Wanted: everyones view on the Best Leathers

RS Taichi rock, best suit for my money. I am a crasher all the way and I have 3 sets of the Tiachi. Kushatani actually sews the Taichi

 

I have found that off the shelf leathers are somewhat of a compromise. With my alien dimensions (big arms and legs but short), I decided to go with custom made. For the price, you can't beat Barnacle Bill"s. Leathers fit me perfectly and they are more than crashworthy (for those that didn't see my Road A turn 12 getoff at the GNF). Damaged? Send them back to Bill and they're good as new. Try that with the others.

I wouldn't go any other way.

:up:

 

z customs if your are in the southwest..

 

Have a Spidi suit for the last 3 years and very happy.
Just picked up a Tecnik suit and love it so far. Great price as well.

 

HELIMONT crash really well, twice this year and no need for any repairs

 

Taichis for me. I have worn tons of different suits and no other have the feel of quality like the Taichi's. Had two get offs this year with almost no damage to the suit-just rubbed off a little of the graphics!

I also found my size 40 motogp suit to be too short for me-this one fits PERFECT!

 

I recently purchased a Komodo FX and have never been happier with a suit. Great looking with good protection and outstanding racer support.:up:

 

XES

I am unofficially a test rider for XES Leathers. I have been through more than a few sets my self, but not because they have fallen apart. I have probably 1-2 dozen wrecks in XES overthe last 2 years, some bad but most not. I haven't suffered any injuries due to poor suit design. And since I'm friends with the owner and he rides on my team, he gets to see any damage right away. Phil also wears XES of course, so that tells you he has confidence in his design. I trust my life in them and won't wear another brand. Check them out @ moto-heaven.com or email myself or Phil @ [email protected].

 

Vanson makes the best protecting leathers I have worn. My current set has four crashes and is just butt ugly but still rideable (repaired three times). I just ordered a new set of Vanson custom built, and they are a BARGAIN.

Barnacle Bill is good (I am west coast but have used him) Zooni is good (west coast, he made my summer leathers) and Helimot is good as well, he made a set for me.

Bottom line, get custom leathers and get a fit that is YOUR fit, not a fit that is close.

 

IMHO any discussion of "the best leathers" has no place for off-the-rack suits. Show me an off-the-rack suit that's as good as a Vanson, Z, Syed, BB or any other of the top-end customs, and I'll show you that you're drinking spiked Kool-Aid.

If you want the best, you want a custom made suit. Period.

 

Vanson Leathers for me. I wear my suits a lot. I fall down here and there too. I still have my Vanson suit from 1994. It's beat, and it's been down a lot, but it still protects better than most of the other suits out there. I would still have my suit from 1992, but I sold that one to a guy that used to help me.

I believe that my suits have three layers of leather on the underside of the forearm. Others don't have that.

An integrated back protector is part of the suit. Some people don't like it, but I've been knocked down and ran over a couple times with that back protector and I was fine.

Oh, and Vanson's are repairable. Some suits just aren't made to have that done as there's no material to sew into or they are sewn in a way that perfs the leather too much.

 

+1 on the spideylady- lots of quality remarks in work and customer service-just sent my new technics to get a lil more shoulder room, add name- logo-etc -on the ccs site she rules- am a lil new here but try her out! a snug fit is good but a suit that keeps one from moving even a lil, is ng!I think she did Hollywood work ,never heard anything neg! get your name on your suit,add a hump, nickname,logo for very fair pricing- no i dont work there,just heard so much! john in NJ

 

Very Happy with my Helimot :up:

Helmut & his staff are top notch

http://www.helimot.com/index.shtml

 

Bill makes the best bang for your buck suit out there...the one thing I'll never sell is my BB suit.

 

I did a huge survey on leathers last season compiled from several mainstream boards for racers & street riders the results can be viewed here http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=104880


I just had new BB suit delivered a few days ago. His suits cost less than many off the rack leathers & way less than any other custom made set of even remotely comparable quality. They aren't as flashy as many other brands, but the build quality sets the bar & bang for the buck has to be the best in the industry.

I've had the red/white/blue suit below for almost 10 years & have been a very loyal support of Bill's work ever since, when I am instructing it is not uncommon to have to ride in the pouring rain many weekends out of the season, I have sweated in it profusely & it has survived numerous crashes. I have not had one repair made to this suit nor does it so much as have a single stitch coming loose (except on some patches I ground down while sliding across the track & one barb wire fence )

Me, my old BB leathers & Darth's RC at Barber



My new ones

 

+1 very durable

 

Syed or Barnical Bill's

 

My only problem with Bill is he doesn't take credit cards.

 

Would it be sufficient if I got him set up with Paypal?

 

Just ordered up some XES leathers from moto-heaven with Phil Caudill. From my searching around and asking opinions on his suits I have never heard one bad word. On top of it Phil runs what he makes/sells, so if he trusts his hide in his suit then I trust that they are going to do the job.

On top of it Phils suits offer some pretty cool features like a double zip front, a hard removable 'real' back protector, CE hip protections and full perforation... and speed hump.

I bounced this up against some of the other suits like MotoGP (there are some great deals in the Classifieds on the Ti suit) but in the end I went with XES... mostly because Phil appears to do a great job, his prices are reasonable and its made in the USA

I suggest anyone looking at suits take a look at his suits.

www.moto-heaven.com