I'm uncertain & confused

[RID3R]

New rider here. I'm looking into buying my first set of riding pants and with all the options I am so confused on what to get. Let me start off by saying my budget is around $120. Currently I live in Reno where it's pretty cold but in May I am moving to Los Angeles. My initial thought was to get some riding jeans because they seemed comfortable, stylish, and would be great for good weather riding. Then it seemed that there protection is minimal. So I began to look at over pants. I really like how much protection they offer, but over pants seem to be great for cold weather and too hot for warm weather. Regular riding pants have good protection but I won't be able to work in my riding pants. I'm looking to buy a pair that I can wear everytime i ride my bike, won't have to constantly change when I get to work ect., and that offers great protection. Figuring my budget and my present and future locations what are your opinions on what I should get? Thank you.

[bahtah]

New rider here. I'm looking into buying my first set of riding pants and with all the options I am so confused on what to get. Let me start off by saying my budget is around $120. Currently I live in Reno where it's pretty cold but in May I am moving to Los Angeles. My initial thought was to get some riding jeans because they seemed comfortable, stylish, and would be great for good weather riding. Then it seemed that there protection is minimal. So I began to look at over pants. I really like how much protection they offer, but over pants seem to be great for cold weather and too hot for warm weather. Regular riding pants have good protection but I won't be able to work in my riding pants. I'm looking to buy a pair that I can wear everytime i ride my bike, won't have to constantly change when I get to work ect., and that offers great protection. Figuring my budget and my present and future locations what are your opinions on what I should get? Thank you.

Not knowing what kind of work you want to wear your riding pants to I would suggest taking a look at the Fire Hose Pants sold by Duluth. They offer good protection and they have some light-weight ones, some that are lined and then their standard ones. They cost about fifty bucks and come in several different colors.

[Gold5th]

I dunno what they cost down there, but my tourmaster over pants are pretty good, they come with padding/etc.

In hot weather you can unzip and remove the legs on the outter layer to leave mesh pants, then have a rain liner that goes inside, and an insulated liner that goes inside the rain liner. One pair of pants good for any riding situation.

[iamjustifyd]

You could always get the riding pants/jeans and wear some shin/knee guards under. There are mesh over pants as well as textile..both with armour.

[elader]

dont ride in cotton jeans without at least knee protection. If you opt for kevlar lined jeans (e.g. draggin jeans), wear them with knee guards. I too vote for mesh overpants with CE padding.

[Badlands-4-2]

You could always get the riding pants/jeans and wear some shin/knee guards under. There are mesh over pants as well as textile..both with armour.

+1 on this for me. Look into some of the kevlar lined pants from companies like Shift, Icon or draggin jean. Then wear separate knee/shin gaurds.

[spacejunkiehsv]

I have some non-breathing overpants that I bought for winter. I really like just putting them on over my khakis and riding to work, and slipping them off when I get to my office. I am in the market for some mesh ones now. So, obviously, I recommend some mesh pants or mesh overpants. The only complaint I have about overpants is that the built in knee armor probably won't stay in place as well as kneeguards strapped to your legs.

[Gold5th]

The knee armour in my Tourmasters is adjustable, and with various zippers/velcro, etc you can get them to stay put pretty good.

THe reason I love my over pants is because it's 1 pair that acts like 4, Mesh, full pants, rain gear, and insulated it just dpends on what combination of liners you use and if you take the outter layer off to make them mesh pants.

[RID3R]

Thank you for all the input! I really appreciate it!

Taking into account your advice I have narrowed it down to two different ones.

1st: Tour Master Quest Pants
The pros that I have for these pants are the protection they give, the price, they are waterproof, and all in all they same to be a really good buy. The cons for me are that they do not have any vents, or reflective piping. It has a teffeta material liner but I am not sure if it is removable. All the reviews for these pants are great but everyone is saying how warm they kept them in 35-50 degree weather. Because I am about to move where it never goes below 60 I don't want to be uncomfortably hot.

2nd: AGV Sport Solare Vented Pants
Pros are that they are vented with reflective piping and give all the protection I want with a mesh linning. The cons are that they are a little more expensive (although still within my budget), they are not for wet weather so if it rains I'm screwed and wet, and they are not technically over pants.

Right now I am leaning towards the AGV's. Any advice on either of these? Especially living in an area that's hot 350 days of the year? Thank you once again!

[Gold5th]

Oh the Quests are a lot cheaper than the Tourmaster Flex pants I have.

I love my flex pants, if you can budget them I'd say go for it.
http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/Flex-Pant-p-237_4.html

[spacejunkiehsv]

Thank you for all the input! I really appreciate it!

Taking into account your advice I have narrowed it down to two different ones.

1st: Tour Master Quest Pants
The pros that I have for these pants are the protection they give, the price, they are waterproof, and all in all they same to be a really good buy. The cons for me are that they do not have any vents, or reflective piping. It has a teffeta material liner but I am not sure if it is removable. All the reviews for these pants are great but everyone is saying how warm they kept them in 35-50 degree weather. Because I am about to move where it never goes below 60 I don't want to be uncomfortably hot.

2nd: AGV Sport Solare Vented Pants
Pros are that they are vented with reflective piping and give all the protection I want with a mesh linning. The cons are that they are a little more expensive (although still within my budget), they are not for wet weather so if it rains I'm screwed and wet, and they are not technically over pants.

Right now I am leaning towards the AGV's. Any advice on either of these? Especially living in an area that's hot 350 days of the year? Thank you once again!
My overpants are the Tourmaster Quests. I think that they are great do-it-all-pants up to 60-65, but warmer than that, your legs will be sweating.

I was looking at the AGV's myself for the summer, but it's not time quite yet for me to abandon my Quests. Another option that is really close to your $120 budget is the Joe Rocket Phoenix 2.0 mesh pants. I'm considering those too.

I'm kind of wishy washy on warm weather pants right now though. I don't have "slider" jeans out of my head yet. They would allow me to ride somewhere and look normal (less bulky) as soon as I get off the bike. I meet my wife and kids at a restaurant after work sometimes. When I do that now, I have to use my wife's SUV as a locker!

[Gold5th]

I'm kind of wishy washy on warm weather pants right now though. I don't have "slider" jeans out of my head yet. They would allow me to ride somewhere and look normal (less bulky) as soon as I get off the bike. I meet my wife and kids at a restaurant after work sometimes. When I do that now, I have to use my wife's SUV as a locker!

I do that now when I go play paintball, buddy brings out my gear for me, out inthe parking lot I trade my Motorcycle gear for my paintball gear and lock it in whatever vehicle brought out my paint ball gear.... hmm I need a trailer for my motorcycle :P

[iamjustifyd]

If you get the AGV pants, which seem pretty nice, get a pair of cheap rain pants to go with. Some pants that are mesh have a liner that comes with them but noticed that these do not. I know I wear jacket liners with other jackets than they came with, maybe it'll work with pants too. See if you can find a pant liner for cheap somewhere.
I bought a pair of these but womens and they are pretty nice. A little shorter than I like but seems like everything you are looking for

http://www.bikebandit.com/fieldsheer-mercury-2-0-motorcycle-pants

[RID3R]

I just wanted to say thanks once again for everyone's info! It really helped with my decision. I ended up getting the AGV solare vented pants and I am really happy with them. They are exactly what I wanted. They work really well as overpants too! I would recommend these pants. I am definitely going to get a cheap pair of rain pants/liner for if I need to ride in the rain. Thanks everybody!

[spacejunkiehsv]

I just wanted to say thanks once again for everyone's info! It really helped with my decision. I ended up getting the AGV solare vented pants and I am really happy with them. They are exactly what I wanted. They work really well as overpants too! I would recommend these pants. I am definitely going to get a cheap pair of rain pants/liner for if I need to ride in the rain. Thanks everybody!
The sizing is weird on those pants. What size did you order and what size of non-motorcycle pants do you normally wear?

[RID3R]

I ordered a size large. It said in most of the people's reviews that sizing was a little small. Keep in mind I sized up from a medium so I could use them as overpants. The knee pads a little low when I'm standing but on the bike they fit perfectly. With normal jeans I wear 32-34 depending on the brand and length is usually a 32. Hope this helps.

[DantheNinja]

I just wanted to give you thumbs up for a great thread title. It made me laugh a bit when I saw it. :coffeescreen:

[ludlow]

who makes a really big pair of mesh pants

[Gold5th]

how big? My Tourmaster pants are nice, not just mesh,, you can take out the liners and part of the outter to turn them into mesh pants..

[ludlow]

50

[Gold5th]

up here we use xl\xxl\xxxl etc..

[ludlow]

the problem in the motorcycle world, is motorcycle pants size doesn't correlate to real world pants size. ie. in the real world, 4x is 50-52, in motorcycle pants a 4x is anywhere from a 38, 42, or if your lucky a 46. 3x in the real world is 48 to 50, motorcycle world is 36

so i wrote 50 as the size because when you look at the manufacturer's sizing chart it is very deceptive. because it doesn't even come close to being like street clothing size.

so i'm looking for somebody that wears a 50 in waist size pant that has got lucky and found a manufacturer or company that makes the sizes that match street clothing size,, not skinny a$$ euro anorexic sizing

[distantThunder]

RID3R

No such miracle exists ... unless you work at a Harley store :-)

Most pants that offer some proection on a bike - are not suitable for office wear. I wear my kevlar-lined denim in L.A., and I change into office clothes once i am work. I keep the office duds hanging behind my door.

Overpants are too hot for the So Cal summer. Even kevler-lined jeans are pretty hot ... but i usually wear them because of the heavy traffic. Even some protection is better than none.

good luck!
dT

[spacejunkiehsv]

I don't have a solution for you, just a suggestion if you don't eventually find an off the shelf product.

You could have some Kevlar "skeleton" stitched into some of your regular pants. Then you'd probably want to wear some knee / chin guards underneath those pants for impact protection.

I wanted to suggest Bohn Body Armor, but their stuff for hot temperatures only went up to XX. Here is the link anyway. I thought they did custom stuff, to your measurements. Maybe it was a different company or maybe you can find it on their site.
http://www.bohnarmor.com/catalog/proddetail.php?prod=BGLC

Good luck on your search.

[Tankhead]

Oh the Quests are a lot cheaper than the Tourmaster Flex pants I have.

I love my flex pants, if you can budget them I'd say go for it.
http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/Flex-Pant-p-237_4.html

I'm needing to get some lower body protection. I got the Tourmaster Flex Series2 jacket when I got the bike. I like it but not the coolest in the hot weather of New Mexico. I'm afraid to get these Flex pants for fear they will also be too hot in the summer. I'm gonna remedy the upper body heat w/ the Colorado Cool Vest I'm ordering. I was lookin at the Joe Rocket Phoenix 3.0 pants or some Bohn-Armor-Pants. I see how versatile they are but are the Flex pants good for riding in the hot weather too? Their web-site says recommended for "hot" weather. Can you comment on the sizing too? Or should I get something like the Joe Rocket Phoenix for summer riding. I would have to do something else for winters though. Thanks for your help.

[Gold5th]

The flex pants go from cold weather pants with the rain liner and thermal layer down to a mesh pant. I've worn mine from 32F up to 104F.

The thermal and rain layers come out and the outter shell in the legs come off, so pelvic and butt area can get a touch warm as the outter layer there doesn't come off.

Sizing I wear 42/34 jeans and my tourmasters are xxl 38-40