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I do two or three overseas riding trips every year, and while the four high-quality suits I have hanging in the garage all have outstanding features, none of them have all the features I want for this purpose. The main problem is that they are bulky and heavy. That’s part of what makes them good suits, of course, but it’s not so good when you’re packing for flights.
Bear to base: yes, the Domane is comfortable as well as looking good. Photo: The Bear
I have decided that in order to minimise bulk, I will take a pair of Draggin’ jeans plus light waterproof overpants for my nether regions. Easy, because I can wear the pants at a lot of different times, even on the plane. While I can wear a jacket to the airport as well (and take it off as soon as I’m on the plane), I prefer not to. This may change; I am considering downsizing to just carry-on luggage because airlines have taken to losing my bag.
Meanwhile, though, the jacket needs to be relatively light and fold down nicely to go into my luggage. That includes its armour, which I will continue to use despite Ryan’s comments on Fortnine. Since the weather is (increasingly) unpredictable all over the world, the jacket must be a four seasons type. Consider my recent ride in Oman: I took my BMW Airflow suit because I was sure it wouldn’t rain—and it rained. In the desert. The jacket needs to photograph well, a not insignificant requirement given my heroic figure, for the review I will write about it for you. Finally, the jacket must also offer a high standard of safety: ideally CE class AA and Level 2.
I was sure it would not rain in the desert, but guess what? Photo: The Bear
The European CE standard is the most generally accepted internationally. Class C garments are meant to hold impact armour in place, so they do not need to provide abrasion resistance. They are intended to be worn with AAA, AA, or B garments. Class B garments meet Class A abrasion resistance standards, but do not have impact protection. They should be worn with class C or other impact protection. Class A garments meet protection levels for both impact and abrasion. Class AA garments offer a greater degree of protection than Class A and below.
The combination of colours works well and even the fluoro is acceptable. Photo Macna.
Class AAA garments provide the highest level of impact protection and abrasion resistance that a piece of motorcycle gear can achieve in terms of CE rating. It mostly takes full racing leather suits to provide this level of protection. AAA may not be suitable for normal riding because comfort is not considered in the rating.
Impact armour undergoes a separate set of tests and can be rated CE Level 1 or Level 2. CE Level 2 is better and means the armour has been tested and shown to transmit force below 20 kN. CE Level 1 armour has the higher force threshold of 35 kN.
I suspect you will have seen that Fortnine “expose” about armour. While I agree with Ryan’s concern that the gear we can buy may be marketing-driven and fail to offer comprehensive protection, I don’t agree that removing armour is a good idea. I’ll take whatever protection I can get, even if it is partial.
It would be nice if the back pocket held the liners. Photo Macna.
On, then , to the actual jacket. I thought I had a reasonably good idea of what’s on the market by way of bike gear. But when I looked on the web and in the shops, I found many jackets. So many. Checking the CE standards and, where available, the Australian MotoCAP ratings did make the job of elimination easier.
But there were still a lot of jackets left, and I just defaulted to the one I liked best. That turned out to be the Macna Domane with its high AA and Level 2 ratings (it has not been rated by MotoCAP). It looks good and although I don’t generally like fluoro, but there isn’t much on it. I do like reflective panels, and there are quite a few on this jacket including some specifically prepared for LED lights.
This is a four-season and all-weather jacket with its detachable, proprietary Raintex+ and thermal liners, as well as large ventilation panels. There are plenty of pockets including a fairly small one in the flap at the back of the jacket which comes down to cover my bear backside. Two zippers of different lengths are ready to join up trousers. The Easy Cuffs have zippers to connect the liners, which looks and feels tidy. The jacket comes in sizes from S to 3XL.
Domane jackets are designed in Holland and manufactured in Bangladesh. I have no problem with clothes being sewn in Third World countries as long as workers are treated decently, and the Dutch seem have a pretty good record. Not historically, but recently.
The warm and waterproof liners fold down very nicely, although they unfortunately don’t fit into the back pocket. I have now been wearing the Domane for a few weeks and in the absence of rain have submitted myself to the garden hose test, which it survived with a dry bear inside. I would prefer to see the rain membrane on the outside, so the jacket stays dry, but it looks tidier this way. The cooling vents work adequately well.
Waterproof zips open to provide ventilation, as you’d expect. Photo: The Bear
Time for another quick word, this time about the fact that I got the Australian distributor of Macna, Link International, to send me a jacket. Why did I not go out and buy one?
One simple reason. I need things to write about for you and my other readers, and at nearly $750 for items like this jacket, I can’t afford to buy all the stuff I’d like to try. If the distributors want you to see their product, they may supply me with one when I tell them I’m interested. They do this on the understanding that I will give the product exposure, but that I will not gloss over faults when I review it. I can’t afford to ignore faults because you will find out and write horrible notes and not trust me again.
That’s my bit. Your bit? Trust me.
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