That beautiful jacket is going to be even more so as the graining continues to bloom. I’ve owned many, many LW jackets and never knew that their sleeves were considered too baggy by others. Most were custom but even the ones off of LW’s ’sale’ page that I purchased in the early 2000’s all fit me fine.
Now I am unable to not zero in on the sleeves first every time I see a picture of one.
When i received my j-23 i also felt that the wrist opening were pretty wide even when zipped shut, i asked Stuart about it and he said originals where like that, he thought it was done like that so that gloves would fit inside the sleeve and you could then zip the sleeves tight over the glove.
Even the name of this beast sounds very cool, Lost Worlds Speed Demon sounds true badass and even a little bit scary. What a cool thing this jacket, it's really one of the best from that World ever!
If not my OCS in beloved historical zippers and period correctness and historical accuracy, I'd say it's an absolute keeper!
P.S. Well, actually it still is an absolute keeper, even despite YKKs!)) I do like the whole jacket appearance, like it really much! Thanks for such detailed review Monitor!
Love this jacket man!!!! Congrats!!!
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Got it Monitor, sounds well! And anyway, I suppose you surely may send it to LW any time you'd like to - just to ask Stu to kindly change the main zipper to old great Crown #10, and then it'd be the best beast ever, all remarks aside!To clarify on the sleeves - please don't get this the wrong way, I am not saying the sleeves on this jacket are gigantic or baggy or anything of the sort. They're, you know, normal.
What I mean is that if you're after a modern, slim fitting cross zip - you know, if you're one of those metrosexual fashion bloggers - for $1400, I'd imagine you would probably expect this jacket to be absolutely perfect in every possible regard and... Well, it just might not be the case.
But it is a perfectly perfect leather jacket, though. No debate there.
So yeah, the sleeves are fine. The openings are still too wide, though and I honestly wish they'd relocate the sleeve zippers.
The leather's already changing how much I've been wearing this jacket these last few days. But the sleeves are fine really! They're not wind tunnels.
Well, clearly I haven't ever held the original J-23 but in my experience, all the truly old leather jackets have very narrow sleeve openings. Some I found impossible to zip over just a shirt. . .
Thank you very much, Lebowski.
As for the main zipper, don't worry about it, the main zipper wasn't what was originally installed in this jacket. It's a replacement.
The original was probably something much fancier but as it often is the case, it broke. I personally don't mind the YKK's as there's at least no fear of another failure but a Talon or Ideal or Crown would've been more suited. The pocket zippers are those really fancy Talons, the kind I've never seen before.
the only thing i dislike aestheticaly, is the belt buckle. I prefer square ones.
this aside, it's an absolute beauty! Congratulations!
Cut it all off and make it Fine Creek grade!Agreed. I'm secretly hoping it'll break so I could replace it with a proper one.
Exactly,,tucking in the gloves leads to cold & wet wrists and gloves,,has Stuart ever ridden or actually spoken to a rider who lives in the real world^ interesting, I’ve found the best thing for keeping warm on a bike is tight wrists and longer gauntlet gloves.