[Crashed] Motorport Kevlar Mesh Pant and Stretch Jacket

I have been wearing this set of apparel from Motoport since April of 2012.

Comfort was good in the mesh pants and kevlar jacket. This gear was used in southern California. Regular wear over the years has been little to none, except for a few seams that became unstitched on the gloves and velcro pieces.

Recently, I was struck by a car changing lanes while I was traveling at 15-25 MPH. Here are the results of my impact, roll, and slide. Not pictured is the road rash on my knee, elbows, butt, and hip about the size of a softball.



I called the company after the crash and the owner seemed surprised that the suit wore through at that speed.

I decided to surrender the gear to insurance rather than have Motoport repair it. I'm not sure if the gear was just too old and damaged by UV, or who knows what. Motoport couldn't offer an explanation. I certainly believe that the gear saved me from a huge amount of bodily injury, and I was even able to go to continue my way into work after towing the bike. I appreciate that the company provided a product to wear comfortably every day. However, I wasn't happy with my road rash at such a low speed and am looking for a good replacement.

It's hard to tell by the photos, which wear hole is the one that gave the hip rash? Surprised too that you had so much road rash, I recently went down at higher speed than you and the 10yr old Olympia Bushwacker jacket and Klim Dakar pants I was wearing resulted in less road rash than what you describe.

https://ibb.co/deU89e is where the butt/hip rash occurred, identified by the connecting zipper/belt.

Edit: Correction - that picture is for my butt only. is where the initial impact happened to my hip. I believe either 1) the jacket rode up despite being connected to the pants or 2) The "road rash" on the hip was caused by the connecting zipper

Here's an additional picture or the arms:

I get that the mesh gear can fail at certain parts but presumably quality gear should not end up like this with the speed you're talking about. I slid once at about 35MPH in a $100 Tourmaster jacket and FirstGear overpants, literally slid as the bike got away from under me on black ice and I saw it going away all the time. I got up, picked up bike and continued ahead, there were minimal marks on my pants and jacket, no damage to me what so ever. Something went really bad with your gear. I'm glad you're in one piece and walked away!

I have some motoport mesh gear that I like, although I haven't crashed in it. I also have a vanson race suit that has the same keprotec stretch panels that are used in motoport stretch kevlar suits. I lowsided at the track and slid off into the dirt. All of the leather on the suit held up without problems, barely taking the color off the leather. The kevlar stretch stuff burned through 2 layers and I had a nice burn on the inside of my arm. Take that for what its worth, but the I think the claims about this stuff don't stack up with reality.

This is interesting to see. I've worn Motoport gear for 13 years. For fun, I've also tried everything else under the sun, but always go back to my old standby. Nothing is as comfortable, durable and to my eyes at least, as protective. Over the years, the anecdotal evidence is definitely in Motoport's favor. Most riders walk away from a crash with next to zero issues, and the gear for the most part looks great all things considered. Then, something like this comes along...

I prefer real crash info to any kind of lab testing, so this is a great post. That said, I still feel confident in Motoport to protect me in a way that nothing else I've ever worn will. I don't know if that says something about motoport, or Rukka, Klim, Stadler, Aerostich, Rev'it, Belstaff, Olympia, Spidi and god knows how many other brands I've tried. FWIW, I took a spill in some stadler pants a few years back. 25mph on some gravel opened up the stretch panel above the 2000d cordura knee and the armor almost pulled out. I like the whole suit to pass a crash test, not random patches and Motoport is the only brand I know of to do that with minimal seams waiting to blow out. Closest I know of is Spidi's CE level 2 Ergo pro masterpiece that hangs in the garage next to my Motoport mesh marathon. As always, YMMV

Curious if the road surface was anything noteworthy - like the chip seal used around here that would be worse than hitting a cheese grater.

I really appreciate everyone's comments! I advocated for Motoport and convinced my friend to get a suit in 2014. I really was convinced I was wearing the best possible thing, and now I feel a bit lost: I'm looking at wearing a perforated leather tracksuit now. Advice welcome!

Here's a picture of the surface, Levain:

Thanks for sharing your info and glad you were not hurt too badly... Any mesh riding gear is just a step down or too from good perforated leather , when sliding across the pavement ... However , it's much cooler and lighter !

You say that your gear was from April 2012... That's 6 years of exposure to the elements , UV , sweat, rain , washing and stuff... I think newer gear can handle a slide better because the fabric is fresher and stiffer ...

And this goes for armour padding as well... It will break down over the years from simple use... Also , newer gear has technological improvements that come to market over time... ride safe brother

Speed is far from the most important factor when comparing gear performance. The road surface is much, much more important...

this is not comforting as I wear cycleport (older) kevlar overpants and jacket 4-5 months a year.

At the end of the day, keprotec is >90% nylon, reinforced with around 5% aramid fibers and a few % of stretch fibers. There’s a reason it’s used for comfort areas away from primary impact zones in leather suits. Here’s a quote from a scholarly article I found regarding racing standards and keprotec:

I’m not sure of the actual fiber makeup of the “Kevlar mesh” material that motoport uses, but I’d assume it has a much higher % of aramid fibers and correspondingly higher abrasion resistance. The downside is that it’s of course much less flexible and soft to the hand (got to actually touch some for the first time last weekend, and noted that it’s both pretty rough, but remarkably see-through).

I think the kevlar stetch material has its place. But not in abrasion prone areas like knees, elbows and shoulders. In those areas you really want some kind of superfabric type material that can withstand more friction. Did you have armor installed and it shifted out of place during the crash?

No question leather all around would be the maximum protection option.

I’lI note that the article I linked said that a single layer was insufficient, which makes me wonder if doubling up keprotec for the primary abrasion zones would work, and is something that can be done.

I haven’t seen any validated test results for Superfabric’s claims re: abrasion. I know its seen use for cut/puncture resistance in LE/Mil type applications, but I’ve seen it pretty hacked up on gloves and crashed Klim gear. At the end of the day, it’s a resin appliqué over whatever base material the client selects.

Schoeller ceraspace is really interesting to me, as its primary function appears to prevent friction heat from getting to the base layer. It’s only in the EnduroGuard suit so far, and I again haven’t seen them submit said suit for CE certification to see if those claims hold up.

I’ll once again note that the CE certification (EN13595/EN17092) for motorcycle protective gear is the only thing we have for objective comparison of materials. The textile suits that achieved the same level 2 certification under 13595 as race level leathers didn’t have any of these fancy trademarked materials, just really well constructed super high denier nylon (IIRC the Spidi Globetracker suit’s Toray produced nylon is something like 2500d). Conversely, I am unaware of any mass produced textile garments using the fancy stuff that has passed certification at the same level.

The newest Dainese/Alpinestars textile suits coming out right now for Fall ‘18 use a bunch of fancy prints that look like Superfabric or a derivative, and claim EN17092 certification, but I have no idea of what level, and I don’t feel like ordering them just to find out .

I have a Vanson pro-perf two-peice I use for most summer riding for that reason.

.....its both cooler and more protective than any of my ('Stich/rukka/A*) textile gear and it can double for track gear when needed....because one pieces shrink from disuse

After seeing this link, I felt a response was necessary. I remember this phone call and it seems like it was a few years ago. It seems strange to me that this rider waited so long to start a link like this. We have approximately 5 of our suits each week that are returned for repairs/inspection after a crash. In many cases the gear is over 20 years old and has been crashed multiple times. As you can see this rider gave his suit to the insurance company, so we at Motoport couldn't repair or inspect. From the photos shown above along with the riders statements about no serious injuries, it sounds like he is happy. (Note: Motoport USA is the only motorcycle apparel company in the world that will replace the gear for free if we cannot repair the gear for 50% or less than the cost of a new suit. No matter how fast the rider crashed or how old the suit is. This guarantee applies to all of Motoport USA apparel made with Kevlar blended materials. After looking at the above photos, this gear could have been repaired for less than 50% of a new jacket/pant.)

First Motoport has seen and inspected thousands of our suits that have been crashed. Many suits that have been crashed at over 100mph. Motoport USA has never had to replace a suit for free under warranty in any of these crashes since 1988 the year I started Motoport in the USA. Note: Motoport is still the only synthetic gear that is approved for road racing.
The rider explains about the road rash sustained after the crash. No photos sent of this road rash damage. In a tumble when sliding it is not unusual for the rider to sustain road rash under the suit. In many cases the suit material is only scuffed and not damaged. This road rash comes from the heat from friction generated when sliding. Note: More heat is generated from leather while sliding than the Kevlar blended materials Motoport USA uses. This results in less friction damaged when riders are sliding in Motoport USA Kevlar blended apparel compared to sliding in leather suits.

It is not unusual to see more damage to gear when crashing at lower speeds than in many cases riders crashing at higher speeds. No mention was made on the ground surface of contact. It is obvious that if the ground was very abrasive more damage to the suit would occur as compared to crashing on a smooth surface. Many other factors can apply. Height/weight of the rider, type of surface, weather, details of the tumble etc...

The four most important facts for protective motorcycle apparel:
1. Impact Protection: Motoport USA has far more coverage of armor than any other motorcycle apparel made in the world today and this is standard. Also available as options it is possible to get even more coverage. Impact protection especially when riding on the street is far more important than abrasion strength. Motoport USA has optional Quad-Armor that is currently the highest rated impact of any armor made.
2. Tear Strength: Motoport's Stretch Kevlar blended material has 5 times the tear strength of competition grade leather. (420 pounds) Motoport USA Mesh blended Kevlar apparel has 10 times the tear strength as competition grade leather. (1,269 pounds)
3. Abrasion Strength: Motoport's gear made with Kevlar blended materials is equal to competition grade leather for abrasion.
4. Seam Strength: Motoport's Kevlar blended apparel has over 2000 pounds seam strength in all the seams, with far fewer panels that can fail. The vast majority of motorcycle apparel seams will fail from a two feet six inch drop height.
See these links for comparisons to other materials used in motorcycle apparel: http://www.motoport.com/the-save-your-hide-guide/
http://www.motoport.com/quad-armor/
http://www.motoport.com/motoport-an-evolution/
http://www.motoport.com/what-others-say-about-motoport/
http://www.motoport.com/what-type-of-gear-would-work-best-for-me/

If this rider checks any other so called good replacement motorcycle apparel, just check the above and compare. Nothing will be even close to Motoport USA.

Again I felt a response is necessary. Schoeller is a company in Switzerland that manufactures the Kevlar blended materials Motoport USA purchases. Keprotec is a word that Schoeller uses to describe any of their materials that have Kevlar as part of the threads used in making the fabric. Schoeller makes hundreds of different fabrics that contain Kevlar and these are all called Keprotec.

Motoport USA uses Schoeller materials that contain Kevlar threads and these fabrics are made for Motoport USA. Motoport's Kevlar blended materials are far different than the Keprotec mentioned above. I supplied the information on the Keprotec fabric we use in the link above.

The Kevlar blended materials that Motoport USA uses do not break down over time. Even when the material is faded no real protection is lost. After 5 years of hard use we recommend up grading the armor. Motoport's Mesh Kevlar blended apparel is by far a big step up compared to perforated leather.

In my opinion if you get in a crash and only get a bit of road rash, the suit did it's job. There are too many variables to judge the quality of gear on one crash. I have walked away rash free from a 50 mph lowside crash where I slid along a barrier on a cloverleaf exit while wearing khakis and a goretex shell, and gotten some road rash while fully suited at 20 when a cyclist cut me off on a pretty empty city street. Doesn't mean that the goretex and khaki combo is better in a crash, I just got luckier that time.

https://advrider.com/f/threads/motoport-gear-crash-tested-at-70-mph.507934/ great report and plenty of photos