I have a joe rocket mesh jacket but after buying leather i never wear it. It;s better then nothing but leather offers more protection. I'm sure all the sweating i have done under leathers will be well worth it to save my skin when i go down.

 

I hate responding to my own threads but I know this has to be common question for Florida riders...

I think I've decided on the Teknic Supervent Jacket. The Supervent seems to one of the few mesh jackets that have full CE armor all around. The styling isn't flashy and the build quality seems to very good.

I found the older style on http://www.newenough.com/teknic_supe...acket_page.htm closeout for $69.00 but they only have black/black in my size and I wanted more visibility and a cooler color. I found the new 2005 styles on http://www.kneedraggers.com/details/521-TEK-12 for $139.00. I couldn't find any deals on the 2005 styles.

I'm also looking for quality $100-$200 closed face helmet also well suited for hot weather riding. I own a nice HJC MX helmet and I was going to purchase a HJC-CL14-SMOKE but I noticed these helmets really lack good air flow compared to the Scorpion helmets when I looked at a local shop. Does anyone have any experience with Scorpion helmets? Should I just go w/ a HJC-CL14?

 

i have the cl14 but i never eally wore any others, so beats me, although im alsways going too fast to even think some other type may have better airflow. on the jacket i have the icon neo daytona, try ebay sometimes u ca get a good condition leather jacket and in the summer,, (now) i odnt care i still wear it, it gets hot but its always hot in summer so i decided not to care about the heat and worry more about my speed. food luck riding and be safe

 

I have the icon mest jacket and I can say that it does flow alot of air but the armor was not really what I wanted either. For 200 and under you are nor going to find much. I think that a company called Bronson sells a setup that just has armor with a mesh setup. Not sure on the price though. And it has no style what so ever. Some thing is better than nothing so sweat a litte for you health.

 

for helmets, i really like my icon. if anything happened to it, i'd be looking at either an Icon Mainframe, newer AGV, or scorpion exo.

dont go cheap on your helmet, its the most important part of your gear.

 

wow, that tecnic mesh is a really good deal. i just ordered one.

 

I saw the same "older" Technic Supervent jackets at Cycle Gear. I think it was priced right around $65.00. The newer Supervents are a bit nicer and have CE certified armor, but cost twice as much as the older versions still laying around.

 

I can tell you from very recent personal experiance about the Icon TiMax jacket. Yes it flows alot of air and is much cooler than my leather but at 70 mph on a sweeper I still ended up with quite a bit of rash on my arm and shoulder and tore the shit out of my shirt with not much visable damage on the jacket. Also keep in mind that this jacket fits me very snug. I could only imagine if it was loose fitting. Wish I would have been wearing my leather one though. Also gloves are very important and get some that have armor on the knuckles, I would have any knuckles right now if not for them.

 

I think the some of the ICON gear is designed a bit more towards style than protection. I have a pair of of ICON mesh pants and for gods sakes they don't have any reinforcements for arbrasion resistance on the butt area. The CE knee armor moves around enough to be totally useless inside the pants. I ended up modding a cheapo pair of MX style knee protectors to hold the CE knee armor in place where it belongs. I thought it was funny that ICON does sell some "abrasion resistant" shorts you can wear under the mesh pants for another $100 or so.


I'm curious, has anyone ever tried out some of the evaporative cooling vests under a mesh jacket? I have some doubts on how effective this is going to be in our humidity.

TechNiche makes a vest for $30.00 and I'm thinking of trying it out for that price.

http://www.newenoughmx.com/ti_cooling_vest_page.htm

 

i got hit by a car on I-4 doing 70+ mph with a Timax, main frame helmet,pheonix gloves, and a pair of jeans i was just fine. i ripped the Ti patch off the jacket....i tumbled about a 1/8 mile down malfunction junction.

Timax made me a believer especiall after my buddy wrecked at triple digits racing a car when some one pulled out in front of him wearing all icon stuff little rash on his legs but other then that he was fine
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