Motorcycle Jeans

For many motorcycle riders, jeans are THE riding pants. They are comfortable, easy to find and fairly cheap. Unfortunately, they provide very little protection from road rash as they are only good for about 6-8 feet at 30mph when sliding down asphalt.  And offer no protection from impact. Don’t worry, where there is a motorcycle apparel need, there is someone to fill it.

Kevlar Reinforced Jeans
To provide the jeans wearer with protection from road rash, several companies are making jeans with the knees and butt reinforced with Kevlar. Kevlar is a woven material that is used in bulletproof vests to stop bullets (please don’t shoot your Kevlar reinforced jeans to see if they are bulletproof just take our word for it…they AREN’T) but Kevlar is also good at resisting abrasion, like from sliding down a road.

A popular brand of Kevlar reinforced jeans is Draggin Jeans (made by Fast Company) available in both mens and womens styles. Here are a pair of women’s jeans. The yellow cloth (shown in the picture of a pair of Draggin Jeans turned inside out) over the blue denim is the Kevlar used to protect the knees and butt. The knees and the butt are the two most common areas affected by a slide so the Kevlar does provide some additional protection for the wearer.

Leather Reinforced Jeans

As with any product, some riders don’t care for it or it gets redesigned. In this case it was both. Some people think Kevlar is itchy or they just wanted something different, so some companies offer denim jeans reinforced with leather. Here is a leather reinforced denim pant from Cortech called the DSX denim pant. Perforated leather is used to reinforce the knees and butt of the pant. Also note the moisture wicking material used to cover the leather.

Protection
Until now we have focused on abrasion resistance which is all a Kevlar or leather reinforced pant provide the wearer. However, there are armor upgrades available for most of these pants. Draggin Jeans offers knee armor for their jeans for about $25 and it uses Velcro to stick to the Kevlar so the placement of the armor is fully adjustable. Here again, armor upgrades that come in direct contact with your skin may cause you to sweat thus making them slippery. Cortech includes the knee armor with their jeans and it fits into a moisture wicking pocket (as seen in the picture).

Fit
Both styles of jeans fit just like normal jeans but you should really try them on first. It’s a Lee/Levis thing. Some people prefer the feel and fit of certain jeans over others. Try on different ones until you find something you like.  Also keep in mind that just like normal jeans, motorcycle jeans will shrink some (they shrink a little less if you buy prewashed jeans).

Summary
However you go, expect to pay about $100 for a pair of reinforced jeans. A small price to pay for a little more piece of mind. They may not give you the protection of a race quality leather suit but every little bit helps!

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