Carrie @ Thurston Bros.
Sponsoring Affiliate
- Messages
- 4,891
- Location
- Seattle, WA
Just a quick note about the construction of Aero and Vanson jackets with regard to zippers and motorcycle safety. We have a lot of customers who ride in both jacket brands (and we’ve repaired quite a few crashed Aero and Vanson jackets over the years) and both brands hold up incredibly well in crashes, despite having different sizes and brands of zippers. The main cause of a zipper failure in a motorcycle crash is the metal parts being ripped off (zipper pull or teeth) in a slide. The construction of the jacket helps to protect zipper parts. Aero’s vintage construction technique works well to protect the zipper--Aero installs the zippers such that the leather covers most of the metal parts (save the very end of the pull). Additionally, all of Aero’s external seams (even the front zipper!) have a hidden internal seam that holds even when the exterior seam has been compromised. Race suits use the same construction—except that most race suits use plastic coil YKK zippers (#8 front, #5 sleeves) due to plastic zippers being very flexible and corrosion-resistant.
Zippers can come apart (any size, any material) due to improper garment sizing (typical race suit issue—gain a few pounds and your front zipper doesn’t hold!), faulty sliders (defect or worn out), worn out teeth (this is very rare, even on vintage jackets) or user error (pin not properly seated in box). These issues will arise as soon as the wearer zips up their jacket or suit…almost never in a crash!
Of course, the best idea is to never crash... …
Zippers can come apart (any size, any material) due to improper garment sizing (typical race suit issue—gain a few pounds and your front zipper doesn’t hold!), faulty sliders (defect or worn out), worn out teeth (this is very rare, even on vintage jackets) or user error (pin not properly seated in box). These issues will arise as soon as the wearer zips up their jacket or suit…almost never in a crash!
Of course, the best idea is to never crash... …