Experiences with mesh gear

I am looking around for mesh gear so that when summer comes, I will be ready. I found some great closeouts at motorcyclesuperstore.com on Fieldsheer gear. They have really good prices on both the Titanium Air Mesh and the Mach 3.0 and 4.0.

But I don't know much about either of these jackets. Or, if you have any experiences, good or bad, with other mesh jackets, please post up.

I have Joe Rocket mesh and First Gear Mesh. I like them both, but the Joe Rocket one has leather on the shoulder and sleeves which makes it feel much more substantial and is still very cool. I bought mine at newenough.com They had them on close out for under $50.

Valker said:

I have Joe Rocket mesh and First Gear Mesh. I like them both, but the Joe Rocket one has leather on the shoulder and sleeves which makes it feel much more substantial and is still very cool. I bought mine at newenough.com They had them on close out for under $50.

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I have a Joe Rocket Alter Ego Have not used it in real warm weather yet.. but in playing around with it in "mesh" mode,, it seems like it will work out as well as any mesh jacket

I bought a Mesh Tex 2 from Motorcycleclosouts, I love it.

I can't help you with that brand, but I used a mesh jacket branded by Triumph. In the deep of summer the jacket is fine while moving. Of course sitting still is miserable, but I try to avoid that; and it was never to the point I considered riding without the jacket. Toss it in the washer when the jacket gets a bit manky.

Got the pants in December, but expect similar results. This is very good equipment to add to your riding list.

Rocket Phoenix pants and jacket here. They work fine in hot weather.

I have the fieldsheer mesh jacket and the mesh pants too.
They are great in the warm weather. Feels like wearing shorts to ride!

I also just purchased a fieldsheer winter 1 piece winter suit, which looks to be good quality. I might not get a chance to use it this year if the weather keep up though...

Rick

Last summer I convinced the wife that I just *had* to replace my older Joe Rocket textile with something new and shiny. Given her desire to always have me home in one piece (no clue why), she gave me the usual "Buy whatever you want". Being married for 11+ years I know this is code for "Spend whatever you want to, but know I'll spend double that on shoes tomorrow". Needless to say, I threw caution (and budget) to the wind and went jacket hunting.

I tried on every mesh jacket and semi-mesh I could find in Dallas (Icon, Joe Rocket, Frank Thomas, etc) and went with the Olympia Airglide Mesh Tech from MotoLiberty in the more visible grey color scheme. http://www.olympiamotosports.com/airglide/airglide.htm gives the details, but I chose it as I wanted pear-shaped fit (yeah, I'm not exactly svelte), non-squid/Ricky-racer styling, CE armor, mesh cooling, and removable full-sleeve liner that rolls/folds up compact . Unpredictable Texas weather means I like to keep a liner handy for times like last weeks Meet-N-Greet when it dropped from 75 when I left the house to 46 when I got home (after leaving the liner behind, IDIOT! ).

I've used it on both my faired R1100 and my naked XR650L down to the high 40's for sub 50-mile trips in comfort (can go longer with an electric vest). Cooler than that and I switch to my Marsee un-meshed. Been lucky enough to stay out of rain, but the liner is claimed to be water resistant. The liner is also claimed to be windproof, but I'd call it more "highly wind resistant" in practice. It's all relevant...

I've had it for 6 months and the quality seems good, even after machine washings. Not on par with my perfed leather Vanson, but it wasn't $500-600 either. Under $170 IIRC. Decent cooling up to almost 95 or so, but not as good as some of the more mesh only designs. I'd consider it a solid 2.5-3 season option for Texas weather and would buy it again.

As a side note, Olympia Motorsports is not the same as the sort of "generic" Olympic brand that many shops sell (usually gloves I see). I've had Olympic gear before and I feel the Olympia has shown to be better fit, finish, and quality.

As always, YMMV.

rbickle,

which model jacket do you have that you like so much? I am trying to decide between the "titanium" model and the "mach" models. The titanium is cheaper, but I want to know if it also is a good jacket. I have heard some good things about the mach 4.0, but nothing either way about the titanium.

I get all of my stuff on the "close out" list here,

http://www.newenough.com/index2.htm

I like my JR mesh products, Phoenix jaket and pants plus several other JR styles that I have.

Although I personally have not had a get off to test the stuff, my daughter had a 5 mpher and there was not even a scratch on the Phoenix kacket where she hit the pavement. Cindy had a 3 mpher into a flower bed head first, again not even a scratch on her or the gear.

Often the "mesh/textile" gear gets a bad rap from leather only bikers. True, there is nothing as good as leather for abraision protection, but I have seen many crashes on the road and have yet to see any textile gear that did not protect the rider.

I like to have my mesh gear fit slightly on the snug side, even for motorcycle gear. Mesh isn't as great as leather or solid textile in keeping armor in place.

I also have the Triumph Raptor jacket, works great. I have Olympia mesh pants that match the Triumph jacket and they work great as well. All of the major brands seem to be made of the same stuff, so I think if you like the look and feel then they will probably do a good job for you.

As Jesse_H said:
Mesh isn't as great as leather or solid textile in keeping armor in place.

But it is a lot more comfortable in the summer.

I have the Joe Rocket mesh from the "ballistic" series and I love it for the summer rides here in the Houston area. I did look at New Enough at their close out section but never could find one in my size (XL fat guy)(my tailor is Omar the Tent maker). I ended up going to Motoxoutlet.com and got a good buy and fast delivery on two jackets. Good customer service from those folks as well.

My experience with a Joe Rocket mesh jacket is more or less favorable. Fit was good, flowed quite well and the price was right. It was a phoenix jacket and was all mesh with their standard armour. This was the jacket I was wearing when I went down. It did it's job quite well, however I didn't really do any/ much asphalt surfing and it had already started to distentegrate.

I impacted on the right shoulder and elbow @ ~40ish. Armour was good and I had no bruising or stiffness/ etc. After being on the asphalt for maybe a yard or so, the elbow had started come apart and the shoulder was well on it's way. Had I slid on asphalt for more than a few yards, it would have been completely destroyed.

From this point on, I'll only be wearing mesh/tex or leather/mesh combos where the stronger material is in the impact areas. I don't care how warm it is.

Nico

Joe Rocket does make some mesh jackets with leather in areas likely to recieve high amounts of abrasion and mesh in more protected areas. That is what I bought and thankfully have not needed to test it. The liner is extemely waterproof, I have tested that. I bought mine off www.mawonline.com for just over $100.

I have a joe rocket lightspeed (textile) and the thing is awesome. You don't hear alot about the lightspeed. Not sure why. Has ce armor in the elbows, shoulders and spine. They are removable. It has a removable insulated liner and vent pockets. It has the aero gp back hump and I am dualsporter for gosh sakes. The jacket can be truely used 3.5 seasons out of the year. And it looks tops. I guess the down side is that it only comes in black. From 45 degrees and up, it works. I bought it from... well, myself.

Just saw this thread:

Steve, I have the Fieldsheer Mach 3, and wore it to most of the TAMUMC meetings I went to. I think it is a terrific jacket. It's still in great condition, and I've had it since July of 2004, and used it almost everyday while commuting when I was in College Station. I bought it for $140 at MotoLiberty in Dallas, so $99 for the Mach 4 is a great price. I'd probably go with the Mach 4 since it has the additional bit of leather in it for protection.

I think we were about the same size. My jacket is a medium.

All these posts deal with comfort, fit and cooling of mesh gear. I know my T shirts provide the best fit, comfort and cost for hot weather but we know what the protection is. Has anyone crashed in mesh gear and what was the result?

You obviously did not read "all" of the post above. Several post mention crash protection.

I'll say it again, There is no better protection for abrasion than leather. However, I have seen many get offs of fellow riders with mesh/textile. In all of those instances none of the products allowed the victim to sustain any abrasion where the product covered their body.

What abrasions I have seen were where gloves wore through, pulled off or tore. Othere areas of abrasion were in the wrist area between the glove and the jacket sleeve. I had one buddy who went down on the SW Freeway at 70+. He was wearing an Areostich. The suit was thrashed, but he did not have a scratch on him.

Hey, hottrodd what size do you wear? I have a nice medium blue Firstgear I can give you an unbelievable deal on.

I bought the Fieldshear mesh and armor jacket from the BMW dealer in Austin for under $100. It was excellent. It was so good in fact, someone else now has it... I don't have a clue who "liberated" it. But, come warmer WX, I will have to replace it.

Grumpy old JR
STOC 394
03ST1300ABS
Lake Livingston, TX

texasyankee said:

All these posts deal with comfort, fit and cooling of mesh gear. I know my T shirts provide the best fit, comfort and cost for hot weather but we know what the protection is. Has anyone crashed in mesh gear and what was the result?

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The 2 "mesh crashes" I have seen were not good. The material did not hold the protective padding in place like a textile would. Recycled bovine always has the best abrasion resistence.
I have a silver Marsee mesh for hot days, it tends to flap in the wind at speed, so buy a little snug if you get one.

I had a FG MeshTex II that I liked quite well. I crashed in it back in Dec. I slid for something like 50ft on pavement and another 20 in the dirt. the jacket faired quite well considering IMO. I hit on my L knee and shoulder. the outer layer of the jacket has a large hole in it, but its not anywhere near getting to me. still had 3 layers of armor and the inner part of the jacket to get through.

The only thing I didn't like about the FG is that it didn't work too well once the temps started dropping. the liner didn't come all the way to the zipper so left plenty of room for the wind to blow through.

Sprocket said:

I tried on every mesh jacket and semi-mesh I could find in Dallas (Icon, Joe Rocket, Frank Thomas, etc) and went with the Olympia Airglide Mesh Tech from MotoLiberty in the more visible grey color scheme. http://www.olympiamotosports.com/airglide/airglide.htm gives the details, but I chose it as I wanted pear-shaped fit (yeah, I'm not exactly svelte), non-squid/Ricky-racer styling, CE armor, mesh cooling, and removable full-sleeve liner that rolls/folds up compact . Unpredictable Texas weather means I like to keep a liner handy for times like last weeks Meet-N-Greet when it dropped from 75 when I left the house to 46 when I got home (after leaving the liner behind, IDIOT! ).

I've had it for 6 months and the quality seems good, even after machine washings. Not on par with my perfed leather Vanson, but it wasn't $500-600 either. Under $170 IIRC. Decent cooling up to almost 95 or so, but not as good as some of the more mesh only designs. I'd consider it a solid 2.5-3 season option for Texas weather and would buy it again.

As always, YMMV.

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Same here.

I've used an Olympia airglide for a couple of seasons now. I bought it because it has good denier from wrist to shoulder and across the back, which protects but also keep the armor in place better than other jackets I tried.

The mesh works well, the liner will go down to 40 degrees and looks good wearing it on it's own if needed.

Only issue is breaking the little zipper pull handles.

I didn't see the same airglide in their current web site though so they may not be available any more.