I’ve been lurking on this site for quite a while and thought I’d join and give me impressions of some of the jackets I have. I’ll give you guys a little background first. I got my first cross zip motorcycle jacket when I was young skate punk, I think I was 13. My parents and I were at a flea market and we saw some jackets and I tried some on. My parents actually bought it for me and gave it to me for X-mas. I was so stoked. Then I started punking it out a bit and my dad gave me shit and said “We came ti Canada ti get away fae that shite”. That jacket got stolen from a party so I replaced it with one from Kensington market in Toronto. There are a bunch of vintage clothing stores. I’m assuming Dave Himel had a store there at one time, maybe he still does. I started riding sport motorcycles in my early twenties. I’m a millwright by trade so my style was always a mix of punk, work and biker. They kinda all cross. I got into the heritage wear by getting a pair of Redwing 877 about 13 years ago. Anyway I bought a Aero cross zip of eBay and then ordered a Cafe Racer in cxl fqhh. The CR looks great but is uncomfortable stretching out on my Ducati. I started looking around for another cross zip and found a Vanson/Legacy on eBay.
So I will just reiterate what a lot of other people say here. Aero look great but don’t suit sport bikes. Vanson are meant for riding. It has a very subtle hide. It is by far the most comfortable leather jacket I’ve ever had. I measured the thickness with and it’s about 1.1mm. My cxl horse hide from aero measures about the same. It’s the Brando replica which really I couldn’t be bothered that much about but the red lining is nice and I like the panel at the bottom back. I think it is a size too big. I can wear a 42 and 44. This is a 44. I had a Vanson Manx in 44 and it was a lot trimmer.
As far as the weights of leather from Vanson goes. I would have no worries riding on the street with this Brando jacket. The Manx I had was very uniform with not much grain. I didn’t feel it was super thick. I never crashed with the Manx, but have a few times in Icon jackets at 160-140 km/hr and never came close to wearing through. Competition weight is meant for coming off your bike at race speeds.
I’ll take some fit pics of the Vanson and see what you guys think. I can wear a thick wool sweater under it. I’m 50 years old so I don’t know if I need a jacket to fit slim.
So I will just reiterate what a lot of other people say here. Aero look great but don’t suit sport bikes. Vanson are meant for riding. It has a very subtle hide. It is by far the most comfortable leather jacket I’ve ever had. I measured the thickness with and it’s about 1.1mm. My cxl horse hide from aero measures about the same. It’s the Brando replica which really I couldn’t be bothered that much about but the red lining is nice and I like the panel at the bottom back. I think it is a size too big. I can wear a 42 and 44. This is a 44. I had a Vanson Manx in 44 and it was a lot trimmer.
As far as the weights of leather from Vanson goes. I would have no worries riding on the street with this Brando jacket. The Manx I had was very uniform with not much grain. I didn’t feel it was super thick. I never crashed with the Manx, but have a few times in Icon jackets at 160-140 km/hr and never came close to wearing through. Competition weight is meant for coming off your bike at race speeds.
I’ll take some fit pics of the Vanson and see what you guys think. I can wear a thick wool sweater under it. I’m 50 years old so I don’t know if I need a jacket to fit slim.
