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Olympia Air Glide 2 Pants

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BradS

BradS

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After about a week of reading reviews on the net for a pair of mesh pants I decided on the Olympia Air Glide 2 pants by Olympia. I wanted to try them on before buying so I looked at Olympia's website and found that Georgetown Honda in Georgetown,TX was a distributor. I called Friday afternoon to make sure they stocked the pants. I was on the road by 7 am Saturday morning to pick them up. I arrived shortly before 9am. There were several folks there and several Wings. I talked to one gentleman who was already wearing the pants and he spoke highly of them. I made my purchase and changed out of my jeans and into the airglides.... What a noticeable difference. Temps were 90-92. Don't get me wrong it was still hot, but at least I could get a breeze on my legs. The Air Glide jacket is next on my list (Hi-VizYELLOW)of course. The zipper on the legs zip from the ankle to the waist and are easy to get on/off. They also come with an insulated/waterproof liner for winter riding...
 
You will like them with the liner in when it gets cold too. I bought mine
back in Dec and rode with them down into the 20's with complete comfort
on my wing. I simply cannot wear anything but jeans so I doubt I will ever
wear just the pants without at least blue jean shorts beneath them.
 
I wore mine year round after buying them. They still hang in my closet, but have taken a back seat to their one piece equivalent, the Stealth.
 
I too concur. I purchased the pants and the jacket back in Feb/March from Liberty Cycles, and thus far they have served me well. Warm and toasty for the few cool mornings we had left in those months, as cool as one can get so far in the heat that we have had recently, and the liners have kept me relatively dry as well during the wet stuff. Seems to be a great, all season set of gear.
 
I frequently wear a pair of the Airglide pants and have witnessed them being crash tested. I'm always very comfortable in them, no matter the temp. And the crashed set is still in use whereas the bike involved ended up in a thousand pieces.
 
I love my pants & jacket ...... summer or winter. The liners are waterproof :rider: and you can wear the liners only, if need be.
 
Quick question and I dont want to hijack this thread but is anyone riding with the Airglide Jacket in this heat?
 
TxGL1500 said:
Quick question and I dont want to hijack this thread but is anyone riding with the Airglide Jacket in this heat?
Click to expand...

I've ridden in the summer heat up to 108 degrees with the jacket. I've had these silver Airglide pants and jacket since early 2006 and wear them year around. I've also worn an evaporative cooling vest underneath the jacket ( and probably was on that 108 degree day ). I haven't had to break out the cooling vest yet this year though.

--Mike
 
I wore both the jacket, in the ultra cool hi viz yellow :sun: , and pants from August until last month. They worked fine in both heat and cold.

I haven't used the liners for rain protection, I have some Frog Toggs that I throw over my road gear for that, but I suspect that they'd work well enough with a possible wet line where the two meet.

Tex
 
Thanks for the replies. The hi-vis airglide or grey airglide jacket would
be my choice. Just wondering about the heat. My ride is only 9 miles
one way with a lot of stoplights. Doubt I would wear one for that short
of a ride in the heat.
 
Get something you will wear, the one you have on is a lot more useful than the one hanging in your closet. You're actually at higher risk for a low speed get off if most of your driving is a short commute in traffic. Might want to look at one of the full mesh jackets.
 
I would think even a full mesh would feel like a sweatshirt for 9 miles. No air
over any of my upper body. About all that does get any wind is the arms.
Its a GL1500. I have baker air wings on it so that would force some air over
me but only above 30mph which is just about my average speed.
However I completely agree on getting something.
 
TxGL1500 said:
I would think even a full mesh would feel like a sweatshirt for 9 miles.
Click to expand...

You'll just have to try it out sometime; see if you can borrow something for a ride on a hot day. The best heat management is to wear full coverage, light weight, light colored clothing in the summer sun. With the silver garb it is amazing how much of a difference there really is, even standing still, and it doesn't take much speed to start feeling the breeze through the mesh.

--Mike
 
I wore the pants today on my short commute (20 minutes one way). They're reasonably comfortable over khakis. The matching Olympia jacket I can't handle over 85. Been wearing my full mesh Fieldsheer jacket once it regularly gets over 80-85.
 
StarWatcher said:
You'll just have to try it out sometime; see if you can borrow something for a ride on a hot day. The best heat management is to wear full coverage, light weight, light colored clothing in the summer sun. With the silver garb it is amazing how much of a difference there really is, even standing still, and it doesn't take much speed to start feeling the breeze through the mesh.

--Mike
Click to expand...

Totally agree. When you get close to body temperature outside, air flow stops cooling and starts heating up your core. A light layer that deflects direct air flow from your core and reflects radiated heat from the sun will actually make you feel cooler. Add in sweating and a light flow of air to encourage evaporative cooling and you have something that make you less likely to have a heat injury than no gear at all.

In my opinion mesh gear like the Olympia Airglide Jacket/Pants and Stealth one piece are ideal gear for the Texas climate. You have good protection with air flow for the hot months, and can layer a airflow blocker underneath during the colder ones.

Tex
 
I had the Olympia pants and they served their purpose in a slide as well:

P4201975.jpg

That's my left knee that slid on the ground at about 25 mph. Part of the kneepad armor was melted and I got one little dime-sized skinned spot on my knee at the edge of the kneepad. I was wearing jeans under the pants (no liner). In the summer I would wear only shorts under the pants. In the winter I've ridden with jeans under the pants and liner in temps around 35 on an ST1300.

I haven't decided if I'll buy the same thing yet. I may go with leather over pants this time around.
 
We have 4 sets of Airglide 2 pants in the family. Their ease of entry, protection, airflow make them my favorites. I also have the Olympia Phantom 1 piece suit for 70 degrees and below, as well as the new Olympia Stealth mesh 1 piece suit. The lower portion of the Stealth is similar to the Airglide 2 pants so they are very good. The top part of the Stealth is similar to the
Airglide jacket. It just does no flow enough air for Houston! I went back to the Airglide 2 pants/Joe Rocket Pheonix mesh jacket for the 90 degree plus heat.
 
Nathan recommended the Air Glides back in his MotoLiberty Dallas days and I love 'em year-round. Even in the hotter days, having them on over my pants keeps me cooler in large part because the sun is no longer heating up the material that's actually making contact with my skin. IE, the Air Glides will get hot when stopped in traffic, but my pants underneath don't.
 
I will agree on the airglides. However I dont wear the pants much in hot weather, just the jacket. On our Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and
back trip wore the jackets exclusively. Once the temps got above 95 we
put our Miracool evap vests on. We were comfortable until we hit Oklahoma
where the temps were in excess over 108 in places. I am totally impressed
with the jackets up to about 96-97 for keeping cool. Fortunately I dont have a long commute in temps above that.
 
Haven't sprung yet for special ridin' pants, but always in long pants. And they're almost always jeans. But I do use a rocket mesh jacket, even in August. Putterin' around town may find my water backpack thingy at home, but a trip or commute finds it on to promote hydration.

At the risk of skiddin' away from an Olympia thread, but pants related...has anyone any feedback on the special jeans available these days?:sun:
 
I don't have any experience with protective pants other than the airglides and the stealth one piece.

The common wisdom seems to be that jeans pants are going to be next to useless if you have any length of travel on them on pavement. Having seen how little protection they provide in other observed accidents I go with the common wisdom.

The protective jeans that I have seen add a layer of kevlar under the denim, but do not have total coverage, opting instead for spot treatment at the knees and butt areas, which I suspect still makes them vulnerable to coming apart. They may be better that nothing, but probably not as good as a total coverage of an abrasion resistant material.

Of course everyone has to make their own decision on where they fall on the protection/comfort scale. I've decided that it's worth a little discomfort when it's hot versus the major discomfort of a friction burn and debraidment. I feel like the mesh textile pants offer some protection against this without the heat or financial cost of full leathers.
 
Points well taken Josh. I too pick up broken people all day, so I understand the observations. Hopefully I can avoid being a hood ornament along the way.:rider:
 
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