so you don't bake yourself or freeze yourself. Look at the suits racers wear under theirs for ideas.
Speedhump
Pretty much all suits nowadays come with a hump built into the back. These are designed to improve the air-flow over your head and back, reducing the stress on your neck at high speed as air tries to buffet your head around. In the Replica suit though it's ventilated, so it's designed cleverly to direct air-flow into the back of the suit to keep you cool as you get hot. This is a real bonus. As it's made from high desityI dare say it's also another layer of protection should you land on your back.
Stretch Panels
To make the suit more comfortable and flexible, and also because this is an off-the-peg suit and not a custom-fitted one, there's a couple of stretch panels to allow the suit to fit a wider range of people. The most obvious ones are on the knees.
Racing Pedigre
These suits are made for protecting people who are at risk, and what better way to show how good the suit is by putting it on the television and in front of thousands of fans and then perhaps every now and then see the crashability of a suit tested by letting a racer wear the suit and inevitably, crash wearing it? Racers have been sponsored by suit manufacturers for years, which works out well for the racer, getting good suits for free and sponsorship money in the pocket. REV'IT! have chosen to get the suit right in the lime-light by having riders in at least two of the best race series' in the world wear this Replica suit.
MotoGP's Randy de Puniet and British Superbikes' Karl Harris both wear the Replica suit and unfortunately for them, both test the crashability of them regulary. I don't think Karl will like to read this as he's had an awful run of bad luck lately and ended up on his back-side, and in a recent case, taken a Rizla Suzuki bike in the chops at about 100mph! He's got up for all the crashes though and I think it's fair to say the suit had damn good part to play in it. As for Randy, well, crashing is one thing, but to repeatedly crash a MotoGP bike at the insane speeds they do is asking for a P45, but more importantly, it's asking for injury, and he's so far avoided it whilst wearing the Replica suit.
As I'm writing this from the Media Centre of Donington Park, Randy de Puniet has crashed a couple of times already this weekend for the British GP 2008 in various practice sessions, and as before, he's got up without injury, though he's had a long walk back to the garage and in need of a damn good clean. Hrm, I wonder how many suits he has?
Replica Conclusion
The Replica suit is a light-weight suit that's comfortable enough to be worn all day and used for practically any type of riding. It's a great suit for either your first one-piece or for general road riding and trackdays. It also has a good racing pedigre with MotoGP and BSB racers using the suit, which is pretty important as a proof of quality.
I'll stick my neck out here though and say I think those racers wearing it are customising the suit heavily with a great amount of high-quality protection under the suit, i.e. further hip, arms and back protectors. I say this because one of the qualities of the suit is it's lightness, it's not going to hamper you so much and tyre you less, but because of this, you get the feeling that you're not as well protected compared to other suits at this price-point, despite the fact the materials are a higher technology and meant to offer the same protection as heavier suits, so if you want more protection, you can just add to the suit and wear extra things underneath, which is probably the best way as it means you can lean it off if you want, i.e. for really hot days.
So all in all, the build quality is great, the fit is comfortable for a range of uses, the suit is light, there's a good amount of external protection to compliment the internal, such as the shoulder pieces and it offers a high quality feel. This suit is definately one to consider if you're in the market for a new one-piece. I'd have no trouble recommending this suit to anyone. Price wise, like other REV'IT! items we've reviewed, the suit matches what others are charging perfectly. You get good value for money with the Replica suit, though some may think £600 is expensive for a leather suit, it's not when you consider the much cheaper alternatives are badly fitted, are likely to fall apart upon their first encounter with the ground, don't use as high specification or as well designed protection and so ultimately aren't going to protect your, or make you feel like you're as protected.
Stealth Gloves
To accompany the suit, REV'IT! have designed the Stealth gloves which are a top-end offering, designed to offer maximum protection for fast road or track riding.
They follow the same Engineered Skin design and construction techniques as the Replica suit. They're summer gloves made primarily from Kangaroo leather, which if you're not aware, is more suppel and tougher than regular cow hide. This means they're a perfect match for gloves, allowing them you to retain more feel from the bike and feel more comfortable at the same time, without compromising safety. The outer shell also makes use of goat-skin and a synthetic material called Keprotec which protects against friction (on the palms and finger edges). All this adds up to make it tough, yet flexible, which is what you need on the most articulated part of your body.
Across the knuckles is a Polyurethane shell which is designed to take the brunt of an impact and friction, but it also acts as a ventilation duct, drawing in cool air for when you get hot. Marvellous, just don't take them out in the rain or cold. The same material is used to protect the back of your fingers.
Unlike most city-designed gloves, they have a long and thick cuff which is designed to go over your leathers, though we've tested them with a regular jacket going over them and they've just about fitted, without hindering your movement. This cuff is designed to keep the gloves properly secured to you so they don't come flying off like I've seen other gloves do when crashed in, and they also offer a damn good amount of impact protection, helping to save your wrists.
The cuffs employ something called CPS - Cuff Protection System, which is just a fancy way of saying they use three straps; two huge velcro straps which over-lap each other, and a smaller velcro tab which secures across the top of the wrist and is covered by the anti-abbraision material Keprotec. This cuff feels good, really secure. I've seen a lot flimsier ones in gloves at the same price-point.
Experience
The great thing about these gloves is the feel. They feel incredible! Really soft, so you don't lose much, if any movement or feedback. This means I could get my keys out of my pockets without having to take them off, or get my wallet out at petrol stations, as well as to feel everything my suspension is telling me as I brake hard for instance. The leather smells fantastic as well, even after a couple of months of use with no mercy given to them, besides keeping them out of the rain (a big no-no for premium leather like this).
These gloves are by far the best I've used, keeping my feeling of protection high, comfort great for long rides and some damn sweet styling as well. The whole setup makes you feel like a Storm-Trooper! So, just like the Replica suit, I would have no problem recommending these gloves to anyone, they provide an exceptionally high quality feel, a very good range of protective abilities, really good looks and are priced well against competitors.
Availability
REV'IT! are fairly well stocked, though check their website below for details on suppliers. The suit and gloves are available in the following colours and sizes:
Replica Suit:
Sizes: EU 46-58
Colours: Black, White/Black, White/Red
Price: ~£600
Stealth Gloves:
Sizes: Small - XXXL
Colours: Black/Blue, Black, Black/Red, White/Black
Price: ~£90
Don't forget to view the HD photo slideshow above to see these items in close detail.
Related Links
www.revit.eu
